How do you buy a good TV android box?

WoodPeckr

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May 29, 2002
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You might also consider a Chromecast that plugs into your TV via HDMI.
Looked into that and found Chromcast too limited and just another device like Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Minix, Neo 7, Apple TV, et al.

Much better and easier connecting your PC or laptop to your HDTV because all you need to buy is an HDMI cable.
 

Twister

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Aug 24, 2002
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Is this the AliExpress.com site?.... http://www.aliexpress.com

How were your shopping experiences?
The site looks interesting.
It seems AliExpress.com is getting lots of bad press down here in the USA.

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=AliExpress.com&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
I actually called my Visa company because I did see those reviews and the employees at my Visa company said that the had very little problems with Aliexpress and any problems were resolved very quickly.(better than with ebay)
Its also hard to see thru reviews in general on the internet, both positive and negative as one could be the company promoting their own goods and the negative ones could be the competition. I did buy from Ali didn't have a problem.
I had a problem with Ncrowd or dealathon , they didn't have my item and wanted to give me credit only, I had to call paypal to get my money back.
 

jaxp

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Sep 8, 2004
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If you're looking for something inexpensive to run Kodi take a look at Jide's latest kickstarter. You'll need to pick up an IR remote but everything you need for 50 bucks assuming they meet their next stretch goal, which I have no doubt they will.
 

Garrett

Hail to the king, baby.
Dec 18, 2001
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If you're looking for something inexpensive to run Kodi take a look at Jide's latest kickstarter. You'll need to pick up an IR remote but everything you need for 50 bucks assuming they meet their next stretch goal, which I have no doubt they will.
Is there any real benefit to this thing vs, say, OpenELEC on Raspberry Pi? For strict media play, I do not see any benefit from their enhancements.
 

Promo

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Good thread! I've been researching Android TV boxes for a few weeks and hope to rid myself of the high cost of cable shortly. Leaning towards buying a Minix X8-H PLUS.

Been reading through the on-line forums and posing questions on them, but it's like a religion with some of these guys and it's hard to get straight answers. Hoping someone here can answer:

1) Seems some of these boxes are "locked" and don't allow downloading of additional TV/movie apps. Is this true? Does Minix have this problem?

2) Android boxes stream their content from a source server and are therefore traceable back to me. Several people on these forums claim that many apps include clandestine tracking software. <-- I use a router in my network that tunnels to a proxy server so I'm less worried about this, but my question is: Do the sources of the movies and tv programs regularly disappear and new ones pop-up as the copyright holders shut them down? Is it a constant battle finding content?

3) What are the better apps for:
- Streaming TV shows and movies
- Steaming Live TV (I'm interested in HBO, Science Channel, Discovery, History, Sports, AMC and PPV)
- TV Guide-like app.

Thanks in advance.
 

IM469

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Jul 5, 2012
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Based on my experiences with Minix 7:

1) There are no locks on the Minix - it is an full Android system which means you can download software from Play or on the case of some restricted (not supported by Google) stream sources - you can install from the software providers web site. I did this for Showbox.

2) I have had no problem with my content.

3) For me Showbox (use Google search to find the site and link) and Kody. Kody is available from Google play and is a full media software package that has thousands of different program sources. Kody has a lot of on line support. If you use YouTube - you can find detailed videos to install an amazing amount of programs. Kody will also work with Windows and Mac PC's.

This is a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2TKzCickrQ

I got rid of cable and use SportsDevil (Kody Video Add-on) to watch my live Jays games.
 

barbrit

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Oct 22, 2012
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The minx 7 is way old and over priced, the most important part of an android box for kodi is the GPU not CPU and I would recommend at least a Mali 450, and even that is about 3 generations old, but a Mali 450 android box should at most cost 100 and with some digging you can get one for much less. The minx 7 has a mali 400 GPU BTW.
 

Promo

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Thanks IM649 for your response!

I bought the Minix X8-H PLUS. Few observations:
- Box is virtually unconfigurable with the included remote control - so make sure you buy a wireless remote with mouse/keyboard. NCIX was out of both the free keyboard (Rii Mini I25) and the Minix A2 Lite, so I'm waiting. Using a wireless mouse in the meantime.

- Being a techie, I'm embarrassed to say: Nothing is self-explanatory, obvious or even logical. Being familiar with Android via your phone means nothing. Plan on spending time with Google. Once you figure it out, it's okay, but the usability could certainly benefit from some Apple-like polish.

- Box comes with "xbmc Minix Edition". I understand Kodi is the latest version of xbmc, however on the X8, I understand it's best to stick with xbmc in order to gain x265 hardware acceleration and stability. I'm going to learn the box using xbmc and eventually try Kodi and maybe ALLUC. Does anyone have any thoughts on Minix xbmc vs Kodi?

- Based on my Google search, the hot apps seem to be: icefilms, 1Channel, megaIPTV / megareborn, video stalker, Genesis and Phoenix
Here's a related URL: http://www.htpcbeginner.com/best-kodi-addons-2015-for-cordcutters/ but the above list are recommended everywhere. I'm going to try each and will provide feedback in this thread.
 

IM469

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2012
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Thanks IM649 for your response!

I bought the Minix X8-H PLUS. Few observations:
- Box is virtually unconfigurable with the included remote control - so make sure you buy a wireless remote with mouse/keyboard. NCIX was out of both the free keyboard (Rii Mini I25) and the Minix A2 Lite, so I'm waiting. Using a wireless mouse in the meantime.

- Being a techie, I'm embarrassed to say: Nothing is self-explanatory, obvious or even logical. Being familiar with Android via your phone means nothing. Plan on spending time with Google. Once you figure it out, it's okay, but the usability could certainly benefit from some Apple-like polish.

- Box comes with "xbmc Minix Edition". I understand Kodi is the latest version of xbmc, however on the X8, I understand it's best to stick with xbmc in order to gain x265 hardware acceleration and stability. I'm going to learn the box using xbmc and eventually try Kodi and maybe ALLUC. Does anyone have any thoughts on Minix xbmc vs Kodi?

- Based on my Google search, the hot apps seem to be: icefilms, 1Channel, megaIPTV / megareborn, video stalker, Genesis and Phoenix
Here's a related URL: http://www.htpcbeginner.com/best-kodi-addons-2015-for-cordcutters/ but the above list are recommended everywhere. I'm going to try each and will provide feedback in this thread.
It is easy to get YouTube, TED, etc apps from Google Play but you are right - you have to dig around for instructions from Google search inquiries and YouTube. I switched to Kodi figuring that the latest versions of apps will be fit for Kodi. I also loaded Kodi on my PC at the same time so that I could install the Kodi apps on both at the same time. Genesis has become my favorite for TV shows past and present. SportsDevil is the best for live sports (baseball).
 

The Options Menu

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Sep 13, 2005
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Looked into that and found Chromcast too limited and just another device like Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Minix, Neo 7, Apple TV, et al.

Much better and easier connecting your PC or laptop to your HDTV because all you need to buy is an HDMI cable.
Like I said I do both-- I keep my media / server box connected to the TV and logged into a guest account with a wireless keyboard / track pad via HDMI, and I have a cheap Asus made Google Nexus Player with a 7 button remote on the next HDMI port. The latter is for ease of Netflix / Youtube, especially when it comes to company... For a little over $100 it's paid off over and over (for me). I also have an OTA antenna that gives me most of the local stations, and most of the buffalo stations, in HD. If I never had company I'd ditch Netfixs and the Nexus Player and just use the media / server box plus OTA. I may add a tuner card to the server box so I can 'low rent PVR' the OTA TV (mostly for local news), while still keeping it connected to the TV.

I'm happy with the setup as it drove my costs down to: Good unlimited internet, yearly VPN (for downloads), monthly Netflixs, plus the one offs of the antenna (and $20 preamp), and the and the $100 Nexus Player. It paid for itself in a couple of months, and I save forever (Sans the low VPN cost, and when components die).
 

danmand

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Nov 28, 2003
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I noticed you can buy a dual boot Android/windows mini PC or usb stick PC for close $100. It would appear that with a monitor and a keyboard/mouse it could function as a PC for net browsing, email etc.

Has anybody tried something like that?
 

|2 /-\ | /|/

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I wish I saw this thread before I got my roku. LOL....its funny cause just today I opened it and the top choice is MINIX which I fully agree.
 

|2 /-\ | /|/

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Even after watching this, I still don't regret the MINIX...although the Instabox Fantasy A8 and MXIV appear to be very good...

 

bishop

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I just bought a nexus player for $70 from "the source" (used to be radioshack). It was not for me, it is a present for my sister who is not techsavvy. I installed kodi aka xbmc on it and set everything up, should make for a good xmas gift. If it was for myself I would have got some dirty cheap $25 android stick instead.

Kodi works really well on the nexus player, kodi runs as smooth on the nexus player as kodi runs on my quad core desktop PC. The remote for the nexus player is ok, not very impressed with it, but it looks nice and gets the job done, entering text though is brutally slow. I also got my sister a logitech k400 wireless kb with built in touchpad for the nexus player, the keyboard is not bluetooth and requires a usb dongle, the nexus player does not have a full sized usb port and requires a micro usb to full size usb cable which costs like $1.

The combination of only 8gb of space plus the lack of full sized usb slots makes it messy to expand storage but nowadays most people stream stuff either from a PC or from the web so it is not a huge deal to me. If you plan on using it to install alot of games and apps then you might be better off looking at another product. If you want something that is simple and works, then the nexus player is the best android box out there.
 

Twister

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Aug 24, 2002
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I just bought a nexus player for $70 from "the source" (used to be radioshack). It was not for me, it is a present for my sister who is not techsavvy. I installed kodi aka xbmc on it and set everything up, should make for a good xmas gift. If it was for myself I would have got some dirty cheap $25 android stick instead.
Can you install a an android stick on your tv and install kodi?
 

bishop

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Probably, but it might be more hassle as it might not natively come with google playstore. I have installed kodi on my nexus 5, nexus player, and 3 windows machines.
 

DeadFish

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May 3, 2013
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Dunno if this helps but.... have you guys considered Chrome cast? just plug it into your TV and you can stream websites off your PC.
you can also stream your phone to the TV. Finding content is fairly easy, However this is not a solution for the technologically challenged.
 
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