Android TV Device Comparisons

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

This is only a minor annoyance, but it is noticeable for a few seconds until it syncs to the audio.

For what it's worth, I see the same thing with my Shield TV.

By the way, another thing for folks to keep in mind with the cheap Android boxes (rather than the AndroidTV boxes) is that you won't get HD streaming on Netflix.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by reggie14

For what it's worth, I see the same thing with my Shield TV.

By the way, another thing for folks to keep in mind with the cheap Android boxes (rather than the AndroidTV boxes) is that you won't get HD streaming on Netflix.

Yeah, I have a shield and I experience it there as well, so I don't think this is a device specific thing. I experience it less using ExoPlayer, but it's still there. My guess is that I should probably be buffering more video data before sending it to the player... I may play with that (unless other people have other suggestions).

[dgeezer]

Originally Posted by stuckless

+1

I bought a nexbox A95X for around the same price, to test on... I was ready to throw it across the room after 5 minutes of using it.

Same experience. Rather than put it in the storage room with all the other unused devices, I threw it directly in the trash.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by dgeezer

Same experience. Rather than put it in the storage room with all the other unused devices, I threw it directly in the trash.

You should have held on to it... I'm pretty sure _Demo_ is creating a native client (HD400) for that particular hardware But agree, and an "Android" unit, it wasn't worth storing it

[willieb]

Originally Posted by bialio

Here's what I did - it is working well so far.

Shield + FLIRC + Harmony + SageTV

1) Took the FLIRC to my computer and plugged it in. Launched the FLIRC app.
2) In FLIRC app selected the 'Full Keyboard' profile.
3) In FLIRC app hit the keys needed for Sage command (i.e. CTRL+X for Guide)
4) Took a HD300 remote control and hit the guide button.
5) Do steps 3 and 4 again for that code!!!!

At this point FLIRC is programmed to send CTRL+X when it gets either of the Guide IR events from a Sage HD300 remote control.

So I repeated this for all the keyboard commands I care about - Home, Skips, Stop, etc. There are lists of the keyboard shortcuts here in the forums.

Once all that was done, I plugged the FLIRC back into Shield. Then in the Harmony setup, I created a SageTV HD300 device and added it to the Shield TV activity. And finally in the Harmony remote control setup I mapped the buttons that I care about to the SageTV commands.

To put it in other words, Harmony thinks there's an HD300 and it sends it commands every now and then. The FLIRC understands the HD300 commands and sends the appropriate keypress into the Android TV.

btl.

I got a Mibox for Christmas. I have the mini client up and running, which blew my mind, by the way stuckless - great work. I have not upgraded to version 9 yet, but I will probably do so in the next couple weeks because the guide data is going away. I would like to get it working with my harmony remote or my HD 300 remote. I understand that the mibox has an IR receiver, but I am confused as to whether I still need the FLIRC if I really want to do sage control with my HD 300 remote. I think I do because I cannot figure out how the mibox will know what to do with HD300 signals. Can someone confirm? I have a FLIRC, but if I can get the mibox going without it I won't have to buy FLIRCs if I get other miboxes.

Finally, did bialio ever post his flirc config? If so I would love to get it. Thanks so much everyone!

[bialio]

https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-SHIELD.../dp/B01MG3S6G2

Original shield (refurbished) for $169. Now that the new shield (2017 model) is available stay on the lookout for the old one (which is the same specs as the new) at reduced prices!

btl.

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by willieb

I got a Mibox for Christmas. I have the mini client up and running, which blew my mind, by the way stuckless - great work. I have not upgraded to version 9 yet, but I will probably do so in the next couple weeks because the guide data is going away. I would like to get it working with my harmony remote or my HD 300 remote. I understand that the mibox has an IR receiver, but I am confused as to whether I still need the FLIRC if I really want to do sage control with my HD 300 remote. I think I do because I cannot figure out how the mibox will know what to do with HD300 signals. Can someone confirm? I have a FLIRC, but if I can get the mibox going without it I won't have to buy FLIRCs if I get other miboxes.

Finally, did bialio ever post his flirc config? If so I would love to get it. Thanks so much everyone!

The MiBox does have an IR receiver and there is a MiBox remote that you can pick in the Logitech app. Everything you have on the normal MiBox remote is available to map on you Logitech. As far as I know you need the Logitech remote codes to work the MiBox IR as you can not train it in any way.

I have used the Flirc on it as well. I use the setup I created for my FireTV which has a few extra commands available than on the basic MiBox remote. The Flirc worked well but does not add enough extra functionality to be worth buying one.

[fresnoboy]

Originally Posted by bialio

https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-SHIELD.../dp/B01MG3S6G2

Original shield (refurbished) for $169. Now that the new shield (2017 model) is available stay on the lookout for the old one (which is the same specs as the new) at reduced prices!

btl.

You can get the latest one (new) for almost the same price if you use visa checkout at Best Buy, which gets you an instant $25 off. True, you pay tax this way compared to some online stores.

Thanks
Mike

[phantomii]

Picked up one of these from Amazon and am very impressed with the performance of this compared to the my Sheild. Price was around $65 USD when I got it but it is a bit more today. Not really thrilled with the user interface but seems to work really well with SageTV Client and the SPMC version of Kodi.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are also many other devices with similar specs for a range of prices. Some seem to have the same footprint and interface. The "Android 6.0 Amlogic S912 Octa-Core" configuration seems pretty good to me at a reasonable price point.

Just one man's observation.......

[bialio]

That's a neat looking little box. Do you happen to know if it is rooted? One annoying thing about the Mi Box is that you can't get in and change stuff without re-flashing it and potentially bricking stuff.

The Nvidia Shield is rooted from the factory - so you can log in and change stuff up. Like disabling the default Launcher and using a different one. That makes the UI much better. IMO.

btl.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by phantomii

Picked up one of these from Amazon and am very impressed with the performance of this compared to the my Sheild. Price was around $65 USD when I got it but it is a bit more today. Not really thrilled with the user interface but seems to work really well with SageTV Client and the SPMC version of Kodi.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are also many other devices with similar specs for a range of prices. Some seem to have the same footprint and interface. The "Android 6.0 Amlogic S912 Octa-Core" configuration seems pretty good to me at a reasonable price point.

Just one man's observation.......

Originally Posted by bialio

That's a neat looking little box. Do you happen to know if it is rooted? One annoying thing about the Mi Box is that you can't get in and change stuff without re-flashing it and potentially bricking stuff.

The Nvidia Shield is rooted from the factory - so you can log in and change stuff up. Like disabling the default Launcher and using a different one. That makes the UI much better. IMO.

btl.

The problem that I have with those boxes is that they run the phone/tablet version of Android, and the user experience of using it was enough to turn me off. The "UI" that they put on it, looks great, no issues there... but when I takes you into a browser to install android apps, and then trying to search/install... with-in 5 minutes I was ready to toss it... but I wanted to actually install the mini-client, so I persevered. Once the miniclient was installed, using it, was OK, just the rest of the experience sucked If they would just install the "TV" version of android, these would be OK, cheap, boxes.

I didn't have this specific box... but they are mostly the same... they'll run a custom launcher, have kodi installed (usually preconfigured with the all the pirate sites), and have some access to the play store. It's generally these boxes that give AndroidTV a bad rap

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by bialio

That's a neat looking little box. Do you happen to know if it is rooted? One annoying thing about the Mi Box is that you can't get in and change stuff without re-flashing it and potentially bricking stuff.

The Nvidia Shield is rooted from the factory - so you can log in and change stuff up. Like disabling the default Launcher and using a different one. That makes the UI much better. IMO.

btl.

Curious as to what launcher you are using on the shield that is better than stock? I haven't looked in a while, but most were kinda bla.

[bialio]

I'm using the HAL Launcher. It loooks more or less like this:

It does take a while to configure it. The default setup is really bad. Not real user friendly setup either. But once it's there and tweaked it works real nice.

[phantomii]

So, are you using the HAL Launcher on a streaming box or a tablet. Maybe it's fear of Screwing something up but I have been reluctant to load a different launcher on any of my streaming boxes.

Has anyone else loaded an alternate Launcher?

If so, what others are being used?

[panteragstk]

I have HAL launcher installed for using my non-android TV apps. I like it OK.

Really easy to install. Just download it from google play and set it up. If you don't like it you can always uninstall it.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by bialio

Here's what I did - it is working well so far.

Shield + FLIRC + Harmony + SageTV

1) Took the FLIRC to my computer and plugged it in. Launched the FLIRC app.
2) In FLIRC app selected the 'Full Keyboard' profile.
3) In FLIRC app hit the keys needed for Sage command (i.e. CTRL+X for Guide)
4) Took a HD300 remote control and hit the guide button.
5) Do steps 3 and 4 again for that code!!!!

At this point FLIRC is programmed to send CTRL+X when it gets either of the Guide IR events from a Sage HD300 remote control.

So I repeated this for all the keyboard commands I care about - Home, Skips, Stop, etc. There are lists of the keyboard shortcuts here in the forums.

Once all that was done, I plugged the FLIRC back into Shield. Then in the Harmony setup, I created a SageTV HD300 device and added it to the Shield TV activity. And finally in the Harmony remote control setup I mapped the buttons that I care about to the SageTV commands.

To put it in other words, Harmony thinks there's an HD300 and it sends it commands every now and then. The FLIRC understands the HD300 commands and sends the appropriate keypress into the Android TV.

btl.

Any suggestions on how to set this up in a room that will have an HD300 in it? I don't want to learn the SageTV IR commands, since then the Shield and HD300 will get mixed up.

Is my only option to find another remote and learn commands from that?

[tvmaster2]

Has anyone used this as a host for the mini client, if it's even possible?

http://www.frys.com/product/9064857?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

not enough info I could find anywhere

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Has anyone used this as a host for the mini client, if it's even possible?

http://www.frys.com/product/9064857?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

not enough info I could find anywhere

I've used similar boxes, and yeah, the MiniClient will run on them... the problem is that these are Android Phone/Tablet experiences on a big screen, and not, Android TV experience. After a few minutes of using it you will wish you paid the extra $40 and bought a "real" Android Tv box.

A friend of mine, at work, recently spoke to me about buying a similar box. I warned him, but he bought it anyways... and soon after he said he wished he'd never bought it.

All these boxes are "android" but, the the user experience is completely different from TV to Tablet.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I've used similar boxes, and yeah, the MiniClient will run on them... the problem is that these are Android Phone/Tablet experiences on a big screen, and not, Android TV experience. After a few minutes of using it you will wish you paid the extra $40 and bought a "real" Android Tv box.

A friend of mine, at work, recently spoke to me about buying a similar box. I warned him, but he bought it anyways... and soon after he said he wished he'd never bought it.

All these boxes are "android" but, the the user experience is completely different from TV to Tablet.

ok, thanks for the heads-up

[BobbyDing]

Maybe this will give the shield some competition???....

https://www.zidoo.tv/Product/index/m...McQ%3D%3D.html
.