Android TV Device Comparisons

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by scoful

It's an adesso ir USB media center remote.

I'll do some testing with my keyboard to see if it does something different.

I would test using the actual firetv remote as well I have issues with using FLIRC on my setup in the that the IR codes are being sent too many times and causes issues. Not sure if this is a similar case or not.

[SageWizdom]

Is there a good way to have a central post (or wiki page somewhere) than folks can keep up to date with a full list of working/tested/nonworking/etc devices?

I find I can not keep up with everything in this thread, and expect there are others who might benefit from a single place to quickly see what options exist.

Many thanks in advance

[scoful]

My keyboard does the same - I have the letter 'g' mapped to Guide. The 'Guide' button on the Adesso produces a 'g'. When I launch the mini-client and on the home page pressing 'g' pulls up a seach dialog (not sure what it's searching - I suppose I should try that) with the letter 'g' keyed. If I go into the guide or recordings menu first then 'g' will work to go to the guide.

Weird right?

FireTV remote works fine (except of course that it has virtually NO buttons).

On a side note - if there's any way to integrate Voice Search that would be awesome too, but it seems to me I read something about it being able to only search an online database and not local content (I suppose this makes some sense putting all the load server side - kind of like sql - send a voice snippet (sql query) and let the server return just results after doing all the work there instead of the low powered client)

Originally Posted by scoful

It's an adesso ir USB media center remote.

I'll do some testing with my keyboard to see if it does something different.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by SageWizdom

Is there a good way to have a central post (or wiki page somewhere) than folks can keep up to date with a full list of working/tested/nonworking/etc devices?

I find I can not keep up with everything in this thread, and expect there are others who might benefit from a single place to quickly see what options exist.

Many thanks in advance

I agree.. It's a good idea... I just don't want to maintain it

Originally Posted by scoful

My keyboard does the same - I have the letter 'g' mapped to Guide. The 'Guide' button on the Adesso produces a 'g'. When I launch the mini-client and on the home page pressing 'g' pulls up a seach dialog (not sure what it's searching - I suppose I should try that) with the letter 'g' keyed. If I go into the guide or recordings menu first then 'g' will work to go to the guide.

Weird right?

FireTV remote works fine (except of course that it has virtually NO buttons).

On a side note - if there's any way to integrate Voice Search that would be awesome too, but it seems to me I read something about it being able to only search an online database and not local content (I suppose this makes some sense putting all the load server side - kind of like sql - send a voice snippet (sql query) and let the server return just results after doing all the work there instead of the low powered client)

So when you hit a "g" it sends the keystroke to sagetv, and sagetv responds by thinking that you are doing a search. Not sure there is anything I can do in the miniclient, since, I'm just passing the key directly to sagetv. If you use the Placeshifter and hit "g" does it go to the guide, or does it start a search?

[scoful]

[QUOTE=stuckless;587798 If you use the Placeshifter and hit "g" does it go to the guide, or does it start a search?[/QUOTE]
Finally got around to trying this - placeshifter does in fact do the same - I launch it on my laptop and press 'g' and the search dialog pops up.

Is there something weird in my properties file or something?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by scoful

Finally got around to trying this - placeshifter does in fact do the same - I launch it on my laptop and press 'g' and the search dialog pops up.

Is there something weird in my properties file or something?

I would think that this is default behaviour, but I have no idea if perhaps you can map keystrokes, like "g" to guide. I know that if you use Ctrl + Letter you'll get some sagetv commands... ie, maybe Ctrl+g brings up guide, but just 'g' probably just sends the 'g' character and starts a search.

[scoful]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I would think that this is default behaviour, but I have no idea if perhaps you can map keystrokes, like "g" to guide. I know that if you use Ctrl + Letter you'll get some sagetv commands... ie, maybe Ctrl+g brings up guide, but just 'g' probably just sends the 'g' character and starts a search.

It's weird because it's just the top level menu. If I go to recordings or guide I can use the mapped keys. Seems like maybe it's a convenience feature to just search from the main screen.

[Skirge01]

Figured this thread is the place where this belongs...

http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/24/g...-nexus-player/

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Figured this thread is the place where this belongs...

http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/24/g...-nexus-player/

No big surprise there.

The big surprise is that there's a new Android TV box coming out: the Xiaomi Mi Box.

It's higher-end than the Nexus Player, although not as powerful as the Shield TV. The Shield TV is a pseudo gaming console, while this is mostly a streamer with some limited gaming capabilities.

No price yet, but presumably it will end up in the $100-$150 range. While it should be cheaper alternative to the Shield TV, it doesn't seem to have ethernet. It does, however, seem to have a full-sized USB 2.0 port.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by reggie14

No big surprise there.

The big surprise is that there's a new Android TV box coming out: the Xiaomi Mi Box.

It's higher-end than the Nexus Player, although not as powerful as the Shield TV. The Shield TV is a pseudo gaming console, while this is mostly a streamer with some limited gaming capabilities.

No price yet, but presumably it will end up in the $100-$150 range. While it should be cheaper alternative to the Shield TV, it doesn't seem to have ethernet. It does, however, seem to have a full-sized USB 2.0 port.

I think the lack of ethernet would be a deal breaker for me. I currently have 2 shield tvs and 1 nexus player hooked up (and a FireTV for testing). I use ethernet on all of them. Btw, my nexus player is a dev version which does have ethernet... I hear the regular nexus player does not have ethernet (or maybe some versions).

[wawilmsn]

Is there any activity going on to put SageTV on the raspberry Pi. The reason I ask, is that a large part of my viewing (and recording) is from OTA or from cable, both of which are mpeg2. The PI is one of the few platforms I know of that have a hardware mpeg2 decoder (granted, you have to purchase the license for around $5, but it works great - at least with Kodi). So, it seems that if an android/raspberry-pi solution was available, and could utilize the hardware decoding, it could become an excellent, small, cheap SageTV set top box.

[phantomii]

Was curious which version of the Shield TV folks are using? The one with the 500GB or the cheaper one with 16GB. Is there a performance advantage to the one with 500GB?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wawilmsn

Is there any activity going on to put SageTV on the raspberry Pi. The reason I ask, is that a large part of my viewing (and recording) is from OTA or from cable, both of which are mpeg2. The PI is one of the few platforms I know of that have a hardware mpeg2 decoder (granted, you have to purchase the license for around $5, but it works great - at least with Kodi). So, it seems that if an android/raspberry-pi solution was available, and could utilize the hardware decoding, it could become an excellent, small, cheap SageTV set top box.

I'm pretty sure most Android TV boxes support MPEG2 hardware decoding. Whether or not it does it well, not sure, but hardware support is there. Even the cheaper devices like Nexus Player support MPEG2 hardware decoding.

The PI doesn't really hold any interest for me, in terms of a media front end. I do own a PI3, but paying $60 for PI and case isn't really worth it when I get an better Android box for just a little more than that. I think if cost of an Android box was $400 then there would be some incentive to develop it out as a front end.

It just seems like a lot of work for very little gains (or no real gains). But, I suspect that someone that just wants to tinker with the PI and has some interest in SageTV will do it someday, just because they can...

Originally Posted by phantomii

Was curious which version of the Shield TV folks are using? The one with the 500GB or the cheaper one with 16GB. Is there a performance advantage to the one with 500GB?

I have both, and both work really well for my recordings, which are 720p H624 TS files. I also use the bluetooth remote that ships with the unit, and while I hated it at first, I actually prefer it now, over my big bulky remote... plus I get a headphone jack that I can use from time to time when watching movies later at night. My understanding is that the only real difference between those is the storage.

[DarkWolf77]

I have the 16GB one and it has been excellent so far. It very quickly replaced the Roku 3 in my living room, and the performance is amazing.

[dranockcir]

I picked up a Jide Remix Mini, runs RemixOS a version of Android designed for the desktop, for $50.00. You can read about them here http://www.jide.com/mini and it works well, I use it as a Thin Client at work to connect to Horizon View VDI Desktop. Thought I'd try Sean's Android Mini Client and it works very well. I haven't tried it locally, only over the Internet, and it works great. Here's a couple of pictures attached.

If you download the x86 version to use with a PC you should get a pop up that lets you get $40 off so you can get the mini for $50.00, the mini uses a 1.3ghz Allwinner cpu, but I have installed the x86 version on a PC and it flies, The SageTV Android Client works on it as well.

[stuckless]

Anyone have any experience with this unit... it seems quite good for a $40 Android TV box...

http://www.inexbox.com/nexbox-s905x-tv-box/

[oldfolkie]

Actually, it appears to be an Android "TV Box" as opposed to an "Android TV" box. Notice it always uses the Android version (6.0) and model number (S905X) between the words "Android" and "TV". So, in actuality, it seems to be a KODI device, running on Android 6.0.

But, yeah, hardware-wise, it does sound pretty good.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by oldfolkie

Actually, it appears to be an Android "TV Box" as opposed to an "Android TV" box. Notice it always uses the Android version (6.0) and model number (S905X) between the words "Android" and "TV". So, in actuality, it seems to be a KODI device, running on Android 6.0.

But, yeah, hardware-wise, it does sound pretty good.

That's a good distinction... from an app point of view, it doesn't really matter... ie, the existing MiniClient is the same binary file that can be run on a Phone, Tablet, or "Android TV". From the UI it does appear to be a different launcher than a normal Android TV, so likey they are running a modified version of Android... That scares me a little, since I don't really know what other changes are made to the OS... ie, is the box a trojan horse that plays android apps, but also steals username/passwords, etc.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Anyone have any experience with this unit... it seems quite good for a $40 Android TV box...

http://www.inexbox.com/nexbox-s905x-tv-box/

I just ordered one from Amazon for $30. Will get it on Wednesday, and see what happens. I hope 1GB on Android 6.0 will be fine for the SageTV Miniclient.

Has anybody else tested this yet?

(Edited: the s905x is $30, corrected above)

[dinki]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

I just ordered one from Amazon for $30. Will get it on Wednesday, and see what happens. I hope 1GB on Android 6.0 will be fine for the SageTV Miniclient.

Has anybody else tested this yet?

(Edited: the s905x is $30, corrected above)

Do you have MPEG2 files that you can test on this box? I've found this always to be problematic with the Android boxes I've tried.