Android Mini PCs, Yay or Nay?

seamey beag84 wrote: »

Well, i feel like a plank... Got my Kimdecent T21 this morning but i never bought a remote. It gives u a link to download an app for your phone (thought that's all I'll need) but i have to set up the wifi settings on the stick first. Gutted since i was waiting a month for this. Now on the hunt to find a feckin' wireless keyboard. Any cheap one's i could buy in a shop, don't really want to wait another few weeks for a delivery from Godknowswhere..

Plug a usb mouse into it and the onscreen keyboard will come up. If you don't have one you can buy one in the 2 euro shop. Then you can install the remote control apps and you can use your phone

Downloaded BubbleUpn last week on my phone and MK808. Basically it lets you network the two together through wifi so if you're playing something on your phone you can click 'Change renderer' and select the mini PC and it'll automatically start playing on the mini PC. I have mine hooked up to my AV Receiver so this is seriously handy for controlling music wirelessy. It also reads your entire Google Play catalogue and plays it so you can control/stream your whole music collection from your phone. Basically it works like Airplay from Apple. It works with videos etc. as well but I haven't tried that out yet. It does a whole lot of other things that I haven't investigated yet but it's definitely worth while, it's also free.

Cool, there's a Linux distro available for some of these devices:

http://liliputing.com/2013/01/picuntu-brings-light-weight-linux-to-rk3066-mini-pcs-mk808-ug802-etc.html

I've picked up two MiniX Neo X5 units at last.

So far I'm very happy, the wired LAN is great
this is it but i bought mine on ebay
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/NEO-X5-RK3066-Dual-Core-Cortex-A9-TV-Box-1GB-RAM-16GB-ROM--w--Wi-Fi---TF-Slot-XBMC-3G-Dongle-RJ45-Slot-312604.html

so is the same chips as the stick drive, its more expensive but I get the following as extra.

8GB more internal memory (it means there is more space allocated around the unit, e.g 3GB for apps)
Bluetooth
wired lan RJ-45 10/100
IR port (you can program the IR signals into a better remote, some mele units have IR on them too)
Mic Port
Headphone port
A power ON/Off button
Comes with a rubbish IR remote,
S/PDIF sound output (this will allow me to keep my old amp in use)
3 Amp PSU not the 1Amp on the stick unit

The remote you get is muck, it came with android 4.1.1 on it even though its advertised as ICS so that saved me some time.

Now for some stuff I noticed. I could not get HW decoding working on the MK808 stick unit I figured it was the wireless hw. I have the android build of XBMC that integrates with MX player to give HW decoding, but it was choppy as reported before.

Now with this unit , using the wired connection to my NAS drive on an SMB share, if I use ES Explorer and default the video player to MX player I can play 8GB and a 14GB HD and some 3D files that I have on the NAS. I'm very happy with it, for example i have my copy of Toystory 3 as a 720p rip and it plays perfectly (4GB).

What I have yet to get working

MX player wont handle DTS audio
I have to have the decoder setting set to HW and not HW+ decoding when using the network access, HW+ will not work over the NW and I never checked a local file (so set up the decoder settings to HW only not HW+)

XBMC, even with the NEON custom builds using MX player will not play anything over 1.5GB without being choppy, I'm sure this will be or is fixed but I dont have it addressed yet.

Over all I'm very happy with it the extra money was well spent, I still have the stick MK808 and I still love it but even thought its the same.

This is the first one of these units that I would say is actually a PC like device, some people could actually use this in their offices IMHO.

Gran Hermano wrote: »

Stoner, Have you tried this app with the X5? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rockchip.remotecontrol
Works great with G4.

Works on my iMito too, guess it works for all RK3066 based devices.

I have a couple of the pen/stick MK808 units and I' really like to get them set up on my wired network, I've bought two adaptors so far and neither worked, I'd like 10/100 that would do me, has anyone got one of these working please? if so where did you buy it.
thanks

Casey78 wrote: »

Sorry if this has already been answered but can I use SKY Go and Sopcast or similar on one of these devices?

through XBMC, for SKY GO anyway

So overall of 15 pages of this thread, with €100 or less to spend, what should I buy?
What do you recommend, I dont want to spend any time messing round with firmware etc. I just want to plug it into the telly and stream content from my pc over wifi or copy stuff to USB and play it? Do any of these have any issues with Cinavia? Neet to get rid of PS3

finneranpaul wrote: »

Ok, if considering that wifi is not an issue or that I copy content to a USB and plug it into the system then what would ye go for?

I have 2 at the moment, the UhostU2 and the Measy U2C.

I like the UhostU2 as it has 2 full size USB slots and the wifi appears to be better on it, but I only have the Measy about a week now and have not had much time to play around with it but it does appear to be faster.

The UhostU2 has been sitting in a drawer since I got the Measy and the Measy has been sitting on my desk as I want to put a few movies and things onto an SD card and see how they play (in comparison to streaming from the Network).

I hope to get it connected to a USB hub and have a few other things connected to it, but I would like to be able to move it around a bit also to use the camera on it for Skype etc., so it might end up on an HDMI lead rather than being plugged directly into my switch, but if I would then end up with 3 leads coming out of it (USB to HUB, USB for power and the HDMI lead so it might end up being a mess). It would probably make more sense to use a USB webcam, and if I do that I may as well use the UHOST2 as the camera on the Measy would not be getting used.

By the time I have it sorted the way I want it I will probably have another one picked out though!!!

maybe..............just maybe................this is what I should really go for

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/735818486/2013_Newest_android_Mini_PC_Smart.html

astrofluff wrote: »

I've got my hands on a $30 coupon for FocalPrice and am looking at getting a mini PC. I plan to put another $30~ towards getting an Android TV stick. So for best specs to fit into the price bracket I am looking at various dual core chips (ranging from 1.2 to 1,6 GHz) with 1GB RAM. Android release generally seems to be 4.0.4 for most of these although I see there ae others with 4.1.1 - Is there any benefit to either?

Also with regards to chip manufacturer, is there any benefit buying a certain chip over another. I think I read somewhere a lot of chips won't run video out at 1080p.

Here's two I am currently looking at: UG007

Measy U2A

Any comments appreciated!

I'd say always go for the latest version of Android.
Your links don't work for me for some reason, and the focalprice.com site loads with no stylesheet.

Would this work with the MK808?
Thanks

Couple of questions about the MK808B- which is mentioned on a thread in Bargain Alerts-

-Does it run over 3G?I've Sky broadband and its crap after 6pm, drops below 2mb so will this be constantly buffering on such low speeds?
-My main TV is an older flat screen, can't see hdmi connection on it so do I need a hdmi to scart adapter? They're nearly £50 on amazon.co.uk which is way too expensive for me. Or is there a cheaper alternative/adapter?
-Do these come already rooted?

Anyone????