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Android/Dream Box [ Illegal discussion = Ban ]

ComfortKid

Just wondering is there any cheap Chinese versions of a dream box and does anybody know where id look for one.

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BandMember

AH92 wrote: »

New shield being shipped today. Excited to get it and should be here in a few days hoping all goes well.

If you could post a review of your experience with it, that would be great for everyone on the thread. I'm interested to hear what the model is like and what improvements have been made (along with any issues, of course). Hope you enjoy it anyway!

BelovedAunt

Lads, I'm wondering what a box with better specs than the Neo U1 can achieve. I'm getting almost no buffering on the U1 so what benefits would something like the Shield have over it?

BandMember

BelovedAunt wrote: »

Lads, I'm wondering what a box with better specs than the Neo U1 can achieve. I'm getting almost no buffering on the U1 so what benefits would something like the Shield have over it?

While not wanting to stray into dangerous territory, buffering is not necessarily down to your device - it's also down to your set up. For example, the quality of your internet, the source of the stream, your set up, whether you update things, clear cache, purge packages etc. If you have the right set up, you should not be getting buffering with the likes of a Minix....

Bluefoam

Amazon just gave me a .04c refund on my Shield order because the price fluctuated during the pre order... It must cost them a fortune to administer that kind of stuff... I'd be delighted if it was a few euros... Anyways... It'll take another few days to get here, but looking forward to setting it up...

nedd

Bluefoam wrote: »

Amazon just gave me a .04c refund on my Shield order because the price fluctuated during the pre order... It must cost them a fortune to administer that kind of stuff... I'd be delighted if it was a few euros... Anyways... It'll take another few days to get here, but looking forward to setting it up...

Just got my 4 cent back as well. I think I will order another one :-)

Mine shipped yesterday but I won't have it till Friday.

I'm a part time gamer so I hope this will fill a small void in my life. The catalogue of games seems to be getting better.

Shefwedfan

I guess this is the new version? https://www.amazon.co.uk/NVIDIA-SHIELD-Media-Streaming-Device/dp/B01NBJ6KZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484647261&sr=8-1&keywords=shield+tv

nhur

Bluefoam wrote: »

Amazon just gave me a .04c refund

Apologies for being a pedant... but i'm presuming you mean 4c or €.04 ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShv_74FNWU
I really can't help myself

Bluefoam

nhur wrote: »

Apologies for being a pedant... but i'm presuming you mean 4c or €.04 ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShv_74FNWU
I really can't help myself

In order to answer your query effectively, I'd need to f

styron

nhur wrote: »

Apologies for being a pedant... but i'm ...

In English, the nominative form of the singular first-person pronoun, "I", is normally capitalized, along with all its contractions (I'll, I'm, etc.).

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/33114/should-i-be-capitalized-or-in-lower-case

Call yourself a pedant :pac: ... of course, I'm nothing of the sort.

.red.

I bought my first box a few weeks ago, a minix neo u1. So far so good and it does everything I need it to do.
Now I'm looking for a 2nd box for a TV in the kitchen but in no rush for it. When the new MINIX is released do ye reckon the U1 will drop much in price? I'd prefer to get another box that's decent quality but would rather not spend the €120/130 that another MINIX will cost for something that won't even be used once a week.
If its not gonna drop much I'd nearly buy it now but if I thought I'd get it for a good bit cheaper in the next month or 6weeks I'd wait as I can just bring the one I have out with me for now.
Just looked on amazon, bought mine with a remote for £99, same package now is £119 lol.

Shefwedfan

.red. wrote: »

I bought my first box a few weeks ago, a minix neo u1. So far so good and it does everything I need it to do.
Now I'm looking for a 2nd box for a TV in the kitchen but in no rush for it. When the new MINIX is released do ye reckon the U1 will drop much in price? I'd prefer to get another box that's decent quality but would rather not spend the €120/130 that another MINIX will cost for something that won't even be used once a week.
If its not gonna drop much I'd nearly buy it now but if I thought I'd get it for a good bit cheaper in the next month or 6weeks I'd wait as I can just bring the one I have out with me for now.
Just looked on amazon, bought mine with a remote for £99, same package now is £119 lol.

If just in kitchen why not Fire Stick? it does depend on what you use it for of course

BandMember

.red. wrote: »

I bought my first box a few weeks ago, a minix neo u1. So far so good and it does everything I need it to do.
Now I'm looking for a 2nd box for a TV in the kitchen but in no rush for it. When the new MINIX is released do ye reckon the U1 will drop much in price? I'd prefer to get another box that's decent quality but would rather not spend the €120/130 that another MINIX will cost for something that won't even be used once a week.
If its not gonna drop much I'd nearly buy it now but if I thought I'd get it for a good bit cheaper in the next month or 6weeks I'd wait as I can just bring the one I have out with me for now.
Just looked on amazon, bought mine with a remote for £99, same package now is £119 lol.

There's two things I would say to you, and the first one applies to anyone buying a box. The wifi on android boxes does not have the same capabilities as, say, the wifi on your laptop, phone etc. The range can be quite limited (especially on the cheaper boxes) and I would always recommend a wired connection for a more stable performance (especially for watching any live content). So, depending on the distance from your router to your kitchen, you might want to invest in a set of homeplugs if an ethernet cable is not an option.

The second thing is that the price of the Minix U1 boxes should fall in price further when the new model comes out, but I don't see them falling down to £50 or anything close to that. Minix boxes hold their value, was never a huge price drop when previous models were replaced. There will always be a demand for them and they will do for a couple of years so I would imagine that they will stay in the £80-100 price range, definitely for a while yet anyway. You might think that it'll only be used once a week, but as the family begin to use it more, get used to it and realise what exactly it can do, I guarantee you that someone will commander the second telly in the kitchen as their own personal cinema - it happens in every house! :pac:

Heraldoffreeent

.red. wrote: »

I bought my first box a few weeks ago, a minix neo u1. So far so good and it does everything I need it to do.
Now I'm looking for a 2nd box for a TV in the kitchen but in no rush for it. When the new MINIX is released do ye reckon the U1 will drop much in price? I'd prefer to get another box that's decent quality but would rather not spend the €120/130 that another MINIX will cost for something that won't even be used once a week.
If its not gonna drop much I'd nearly buy it now but if I thought I'd get it for a good bit cheaper in the next month or 6weeks I'd wait as I can just bring the one I have out with me for now.
Just looked on amazon, bought mine with a remote for £99, same package now is £119 lol.

I bought the 2014 x8h+ version of this in nov 2014 for €110, this is a slightly lower specced version and today it €117.

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box/pp_140801.html?wid=21

BandMember

Heraldoffreeent wrote: »

I bought the 2014 x8h+ version of this in nov 2014 for €110, this is a slightly lower specced version and today it €117.

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box/pp_140801.html?wid=21

I'd be careful of buying anything from that site (or am I thinking of Ali Express?) and that is way over priced for what is about to be a two models old box....

As much a fan as I am of the Minix, I wouldn't buy it at that price.

Zimmerframe

AH92 wrote: »

New shield being shipped today. Excited to get it and should be here in a few days hoping all goes well.

Me too, want mine mainly to use as a Plex server.

Heraldoffreeent

BandMember wrote: »

I'd be careful of buying anything from that site (or am I thinking of Ali Express?) and that is way over priced for what is about to be a two models old box....

As much a fan as I am of the Minix, I wouldn't buy it at that price.

I've bought a few bits and bobs off them over the last few years and had very little hassle, the price is probably the same across the board on geekbuying, everbuying etc, and probably Aliexpress.

As for them, I've bought stuff off them as well, but they're just a platform like ebay, you could buy the same thing from multiple vendors there, its just a matter of picking a seller who has been around for a few years and has decent rep.

Same as yourself though, I wouldn't be buying that at that price either.

On the substantive issue though, I'm coming around to the idea of these things being almost disposable after a period of one to two years. I bought a second box in july, and I'm probably going to buy another one in a few months again, this time for no more than €40, even if I have to buy 3 of these over a period of 4/5 years I'll have spent the same amount of money as a new Minix, and at least one of them will probably have the latest version of Android, whereas my X8h+ will never be updated from Kit Kat .

My original Minix will get binned.My latest box cost about €50 all in, including having to buy a VAP wireless bridge to compensate for the terrible wifi on the box I bought. With backing up to an SD card and using Trakt, I can set up a new box in about 5 minutes and have my "build", and i use that term in the basest sense, installed on it.

.red.

BandMember wrote: »

There's two things I would say to you, and the first one applies to anyone buying a box. The wifi on android boxes does not have the same capabilities as, say, the wifi on your laptop, phone etc.

You might think that it'll only be used once a week, but as the family begin to use it more, get used to it and realise what exactly it can do, I guarantee you that someone will commander the second telly in the kitchen as their own personal cinema - it happens in every house! :pac:

I brought it out last week and it worked fine, its roughly the same distance as where the other one is. Probably a different story if both boxes were running tho.
As for using it a lot, I really don't think it will. We had sky multi room out there and it was only ever used if a match was on so I got rid of it and put in a free to air box. That's only used for the free music channels or radio stations. The TV broke before christmas and we decided not to bother replacreplaccing but got one for free.
Its €130 now on amazon which is more than I paid a few weeks ago and without the extra remote. I don't think I'd pay that price so I'll hold off a while and see.

nedd

My Shield just arrived :-)

it is much smaller than I expected. Looking forward to getting it connected and messing around with it.

conjon

Hi guys,

I was wondering how folks are finding the wifi connection on the Nexbox A95? I was reading elsewhere that it has some wifi issues. This will be my first foray into android boxes and don't want to spend a fortune on my initial box. I am planning to put it in the kitchen and can't run a wired connection. I was/am about to buy the Nexbox but wanted to check in with others on the wifi point before I push the purchase button.

Thanks in advance
Conor.

ReZonator

Would like to hear any recommendations for a Kodi box for about £30 on Amazon. Thanks.

Edit: I was thinking

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Superview-Mini-M8S-Pro-T95N/dp/B01HP0DPL8/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1484920232&sr=1-2&keywords=Mini+M8S

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zenoplige-Android-Marshmallow-Miracast-Streaming/dp/B01N3OM15Q/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1484917483&sr=1-8&keywords=android+tv+box+android

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bqeel-Chipset-Quad-Softwarwe-Loaded-Support-Ultra-Fast/dp/B01L72ZBDK/ref=pd_vtph_23_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BSYWGNR68QDTJPNAH5KM

bazzz

ReZonator wrote: »

Would like to here any recommendations for a Kodi box for about £30 on Amazon. Thanks.

Edit: I was thinking

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Superview-Mini-M8S-Pro-T95N/dp/B01HP0DPL8/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1484920232&sr=1-2&keywords=Mini+M8S

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zenoplige-Android-Marshmallow-Miracast-Streaming/dp/B01N3OM15Q/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1484917483&sr=1-8&keywords=android+tv+box+android

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bqeel-Chipset-Quad-Softwarwe-Loaded-Support-Ultra-Fast/dp/B01L72ZBDK/ref=pd_vtph_23_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BSYWGNR68QDTJPNAH5KM

I can't give any input on those boxes,as I've never owned any.If nobody else here has any of those boxes.Why not use the reviews from people that bought the products......listed under each item.
As I've said on here a few times....you get what you pay for and generally the majority of these "Cheap Solutions" are often poor clones of more reputable devices/brands....i.e. Minix,Tronsmart,Nvidia etc,etc.
They often suffer from poor assembly and components(wifi antenna,flash storage,no heat-sink etc).Keeping them up to date can be a nightmare,if nobody is customising Firmware for the device(on the likes of XDA community).

Not all the boxes can be tarred with the same brush,just whatever one you are looking at.....Check the reviews first on the Amazon page and then do a little googling on that device/brand/and tech specs.This should help you decide
if it's right for your needs.Hope that helps a bit,without being able to offer actual experienced advice on the boxes you linked.;)

BandMember

Heraldoffreeent wrote: »

As for Aliexpress, I've bought stuff off them as well, but they're just a platform like ebay, you could buy the same thing from multiple vendors there, its just a matter of picking a seller who has been around for a few years and has decent rep.

On the substantive issue though, I'm coming around to the idea of these things being almost disposable after a period of one to two years.

With backing up to an SD card and using Trakt, I can set up a new box in about 5 minutes and have my "build", and i use that term in the basest sense, installed on it.

Yeah, I think it was Ali Express. Ended up being a clone that didn't last a wet week. Never again!

I don't know why you would say that, I've had my box (Minix) nearly 3 years now and it still works absolutely perfectly and I hope to get another year or more out of it yet.....at least!

I would also definitely recommend that everyone sorts out a Trakt account (it's free and will save you a lot of time and frustration in the future) while you should backup your "bulid" every couple of months (so that you have an up to date version) and it's great for when you have to update the box or change boxes, update the progam etc. You've got the right idea there.

.red. wrote: »

I brought it out last week and it worked fine, its roughly the same distance as where the other one is. Probably a different story if both boxes were running tho.

Its €130 now on amazon which is more than I paid a few weeks ago and without the extra remote. I don't think I'd pay that price so I'll hold off a while and see.

The performance would depend on the speed of your broadband, how many devices were using it at the same time and what they were using it for. No, you're definitely right to hold as I think that it's overpriced at €130 as well, but, as I said before, I don't see it going much below €100....

ReZonator wrote: »

Would like to hear any recommendations for a Kodi box for about £30 on Amazon. Thanks.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Superview-Mini-M8S-Pro-T95N/dp/B01HP0DPL8/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1484920232&sr=1-2&keywords=Mini+M8S

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zenoplige-Android-Marshmallow-Miracast-Streaming/dp/B01N3OM15Q/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1484917483&sr=1-8&keywords=android+tv+box+android

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bqeel-Chipset-Quad-Softwarwe-Loaded-Support-Ultra-Fast/dp/B01L72ZBDK/ref=pd_vtph_23_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BSYWGNR68QDTJPNAH5KM

I'd recommend that you save your money and don't go near any of those boxes as they are absolute rubbish! As has been pointed out, you get what you pay for and Bazz has given some very helpful and useful advice which will save you a lot of time and money....

batistuta9

BandMember wrote: »

I would also definitely recommend that everyone sorts out a Trakt account (it's free and will save you a lot of time and frustration in the future)

Why do you recommend trakt?

sonofenoch

BandMember wrote: »

I'd recommend that you save your money and don't go near any of those boxes as they are absolute rubbish! As has been pointed out, you get what you pay for and Bazz has given some very helpful and useful advice which will save you a lot of time and money....

Wouldn't agree from my experience, I got my first box for 25 quid and still does the job......not as fast or as nice looking as my new box but that cost considerably more ......it's a roll of the dice with any of these boxes I'd say, you could go cheap and have no trouble or no end of trouble ....the same applies to a much more expensive one.......as a first box for experimenting I'd recommend going cheaper

BandMember

batistuta9 wrote: »

Why do you recommend trakt?

That would be an ecumenical matter that can't be discussed in detail here. However, if you do a quick Google search and know what it is, you'll quickly see why people should use it...

sonofenoch wrote: »

Wouldn't agree from my experience, I got my first box for 25 quid and still does the job......not as fast or as nice looking as my new box but that cost considerably more ......it's a roll of the dice with any of these boxes I'd say, you could go cheap and have no trouble or no end of trouble ....the same applies to a much more expensive one.......as a first box for experimenting I'd recommend going cheaper

As has been said by a number of posters, set it up on your laptop/tablet/phone first, get used to it there and play around with it there rather than wasting your money on a box. You might be lucky with a cheap box, but the odds are not in your favour. My own opinion is that, especially where people are new to this or not very tech savvy, if you start off with a crap box that never works or has nothing but problems, you're very likely to dismiss the whole thing as a load of rubbish and just forget about it. That's the reason why the posters here recommend the high end boxes so that, hopefully, the users first experience will be a good one.

Also, regardless of price, those last two boxes are 8GB and 1GB boxes - NEVER buy any box with those specs as you're basically buying a paperweight. Or a beermat. Take your pick....

Baxtardo

Received an A95X during the week and am suffering with the green / purple screen issue as reported here previously. From looking elsewhere it's an ongoing problem which hasn't yet been solved by a firmware update. Is it worth keeping onto in the hope of a fix or would I be better off just sending it back and trying a different box? It's working great otherwise but can't be dealing with a green screen every 20 mins.

Invincible

Baxtardo wrote: »

Received an A95X during the week and am suffering with the green / purple screen issue as reported here previously. From looking elsewhere it's an ongoing problem which hasn't yet been solved by a firmware update. Is it worth keeping onto in the hope of a fix or would I be better off just sending it back and trying a different box? It's working great otherwise but can't be dealing with a green screen every 20 mins.

Send it back, get something reliable.

jonski

Baxtardo wrote: »

Received an A95X during the week and am suffering with the green / purple screen issue as reported here previously. From looking elsewhere it's an ongoing problem which hasn't yet been solved by a firmware update. Is it worth keeping onto in the hope of a fix or would I be better off just sending it back and trying a different box? It's working great otherwise but can't be dealing with a green screen every 20 mins.

I held onto mine because I have it connected to another TV but if it was for my only TV then I would send it back .

BandMember

Invincible wrote: »

Send it back, get something reliable.

jonski wrote: »

I held onto mine because I have it connected to another TV but if it was for my only TV then I would send it back .

Agreed. I'd do the same, sounds like it's more hassle than it's worth...

Zimmerframe

nedd wrote: »

My Shield just arrived :-)

Got mine too, had a quick play.it updated itself, I setup Plex and when I returned, it was stuck in a loop displaying "system Ui has stopped"
Hadn't much time to spend with it, but could not see how to reset it.
All online instructions re. "reset", mentions holding down a power button, but this new shield doesn't have one.