Recommend an Android Box that runs XBMC - [No copyrighted material]

Invincible

Big Nelly wrote: »

Was wondering is there any remote desktop type application for android boxes that would allow you to take over them to set up and change setting in XBMC etc? Going to put a couple of boxes into family houses but they are all down the country, I know they will be messing and break them so just lookign for easy way to go in and fix without going up and down the road on a weekly basis

Does anybody use anything>

If reno10's suggestion of Teamviewer works, you could have a big family on here

dahat

Big Nelly wrote: »

Anyone getting a bit pi**ed with minix yet? I bought the X8-H about 6 months ago to find the firmware out of the box was s**t. Luckily I had done firmware upgrades before so I ran the recommended firmware update. After this still had issues and was told there was no base level firmware. Everything was in Beta. This was for a €140 device. So I waited. Was told the Official firmware would be released. Then got another Beta version. So updated to this and still issue.....again the official firmware would be released. So another firmware was released. This was in Beta as well so I updated to this. Again some small problems but kept holding on for Official firmware.

SO got the official firmware a few weeks back. Wiped the box AGAIN and updated the firmware. This was of course on the promise that the OTA upgrades would work after this firmware so no need anymore to wipe the box. Now just checked the Minix firmware. New release of firmware. Can I use OTA?? no chance. Some bulls**t about there server is been attacked so need to flash the firmware again and this will fix the problem and OTA will work from now on.

Sounds like a crock of sh*t to me.

Luckily for me I have flashed firmware before and had no problems doing it but for the people that have no idea I think this is very poor. Why put a box out to the market with a sh*t firmware and no idea when you can actually release a firmware that will work properly. The 50 quid cheap boxes I buy seem to have more stable firmware. I think it is very poor and when you ask a question on the forums they just reply with snotty answers....

Seen quite a few reports of annoyed customers across a few groups.

As you said €150 ish to be a beta tester is a bit Irish as they say.

Big Nelly

dahat wrote: »

Seen quite a few reports of annoyed customers across a few groups.

As you said €150 ish to be a beta tester is a bit Irish as they say.

Nothing was mentioned anywhere on any of the reviews etc. Guys must have been paid off. Everything was about how brill the box was. I get the box and with the firmware it wouldnt even connect to Ethernet. As mentioned lucky I knew how to do firmware upgrades but if this was your first box with no idea about firmwares you are a bit f**ked....you need to get up to speed very quickly .....


I have had a couple of PM's from people over the months about the Minix and every time it came down to the firmware they where running was sh*t.

The attitude on the forums is terrible as well, it is more or less f**k you, you have the box now so you will just have to wait till we release the proper firmware

dahat

Big Nelly wrote: »

Nothing was mentioned anywhere on any of the reviews etc. Guys must have been paid off. Everything was about how brill the box was. I get the box and with the firmware it wouldnt even connect to Ethernet. As mentioned lucky I knew how to do firmware upgrades but if this was your first box with no idea about firmwares you are a bit f**ked....you need to get up to speed very quickly .....


I have had a couple of PM's from people over the months about the Minix and every time it came down to the firmware they where running was sh*t.

The attitude on the forums is terrible as well, it is more or less f**k you, you have the box now so you will just have to wait till we release the proper firmware

I know someone who has just bought one and as a first timer I told them to bring it back bit they got dazzled by the seller and promise of hassle free updates etc. I am only waiting to be asked about it.

Big Nelly

Invincible wrote: »

If reno10's suggestion of Teamviewer works, you could have a big family on here

haha, testing Mobizen and airdroid now with tablet. Mobizen looks good

Big Nelly

dahat wrote: »

I know someone who has just bought one and as a first timer I told them to bring it back bit they got dazzled by the seller and promise of hassle free updates etc. I am only waiting to be asked about it.

Well unless you go to firmware 002A you cant use OTA upgrade

Link here: http://www.minixforum.com/threads/official-002a-firmware.2413/

I supposed it wouldnt harm to do a full refresh of box at weekend....need to get that other box up and running tonight

now if only I had it installed on the network with Mobizen I could try and build it from work :P:P:P:P

5500

I ordered my first mx3 on the 1st of December and picked NL post. It's just arrived to Ireland today and sent to customs.

Ordered a second one a few days later with DHL shipping and it arrived 2 days ago with no charges.

Incedently I've had a good few packages from China arriving the past few days sent at the start of the month, they seem to be literally flying out especially considering the time of year. The funny thing is not one was stopped and they weren't small packs either, sure you can't win them all but maby wor th sticking with China post instead of NL post in future.

Aside from that in comparison to the mx2 I had the box seems a lot snappier, the little widget on the launcher shows ram use at about 50% constantly and the box is the 1gb version so if your going to be pushing it the 2gb is likely to be a better bet. As mentioned before the remote sucks but it's not a big concern.

My only complaint really is the mx2 I had came with xbmc already fully loaded whereas I've spent ages setting this up even though it's being given away for a present, I'm sure there's a zip installer out there that would probably have saved me the time but I didn't find it yet

dahat

You can save a set up using USB/SD card wizard in XBMC and just transfer it across to any box.

Or the Back up function does similar.

rob316

Team viewer is the business we use it in work to access clients work stations.

On another note I was looking to replace my stock remote but downloaded an app from the play store "yatse". It's absolutely brilliant I urge anyone to install it. You can access your library and add ons from your phone even.

Big Nelly

5500 wrote: »

I ordered my first mx3 on the 1st of December and picked NL post. It's just arrived to Ireland today and sent to customs.

Ordered a second one a few days later with DHL shipping and it arrived 2 days ago with no charges.

Incedently I've had a good few packages from China arriving the past few days sent at the start of the month, they seem to be literally flying out especially considering the time of year. The funny thing is not one was stopped and they weren't small packs either, sure you can't win them all but maby wor th sticking with China post instead of NL post in future.

Aside from that in comparison to the mx2 I had the box seems a lot snappier, the little widget on the launcher shows ram use at about 50% constantly and the box is the 1gb version so if your going to be pushing it the 2gb is likely to be a better bet. As mentioned before the remote sucks but it's not a big concern.

My only complaint really is the mx2 I had came with xbmc already fully loaded whereas I've spent ages setting this up even though it's being given away for a present, I'm sure there's a zip installer out there that would probably have saved me the time but I didn't find it yet

I have found the launcher that comes prebundled is what is eating up the 50% of the memory. Nice and all it is but it kills memory. There is alternatives out there.

On XBMC you can back up your current set up and then just restore to the new box. I have found it comes with XBMC 13.1 installed so might be worth just installing 13.2 before you do a full build....

"TV Add on's wizard" on google will help

DubDJ

I got a letter today from customs asking for proof of purchase for my MXIII that I ordered from Gearbest. Emailed on the proof and got an almost immediate reply, charges of €18.90. I paid €51.77 so seems about right.

That €7 An Post handling charge is ridiculous though. My order was duplicated twice so I had 3 orders altogether, I cancelled one and let the other go through though, as a family member wanted one anyway. Pity they were sent separate as it now means double that €7 charge.

Hopefully have it this week.

eamondunphy

I ordered from futuretvshop.com, they said they'd have it delivered tomorrow so hopefully it's all good

dahat

Box ordered from Gear best is at Dublin Mail Centre, how will I know if it gets sent to customs?

Big Nelly

dahat wrote: »

Box ordered from Gear best is at Dublin Mail Centre, how will I know if it gets sent to customs?

Gearbest include number/email address on packaging. They will contact you via either.....well that is what happened when I posted via DHL....I have never got caught on slow post so I dont know

dahat

Will hopefully escape then,fingers crossed.

Slunk

Ordered mx3 on 3 december. Nl post. Asked to mark low value. Delivered this morning by an post. No charge, declared value $28 happy days

DubDJ

That's my current movement, it now says the item is being processed by customs.

15-12-2014 04:47 The item has been processed in the country of destination
14-12-2014 16:49 The item is on transport to the country of destination
14-12-2014 16:48 The item is on transport to the country of destination
14-12-2014 09:52 The item has arrived in the country of destination
13-12-2014 08:12 The item is on transport to the country of destination
11-12-2014 20:10 The item is at the PostNL sorting center
02-12-2014 07:48 The item is pre-adviced

If your box skipped any of these maybe you won't get hit with customs.

dahat

Mine is at Dublin 12 Mail Centre.

eamondunphy

What's the difference between the mx3 and the minix neo x8-h plus?

dahat

eamondunphy wrote: »

What's the difference between the mx3 and the minix neo x8-h plus?

About €100 !

Big Nelly

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?14126-Stock-Firmware-Beelink-S82-M8-MXIII-1-2G-Official-FW-Releases-from-Beelink-user-feedback-thread

Might be worth having a look at this thread for the MXIII

Or have a look here for some of the unofficial firmwares

http://mbox.co.za/forum/viewforum.php?f=64&sid=12a78b8be60fab898ac192f1e33e434b

I am going to put on the unofficial one on the MXQ, just to get rid of the packaged launcher that comes with the box. It seems to be memory hungry. The firmware replaces with Nova which seems like a better alternative.

eamondunphy

Haha Is that all though?

Any advantages to the neo?

Big Nelly

dahat wrote: »

About €100 !

Correct

And depending on what firmware ships with the X8-H the MXIII has a more stable firmware.....

WeleaseWoderick

Has anyone experience of using one of these with an Android box?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301409978908

Big Nelly

eamondunphy wrote: »

Haha Is that all though?

Any advantages to the neo?

The MXIII I got said it supported H.265 on the box. I did try to play a H.265 video but didn't play very well but this was probably just because it is so new and the players where not the best. It will be interesting to see if the 2GB version support H.265 as well. It is not marked on the site but was marked on the box when it arrived. I have since let the MXIII go, should have kept it as there is a linux version available for it.

The NEO supports 4k which the MXIII does as well.

I think the NEO has a build in hardware decoder which the MXIII doesn't, well from what I read it doesn't. But you need the X8-H to get the hardware decoder.

The Minix was the best spec box on the market around 6 months ago. The market is changing all the time so now you can get the MXIII and other devices with similar spec's at half the cost.

If I could safely say if you buy a X8-H with the newest firmware it might have an advantage but I would say most of the boxes available out there are not running the newest firmware so you will have to upgrade the firmware out of the box. After that you will be able to do OTA updates which is an advantage over the MXIII.

Edit sorry you mentioned the plus which has H.265 support as well. It also comes with Gigabit ethernet which the MXIII has standard 10/100. If you plan on using direct ethernet connect and your router supports it this would be advantage

Heraldoffreeent

Slunk wrote: »

Ordered mx3 on 3 december. Nl post. Asked to mark low value. Delivered this morning by an post. No charge, declared value $28 happy days

Who did you order from?

I ordered a A2 airmouse from Gearbest on the 3rd of Dec and its by slow mail, but I cant track it on swiss post tracking for some reason.

My X8 H plus was ordered on the 12th so I've no hope of getting that pre xmas.

reni10

MXIII does not support H265, the only boxes that support hardware H265 AND 4K decoding are the S812 processor boxes like the M8C and M8S and Minix X8-h plus

Big Nelly

reni10 wrote: »

MXIII does not support H265, the only boxes that support hardware H265 AND 4K decoding are the S812 processor boxes like the M8C and M8S and Minix X8-h plus

The MXQ box I linked before for 37 quid or so supports H.265.

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box/pp_94470.html

I have this one at home....need to update firmware and get it up and running.

Big Nelly

Big Nelly wrote: »

Might be worth looking at the following:

Link: http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box/pp_80704.html
Coupon: MXQBLG, which will bring the price to €37.18.

Guy in Gearbest who helped me with a couple of orders keeps sending me codes, he must think I am loaded :eek: probably sending them because I end up buying them half the time :P

Just a bit of an update on this. I got to play around with it for 20 mins last night. The issues I had with firmware where simple and school boy error by myself. I normally do a full factory reset on all these devices when they arrive and I forgot to.

After a full factory reset there was no issues with it. Ran everything without an issue. SO great value. I haven't tried a H.265 file yet. Didn't get a chance.

There is new firmwares available as posted already so I am going to go with the unofficial one to get rid of the default launcher. When you boot up the box and launcher kicks in I already see 60% of memory been used. I use the memory cleaner and it drops to 40% but then back up again once the launcher is going. Going to see if different launcher helps.

Apart from that, nice little box and great for the price. Only issue now is the developer for OpenELEC bricked his MXQ box so no sign of OpenELEC for it anytime soon....:mad:

dahat

On the Factory Reset part, interesting idea.

Has anything go aray from doing that on each new box?
Did you read something that encouraged you to do this as a rule?