Android/Dream Box [ Illegal discussion = Ban ]

5500

renov8 wrote: »

Looking for a replacement for the Nexbox because of the green screen issue. Was about to pull the trigger on the Beelink but thought i'd have a quick google first. Seems this also has a problem with old Sony Brivia TVs :mad:

The box your looking at and quoted is the older mini mxiii (Theres 2 versions, the older s905 which is the mini mxiii, the one I linked is the newer version 2 s905x mini mxiii ii)

So may be worth checking if it also affects the newer box or if its just the older one. The beelink forum doesn't have separate threads for both box's though there all bunged into the same one.

renov8

5500 wrote: »

The box your looking at and quoted is the older mini mxiii (Theres 2 versions, the older s905 which is the mini mxiii, the one I linked is the newer version 2 s905x mini mxiii ii)

So may be worth checking if it also affects the newer box or if its just the older one. The beelink forum doesn't have separate threads for both box's though there all bunged into the same one.

Not at all confusing 😕 Suppose I'll have to do more digging.

Horace Cope

Narrows down your options for an Android box
-> if you want kodi 17/ to work properly then you can only choose a handful of Android boxes

Android
Kodi 17.0 is now standards-compliant with Android’s official Audio API and requires Android 5.0 or higher as the minimum version. DTS-HD, DTS-X, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby ATMOS passthrough are now supported on devices that implement AudioTrack v23 or higher. Devices with firmware that do not follow this standard will not support passthrough. Support for 4K video and output and improvements to refresh rate switching and HEVC, VC-1 / WMV 9, and VP9 playback on supported hardware are the icing on the cake.

From kodi forums

IEC61937 - Currently the Xiaomi Mi Box, NVIDIA Shield & Devices with Rockchip processors like Ugoos(UT3, UT4, UT6) & Nagrace(NT-N8, NT-V8, NT-V6) also support it.
Just avoid any cheap, zero supported, no name devices with flashy advertisements that mean nothing from Amlogic & Rockchip otherwise you can forget about pass-through ever working.

Jesper

5500 wrote: »

Ill give my 0.02 that may be of help to newbies.

Ive used and gotten for a few friends the beelink mini mxiii ii over the past 2 months. Overall ive had no complaints with any that i have gotten. Beelink in fairness to them issue updates OTA and ive had two since using the box, so theres manufacturer support available which can be rare with cheaper boxes.

I use it on wifi myself, its dual band and with a virgin router sees 70/80mbs upstairs and through some walls so im fairly impressed, no probs at all with streaming.

Its S905x, 2gb ram and 16gb rom and android 6.0, so should be future proof for the time being with kodi, plus the s905x chip has some other active development mentioned below.

Compared to some boxes online either no names or on adverts you cant go too far wrong with it for €45 delivered at gearbest - http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_446536.html

Make sure to select priority line ireland express for shipping, roughly 10 days for delivery by anpost and no vat to worry about.

Granted its not the best out there but you could do far worse for the money.

Incedently for anyone wanting to tinker im runninv librelec on mine, couple of hiccups with wifi initially but aside from that its blazing fast, if you dont need android its definitly the way to go with it.

Hopefully that helps some of the people wonder what first box to get or even anyone looking to update an older box for not a lot of money. If theres any other specific questions on it ill try answer if i can.

Hi 5500. 
Thanks for the detail. I recently gave my Android Player away and need to buy a new one. Am I correct in saying that this will be able to support apps like RTE Player, Google Play apps, streaming apps etc.? 
I see in description that it doesn't support surround sound. Do you know of any boxes that do support surround sound?
Is there any benefit in purchasing the below version? It's an Octacore processor but other than that seems about the same? 
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Beelink GT1 TV Box Octa Core Amlogic S912[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/font][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] -  2GB+32GB  UK PLUG [/font][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]189742705[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Android 6.0 H.265 2.4G + 5.8G Dual WiFi Bluetooth 4.0 1000M LAN VP9-10 Decoding Multi-media Player" [/font]

Cantona's Collars

Jesper wrote: »

Hi 5500. 
Thanks for the detail. I recently gave my Android Player away and need to buy a new one. Am I correct in saying that this will be able to support apps like RTE Player,******** ******* etc.? 
I see in description that it doesn't support surround sound. Do you know of any boxes that do support surround sound?

Edit your post to delete certain streaming apps buddy.You'll be banned and we don't want this thread closed.
Yes the box supports 'these apps'.

5500

As above it will support any android app that's either available in the playstore or elsewhere. I'd avoid the GT1, I had one myself before the mini mxiii and had problems with it, a lot of other's have too, quick look on beelink's forums and you'll see some of them mentioned, that aside the s912 chips dont appear to have any dev support at present either, I'd be avoiding them for the time being and sticking s905/x

Heraldoffreeent

Interesting read here.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/illegality-of-viewing-streamed-content-is-far-from-certain-1.2967021

BandMember

Heraldoffreeent wrote: »

Hilarious read here.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/illegality-of-viewing-streamed-content-is-far-from-certain-1.2967021

Fixed that for you.

For the record, this is will have next to no impact on android boxes - especially here in this forum where we all use them for legal services only. Right guys and gals? :cool:

Wanderer78

BandMember wrote:

For the record, this is will have next to no impact on android boxes - especially here in this forum where we all use them for legal services only. Right guys and gals?

I believe 'educational purposes' is the correct term!

Cantona's Collars

Wanderer78 wrote: »

I believe 'educational purposes' is the correct term!

My friend abroad sends me content through it.I know nothing of this shenanigans.;)

kielmanator

Hi folks

I bought this a while ago

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01BSE3AZ8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_EM3Myb24SKCQP

and its running great, Im using the Apollo build on Kodi at the moment which is unreal.

With the new update to v.17 Krypton Im worried about the Android version going out of date soon. The box does not give me any options to update my Android from 5.1.

Any workarounds or tips?

Thanks

batistuta9

One very popular add-on turned users devices into a botnet last week, ddosing other devs.

I'm not sure about posting the link here, though I definitely think people should know about it & be aware of what 3rd party addons are capable of doing if they wish - if you weren't already.

Expect an exodus of people now trying to find the story on google

Cantona's Collars

I think spmc might solve the problem for those with older versions of android and future compatibility with Kodi, AFAIK there'll be no issues.

kielmanator

zerks wrote: »

I think spmc might solve the problem for those with older versions of android and future compatibility with Kodi, AFAIK there'll be no issues.

Sorry Zerks, whats spmc? Thanks

styron

Jarvis
As far as I’m concerned, Nvidia Shield has basically cornered the market, so is my main development device. More generally, Android TV devices, amlogic devices and Amazon FireTV might be getting some love
Important: No more Rockchip specific support as of this version

Note 1: As of 16.5.0, Android lollipop (API 21) is required

http://spmc.semperpax.com/

batistuta9

zerks wrote: »

I think spmc might solve the problem for those with older versions of android and future compatibility with Kodi, AFAIK there'll be no issues.

It'll be no use if it doesn't use the same android API level.
By no use I mean the new features, which most won't notice anyway or can live without

neacy69

batistuta9 wrote: »

One very popular add-on turned users devices into a botnet last week, ddosing other devs.

I'm not sure about posting the link here, though I definitely think people should know about it & be aware of what 3rd party addons are capable of doing if they wish - if you weren't already.

Expect an exodus of people now trying to find the story on google

wow...I didnt know been using one very add-on all week and never noticed any issues....

edit: just read up on this - very interesting!

BandMember

batistuta9 wrote: »

One very popular add-on turned users devices into a botnet last week, ddosing other devs.

I'm not sure about posting the link here, though I definitely think people should know about it & be aware of what 3rd party addons are capable of doing if they wish - if you weren't already.

Expect an exodus of people now trying to find the story on google

Old news, and a story that has been resolved. There's always some fight or other happening between the scenes between developers but I'm not sure that we should (or can?) talk about that here, just to be on the safe side....

zerks wrote: »

I think spmc might solve the problem for those with older versions of android and future compatibility with Kodi, AFAIK there'll be no issues.

I have both Kodi and SPMC installed on my android box. I've only been using SPMC for the past couple of months and I have to say that I am very impressed with it, everything runs very smoothly and some things run even better than with Kodi. I intend to stick with it for the future as my box is not Android 5.0 so won't be compatible with Kodi 17 and further releases.

In other news, I see that the first beta releases of Kodi 18 are available. Personally, I think they've rushed it as the vast majority haven't even upgraded to 17 yet because it's only recently that they finally released a stable version while the design is completely different to anything we've seen before which made others revert back to 16.

Invincible

kielmanator wrote: »

zerks wrote: »

I think spmc might solve the problem for those with older versions of android and future compatibility with Kodi, AFAIK there'll be no issues.

Sorry Zerks, whats spmc? Thanks

kielmanator wrote: »

zerks wrote: »

I think spmc might solve the problem for those with older versions of android and future compatibility with Kodi, AFAIK there'll be no issues.

Sorry Zerks, whats spmc? Thanks

SPMC is available on the Play store, it's a modified version of Kodi with its own developers.

sonofenoch

BandMember wrote: »

In other news, I see that the first beta releases of Kodi 18 are available. Personally, I think they've rushed it as the vast majority haven't even upgraded to 17 yet because it's only recently that they finally released a stable version while the design is completely different to anything we've seen before which made others revert back to 16.

I first tried the beta version of 17 on PC ...didn't like it at all, but having updated to 17 on android and getting the hang of it that's changed would never go back to 16

Hollister11

I got my nexbox a95x this morning. Really looking forward to trying it out.

BandMember

Hollister11 wrote: »

I got my nexbox a95x this morning. Really looking forward to trying it out.

Any chance that you can post a review when you've tested it out, please? Best of luck with it by the way!

Hollister11

BandMember wrote: »

Any chance that you can post a review when you've tested it out, please? Best of luck with it by the way!

Yea no bother.

If your looking to buy one, there's some good reviews in YouTube.

dodzy

I gave this a plug before. Have picked up several (cheapest price with the new mini KB was 40quid in a lightening deal). 2GB/16GB - a little flyer.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolution-Bluetooth-Streaming-streaming-wireless/dp/B01I2T7USK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486723806&sr=8-1&keywords=trongle+2gb%2F16gb

BandMember

Hollister11 wrote: »

Yea no bother.

If your looking to buy one, there's some good reviews in YouTube.

Nah, I'm well sorted at this stage! :pac: I've had my own box (Minix) over three years now and it's still working perfectly - should last me another year or two yet, I hope... To be honest, I don't think that I would ever consider anything other than a Minix as I've had nothing but great experiences with their boxes. Can't recommend them highly enough.

However, it's always good to know what's out there and to keep an eye on the competition....

.red.

BandMember wrote: »

Any chance that you can post a review when you've tested it out, please? Best of luck with it by the way!

Got one the other day as a birthday present for my sister. I opened it to make sure it was working.
1gb/8gb here fully loaded was about €55/60 plus postage. Got a 2gb/16gb from amazon for €56 delivered.
First up it had an update which wouldn't install, 3 times it downloaded and failed. Quick google search sorted it for me, download it, reboot and it installed itself.
Kodi was stuffed full of junk, lots of stuff I can't mention but i will say most of it was p0rn. A lovely present for my sister lol. Awkward enough to delete it. Tried a factory reset which didn't do much. I had to manually remove each of them, one by one. Some stuff then wouldn't install properly for me on kodi so I ended up uninstalling it and putting Kyrpton on from the play store. Put on what I wanted and its running perfect now.
The box itself is tiny, the reviews mention how small it is but its hard to imagine just how small it is till you see it. Its about half the size of the minix u1 and about half as thick with no aerial. A few reviews mentioned its poor WiFi capabilities, I ran a wireless speed test and it was showing roughly the same as the Neo U1.
The only thing I can compare it to is my minix and i dont think its as fluid to use. In saying that, its also about half the price so even tho I've only used it for 2 days, it seems really good value for money.
Its boxed back up now and wrapped, hopefully she likes it.

.red.

Pics added to show how small it is, dunno how to put up directly

.red. wrote: »

The box itself is tiny, the reviews mention how small it is but its hard to imagine just how small it is till you see it. Its about half the size of the minix u1 and about half as thick with no aerial.

Shefwedfan

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01IVXXN0Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ok so I bought the above box. Been using it a while now so said I would put up my thoughts. Ok as mentioned before the power cable and the HDMI cable are very short. If you need to travel any sort of distance prepare to have a spare ready. The one that came with it was useless. I got away with the power cable by moving stuff around. Surprised so short.

Box is tiny, this has been mentioned before. Wireless on mine is dodgy as hell. Router was 3ft away and couldn't pick it up on startup. I wired it direct. I did test another day and connected but I haven't run any test. Beside router so just plug in direct.

The kodi preinstalled is rubbish, I did try and use but dodgy. Better off just uninstalling and building yourself. I done this and works well.

The GUI is nice, I like it. I have used Minix GUI before and it is kind of similar. Very easy to change layout as well. Easy for rest of family to pick up and use quickly, and they are NOT very technical minded at all.

The remote is good. I managed to sync my TV remote with the few buttons on top, so I can change Source, turn on/off TV with little remote. Before I had to carry TV, Sky Q & Kodi remote so nice little option. Apart from that the kodi section is ok, why oh why you wouldnt have a pause/play button. There is option to pick mouse pointer but it is painfully slow. I have a K400 which I used for setup and then disconnected after that. I would recommend not trying to use the remote to setup or you will be a long time at it

The bad, USB performance is patchy to say the least and I don't understand why. I have tried everything, but on playback films will be choppy and sound will break in & out. First thing I did notice is that because I had USB KB and USB HDD connected this cause performance issue. Disconnected USB KB and it worked ok for a few days. Then back to same messing. More recent when this issue has happened it seems to resolve after a reboot??? not sure why this is happening.

once its gets working ok there is no issue with HD films etc.

I went with 8GB model and does perfect, I do keep everything sorted on USB HDD so I just really have Kodi running on the system memory and a couple of other bits and pieces I use.

All in for the money I paid it is ok, everything is slower to react compared to the mini PC I had but that was 3-4 times the cost of this.

If you are looking for decent box for low cost I would highly recommend but like all of these cheap boxes, wifi is going to be an issue if long distance

Invincible

Couldn't believe it this evening, when I saw M8S+ & MXQ pro boxes for sale in local eur0nics shop for €149.95!!

Wanderer78

Invincible wrote: »

Couldn't believe it this evening, when I saw M8S+ & MXQ pro boxes for sale in local eur0nics shop for €149.95!!

bargain:rolleyes: