[furkin]

Hi all,
I’m thinking of getting a cheap Android Media player for my Toshiba TV.
I’m new to this, so still looking through various items, with not a clue about them.
My Dad has a Coopa TV001 M.Player (no android) but only bought that for its ‘component’ interface – he’s used it once and knows about as much as I do about them !

I note that there are several main chips, so my first question is:
Rockchip RK3066 vx Telechips TCC8925 vs another ?

I see that Jellybean is up to 4.1. My second question is:
what’s the difference ?

My bedroom TV is on a ceiling bracket - I’m not sure if I want a cabled device, or a USB plug-in one.
What are the pros’n’cons of each ?

Of course, I’d appreciate any help or advice that you experienced guys might offer, as to brand/model etc.
As above, I only want a cheap item to start with, to see how I get on with it.

Thanks for reading this.

[c4rv]

Originally Posted by furkin

I see that Jellybean is up to 4.1. My second question is:
what’s the difference ?

For media players not a huge different except that flash is not longer officially supported in the latest version of android which may effect your ability to view video from some sites.

BTW, jellybean is up to 4.2.1 I think now.

Originally Posted by furkin

My bedroom TV is on a ceiling bracket - I’m not sure if I want a cabled device, or a USB plug-in one.
What are the pros’n’cons of each ?

What do you mean by cabled device ?

AFAIK the USB plug-in adaptors are all wifi based, none support ethernet. So make sure you have decent wifi signal.

They come with a USB power charger in case your TV does not have a USB port that can power them.

[furkin]

Sorry folks,
I made a mistake. I was looking for something with more than 1 USB socket (Mouse + hdd/stick) and had USB on my mind when I wrote.
Of course, I meant HDMI 'plug-in' not USB.

cheers

[jjne]

I would suggest that for a media player, you'll be wanting something that is fully hardware-compatible with XBMC.

For the time being this means an Amlogic-based unit.

The Rockchip is fast enough to play SD material without hardware acceleration (quite a feat for an ARM processor).

but a dual-core Amlogic 8726MX-based adaptor is about as good as they get at present.

[furkin]

I'm just looking at the Rikomagic MK802IIIS.
It seems to tick my boxes.
Its a little dearer than I was expecting,,,,, but the cheaper ones are a bit limited.

I've not used these things before - or any Android stuff, so this will be my learning tool, until I update my TV.

Is this the best thing at this price ?

[jjne]

I wouldn't put too much stock into brand-names on these things. They are all generic Chinese-made devices.

The MK802III-S, for example, is no different to the MK808 I bought for £30 from China.

My suggestion is to buy something Amlogic, as mentioned. There really isn't much difference between one dual-core device and the next in general, but Amlogic is the only chipset currently supported by the best media player software out there (XBMC).