Android TV Box

AlferdPacker · 07-05-2015, 13:16

At the moment I have SKY tv and at the moment i am on a mates rate type of deal which will double in price in the next few months. Looking at possibly getting one of these Android TV Boxes but would like to hear from other people who have this already? Does it come pre stocked with the ability to watch all uk channels?

chrisjr · 07-05-2015, 13:38

Just to clarify what you are after.

Are you after a solution that will allow you to watch live TV pretty much as you do with the Sky box or are you after something that can stream content from the likes of Netflix and Amazon and the broadcasters catch-up services? Or some combination of the two?

AlferdPacker · 07-05-2015, 13:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisjr

Just to clarify what you are after.

Are you after a solution that will allow you to watch live TV pretty much as you do with the Sky box or are you after something that can stream content from the likes of Netflix and Amazon and the broadcasters catch-up services? Or some combination of the two?

A combination of Both ideally

chrisjr · 07-05-2015, 13:55

In which case why not keep the Sky box for the live telly and get something like a Roku box for the streaming bits?

https://www.roku.com/uk/how-it-works

Obviously if you cancel your Sky sub you will lose the paid for channels though the Now TV option on a Roku or dedicated Now TV box does give you some of that back (at a cost of course - Sky are not that generous

). You will also lose the ability to record on the Sky box unless you had over a tenner or so a month to Sky or replace the Sky box with a Freesat box.

So a combination of the Sky box or Freesat plus something along the lines of a Roku box should do the job. Doubtless other posters will suggest other streaming devices to consider.

AlferdPacker · 07-05-2015, 14:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisjr

In which case why not keep the Sky box for the live telly and get something like a Roku box for the streaming bits?

https://www.roku.com/uk/how-it-works

Obviously if you cancel your Sky sub you will lose the paid for channels though the Now TV option on a Roku or dedicated Now TV box does give you some of that back (at a cost of course - Sky are not that generous

). You will also lose the ability to record on the Sky box unless you had over a tenner or so a month to Sky or replace the Sky box with a Freesat box.

So a combination of the Sky box or Freesat plus something along the lines of a Roku box should do the job. Doubtless other posters will suggest other streaming devices to consider.

Looking to just ideally have one box where i can stream it all. Have seen a few of the boxes online and it appears you can get the live tv etc

c4rv · 07-05-2015, 16:16

by live TV you are talking about legal free streams such as iplayer, legal subscription streams such as sky go, netflix or illegal streams of sports and movies ?

Are you looking at playback from local storage such as from a NAS drive ?

Playback from non-live sites ?

AlferdPacker · 07-05-2015, 16:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

by live TV you are talking about legal free streams such as iplayer, legal subscription streams such as sky go, netflix or illegal streams of sports and movies ?

Are you looking at playback from local storage such as from a NAS drive ?

Playback from non-live sites ?

This is the kind of thing i am talking about:

http://www.retailgadgets.co.uk/Steal...FQzHtAodeDAAGw

JasonWatkins · 07-05-2015, 18:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlferdPacker

This is the kind of thing i am talking about:

http://www.retailgadgets.co.uk/Steal...FQzHtAodeDAAGw

You can get this for £20 quid cheaper and it's a quad-core as opposed to a dual core, still with 1GB of ram as well. I've got one and it's fantastic.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xsbox-S805-A.../dp/B00OPX3XQ6

To answer your other question, many of the add-ons for Kodi (as XBMC is now called) do let you watch the full selection of UK channels but not the Sky Channels - the ones i've looked at really only stream the freesat channels as far as i've seen.

c4rv · 08-05-2015, 00:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by JasonWatkins

You can get this for £20 quid cheaper and it's a quad-core as opposed to a dual core, still with 1GB of ram as well. I've got one and it's fantastic.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xsbox-S805-A.../dp/B00OPX3XQ6

To answer your other question, many of the add-ons for Kodi (as XBMC is now called) do let you watch the full selection of UK channels but not the Sky Channels - the ones i've looked at really only stream the freesat channels as far as i've seen.

there are plenty of plugins to watch illegal streams of sky and other subscription channels.

I've had a couple of android boxes including MX2. Problem with Kodi is that you need to learn to keep on top of it, keeping plugins up to date, changing configuration settings, etc.

JasonWatkins · 08-05-2015, 00:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by c4rv

there are plenty of plugins to watch illegal streams of sky and other subscription channels.

I've had a couple of android boxes including MX2. Problem with Kodi is that you need to learn to keep on top of it, keeping plugins up to date, changing configuration settings, etc.

I can appreciate that. I don't really use a lot of the plugins and addons myself - i tend to use it more to stream media from my NAS drive than anything, so that's probably why my range of knowledge about the addons and plugins isn't that great.

jjne · 11-05-2015, 15:40

Kodi/XBMC is the best and most popular free software to use with Android sticks, and you have to be careful which chipset you get as not all are compatible.

Amlogic-chipset devices (S802 or S805) are, in my experience the most reliable, with later Allwinner devices (A23, A31s etc) a fairly distant second.

AlferdPacker · 11-05-2015, 16:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjne

Kodi/XBMC is the best and most popular free software to use with Android sticks, and you have to be careful which chipset you get as not all are compatible.

Amlogic-chipset devices (S802 or S805) are, in my experience the most reliable, with later Allwinner devices (A23, A31s etc) a fairly distant second.

Chipset? Do they not come loaded with everything?

jjne · 11-05-2015, 16:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlferdPacker

Chipset? Do they not come loaded with everything?

All Android sticks are based on an ARM processor architecture, but there are a number of manufacturers of SoCs (systems on a chip), each of which implement things like graphics and sound differently.

For the most part, this doesn't matter as Android as an operating system is configured to work with the hardware the image is designed for.

However, with XBMC and Kodi, although they will work with any current Android hardware, some of these SoC manufacturers haven't released the details/drivers for hooking into the hardware acceleration on that particular company's chipset.

Amlogic have been cooperative with the XBMC coders, so their video accelerator is supported. Some other chipsets (Actions is one I believe) have not released their data, so on a stick with an Actions chipset, XBMC will work, but only displays video using the CPU in software mode, leading to missed frames and reduced picture quality in some cases, especially at higher resolutions.

None of that impacts other software on the same devices -- so if (for example) you use the built-in video player with an Actions-chipset stick, it'll play files just fine. And things like BBC iPlayer generally runs non-accelerated regardless of hardware.

c4rv · 12-05-2015, 00:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlferdPacker

Chipset? Do they not come loaded with everything?

it not just a case of if the hardware is supported. plug-ins are being updated all the time as is Kodi. You really need to buy one that has decent support with the vendor providing easy to apply updates when needed.

wacky joe · 26-05-2015, 20:26

Bought one of these android/xbmc boxes(£74) fantastic fully recommend.
Comes fully loaded,i can watch ordinary tv channels ie bbc,itv,or all sky channels and channels from all around the world.Tv series and latest film releases just in cinema.
Only thing I need to do is upgrade my broadband to fibre.

pavier · 27-05-2015, 11:31

I was wondering why some people feel the need to use vpn with kodi when there is no p2p involved and so no tracking of your i.p. address, or have I got that wrong?

Fried Kickin · 27-05-2015, 13:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by pavier

I was wondering why some people feel the need to use vpn with kodi when there is no p2p involved and so no tracking of your i.p. address, or have I got that wrong?

Some plugins won't work properly due to site blocking at ISP level,a VPN avoids that minor annoyance.

c4rv · 28-05-2015, 02:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fried Kickin

Some plugins won't work properly due to site blocking at ISP level,a VPN avoids that minor annoyance.

sky and VM definitely are doing some level of blocking / throttling. I actually get better streams using my kodi on my 3G phone on EE network compared to Kodi on a PC on my 120mb VM connection. Same results with Sky fibre connection.

kriss57 · 31-05-2015, 09:36

Had a cheap Ebay box for a while, ok but a bit slow etc, just got this one now:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-keyboar...&keywords=kodi

Well pleased, much faster, double ROM/Ram and the mini keyboard is a breeze.

Regards

davor · 31-05-2015, 09:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by kriss57

Had a cheap Ebay box for a while, ok but a bit slow etc, just got this one now:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-keyboar...&keywords=kodi

Well pleased, much faster, double ROM/Ram and the mini keyboard is a breeze.

Regards

Send one my way

JasonWatkins · 31-05-2015, 10:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by kriss57

Had a cheap Ebay box for a while, ok but a bit slow etc, just got this one now:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-keyboar...&keywords=kodi

Well pleased, much faster, double ROM/Ram and the mini keyboard is a breeze.

Regards

As a bundle, that's not bad value actually. Same spec as my box as well.

davor · 31-05-2015, 10:12

What english speaking channels can be watched on that Kodi box? As same as XBMC (koi)software, or there is even more to chose from?

JasonWatkins · 31-05-2015, 10:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by davor

What english speaking channels can be watched on that Kodi box? As same as XBMC (koi)software, or there is even more to chose from?

There are add-ons that will let you watch almost every english speaking channel around.

I've seen ones that give you access to all of the main US networks - ABC, NBC, HBO e.t.c..

There are also similar ones that give you access to all of the Sky Channels so it's horses for courses really.

JSemple3 · 03-06-2015, 11:28

Sorry to bump up (if this is not allowed to be discussed publicly please PM) What boxes would you recommend? Been thinking about one for my dad for a while but nor sure. He would obviously want access to the sports/movies (I do use kodi on my own comp so I have a rough idea how it works) but there so many different boxes out there I would have no idea what one to pick (storage might be useful)

kriss57 · 06-06-2015, 10:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by JasonWatkins

There are add-ons that will let you watch almost every english speaking channel around.

I've seen ones that give you access to all of the main US networks - ABC, NBC, HBO e.t.c..

There are also similar ones that give you access to all of the Sky Channels so it's horses for courses really.

The box I posted a few days ago above is working excellent, better than I expected, it comes fully loaded with probably all of the apps you will ever need to watch "everything" imaginable you can think of. LOL

07-05-2015, 13:16	#1
AlferdPacker Forum Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fife Posts: 3,428	Android TV Box At the moment I have SKY tv and at the moment i am on a mates rate type of deal which will double in price in the next few months. Looking at possibly getting one of these Android TV Boxes but would like to hear from other people who have this already? Does it come pre stocked with the ability to watch all uk channels?

07-05-2015, 13:38	#2
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	Just to clarify what you are after. Are you after a solution that will allow you to watch live TV pretty much as you do with the Sky box or are you after something that can stream content from the likes of Netflix and Amazon and the broadcasters catch-up services? Or some combination of the two?

07-05-2015, 13:42	#3
AlferdPacker Forum Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fife Posts: 3,428	Quote: Originally Posted by chrisjr Just to clarify what you are after. Are you after a solution that will allow you to watch live TV pretty much as you do with the Sky box or are you after something that can stream content from the likes of Netflix and Amazon and the broadcasters catch-up services? Or some combination of the two? A combination of Both ideally

07-05-2015, 13:55	#4
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	In which case why not keep the Sky box for the live telly and get something like a Roku box for the streaming bits? https://www.roku.com/uk/how-it-works Obviously if you cancel your Sky sub you will lose the paid for channels though the Now TV option on a Roku or dedicated Now TV box does give you some of that back (at a cost of course - Sky are not that generous ). You will also lose the ability to record on the Sky box unless you had over a tenner or so a month to Sky or replace the Sky box with a Freesat box. So a combination of the Sky box or Freesat plus something along the lines of a Roku box should do the job. Doubtless other posters will suggest other streaming devices to consider.

07-05-2015, 14:20	#5
AlferdPacker Forum Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fife Posts: 3,428	Quote: Originally Posted by chrisjr In which case why not keep the Sky box for the live telly and get something like a Roku box for the streaming bits? https://www.roku.com/uk/how-it-works Obviously if you cancel your Sky sub you will lose the paid for channels though the Now TV option on a Roku or dedicated Now TV box does give you some of that back (at a cost of course - Sky are not that generous ). You will also lose the ability to record on the Sky box unless you had over a tenner or so a month to Sky or replace the Sky box with a Freesat box. So a combination of the Sky box or Freesat plus something along the lines of a Roku box should do the job. Doubtless other posters will suggest other streaming devices to consider. Looking to just ideally have one box where i can stream it all. Have seen a few of the boxes online and it appears you can get the live tv etc

07-05-2015, 16:16	#6
c4rv Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Essex Posts: 16,218	by live TV you are talking about legal free streams such as iplayer, legal subscription streams such as sky go, netflix or illegal streams of sports and movies ? Are you looking at playback from local storage such as from a NAS drive ? Playback from non-live sites ?

07-05-2015, 16:31	#7
AlferdPacker Forum Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fife Posts: 3,428	Quote: Originally Posted by c4rv by live TV you are talking about legal free streams such as iplayer, legal subscription streams such as sky go, netflix or illegal streams of sports and movies ? Are you looking at playback from local storage such as from a NAS drive ? Playback from non-live sites ? This is the kind of thing i am talking about: http://www.retailgadgets.co.uk/Steal...FQzHtAodeDAAGw

07-05-2015, 18:17	#8
JasonWatkins Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 53,670	Quote: Originally Posted by AlferdPacker This is the kind of thing i am talking about: http://www.retailgadgets.co.uk/Steal...FQzHtAodeDAAGw You can get this for £20 quid cheaper and it's a quad-core as opposed to a dual core, still with 1GB of ram as well. I've got one and it's fantastic. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xsbox-S805-A.../dp/B00OPX3XQ6 To answer your other question, many of the add-ons for Kodi (as XBMC is now called) do let you watch the full selection of UK channels but not the Sky Channels - the ones i've looked at really only stream the freesat channels as far as i've seen.

08-05-2015, 00:42	#9
c4rv Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Essex Posts: 16,218	Quote: Originally Posted by JasonWatkins You can get this for £20 quid cheaper and it's a quad-core as opposed to a dual core, still with 1GB of ram as well. I've got one and it's fantastic. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xsbox-S805-A.../dp/B00OPX3XQ6 To answer your other question, many of the add-ons for Kodi (as XBMC is now called) do let you watch the full selection of UK channels but not the Sky Channels - the ones i've looked at really only stream the freesat channels as far as i've seen. there are plenty of plugins to watch illegal streams of sky and other subscription channels. I've had a couple of android boxes including MX2. Problem with Kodi is that you need to learn to keep on top of it, keeping plugins up to date, changing configuration settings, etc.

08-05-2015, 00:46	#10
JasonWatkins Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 53,670	Quote: Originally Posted by c4rv there are plenty of plugins to watch illegal streams of sky and other subscription channels. I've had a couple of android boxes including MX2. Problem with Kodi is that you need to learn to keep on top of it, keeping plugins up to date, changing configuration settings, etc. I can appreciate that. I don't really use a lot of the plugins and addons myself - i tend to use it more to stream media from my NAS drive than anything, so that's probably why my range of knowledge about the addons and plugins isn't that great.

11-05-2015, 15:40	#11
jjne Inactive Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 6,487	Kodi/XBMC is the best and most popular free software to use with Android sticks, and you have to be careful which chipset you get as not all are compatible. Amlogic-chipset devices (S802 or S805) are, in my experience the most reliable, with later Allwinner devices (A23, A31s etc) a fairly distant second.

11-05-2015, 16:37	#12
AlferdPacker Forum Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fife Posts: 3,428	Quote: Originally Posted by jjne Kodi/XBMC is the best and most popular free software to use with Android sticks, and you have to be careful which chipset you get as not all are compatible. Amlogic-chipset devices (S802 or S805) are, in my experience the most reliable, with later Allwinner devices (A23, A31s etc) a fairly distant second. Chipset? Do they not come loaded with everything?

11-05-2015, 16:45	#13
jjne Inactive Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 6,487	Quote: Originally Posted by AlferdPacker Chipset? Do they not come loaded with everything? All Android sticks are based on an ARM processor architecture, but there are a number of manufacturers of SoCs (systems on a chip), each of which implement things like graphics and sound differently. For the most part, this doesn't matter as Android as an operating system is configured to work with the hardware the image is designed for. However, with XBMC and Kodi, although they will work with any current Android hardware, some of these SoC manufacturers haven't released the details/drivers for hooking into the hardware acceleration on that particular company's chipset. Amlogic have been cooperative with the XBMC coders, so their video accelerator is supported. Some other chipsets (Actions is one I believe) have not released their data, so on a stick with an Actions chipset, XBMC will work, but only displays video using the CPU in software mode, leading to missed frames and reduced picture quality in some cases, especially at higher resolutions. None of that impacts other software on the same devices -- so if (for example) you use the built-in video player with an Actions-chipset stick, it'll play files just fine. And things like BBC iPlayer generally runs non-accelerated regardless of hardware.

12-05-2015, 00:06	#14
c4rv Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Essex Posts: 16,218	Quote: Originally Posted by AlferdPacker Chipset? Do they not come loaded with everything? it not just a case of if the hardware is supported. plug-ins are being updated all the time as is Kodi. You really need to buy one that has decent support with the vendor providing easy to apply updates when needed.

26-05-2015, 20:26	#15
wacky joe Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: norn iron Posts: 1,492	Bought one of these android/xbmc boxes(£74) fantastic fully recommend. Comes fully loaded,i can watch ordinary tv channels ie bbc,itv,or all sky channels and channels from all around the world.Tv series and latest film releases just in cinema. Only thing I need to do is upgrade my broadband to fibre.

27-05-2015, 11:31	#16
pavier Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 691	I was wondering why some people feel the need to use vpn with kodi when there is no p2p involved and so no tracking of your i.p. address, or have I got that wrong?

27-05-2015, 13:45	#17
Fried Kickin Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: 🇬🇧 Posts: 54,252	Quote: Originally Posted by pavier I was wondering why some people feel the need to use vpn with kodi when there is no p2p involved and so no tracking of your i.p. address, or have I got that wrong? Some plugins won't work properly due to site blocking at ISP level,a VPN avoids that minor annoyance.

28-05-2015, 02:16	#18
c4rv Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Essex Posts: 16,218	Quote: Originally Posted by Fried Kickin Some plugins won't work properly due to site blocking at ISP level,a VPN avoids that minor annoyance. sky and VM definitely are doing some level of blocking / throttling. I actually get better streams using my kodi on my 3G phone on EE network compared to Kodi on a PC on my 120mb VM connection. Same results with Sky fibre connection.

31-05-2015, 09:36	#19
kriss57 Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Essex Posts: 521	Had a cheap Ebay box for a while, ok but a bit slow etc, just got this one now:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-keyboar...&keywords=kodi Well pleased, much faster, double ROM/Ram and the mini keyboard is a breeze. Regards

31-05-2015, 09:38	#20
davor Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Wiltshire Posts: 5,195	Quote: Originally Posted by kriss57 Had a cheap Ebay box for a while, ok but a bit slow etc, just got this one now:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-keyboar...&keywords=kodi Well pleased, much faster, double ROM/Ram and the mini keyboard is a breeze. Regards Send one my way

31-05-2015, 10:09	#21
JasonWatkins Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 53,670	Quote: Originally Posted by kriss57 Had a cheap Ebay box for a while, ok but a bit slow etc, just got this one now:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-keyboar...&keywords=kodi Well pleased, much faster, double ROM/Ram and the mini keyboard is a breeze. Regards As a bundle, that's not bad value actually. Same spec as my box as well.

DS Forums

Android TV Box

31-05-2015, 10:12	#22
davor Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Wiltshire Posts: 5,195	What english speaking channels can be watched on that Kodi box? As same as XBMC (koi)software, or there is even more to chose from?

31-05-2015, 10:20	#23
JasonWatkins Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 53,670	Quote: Originally Posted by davor What english speaking channels can be watched on that Kodi box? As same as XBMC (koi)software, or there is even more to chose from? There are add-ons that will let you watch almost every english speaking channel around. I've seen ones that give you access to all of the main US networks - ABC, NBC, HBO e.t.c.. There are also similar ones that give you access to all of the Sky Channels so it's horses for courses really.

03-06-2015, 11:28	#24
JSemple3 Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 7,677	Sorry to bump up (if this is not allowed to be discussed publicly please PM) What boxes would you recommend? Been thinking about one for my dad for a while but nor sure. He would obviously want access to the sports/movies (I do use kodi on my own comp so I have a rough idea how it works) but there so many different boxes out there I would have no idea what one to pick (storage might be useful)

06-06-2015, 10:17	#25
kriss57 Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Essex Posts: 521	Quote: Originally Posted by JasonWatkins There are add-ons that will let you watch almost every english speaking channel around. I've seen ones that give you access to all of the main US networks - ABC, NBC, HBO e.t.c.. There are also similar ones that give you access to all of the Sky Channels so it's horses for courses really. The box I posted a few days ago above is working excellent, better than I expected, it comes fully loaded with probably all of the apps you will ever need to watch "everything" imaginable you can think of. LOL