Looking for a decent streaming Android box

naughty001 said:
you do get adapters that don't need external power - my USB to ethernet adapter is powered from being connected to the USB port ..... also why bother about the ethernet so much - most of these ARM boxes have chips that will restrict ethernet connection speeds to 300 mbps anyway - and the wi-fi is working at 150 to 300 - even at 150 how much do you need to play a 4k file as far as i know its around 20mbps so even in a large house you can have around potentially up to 6 devices streaming 4k content on the Wi-Fi anyway

ethernet is IMHO not a deal breaker - that said it is more stable because its all on the cable and there isnt too much that can interfere with it but i got my USB to ethernet for around R250 - in my setup what was expensive is the powered active USB hub which was around R600+ and that allows me to add multiple hard drives (up to 3) all working at the same time so you can switch instantaneously (the non powered hub could allow only one hard drive at a time to work because of power requirements) plus the USB to ethernet adapter
Click to expand...
For a latency, I want to explore streaming from my PC to my android box again as i am obsessed with Diablo 2 for the first time
 
Spontaneous spinach said:
For a latency, I want to explore streaming from my PC to my android box again as i am obsessed with Diablo 2 for the first time
Click to expand...

okay but even if you connect up an advanced USB to ethernet adapter the chip on the mi-box restricts ethernet speed to 300mbps only so the mi-box wont be your answer either anyway ..... Gigabit ethernet wont work on the Mi-box whatever you do because the chip wont allow it even with a Gigabit USB to ethernet adapter

EDIT : i may be wrong about 300mbps and it may be 600mbps but either way it still wont do the 1000 mbps - i remember this because i specifically researched it before buying the Gen 3 (same with the Acer AiTV - though the new Google streamer does do Gigabit so in your case it might be worth paying the extra grand for it)
 
If you want a decent budget Android streaming box - look at the Netogy Nova 10 4K UHD - it has a LAN port, SD card slot, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth v5.0, Wi-Fi v5 & a HDMI 2.1 port. It currently has the Android TV v11 OS, but is due for an imminent upgrade to Android TV v14 OS...

1773713458382.png

netogy.co.za

NOVA10 | 4K Ultra HD Android TV Box - NETOGY

The Nova AndroidTV TV Box is both Google & Netflix certified and support apps requiring a certified device such as […]
netogy.co.za netogy.co.za

On Special at Takealot for R999...

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

Also at Incredible Connection for R949 (with their +more loyalty club discount)...

www.incredible.co.za

Nova 4K Ultra HD Android TV Box

2GB RAM, 16GB flash storage Micro SD card slot + 2 x USB ports Ethernet LAN port (and WIFI) Supports AV1 codec Google and Netflix certified Wi-Fi 5 (2.4GHz/5GHz) (2 x 2 MIMO) Resolution: 4K Ultra HD @ 60fps 1 Year Warranty
www.incredible.co.za www.incredible.co.za
 
HAL 9000 said:
If you want a decent budget Android streaming box - look at the Netogy Nova 10 4K UHD - it has a LAN port, SD card slot, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth v5.0, Wi-Fi v5 & a HDMI 2.1 port. It currently has the Android TV v11 OS, but is due for an imminent upgrade to Android TV v14 OS...

View attachment 1893727

netogy.co.za

NOVA10 | 4K Ultra HD Android TV Box - NETOGY

The Nova AndroidTV TV Box is both Google & Netflix certified and support apps requiring a certified device such as […]
netogy.co.za netogy.co.za

On Special at Takealot for R999...

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.
www.takealot.com www.takealot.com

Also at Incredible Connection for R949 (with their +more loyalty club discount)...

www.incredible.co.za

Nova 4K Ultra HD Android TV Box

2GB RAM, 16GB flash storage Micro SD card slot + 2 x USB ports Ethernet LAN port (and WIFI) Supports AV1 codec Google and Netflix certified Wi-Fi 5 (2.4GHz/5GHz) (2 x 2 MIMO) Resolution: 4K Ultra HD @ 60fps 1 Year Warranty
www.incredible.co.za www.incredible.co.za
Click to expand...

only problem i have with the Nova is that its currently an older generation of CPU and GPU - i initially had a nova and it inexplicably stopped working only 2 months after i got it (which could happen to any brand) - BUT makro gave me store credit instead of insisting on a direct replacement and i landed up guying a Mi-Box Gen 2 instead ..... then a year later my buddies at Govan Mani got stock of the Gen 3 at the same time as Makro so i sold the Gen 2 and grabbed a gen 3

all i can say is that it is way snappier and faster browsing the O/S and in my experience way more stable and everything just mostly works (only bit of it thats just as slow as the others is when it is recognizing a drive that you just connected and you select the root folder of that drive but once the drive is recognized it is definitely faster and snappier navigating through those - the only times i have app crashes now is if i try to open 8k files that i have on my movie drive downloaded from youtube for demo purposes - these play flawlessly on my phone but not on Kodi in the mi-box but my phone can record 8k at 30hz video so i suppose it shouldn't have problems playing those files ..... anything below 8k plays absolutely flawlessly and way better than it did on my gen 2 Mi-box and the Gen 2 Mi-box was more-or-less the same as the Nova (they used the same generation of CPU and GPU with minor differences)

the only reason i mention the older and newer generation chips is that the newer generation X5M models used in the MiBox gen 3 and the Acer AiTV allow for a few extra functions to work for example the newer boxes do Dolby Atmos officially and both those have 32GB storage as opposed to the MiBox Gen 2 which has 8 and the Nova which has 16 remember also that the operating system uses up around 4 gigs of the available storage .... i had situations whereby after adding a few apps and a Kodi skin i could not do system updates on the 2nd gen because the download could not fit on the available storage so don't listen to the morons on Reddit who tell you that 32 gigs of storage is overkill - especially if you like to tinker with apps (i have installed USB Audio Player Pro on my 3rd gen and it only works with music files onboard the device which is when 32gigs starts to become more noticeable than the 8 gigs in the 2nd gen - so even though i just loaded a few sample tracks in flac format it starts to deplete that storage fast - to work around that i need to find a way to make the app recognize external storage but the developer states he wont work on it due to fact that phone versions are a paid product and he has to make it work with every phone and he isn't charging for the TV box version of the app so he is not going to tinker much with it)

in the same way i suppose finding a box with more than 2 gigs of Ram will also help because if you know how computers and video work - very simplistically put everything starts by buffering into the ram and it then works/plays from ram and as it empties it keeps on replenishing the buffer from your hard drives ..... the 2 gigs total is shared between system and GPU so more would be better even though many say that the 2 gigs is enough IMHO the whole shebang would run better with more ram because when you research a windows based HTPC you are told that for effective 4k playback you need a minimum of 4 gigs of dedicated video ram (totally independent of system ram) yet we expect these little machines to play 4k video with system and GPU sharing 2 gigs only ..... I can't really make sense of that - it just about works though but there are times when you noticeably get judder and dropped frames in demanding scenes when playing back those uncompressed really large (around 80 gig+ 4k) files - and thats why i'm still looking for a better box with more ram as my main box

but nothing essentially wrong with the 2nd gen MiBox or the Nova if you get them at the right price ..... they are still perfectly usable little boxes however you definitely will reach your replacement level a bit sooner than if you had the newer generation of tech
 
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naughty001 said:
only problem i have with the Nova is that its currently an older generation of CPU and GPU - i initially had a nova and it inexplicably stopped working only 2 months after i got it (which could happen to any brand) - BUT makro gave me store credit instead of insisting on a direct replacement and i landed up guying a Mi-Box Gen 2 instead ..... then a year later my buddies at Govan Mani got stock of the Gen 3 at the same time as Makro so i sold the Gen 2 and grabbed a gen 3

all i can say is that it is way snappier and faster browsing the O/S and in my experience way more stable and everything just mostly works (only bit of it thats just as slow as the others is when it is recognizing a drive that you just connected and you select the root folder of that drive but once the drive is recognized it is definitely faster and snappier navigating through those - the only times i have app crashes now is if i try to open 8k files that i have on my movie drive downloaded from youtube for demo purposes - these play flawlessly on my phone but not on Kodi in the mi-box but my phone can record 8k at 30hz video so i suppose it shouldn't have problems playing those files ..... anything below 8k plays absolutely flawlessly and way better than it did on my gen 2 Mi-box and the Gen 2 Mi-box was more-or-less the same as the Nova (they used the same generation of CPU and GPU with minor differences)

the only reason i mention the older and newer generation chips is that the newer generation X5M models used in the MiBox gen 3 and the Acer AiTV allow for a few extra functions to work for example the newer boxes do Dolby Atmos officially and both those have 32GB storage as opposed to the MiBox Gen 2 which has 8 and the Nova which has 16 remember also that the operating system uses up around 4 gigs of the available storage .... i had situations whereby after adding a few apps and a Kidi skin i could not do system updates because the download could not fit on the available storage so don't listen to the morons on Reddit who tell you that 32 gigs of storage is overkill

in the same way i suppose finding a box with more than 2 gigs of Ram will also help because if you know how computers and video work - very simplistically put everything starts by buffering into the ram and it then works/plays from ram and as it empties it keeps on replenishing the buffer from your hard drives ..... the 2 gigs total is shared between system and GPU so more would be better even though many say that the 2 gigs is enough IMHO the whole shebang would run better with more ram because when you research a windows based HTPC you are told that for effective 4k playback you need a minimum of 4 gigs of dedicated video ram (totally independent of system ram) yet we expect these little machines to play 4k video with system and GPU sharing 2 gigs only ..... I can't really make sense of that - it just about works though but there are times when you noticeably get judder and dropped frames in demanding scenes when playing back those uncompressed really large (around 80 gig+ 4k) files

but nothing essentially wrong with the 2nd gen MiBox or the Nova if you get them at the right price ..... they are still perfectly usable little boxes however you definitely will reach your replacement level a bit sooner than if you had the newer generation of tech
Click to expand...
I have both the Netogy Nova 10 (in the bedroom & connected via wi-fi to a Philips mini data projector / JVC soundbar - it has a Sandisk 64GB SD card installed for extra storage) and the Acer AiTV unit (in the lounge, connected directly via a Huawei B525 LTE router & a LAN cable to a SONY Blu-Ray Home Theatre System & a JVC 32" HD TV - it has a Sandisk 256GB SD card installed for extra storage).

I have noticed that Google TV on the Acer is noticeably more responsive than Android 11 on the Nova - but when the Nova eventually gets its promised Android 14 update, I will see if that makes any difference to it.
 
HAL 9000 said:
I have both the Netogy Nova 10 (in the bedroom & connected via wi-fi to a Philips mini data projector / JVC soundbar - it has a Sandisk 64GB SD card installed for extra storage) and the Acer AiTV unit (in the lounge, connected directly via a Huawei B525 LTE router & a LAN cable to a SONY Blu-Ray Home Theatre System & a JVC 32" HD TV - it has a Sandisk 256GB SD card installed for extra storage).

I have noticed that Google TV on the Acer is noticeably more responsive than Android 11 on the Nova - but when the Nova eventually gets its promised Android 14 update, I will see if that makes any difference to it.
Click to expand...
It's been how many years since the promised update?
 
Acid0 said:
Hi

I am looking for a decent streaming Android box that wont break the bank.

The only preference I have is that it should not be out of sync with voice and video.
Be able to load DSTV and Plex on it and preferably some Apps from the normal Google playstore like LOKLOK if possible

I had a few boxes like the myGiga and other questionable imports from takealot, but would like some recommendation from the forum that actually has the box and the feedback on them.
Click to expand...
You should go with Appletv (with lan) unless you prefer the ads ads ads ads ads ads....
 
I had the Nova box before i got a smart tv...... did the job

Netogy Nova 4K Ultra HD Android TV Box

The Netogy Nova connects you to a world of information and gives you an easier way to enjoy all the entertainment you love, whether streaming from your favourite apps, watching the latest blockbuster movies, listening to music, or playing games. Enjoy premium content in crystal clear *4K Ultra...
nology.co.za nology.co.za
 
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