The Droid TV thread

I've now spent a week with a nVidia Shield TV Pro I ordered through Scott's Shipping Services, here's some thoughts and observations.

Prior to this, I've had a Mediabox (http://mediabox.co.za) in the sitting room, which got moved to the bedroom when I got a Xiaomi Mi Box. The Mi Box has now been moved to the bedroom, and the Shield is my main mediabox in the sitting room.

Apart from the Shield being my mediabox, I also use it as my Plex Media Server. Some of the tablets I had in the house, can't handle HEVC content, and the microserver I was using isn't powerful enough to do realtime transcoding. The Shield handles this without any issues, and I was able to comfortably have it transcode to two devices without noticeable impact on the Shield itself.

Game streaming to the Shield from my PC is also amazingly smooth. I wasn't quite sure what to expect in terms of performance, as I've used Moonlight on the Mi Box, and while it was quite playable, there was some noticeable lag on the input side. However on the Shield I didn't really experience this lag. Played some Witcher 3 and it felt just as good as playing it on the PC.

My ADSL isn't fast enough to give the GeForce NOW streaming service for games a try, but being able to stream from my PC is more then sufficient.

DSTV Now and Supersport work fine on the Shield, I haven't really had much issues now that the latest DSTV Now app unofficially supports Android TV. Wish they would sort out their program guide though, hopefully once they officially support Android TV this will be sorted.

Sound wise, all the various formats I tried worked fine via HDMI passthrough, as my amp supports the lot. I had some issues with the Mi Box through Plex, but through Kodi there wasn't issues. The Shield however works fine through Plex with everything I tried, so I'm happy.

So, from my experience... if you want a hassle-free Android mediabox experience, get a Shield, it costs more, but then you get what you pay for. The Xiaomi Mi Box though is a worthy substitute for the Shield if you're on a budget. Looking at some of the hassles that the Telkom LIT box has, it's clearly not quite there yet compared to the drama free experience I've had with the Mi Box.
 
Thanks for the info bro. Would love a shield...

If anybody hears of black friday specials for a shield let me know ;).

Sorry arb question... i've got a HPH NT-N8 media player with a 4mb line. How will the playback and experience on the DSTV app be?
 
Looking for a new toy. Last MX... lying around in pieces somewhere. No experience with hardware but do remember that at the time of buying said MX.... many guys here were talking about using Raspberry Pi as an alternative. Has this progressed and is it a worthwhile alternative? Also asking because I stumbled across this: https://gearbest.com/raspberry-pi/pp_354347.html
 
AlexFl said:
Looking for a new toy. Last MX... lying around in pieces somewhere. No experience with hardware but do remember that at the time of buying said MX.... many guys here were talking about using Raspberry Pi as an alternative. Has this progressed and is it a worthwhile alternative? Also asking because I stumbled across this: https://gearbest.com/raspberry-pi/pp_354347.html
Click to expand...
With the emergence of android TV boxes, you'll probable get further with a Mi Box (or equivalent).

The bonus with android TV is you get dedicated apps for Netflix, showmax, YouTube, DSTV etc
 
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Without reading all the posts, will Supersport and DSTV now work on the Mi box ? If so, is there a specific version of the Mi box to get ?
Thank you
 
BrokenRSA said:
I've now spent a week with a nVidia Shield TV Pro I ordered through Scott's Shipping Services, here's some thoughts and observations.

Prior to this, I've had a Mediabox (http://mediabox.co.za) in the sitting room, which got moved to the bedroom when I got a Xiaomi Mi Box. The Mi Box has now been moved to the bedroom, and the Shield is my main mediabox in the sitting room.

Apart from the Shield being my mediabox, I also use it as my Plex Media Server. Some of the tablets I had in the house, can't handle HEVC content, and the microserver I was using isn't powerful enough to do realtime transcoding. The Shield handles this without any issues, and I was able to comfortably have it transcode to two devices without noticeable impact on the Shield itself.

Game streaming to the Shield from my PC is also amazingly smooth. I wasn't quite sure what to expect in terms of performance, as I've used Moonlight on the Mi Box, and while it was quite playable, there was some noticeable lag on the input side. However on the Shield I didn't really experience this lag. Played some Witcher 3 and it felt just as good as playing it on the PC.

My ADSL isn't fast enough to give the GeForce NOW streaming service for games a try, but being able to stream from my PC is more then sufficient.

DSTV Now and Supersport work fine on the Shield, I haven't really had much issues now that the latest DSTV Now app unofficially supports Android TV. Wish they would sort out their program guide though, hopefully once they officially support Android TV this will be sorted.

Sound wise, all the various formats I tried worked fine via HDMI passthrough, as my amp supports the lot. I had some issues with the Mi Box through Plex, but through Kodi there wasn't issues. The Shield however works fine through Plex with everything I tried, so I'm happy.

So, from my experience... if you want a hassle-free Android mediabox experience, get a Shield, it costs more, but then you get what you pay for. The Xiaomi Mi Box though is a worthy substitute for the Shield if you're on a budget. Looking at some of the hassles that the Telkom LIT box has, it's clearly not quite there yet compared to the drama free experience I've had with the Mi Box.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the detailed review.

What did it cost all in, if you don't mind sharing?
 
SlowInternet said:
Without reading all the posts, will Supersport and DSTV now work on the Mi box ? If so, is there a specific version of the Mi box to get ?
Thank you
Click to expand...

Yes they both work from the DSTV Now App Version 1.40.16.
Get the Mibox MDZ-16-AB
 
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Hey guys,

Anyone else able to try and stream Supersport on Chrome through the browser please? Mine isnt working however works on my Mac through Chrome...very strange....
 
Anybody having issues with DSTV Now at present? Getting a registration error 500.. Was working fine then just won't connect, and says no internet connection
 
Icemanbrfc said:
Anybody having issues with DSTV Now at present? Getting a registration error 500.. Was working fine then just won't connect, and says no internet connection
Click to expand...

Supersport, DSTV now on Mi Box, laptop, Android phone = all down. Sucks
 
Icemanbrfc said:
**** man, the rugby is starting now. Bastards
Click to expand...

I cleared my cache on my Mibox app for DSTV Now and then it worked 100% fine again, Chrome browsing on the Mibox doesnt for some reason.

I also deleted the Supersport app as the DSTV Now latest APK is so much better for sports streaming IMO
 
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