User Review: Telkom LIT Android TV Media Box

Foxhound5366

Foxhound5366

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So I've seen a bunch of threads on here about the LIT Box, but couldn't find any with much in the way of detailed user reviews.

I just got one today (at a special price - so that softened the blow of that R1 100 price), and thought it might help to share some photos / early impressions :)

Specs:
1a.jpg

The box itself: I was not expecting it to be so small or to have such a classy soft-touch matte finish (i.e. not shiny hard plastic)
2.jpg

The clean Google-esque screensaver (with random photos):
6.jpg

The clean main interface: another nice surprise, compared to some of the rather cluttered interfaces of the cheaper Android boxes
3.jpg

The very Google-y settings menu:
4.jpg

The included mouse:
5.jpg

Early impressions:
  • Connectivity is solid: WiFI, Bluetooth, two USB ports AND a microSD slot
  • Slick onboarding process that connects your phone/tablet via Bluetooth to the box and syncs it up with your WiFi network and Google account details
  • Out of the box, you get YouTube, Showmax, DSTV Now and Google Music+Movies.
  • Google Play store makes it easy to add a bunch of other familiar apps and a surprising number of games
  • Although one has to get creative, it is possible to install Netflix AND Chrome (I can share how to here for anybody interested)
  • Plex has a native app and works like a treat
  • Apps like YouTube seem to work a lot better than on my Roku, with cleaner interfaces
  • Speak of YouTube, I really like being able to start watching a video on my phone, then selecting to cast it to the LIT Box - which opens up the native Youtube app and seamlessly starts playing the video where I left it.
  • The Android software works well, the 'made in China' back-end is a bit rough (the error message when using the firmware's update feature is 'Check failed!Check your OTA Service Argent')

So far, so good ... anybody else with one of these have any tips or tricks to share?
 
Last edited:
Foxhound5366 said:
That's the kinda thread I was referring to in my post: 148 pages of really difficult to follow content. Before buying this I just wanted a simple user review with plenty of photos, and couldn't find any. So voila, here's one now :)
Click to expand...

Referring to as in:

Foxhound5366 said:
So far, so good ... anybody else with one of these have any tips or tricks to share?
Click to expand...

A thread, full of tricks and tips?

I have to wonder if you even read the first post in that thread. :confused:
 
bwana said:
Referring to as in:



A thread, full of tricks and tips?

I have to wonder if you even read the first post in that thread. :confused:
Click to expand...

I've actually been reading a few dozen pages on that thread ... it's got some handy info, thanks for sharing :)
 
Foxhound5366 said:
That's the kinda thread I was referring to in my post: 148 pages of really difficult to follow content. Before buying this I just wanted a simple user review with plenty of photos, and couldn't find any. So voila, here's one now :)
Click to expand...

We know you took time to setup this thread, and we appreciate your efforts but don't be lazy, use the other thread.
 
WaxLyrical said:
We know you took time to setup this thread, and we appreciate your efforts but don't be lazy, use the other thread.
Click to expand...

It's the internet, it won't break with more threads :P And I think with the effort I took in the OP here, you can't accuse me of being 'lazy'. If anything, I was an over-achiever. Where's my damn gold star?

On that note, two other things I'm enjoying about the LIT Box:
1) I could plug my wireless headphones' USB dongle into the LIT Box, and the headphones were immediately picked up (and the on-headphone volume control dial works)
2) Using VLC's native app for the LIT Box, I can play some TV episodes from my external HDD plugged into the LIT Box that I couldn't when plugging the external HDD directly into my TV (my Samsung TV doesn't support some of the more exotic codecs).
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Why Kodi? Can't I just try play it via Plex?
Click to expand...

You would have to make sure Plex isn't doing any transcoding etc and then your network also comes into play.

I use Plex for everything but from all the things I've read Kodi on the Android media players can't be beat, people use Plex for Kodi instead of the native Plex app.
 
Last edited:
bashan said:
Can you cast anything like pics, videos to the LIT Box?
Click to expand...

Yes :) I just tested this, and I can confirm that this works well:
- Google Photos: Direct casting of photos from the Google Photos app on your mobile device to the TV (there is no native app in the Android TV Play Store)
- VLC: Real-time casting of videos and audio from the VLC app on your mobile device to the VLC app on the LIT box
- Plex: Sharing of media files from your file server to the Plex app on the LIT box

Soul Assassin ... last night I managed to add that video file of yours to my Plex library on my PC, and managed to get it to play at its native resolution through the Plex app on my LIT box ... right up until it started buffering and I got an error that my wifi wasn't capable of streaming that video quickly enough :D I'm going to try it again with a LAN cable directly from my router into the box. The LIT box handles 1080p video via WiFi just fine, but I'm guessing your video is a little more intensive?
 
Anybody else having the problem of Chrome on the LIT Box not registering left clicks? When I plug in a USB mouse, navigation works great, but without left clicks I can't type a URL with the on-screen keyboard.

I googled this and somebody suggested unistalling updates on Android Web View, but that didn't change it for me.
 
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