Android TV Stick Devices?

[Greg_E]

Not a tablet as such, but still Android. I'm interested in a good solid ICS or higher based device that is designed to be attached to the HDMI on a TV and used for media and other Android stuff. Must be able to get on the Google Play (Market) site to grab apps. Basically I've become tarnished on the direct from China sellers after getting shafted with a Pipo U1Pro tablet and not wanting to repeat this money losing sale. Wishing that Google had made something very much different with their Chromecast, could have been the exact device I wanted and probably could have been in the same price point as the things I've been looking at.

Anyway, just an outside chance that anyone looks down here, I would like to know what you think if you have experience with any of these devices.

Attached is an example picture.

 

[satellitemark]

Hi Greg,

I have had 2 cheap chinese tv stick devices on ics both while good expired after about 6 months.
I have now bought a device called the Archos TV Connect ironically also made in china but it does have the backing of a fairly big android supplier.
I like it a lot, I use it for catchup tv , my grandson uses it for games .
There have been mixed reviews but i believe they were of pre production samples, it was delayed 6 months to iron out the bugs.

I have also seen a couple of "me too" type copies on ebay which are cheaper but dont have the very good Archos control pad.

If you play games (i dont but the grandson does) there is little to equal the control pad.
The other high point is skype which simply works , something ive never managed on other android tv products.
It runs jelly bean.
Good luck with your whichever one you choose.

Mark

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[Greg_E]

Mark, thanks. I've had an Archos and won't go there again, most days I want to smash my little 4 inch tablet, but then I'll need to fork out a bunch more money for another media player. They just have a habit of abandoning a product before they really get most of the bugs out and I won't go back to them.

 

[Tom T]

I still have an Archos 5IT, although I haven't used it in some time, and I just loved the little tablet. I think they've missed the Mark on some of the event devices but they pack a lot in for a reasonable price. The home tablet was one of the worst devices I've seen however and I think it hurt their Rep a bit.

 

[Greg_E]

Ordered an MK808B from Amazon which is a Rockchip RK3066 dual core machine running 4.1.x, hopefully I didn't waste $40. This is the thing Google should have built instead of that damn Chromecast thing, if they supervised quality control then we could have a really good and cheap media device and so much more. Also bought a fly mouse/keyboard for another $20.

Need to read up on XBMC for Android now.

 

[satellitemark]

Hi Greg

Hope it goes well for you, i had good results with similar set ups untill they expired. I hope you have better luck than i did. At that low cost even if you only got the same lifespan that i did its not the end of the world.

Let us know how you get on

Mark



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[Greg_E]

I think it is going to come down to how well it is built. One of the reviewers on Amazon has had his going for more than 6 months.

 

[SteveCampsOut]

I have now bought a device called the Archos TV Connect ironically also made in china but it does have the backing of a fairly big android supplier.
I like it a lot, I use it for catchup tv , my grandson uses it for games .
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

I googled that but have yet to find it for sale anywhere. Where'd you buy from? I checked the Archos website, maybe I'm just going blind. I find the page for Archos TV Connect but no purchase option? Also, how the heck would you initially control one of these Android TV HDMI devices if it doesn't come with a controller of any kind pre-setup and your TV isn't touch screen?

 

[satellitemark]

Hi Steve

I got mine direct from archos, im in the UK but mine was shipped from paris france via fed ex.
There are sellers on amazon and ebay Uk but they are based in Italy and Germany.
They may not have them in the US yet they arrived 6 months late in Europe due to some late issues.

Mark

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[Greg_E]

Got it yesterday, plugged it in and it booted fine, did a little messing around for a few minutes and it seems to work fine. Came with 4.2.2 installed. It does get pretty warm pretty fast, have to see what happens when I get it on wifi and try streaming a movie. Nice clear screens on the TV with no sign of noise from the cpu, audio seemed clear.

The fly mouse remote I bought is pretty cool, and no problems getting it to work, just plug the USB dongle into the stick and it was ready to go when it booted the first time. The gyro mouse works better than I thought it would work, pretty happy with it so far.

If everything stays running this should beat the heck out of a Chromecast device, especially if coupled with a real keyboard for doing email or documents, but still cheap enough to be an entertainment only device. I'm in at around $60USD including the fly mouse/keyboard remote.

 

[satellitemark]

Hi Greg

I'm glad to hear its going well, please could you give more info on the air mouse that you bought , and what you think of it
Thanks,
Mark

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[Greg_E]

Well, it's going but I can't say going well... Hulu+ refuses to play anything, I can browse and select play, but once it starts there is some kind of unlisted error and I hear a few seconds of the audio from the program with a generic error message on the screen. I haven't played with it much since last week, probably going to need to root it and install the Finless ROM for this device to get anything out of it. It's too bad because it really looks like a nice device and should beat the heck out of Chromecast.

I don't have anything to use for a free Netflix, already used that up. It plays the heck out of locally stored content, no complaints there and seems to work fine on wifi for everything else I've done with it. Might spend some time with it tonight and see what I can make it do.

The fly mouse is called a Measy air mouse + keyboard RC11. Not something I would try and use to type this post, but certainly good enough to type in a movie title in a search box, or enter user name and password for a streaming account. Bought it through Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/SainSonic-Wir...UTF8&qid=1376444620&sr=8-3&keywords=air+mouse

It took a little getting used to with the gyro mouse function, and the arrow keys do not work like mouse cursor keys in keyboard mode, but over all I'm happy with it. You can keep it in gyro mode and just flip it sideways to type, then turn and go right back to moving the mouse. Buttons are a little small, but what do you expect from a remote sized keyboard. Says it works with any Windows or Linux so you could use it with your Windows HTPC if desired (haven't tried it yet).

Overall, I think this TV stick will be something worth having, just need to get past a few issues, issues that Google would have fixed if they made this item. And that is the biggest disappointment because Google chose not to make this device and instead chose to make the neutered Chromecast thing.

 

[Greg_E]

After going through and disabling most of the crapware, Netflix is working almost acceptably (had to pay for another month to test). Hulu+ still won't work and waiting for an email back from them. Netflix takes more than a minute for the stream to become stable and once in a while it glitches a little, some of this may be from the crappy RoadRunner service, some from the claimed weak wifi in these devices, or maybe something else. Not sure if I will root and ROM this device or not, have to spend more time with it to find out.

The only other thing I don't like is that the colors are all too saturated, to the point of looking kind of fake. Some of this is the ultra cheap TV I'm using, but not all of it.

It also gets damn hot, I think a small fan would have done wonders for this thing so I may need to look into something that runs off of 5 volts USB and stick it on there tied to the supply power. Larger holes in the case might do just as well too so I might start there with a knife. For $40 it seems like a good deal, especially once XBMC gets more and better GPU support going, but for now I think I might recommend the higher grade devices like the officially XMBC supported cube shaped thing for around $100, even though it still runs on a dual core Rockchip 3066, it has XBMC GPU acceleration which makes it work better with that application. I'll try XBMC another day and see what happens, might work on mine since it is the same chips.

 

[satellitemark]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the info re the air mouse/ remote
Sorry to hear not all is straight forward but i suppose life seldom is ! Hope you get the remaining issues sorted , please let me know how you do it , we dont have hulu in the UK , but we do have netflix and lovefilm so all info is usefull.
Good luck and enjoy your new toy !

Mark


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[Greg_E]

Hulu+ finally got back to me, we traded a few emails and they handed it off to engineering and gave me a two week credit. Haven't really spent a lot more time on it lately, need to get another TV so I can work on it other places, might spend a bunch of time fiddling with this once I go back to work since we might be able to use a few of these devices there and I can get paid while fooling around.

I also need to make a USB cable that I can put an amp meter on so I can see what this draws and look for a fan that still lets it stay under 1 amp so it will run off of a USB connection on many TVs. If I have to power it separately, then I won't worry about fan consumption.