While you probably know what you want in an Android TV box, it’s quite difficult to find out what the market wants exactly, so I’ve been asked to run a short survey about Android TV boxes, the importance of Android apps like Kodi, Plex, or Netflix, brands, and support.
It will run for about 7 days, the results will be public, so I’ll post them once they become available. The survey is short – 5 questions -, and anonymous, except if you want to participate in the lucky draw to win one Android TV box, as you have to leave an email address.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Seems typo in a survey?
WeTek: $34
@Peter
I think that’s an hypothetical question about a TV box with the exact same specs. So would you pay $29 for no brand, $44 for MINIX, or $44 ($34+$10) for WeTek? I assume the Nvidia model is the original one @ $199.
It lets you respond more than once – that’s gonna mess up the prize draw right? Pretty sure there’s bots and stuff to submit it multiple times therefore gaining more entries to the prize draw?
“it’s quite difficult to find out what the market wants exactly,”
this being the oxymoron in that we want more things in a generic arm cortex tvbox and related kit, that we dont seem to be getting to date from the chinese vendors and OEM’s…
for instance, a tv box with generic 1Gb/s ethernet interfaces, none of this antiquated 10/100 Kbits/s Soc… not even for IOF today.
required as a generic option, at least one cortex SOC that has genuine Sata ports and fully tested with the existing external SATA 1 To 5 Port converter Adapter | SATA Multiplier Port Card SATAII Riser cards*
with matching cases to purchase as a combined unit to finally make cost effective working personal NAS at a good price…
inclusive of at least a configured #TVHeadEnd# and NextPVR for dual boot systems etc…
along side their DVB T2 drivers being open,tested and available for both OS’s where applicable…
and thats just off the top of the head requirements for the near future as UHD1/UHD2 becomes available and we want to connect all our panels to this generic LAN live TV/streaming content serving our homes etc…
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SATA-1-To-5-Port-converter-Adatper-SATA-Multiplier-Port-Card-SATAII-Riser-card/281995213653?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150313114020%26meid%3Df40d484e3dd1404e93a47b9319dc4abe%26pid%3D100338%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D9%26sd%3D231953979862
Or, since we don’t know who is behind, it could be just a scam to get a big email database of potential future costumers…….
lol you dont need to put email address
@xcore
Forget about those ultra cheap crappy JMB321 based SATA port multipliers without active cooling, they start to corrupt data after a few minutes of high usage due to overheating even when used with slow SATA implementations like on Allwinner’s A20. I tested one such thing a while ago and since I used mainline kernel + btrfs I was able to detect even small data corruptions (btrfs provides ‘end to end data integrity’ through checksums).
The average user of these port multipliers uses ext4 or other inappropriate filesystems for such unreliable hardware and will realize way too late that data got corrupted. Even worse: Some people are weird enough to play RAID with these port multipliers and after a disk failure the whole array will fail since JMB321 will overheat at rebuild time and the kernel’s mdraid implementation will throw away all disks 🙂
Apart from that I doubt that the average user cares that much whether disks can be accessed through USB or SATA, many don’t even realize that the devices they use utilize horribly slow USB-to-SATA bridges like GL830 and are happy since specs are telling ‘device has SATA port’.
not 100% but the survey after asking what I would like to see, ie Netflix etc once it gathered my email address, then an attempt was made to dictionary attacked my password. Hmmm coincidence ?
@boudyka
Care to elaborate? What service was attacked? How do you know?
@JotaMG
@boudyka
I know who is behind (a TV box manufacturer), but I’ve been asked not to reveal its name in order not to influence the results.
As mentioned in the post and by others the email address is optional. You could also use a hmamail (or others) email address just for this purpose, since they just need it to contact the winner.
Ok, I trust your judgement.
Thanks!
NetFlix emailed me for a password change I didn’t ask for, shows a connection I don’t know about at a time I wasn’t using Netflix. As I said it maybe mere coincidence. Nothing since….so all good.
What these boxes need is good support of software and forward update of Android. 2 to 4 independent USB, fast as possible.
To be able to boot from a USB pen drive which is ment for fast random in and out, as micro and standard SD/TF cards are really designed for video and photography.
Include Orange Pi, Raspberry Pi compatible GPIO. ( You can always use a Chinese Arduino clone via USB )
Good remote and game controller support.
Sell for £36
Include a Basic language. Aim it at families, kids, educational, smart TV , light office work ( must support USB printer )
This is not a NAS machine or intended as one.
USB ports for Keyboard, mouse, plug in camera or storage/expansion, game controllers, Arduino etc.
The problem with asking the audience here is we aren’t typical users and we all want different things. The questions on the survey aren’t that relevant for what I want.
For TV I’ve moved to client server model, so having integrated hardware to support DVB-T2/S2/SAT-IP recording server isn’t important to me. Local storage for recordings and media is irrelevant, although with the latest Android TV based on Marshmallow using SDCard as internal storage provides easy expansion
For a real Android TV box I want:
1) A TV Box, not a jack of all trades Android box that plugs into a tv.
2) A manufacturer supported box with OS Updates and fully supported reliable hardware. Stop chasing the latest SOC and use a stable platform.
3) Real, working from day one HD Audio passthrough over HDMI. Not promises that will never be fulfilled
4) Interlaced video decoding for TV broadcasts and streaming media
5) A media library/player with Android TV search and recommendations integration
6) Delivered with working software, not kinda working and we might release updates instead of replace the hardware in 6-12 months
7) If you claim Linux support make sure it works with full hardware support and you are able to supply necessary source and blobs for compiling our own Kernels without hiding behind NDA excuses and trying to blame ARM. Do not butcher an Android Kernel into an old Linux distro, use a modern kernel that we can replace and compile with full hardware support.
Compared to existing boxes:
An NVidia Shield TV with Amazon Prime Video + Live channels integrated TV client supporting DVB-T2/DVB-S2/Sat-IP and server based VDRs.
Pricewise: Wetek – Shield depending on final h/w + software, all inclusive delivered to my door… No surprise duty/tax charges on top of a Wetek/Shield price.
Aim to compete with Wetek/Humax/NVidia/Amazon/Roku/Apple in terms of hardware, support and user experience. Don’t be just another low-end junk shifter
@Nelbert
Many truths there but as a aside since I got my MiniM8s s905 my Roku 2, Nvidia Tegra 7″ tablet And Mediatek 8 core tablet are hardly being used for TV viewing and Kodi.
Only real problem is buggy channel 5 app and service here in UK ( even gives errors on my Roku 2 ).
I use to cast to TV from Android tablets or my Windows AMD Laptop via HDMI out, now the MiniM8s is quieter, uses less power.
I control it by a USB mouse ( much better than remote ) and unlike my Tablets I don’t have to put it on charge.
I am watching less and less linear TV and more on demand.
It has turned my HD TV in to a 46″ Tablet.
I have stored things to USB drive and sdcard but no USB hard drive to try.