Does anyone here uses any Android TV Box, what would you recommend. I'm ready to cut the cable bill.
I have been looking at this one.

MX10Pro

Tagged, thanks.

The Nvidia Shield is awesome. I’ve recommended it here several times.

quote:

Originally posted by aguilar64:
Does anyone here uses any Android TV Box, what would you recommend. I'm ready to cut the cable bill.
I have been looking at this one.

MX10Pro

I posted about my cord cutting purchases and experiences recently. I finally got my ducks in a row and did this all last month, great experience and now I have so much more content for less $$ and don't have to deal with the AT&T price negotiations and customer service reps every year. Good luck which ever way you go and you'll be glad you did

Personally I'd suggest you opt to keep it simple and go with a ROKU device. That's what I use at home for my streaming solution and its worked out very well so far.

I don't know anything about an android tv box but I cut the cord with smart TV's and fire sticks.

It has been great overall but the costs can sneak up on you, youtubeTV, netflix, any other services.

Not all Android TV boxes are actually running the Android TV OS. Some are Chinese hacks running a hacked version of the mobile OS. Those, as you might imagine, can be problematical.

The only legitimate Android TV devices of which I'm aware are the Nvidea Shield, the Xiaomi MiBox line, and some TVs with embedded Android TV OS. That doesn't mean there aren't others. I stopped tracking Android TV developments a year ago.

Due to an ongoing feud between Google/Alphabet and Amazon, only the Shield and certain TVs can install the Amazon Prime Video app. That was one reason we dropped Android TV.

TBH: Google didn't strike me as being very serious about the streaming device market, which was another reason I abandoned the platform.

We had a Roku 2. I never much liked it. When we acquired a networked OTA TV tuner, the apps for which weren't supported on Roku because Roku made it difficult to do so, it was an easy decision to switch platforms.

I recommend either Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV. Apple TV for the best experience. Fire TV if you want to be economical.

ETA: The thread to which member just1tym referred, above: Streaming TV Component Review

With the exception of the NVidia Shield, Android TV devices are a bad joke. They are all made in China and most don't even run real Android. The hardware is largely garbage.

I have an NVidia Shield and it's ok. I only use it for Plex and nothing else.

If you're serious about streaming, get a Roku or an Apple TV. Out of those two, I'd get the Apple TV.

Edit:

I forgot about the Fire TV. The Fire TV is decent, but I'd avoid the Fire TV Stick.

I second going for a roku. The menu's are easy and they work.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
We had a Roku 2. I never much liked it.

I recommend either Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV. Apple TV for the best experience. Fire TV if you want to be economical.

It's really interesting how people perceive things differently. I started my streaming experience with Amazon Fire Sticks given I'm an Amazon Prime member. I really grew to dislike them over time. The pissing contest between Google and Amazon (only recently resolved) was the final nail. Replaced each of them with Roku devices and have been happy with the decision.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
We had a Roku 2. I never much liked it.

I recommend either Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV. Apple TV for the best experience. Fire TV if you want to be economical.

It's really interesting how people perceive things differently. I started my streaming experience with Amazon Fire Sticks given I'm an Amazon Prime member. I really grew to dislike them over time. The pissing contest between Google and Amazon (only recently resolved) was the final nail. Replaced each of them with Roku devices and have been happy with the decision.

The Fire Stick is grossly under powered for what it's supposed to do. Everyone I know that's used them hates them.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
We had a Roku 2. I never much liked it.

I recommend either Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV. Apple TV for the best experience. Fire TV if you want to be economical.

It's really interesting how people perceive things differently. I started my streaming experience with Amazon Fire Sticks given I'm an Amazon Prime member. I really grew to dislike them over time. The pissing contest between Google and Amazon (only recently resolved) was the final nail. Replaced each of them with Roku devices and have been happy with the decision.

It’s a Ford vs Chevy kind of thing.
I’ll take my FireTVs over my Roku any day of the week.

I have the original FireTv still going strong that I bought in 2015 and it runs faster and quicker than my Roku 2 I bought about the same time. I bought a Roku Premier Plus and it crapped out in about a month I returned it and got the FireTV 4K pendent and it is going strong too.
I bought an Insignia TV with FireTV built in for the home gym and it is quick and rock solid. I was given a Fire Stick as a gift it is however complete and utter garbage.

Roku is pretty bad at cutting support to their devices.
I have an original Roku and LT they quit supporting and they are now bricks and a couple months ago go notice there will be no more app updates for the Roku2. So like the others it will be a brick soon too. It will be replaced with a FireTV just not sure if it will be the pendent or the cube.

I am probably stuck with one of these crappy Android boxes for the Suburban as it has RCA inputs and Amazon or Roku don’t make a unit with a component hook up and and USB input any longer that I can find and don’t have the space or extra power to use an HDMI to RCA converter.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
The pissing contest between Google and Amazon (only recently resolved) was the final nail.

Is it? Last I looked, just a couple months ago or so, after I'd read it had been resolved, Amazon Prime Video still wasn't available for our Xiaomi MiBox S'.

quote:

Originally posted by 380Swift:
With the exception of the NVidia Shield, Android TV devices are a bad joke.

That's pretty much my take. And, for the price of a Shield you can get an Apple TV.

We have an Nvidia Shield. It works pretty well but it's not our primary source of entertainment (still have DirecTV also). I bought the gamepad for it and use it to play SNES and N64 emulators, which is fun.

I'll take a look at the Nvidia Shield but is sold out in a lot of places.

Get a Roku Ultra. I have three of them in the house and they are great.

quote:

Originally posted by aguilar64:
I'll take a look at the Nvidia Shield but is sold out in a lot of places.

Why do you want an Android TV box, in particular, as opposed to any other streaming box?

I want to view live tv, i.e. ABC, NBC, Fox. There are some show that I would like to keep watching, unless Roku or the Fire Stick can do that?

quote:

Originally posted by aguilar64:
I want to view live tv, i.e. ABC, NBC, Fox. There are some show that I would like to keep watching, unless Roku or the Fire Stick can do that?

Not sure you'd want to dabble in this direction but, as ensigmatic also mentioned, I too went with an OTA antenna and DVR for all the locals. The Tablo Dual lite DVR I purchased works flawlessly to record all the locals and has commercial feature that automatically fast forwards thru all the commercials. You do have to option to watch the locals live but I have a problem with all the commercial breaks so I record them with the Tablo and watch them later. Performs flawlessly I might add. The OTA setup will bring the 47 locals up to 70mi crystal clear too.

quote:

Originally posted by aguilar64:
I want to view live tv, i.e. ABC, NBC, Fox. There are some show that I would like to keep watching, unless Roku or the Fire Stick can do that?

How do you plan to watch live TV? E.g.: Over the air (OTA), with an antenna? Or a streaming service that provides them?

When you say there are some shows you would like to keep watching, do you mean on those networks? Or are you talking about non-broadcast-network (cable?) shows?

In any event: With few exceptions (e.g.: The Amazon Prime Video on many Android TV devices I earlier mentioned, and Roku not working with some OTA TV networked tuners I mentioned in another thread), pretty much all the streamers can do all the same things. The differences mainly boil down how well they do it, the user interface (UI), integration with other stuff, and cost.