Android TV box

[Tomchew]

Hello
I want to purchase one for my wife, just want to know whats a decent one to get for steaming movies/shows/netflix, there are a bunch of different brands and there is a guy selling some in my town for 100$ on facebook, its an MXQ pro 4k but i seen it on amazon for like 30, also if you buy the box do you have to install some firmware on it to steam latest TV shows and movies?

 

[robert600]

The mysterious world of android boxes! It's frustrating that you can't go to a store and see them in action isn't it?

So ... I don't know too much about them but I do have a friend who uses one. He did mention that the version of Kodi (he streams through it) that was installed needed to be updated - he doesn't use netflix but I noticed it was there on the menu. Using Kodi, it seems sometimes the streams are there and sometimes they are not so .... it seemed to me there was lots of fiddling about to find a good stream. Presumably this would not be a problem with netflix. I remember him saying that the streaming improved when he directly wired the box to his modem rather than relying on wifi. I often take over movies on a memory stick (mp4, mkv, avi) - it plays these quite well - again using Kodi.

When I expressed interest in getting 1, he told me to get one with 2GB of ram (a lot only have 1). The brand he has is 'tronsmart' or something like that.

Hopefully someone who knows more will respond!

 

[americanaudiophile]

Kodi can be installed on many devices so you can try it on any computer first to see how you like it. The most popular addon is called Exodus. There are many many more. Some very specific and some kind of all over the place, You may spend more time looking for something to watch than you want but you won't know until you play with it. There are music addons too.
https/kodi.tv/
https/www.tvaddons.ag/kodi-addons/show/plugin.video.exodus/
http/www.wirelesshack.org/a-guide-to-kodi-and-watching-free-movies-and-tv-shows.html
If you like it then you can get whatever device you want to use with it
http/kodi.wiki/view/Devices

 

[Tomchew]

So Kodi is the program right, and what kind of box can it run on?

 

[robert600]

"So Kodi is the program right, and what kind of box can it run on? "

This is from their website:
"Kodi is available as a native application for Android, Linux, Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows operating systems, running on most common processor architectures."
Typically the 'android boxes' you originally asked about come pre-loaded with kodi - unfortunately as my friend discovered, it is often an outdated version so step 1 with these boxes is often to update to the newest version. The other thing to keep in mind is this - again from their website:
"IMPORTANT:
The official Kodi version does not contain any content whatsoever. This means that you should provide your own content from a local or remote storage location, DVD, Blu-Ray or any other media carrier that you own. Additionally Kodi allows you to install third-party plugins that may provide access to content that is freely available on the official content provider website. The watching or listening of illegal or pirated content which would otherwise need to be paid for is not endorsed or approved by Team Kodi."
As I mentioned - as a media player Kodi works quite well as is. For streaming however - you need to have those 3rd-party plugins. This is where 'the fiddling about' comes in. Some boxes come advertised as having many of these plugins pre-installed - others advertise ongoing support in this area but typically you have to pay more for the 'box' when you buy from them and who knows how good their support actually is?
I think 'americanaudiophile' has made a very good suggestion. Download kodi (it's freeware) to your pc and play around with it to see how well it works with your network connection etc. Be prepared to spend time loading in add-ons and chasing streams that do not actually seem to be there. Having said that, I tried it last night and did end up watching some usopen tennis on my laptop - it was quite alright. Oddly, I found it hard to exit the program - maybe there is a trick to this I don't know about.

 

[americanaudiophile]

There is a preconfigured version of Kodi here
https/www.tvaddons.ag/tvmc-windows/
saves some time especially if you just want to try it.

 

[jayjay291077]

Kodi is an opensource software, to "stream" content you will need to install 3rd party addon, this is a simple process and there are many website and you tube vids explaining how to do this, once you have installed add on's you can then search for various shows, etc. Exodus is the most popular add on, this has menu functions to search via show, film, etc. be warned thou most of the new releases are normally the same you get with torrent site, camcorder copies with poor sound and normally someone's head in the corner.

it is now illegal to sell preloaded boxs with add on's but as usual a quick search on the old google and you will see these things