As per the title, im curious as to which may be the best option.

As far as I know, the M8S Pro Plus is Widevine Level 1 certified and has a flashable Android TV ROM so would make for a cheap device. I'm not too fussed about the flashing aspect so this would make for a cheap Android TV box.

Obviously the advantage to the Xiaomi is, it's a little more but it'd be all official.

Price would also be an aspect: £50 - £60 for the Xiaomi or £26 for the M8S Pro Plus.

I rooted my Shield TV because of Plex taking up all of the space on the internal drive, so I followed the tutorial at xda to root and move the media server over to the ssd. Everything works, and I also flashed SUhide to hide root from every other app that may block content if root was detected. I'd love to have custom channels for Plex, but I haven't quite figured it out yet, as I have found where you can put the channels, but they never appear in app. So that brings me to my question: If you have rooted, what have you done? I know you can block ads, but that is a non issue since I have Red.

I have a Nexus Player running Android 8. I have stopped using it for several months and a couple weeks ago turned it on to update it to Oreo. After the update I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing... The launcher, which is dark as hell, looks so broken to me. So many animations that aren't happening, like switching from the entries of a list to the icon on the left of the list. It seems like a "jump" or something so weird... I've been searching online about that but I don't see many info or complains about it. How's everyone feeling about it?

If I go to specific albums and try to play them, some will play but most will not. The album art and songs all show up, but after trying to play them, it will only pause for a moment, move the next one and do the same through the rest of the album.

I can play all songs on shuffle and it will play a limited selection of songs, but going to the albums that some of those are on will only allow those particular ones to play and the rest of the album fails to load.

I have my entire music collection uploaded via Music Manager and am able to play all of it with the same account from my phone also running 7.0 and on the same network.

I've tried doing a factory reset, but that didn't resolve the issue. Interestingly, after the reset, some songs that wouldn't play before will now play while some that had played before are unavailable along with most of the rest as before.

Is there a way to rebuild the index of my music collection? Why does the Android TV app behave differently?

So there are a number of posts about this, but they're all months+ old. My Mi Box recognizes that there are drives attached via USB, but can't find anything on them. One of them (a WD that is powered through the powered USB) is asks if I want to format as either device or removable storage. Another (a Transcend that has it's AC cord) it only asks if I want to format as internal storage. A third WD, it doesn't even recognize.

Do I need to re-format the drives when they're attached to the Mi Box (which would kinda suck, since they're pretty full, but if need be)? As "external storage," correct (since I'd like to be able to remove them and and plug them into my computer)? Thanks!

Have a HDMI 1.4 AVR with 4K@30 passthrough. So far have been putting everything through the TV and then back to the AVR via ARC. Problem is, it will only output DD and DTS (not DD+ doesn't work even though the TV says it can and the AVR is DD+ capable). Ive noticed due to the lack of DD+ audio on Amazon is only 2 channel (Netflix is 5.1). So ive thought about piping it through the AVR and then to the TV, but will this work considering the AVR will only passthrough 4K@30?

I connected my laptop to my MiBox and enabled adb and opened up port 5555. I was able to connect via IP address with my MiBox on wifi.

I prefer using a wired connection via an ethernet-USB adapter. I plugged that back in and it wouldn't work until I disabled USB debugging mode. So the MiBox is back on my LAN with a wired connection - but I can't make a an adb connection - it now says "the target machine actively refused it".

So do you have to keep USB debugging turned on when using adb, even when you are using it over a wifi or wired network and not using the USB port?

So, my mom bought a TV, which I thought was standard until I was taking a look into the manual and all that. So, it comes with Android pre installed (I believed is like Jellybean or Kit Kat i don't know), however, I am unable to connect to it since the google TV Remote App doesn't actually recognize it as a TV. Does anybody know if there's an app that can help with that? I mean, I can simply connect my laptop with an HDMI and watch netflix, but I was already able to install several stuff on the TV, but it's really difficult to just navigate with Dpad an moving an arrow to select a single letter and all the way back. I've currently tried using TeamViewer but it says the other device (the "tv") doesn't support mirroring or some thing like that.

I have used the PS4 YouTube version, which was clean and amazing. But the one made for TV just sucks.

Is there a better version or modded one?

I want to watch MSNBC news live, I have a verizon cable account login that works fine on the iphone msnbc app to get the live stream. Is there any way to get the live stream on android tv?

I tried sideloading the mobile android NBC app, com.nbcuni.nbc, but it just crashes on startup. Doesn't even show up on the homescreen apps, just in the apps are in settings.

I received a new TCL L55c2 today and it comes with 6.01. It's great, but I'd like a newer version, particularly for Google Assistant since I have a bunch of other Home devices setup.

Can that be done? Or should I just plug in a Chromecast? I can't seem to get Google Home to control the new TV...

Hey guys, I have been looking for an apk of file manager which would be optimized for regular remote control of my android box. I mean to access menu (as it is common with long press) with single click to be able for example copy, delete, etc. Although I have an external keyboard, but a remote control would be more convenient. THanks in advance

These are the apps I'm currently using on my Mi box that are found in the ridiculously skimpy Android TV play store and some that aren't. These few apps should get a beginner up and running for an enjoyable experience straight out of the box. With little to no effort or "fiddling" required by some streaming apps.

If there are better ones please add to the list or make suggestions.

TV stuff....... Pluto TV (ok movies and TV shows), Haystack TV (news feed), Youtube, ABC app(this one seems to be the most polished off the major network apps)

Weather apps.... Weather nation The Weather Network

File transfer and management.... TV file commander

Media players... MX player, Yes player(comes packaged with Terrarium TV),

Side loads.... Terrarium TV (similar to Kodi just WAY less involved), Mobdro(out of the box tv streaming with occasionally a hiccup or two),

Games....gamepad required. Implosion, Alto's adventure, Modern combat 5, Asphalt Xtreme, Assassin's Creed identity(loaded from the play store website)

Music.... Pandora, Google play music

Project treble seems to really change version update reliability for android phones. Will the same happen for androidTV?

Hey all, just a few weeks back I made a post here saying I was ordering a Shield. After a few weeks of having the Shield I would just like to share my thoughts. (Hope this isn't considered a junk post).

Nvidia Shield: I'm incredibly pleased with my purchase. Even as a 1080p user I truly feel that it was a great decision to buy this box. The system is snappy, easy to use, and powerful. I've ended up using more features than I previously thought I would (gaming, home assistant, audio streaming to the controller, and phone casting).

Android TV: The UI and apps alone makes me glad that I decided to not choose a Roku or a FireStick. At first I was gonna go with a Roku but then it lost Twitch, soon after FireStick is "now" having a spat with Google. Sideloading app is a breeze, I feel that I have more freedom to do as I please. I really haven't yet had any issues with the OS but I'm sure I'll end up stumbling into something sooner or later. Either way I have had a good experience with the OS. My only problem and it seems to be a big issue is that of the recommendations bar (which thankfully can be turned off). I had Logan Paul stuck on my home screen for a few days. I hope they wind up giving us recommendations that suit us.

I'm probably forgetting a couple of things but I just wanted to share my experience. Take care! :)

It works perfectly fine without stuttering and then as soon as I connect any headphones it starts stuttering and the sound cuts out. I’m running on an Ethernet connection so i don’t know why it would do this