I play my media from a brand new portable hdd (WD's My Passport). Kodi and SPMC as media players. It should play movies and albums smoothly. That's what the USB port is for. I'm not going to change the method

Plugging it straight to my LG 4K TV has been gives me no problem.

It is ridiculous that a TV is better at playing media than a product that was designed specifically for it.

And if you think it's just me, google "mi box stutter" (you won't need to type it all, it's such a popular search, the engine predicts it) .

From now on, I'll advice everyone to not buy a Mibox.

With my first and only exposure to Android TV, I have to say I'm impressed. I've been an Apple TV user since gen 1, and I can honestly say Sony/Android experience is better. The voice search is fast and returns better results (e.g., movies on my Plex server, not the iTunes store!), the TV has an IR blaster for my cable box and a comprehensive program guide, and don't get me started on the terrible Apple TV Siri remote. Since getting the Sony, I've had no need for the Apple TV so I'm considering selling it.

One thing Apple is good about is rolling out new software, though. I know next year there will be updates to the Apple TV. Not sure about the Sony. Will it get Oreo?

I suppose I can pick up an Nvidia Shield in the future if I want the latest OS, but then I'm juggling remotes again, which I'd like to avoid.

Any other Apple TV users who made the switch, are you happy you did?

is there an app that can close apps the way nougat does(long pressing the home button)? i'm on mm with a mi box. yeah i could go through the app settings and shut things down one at a time but that seems to be long handed. currently, i reboot when things get clunky but that too takes longer than the nougat feature.

my sony tv (xbr55x700d) was saying that programs stopped working then it restarted itself and when it came back online, programs stopped working again and it restarted (getting stuck in a loop), we cut power to it and now this morning it's only showing the sony start up screen. the led illumination light is not even on. can someone please help me edit 1) i called they said try a factory reset, did not work, all it did was make the LED turn green

I'm actually really happy with my MiBox, had it for about a year and it works great for more or less everything. But I'm daily fighting the urge to upgrade it, as I'm really bored with the current MM build. It's just so boring, I can't remember last time I had a device that was never updated.

I mainly use my box for Kodi, Spotify and Netflix (no HDR or 4K). I think I've seen like two youtube videos on it, in total.

How many here are running the latest N build on your box, and would you upgrade if you were me?

I just finished to setup the EPG to my IPTV (all integrated in Live Channels) and now I wonder if there is a way to get a reminder when a TV show is going to air?

Really new here but can a usb hard drive be added to most android boxes and is so are there size limits on the drive? I have long used a blue ray player to watch media on a 2 Tb hard drive but when upgrading to 4Tb the blue ray would not recognize it. Someone mentioned why not try android tv. Will this work for me and a usb hard drive? Thanks

Can you download Netflix videos in HD? You don't even need to download anything, just check to see if the little HD box shows up and then the down arrow symbol for download.

A couple of months ago I tried a cheap Chinese "Android TV Box" before I knew it was just an plain old Android with and HDMI port. It would actually download videos but not in HD. I then tried an Amazon Fire TV Stick. It would Stream in HD but there was no download option. I then bought a MECOOL based on someone's "unofficial" recommendation here that it should be included as a real Android TV. It also streams in HD but there is no download option. I tried sideloading several versions of the Netflix app, but nothing worked.

Related question: How can you tell if the Android version is Android TV?

Thanks.

I currently have an MI box which I found on ebay. Not sure if there are knock off versions of this out there or not. I know I can grab a shield at my local Walmart but it's outta my price range of $300. How do I know which ones on ebay are real and which are knock offs?

Looking for a gift santa didn't bring me. Opinions?

I bought a new tv (sony x900e) that comes with android TV system. I haven't used it much and just connected it to the shield, now I want to just use the native android build into the TV. Do I lose much? Is the shield better hardware worth it? I mainly use kodi and Netflix.

Don't want anything bootleg necessarily, just want recommendations for the best app with free, live channels.

Honestly the best compromise between a streaming stick and an HTPC. I pretty much stopped using my HTPC with how convenient and flexible android tv is. I wish my mi box had a little more power for emulators

Ever since I got the android o update on my nexus player I've been having issues with YouTube it will load but I get automatically log out of my account also can't sign into it. Also with google play hasn't worked since the update it just hangs at the buffering icon any help would be great thanks

Is anyone able to tell me where/ how I can watch the world juniors tournament on kodi? Thanks in advance

Hi,

Using 1028 Nougat beta on my Mi Box, and I have been having problems with stuttering videos on both my Mi Boxes in Youtube since I got them. Doesn't appear in all videos, and the setup on my both boxes are different. One uses audio trough HDMI and the other use audio trough 3.5mm analog. It is most noticable on the audio side, but I think the video microstutters also.

Why is this happening? And only in YouTube.

I use the last version before the big update that changed the UI.

I purchased it more than a year ago. I keep hearing that the update is coming since then, but have received nothing so far (via OTA).

This means Xiaomi told pure lies just to boost sales? I want to understand so that I can better choose a brand for my hardware next time.

Thanks!

I wonder if Firefox for FireTV could be installed on Android TV, so I could watch Prime Videos

How can I get the apk?

Hi guys!

I'm about to buy a new TV (4K + HDR) for general purposes. Now I'm using a quite old TV with Shield TV and I love it. So another TV I'd like to have with Android TV built-in.

Can you tell me basing on your experience whether Sony or Philips better handle Android TV? I mean here stability, performance, update frequency etc.

Thank you so much!

=========

EDIT: It might need a little clarification. I don't want to throw my current tv and Shield gear away, I will move it to the next room. But I want to buy two more TVs for living and 'gaming' rooms. ;-) I find Android TV very comfortable, I use it mostly for streaming services (4K+HDR) + sometimes Kodi playback from local NAS. I hope built-in Android TV will manage this without any issues.

I'd like to use a VPN on a per-app basis, (I'm looking to access geo-restricted content).

At present, I toggle the VPN on/off as needed when changing apps. This isn't the worst problem in the world but it would certainly fall in the nice to have category.

Reading up online, it seems that what I'm looking at is VPN Split Tunneling - but I've not gotten much further than that!

Has anyone got any experience of achieving this or similar and can offer some guidance?