Hey Guys,

Does anyone have a full MDZ-16-AB firmware dump? Mine is bricked and I need to restore it via the AMLogic Tool.

Also does anyone know where I can get an unconfigured S905X-H IC? I'd like control over the bootloader on this thing.

I recently bought a Philips 55" 4K Smart Tv, and the 'Smart Tv' is very good. I have been thinking of buying a Android Tv Box that supports 4K and the two that come to mind are the Nvidia Shield and the Mi Box. The problem is, im not sure which one.

Where I live the Nvidia Shield costs €200, and the Mi box costs €90.

I have heard that the Mi Box sometimes struggles with 4K video even tho it is advertised as a 4K Android Box. And I am not really interested in gaming as much as the Nvidia Shield advertise.

I am mainly looking for a Android Box that supports 4K streaming (Plex, Netflix, Youtube, etc), and I can play 4K movies from a USB. I wouldn't mind the occasional gaming every now and then but the main priority is 4K.

So what are your suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

This past weekend I signed up for the YouTube TV trial and tested on the following hardware: Nexus 6, Shield TV, Shield Tablet, XPS 13 Laptop.

I currently use MythTV for recording via 2x HDHR Primes. Additionally I utilize PLEX for mobile devices and video library access.

The Good

• Price point - At $35 it is roughly 1/3rd the cost of my current cable bill.
• Device availability - Apps for all my Android devices, Chrome for my laptop.
• Cloud based - No infrastructure to maintain, no need to worry about dying hard drives or any of that.
• GPS spoofable - I was able to watch the Eagles for my once a year CBS game overlap with the Ravens in my market.
• All channels in HD - Some random channels I don't get in HD on cable, like Disney Jr.
• Usable/Accessible on demand system - Dropping set top boxes left me without this on cable.
• Channel lineup for me - AMC, FX, ESPN, local networks. All my heavy hitters.

The Bad

• Missing channels - Off the top of my head: Discovery, Discovery Family, PBS, HGTV, NFL Network, NFL Redzone, Nick Jr., Cartoon Network, CNN. Some of these I can access other ways but it would be nice to have them all in the same place.
• Channel lineup for the rest of my family - From the above list HGTV, Discovery Family, and Nick Jr. will be a significant loss to my family.
• Recording ownership - Something few people other than myself will worry about. But with YouTube TV I cannot export my recordings into PLEX which I normally do with kids movies.
• Recording expiration - Another thing most people won't care about, 9 months is a significant amount of time. I tend to keep certain footage like concerts forever though.
• Lack of recording rule customization - No way of saying new episodes only or a specific channel, not a huge issue with unlimited storage but annoying to have extra recordings around. In MythTV I do regex based rules to catch sports teams or bands appearing anywhere. YouTube TV has the sports team portion covered but nothing that will let me catch Pearl Jam randomly appearing on SNL or a late night talk show.
• NFL content not available on mobile devices - I know Verizon exclusive deal, still annoying. I'm a Verizon customer and I'd prefer a better experience.
• No download or offline viewing - This is becoming common feature and something I utilize a lot with Netflix/Amazon/PLEX.
• Only Windows PCs can do HD - Linux and Mac are locked to 480p since they are missing required DRM.

The Ugly

• Bad device identification - My Shield Tablet was detected as mobile device, thus blocking NFL content. Google's response: "no work around at this time."
• User switching - 6 accounts sounds great, until you try to use more than one. Clearly my family won't mind having to re-activate the app any time they want to switch to their content, a 6 year old can handle this right?

Untested/Unconfirmed

• I'd love to hear from someone with a Shield Tablet K1 to see if it is identified as mobile device or not. I suspect the unused SIM card port in my tablet is causing my device detection issue, but I've yet to find any way to disable this hardware.
• Surround Sound? - I have a suspicion that the Android TV app may not be utilizing surround sound, but my surround speakers are packed up due to moving. I'll try to verify this, hopefully someone else can chime in.

TL;DR - YouTube TV has a great deal of features for its price point, but lacks much of the functionality that I am used to in my custom setup. I am still evaluating if the loss of functionality is worth it for the price point and additional features.

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For instance The Hitman's Bodyguard was just released without support for 5.1 (English (Stereo) only). I also recall that John Wick 2 was released the same way along with other movies. So if you buy the movie and watch it that day, you are getting only stereo, but if you wait then at some point the movie is in 5.1.

Its bad enough that we can't upgrade up to higher quality but to release in stereo seems woefully behind the times.

It appears in the past week or so an update has been made where the remote on the NP is taking an age to wake up when not used for a minute or two.

I'll press a button and the remote will flash 4-5 times and then perform the action. It's like it's reconnecting via BT

Tried repairing, new batteries and even downgraded back to 7.1.2 but doesn't fix it.

Any ideas? Happening to more people?

I'm thinking about buying one, but will the Shield TV bought in the UK work in South America (most specifically in Brazil)? Will the Google Play Store show my country apps? Thanks.

Wondering what your guys' thoughts are on the top 2 android tv devices. Nvidia shield for sure, but what is the next best option. Regardless of price.

I know the native Android TV remote doesn't have them, but I have a Logitech Harmony remote which has numbers. The mapping seems to not support inputting numbers, but when trying to use any of the live tv options it's a huge pain scrolling through channels 1 at a time.

For instance when I load Live TV it starts at channel 1, but all my HD channels start at 700.

Is there anything I'm missing, or is this just impossible to support.

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Hey guys, I used to use the fireTV CW app (1.0) on my Shield TV, but it doesn't seem to work anymore. Tried 1.0.2, but it also does not work. I then tried upgrading the app to the latest, 1.1.1, but it also doesn't work. Anyone have a way to get it working again?

Anyone can confirm if any of the Nougat firmwares fixes the ethernet suspend issue? If so, is it worth to update it despite the bugs (the Mi Boxes are pretty much netflix machines, I don't care about HDR and all)?

Also, if Nougat doesn't fix it can I get it working somehow on MM?

Thanks.

Hey all,

I'm looking to get an android box, but have never used one and don't know much about them. Any help or recommendations would be great.

J

Whenever I cast to my mi box, the only control I get is play pause, no rewind. YouTube doesn't even get a status bar

I have two android TV's in my house - one in my living room (Shield TV 2017) and one in my bedroom (MiBox 3). I've had practically no complaints about the Shield TV since it's well supported and continues to get updated. The MiBox on the other hand seems like a failed experiment by Xiaomi and has no future roadmap. I'm really disappointed with the MB because I got rid of my nexus player so that I could get this box.

I'm about to hit my annual subscription renewal for HDHomeRun DVR software and am contemplating ditching my MiBox for another Shield TV or something else. If I keep my MiBox, I have to keep my HDHomeRun DVR subscription since MiBox doesn't support 7.0 w/Google's DVR support. So my questions for you guys...

1. Does anyone still think there's a chance we'll get 7.0 on the MiBox?
2. Are there any upcoming Android TV boxes on the horizon? I feel like the Shield TV is overkill for my bedroom, but there don't seem to be any other low cost options.

I'm in the US, and I have a Chromecast, Google Home and a mini as well. My TV also has Roku built in.I'm not really happy using the Chromecast since my phone is the remote and I find that audio keeps cutting out. When audio cuts out, I need to unplug the HDMI and then reinsert it.

I just ordered a Mi Box 3s from ebay. Do these come with the play store? My primary apps will be YouTube TV, Play Movies and Amazon Video. I'll also use Google Assistant to control the house.

Hi guys! So I have a Sony XBR that has Android, and was wondering if there is an app or built in feature that will allow the TV screen to be mirrored on my phone screen. I know you can do the opposite, but I want to control the apps on the TV using my phone's touch screen. Any suggestions?