I just got a 4K TV and I want to get an android TV box.... any suggestions?

by heepofsheep

I just got a 4k with a really shitty smart tv interface and I want an upgrade. Right now my friends are singing praises about android TV and it seems like good platform and a worthy upgrade from my chromecast. I'd obviously like to spend the least amount of money possible on this... are there any boxes in the price range of a chromecast with good enough performance to handle 4K video? I don't really care about games/game streaming since my gaming PC is hooked up right beneath the TV with HDMI. I'd be willing to go up to 100 bucks (same range of a ruko, apple tv, etc).

Anyone have suggestions? A lot of the reviews I'm finding are nearly a year old and I'm not sure what's happening currently in the android TV space.

stak640

For 4k, your choices are the Nvidia SHIELD, the Nvidia SHIELD or the Nvidia SHIELD.

freebase1ca

It's my impression that it's a bit soon for 4k TV.

There are Android boxes that claim to be 4k capable such as those based on the Amlogic S812 chipset. Although great boxes, they can only handle hardware decoding of h265 at the lowest framerate (30 fps?).

I was also of the impression that there were limits on the current implementation of HDMI that also restricts framerates at 4k. I'm not sure if 4k TVs already come with a newer version of HDMI that can remove those limits, but I can guarantee that the HDMI in any of these devices certainly can't. (Most TV box specs will detail the version of HDMI they support so you can understand what they are capable of.)

There is also the small matter of being able to source 4k content and of having enough storage to keep it as well.

I'd enjoy your nice TV at lowly 1080p quality for now and maybe in a year or two move to 4k content when the whole industry has caught up with content, 40TB drives, better HDMI, better TV boxes, etc.

At least you've done some future proofing with very little additional cost for now.

(edit - meant to say S812)

wisockijunior

there are no real 4K Android TV boxes on the market yet