Openelec user considering android tv

by Treas0n

Hey guys,

I've been using openelec/kodi for a long time, but the lack of streaming services (netflix, directv etc) is forcing me to look at alternatives.

I'm hoping someone can tell objectively if the nvidea shield is a good replacement for openelec.. here's what I use openelec for

PseudoTV - this is a kodi addon, that requires a lot of processing power. I know this is laggy on the firestick, will it work well on the shield?

Logitech harmony remotes - I connect right now via bluetooth, can I still use these remotes on the shield?

Native MKV playback - I play videos via samba shares from a windows server. Will android tv stutter / break on non mp4 content, will I have to transcode? Does SMB work on android TV?

Custom kodi python scripts - I map kodi key commands to call python scripts on the filesystem.. will this still work? Is there a native python interpreter?

SSH - I like to be able to ssh into my kodi box and debug, write scripts etc, is there some alternative way to do this on android tv? Is the file system a black box to the user?

CEC - I see that the shield has CEC support, but do they allow you to execute CEC commands at will? For example, on openelec I can run a bash script like this to power-on my TV echo "on 0" | cec-client -s -d 1 Is there some android equivalent?

CuvisTheConqueror

PseudoTV - this is a kodi addon, that requires a lot of processing power. I know this is laggy on the firestick, will it work well on the shield?

Haven't tried it, but Kodi is available on Android TV, and it's probably the most powerful STB out there. If anything can run it well, the Shield can.

Native MKV playback - I play videos via samba shares from a windows server. Will android tv stutter / break on non mp4 content, will I have to transcode? Does SMB work on android TV?

MKV is a container, not a codec, but the Shield can handle pretty much anything. Yes, it does support SMB shares, and you can also mount its internal storage and any connected drives as an SMB share so you can access them from other systems.

Custom kodi python scripts - I map kodi key commands to call python scripts on the filesystem.. will this still work? Is there a native python interpreter?

There are python interpreters available for Android that can do the job. Check out QPython.

SSH - I like to be able to ssh into my kodi box and debug, write scripts etc, is there some alternative way to do this on android tv? Is the file system a black box to the user?

There are SSH servers available for Android that should work. Like standard Android, Android TV generally only gives you read access to system folders, but the Shield is easy to root if you need more.

CEC - I see that the shield has CEC support, but do they allow you to execute CEC commands at will? For example, on openelec I can run a bash script like this to power-on my TV echo "on 0" | cec-client -s -d 1 Is there some android equivalent?

I don't think that's possible out of the box, but you might be able to add it with third party add-ons. For what it's worth, there are settings you can configure so it will turn on the TV when you bring it out of standby and the like.

ghostyroasty

There is SPMC and Kodi that you can use on the Android TV. On the Shield they work great and you can use add-ons as well. mkv is only a container, but I have no issues with accessing and playing the mkvs I have via samba. Python, I'm unsure on.

Tired8281

Shield TV benchmarks somewhere around a Haswell i3, should have plenty of processing power for whatever Kodi addons you want to use. Shield TV also has comprehensive SMB support...you can mount a SMB share on the Shield itself, so basically every app can get at it, and Kodi also has it's own SMB support, so you can set up individual shares as sources in Kodi if you like. I think you'll be disappointed at the CEC support, seems to be rudimentary and incomplete. For the rest, I think you'll want to root, that should de-obscure the filesystem.

OssotSromo

Shield has an IR port. So any harmony or programmable remote will work.