So I hear that the US Mi Box is the top performer aside from a Shield, but that the t950z might be just as solid.
So I'm looking on ebay and Amazon and it's tough figuring out which one is the right one to buy. So I figured I'd come to where all the gurus are.
OR - if you tell me that I'm wasting money going after the t950z and should just get a Mi Box, I'm cool with that also.
Thanks in advance for any help!
The problem generally with these cheap Android mobile OS Boxes is not so much Hardware but really poor device Firmware support, with such Firmware having a bunch of bugs.
Then there is the Air Mouse - remote control Apps requirement which makes Apps a lot harder to use on a TV screen vs Android TV. Non Tech users should run for the hills if needing to use an Air Mouse !
There are some pretty decent unofficial Android TV ROM's for some boxes, built on top of bug busted Android 6.x / 7.1 Firmware.
You will never get Chromecasting on such devices because Google only issue keys for that feature with official Android TV licences.
DRM and HDCP for 1080p Netflix, HBO etc. is usually missing as well unless you look for certain MECOOL, MINIX or WeTek devices.
However there is one company that actually has a snappy Android Mobile/tablet OS device and that is MINIX with their U9-H.
It's tablet Android 6.x Firmware is superior vs all other tablet Android devices on the market - you pay for it as well.
The AMLogic S912 chipset in that U9 device is quicker than a S905X Mi Box.
For mixed 1080p / 4K HDR10 local user content U9 video playback, using Kodi as an example. Is actually superior to the NVIDIA Shield because SDR / HDR10 auto colorspace switching works properly. The underlying AMLogic Linux / Android Kernel handles all the autoswitching, completely independent of the Android OS. And you also get working HDR10 > SDR which the Shield also lacks.
This forum is for Android TV boxes. I doubt you will get much feedback here for junk boxes from Amazon/eBay.
Do you like Chromecast? Netflix and Youtube in HD? Apps that can be easily navigated with a remote instead of a clunky mouse/keyboard? Decent hardware / software support? If so, avoid stuff like the t950z and all its junky Chinese cousins