Best Android or other TV service box

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El Cid
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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby El Cid » Mon Oct 08, 2018 9:11 pm

A lot of TV remotes have that facility where you point it at the screen. Also many remotes for other devices have speech recognition which can be really useful compared to typing in a search command.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby fyfin » Sat Oct 13, 2018 4:32 pm

I have bought 3 of these for myself and for friends and so far no problems. Maybe I've been lucky but at under €30 with free delivery from Madrid and turning up in 2 days it's worth a gamble. They're called TX3PRO and I got them on Ebay.es . Then load them with whatever apps you want. I use Showbox for movies and tv box sets and TVTAP for all the varous TV Channels.
https://www.ebay.es/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... 4&_sacat=0
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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby markwilding » Sat Oct 13, 2018 6:22 pm

I have never been a fan of these Android boxes but obviously others use them and are happy with them
When I have tried to use some of these unofficial apps, I get enough buffering with live channels or sport to put me off. The occasional times I watch a film, I get no problems, although I could never enjoy watching one of those which have been recorded with a cam in a cinema.


Do you get these problems and can live with them or have I been unlucky and you are able to watch TV with little buffering?

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby gerrynag » Sat Oct 13, 2018 7:49 pm

Normally buffering is down to the speed on your internet connection. However, you can reduce the chance of getting it by buying Android box with a bigger memory.
My android box worked fine in the UK with very little buffering, but my Virgin Media had 100Mb average speed, here it didn't work very well, as speed was less than 10Mb. However, bought a new box with a higher spec, (faster processor, more RAM, etc), and it worked much better. Not perfect, but not bad.
I tend to use Kodi for films and box sets, which is what I mainly watch.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby El Cid » Sat Oct 13, 2018 8:17 pm

Sometimes it can be congestion at the server. I use Internet radio a lot, usually through Amazon Echo but I have used other boxes. My connection is about 35mb so that shouldn’t be a problem, but BBC Radio is the worst culprit especially around breakfast time.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby gerrynag » Sat Oct 13, 2018 9:28 pm

The Internet is a bit like a water pipe, (well multiple pipes in parallel), in that the narrowest part causes the most restriction. However, with something like Kodi you can always try a different stream, which will use a different path and server. This will indict if it is a server or something more fundermental like the download speed.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby markwilding » Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:43 am

I have 350 mb so speed shouldn't be a problem.
Kodi for films is fine but live TV and sports is annoying so I prefer to pay to get good streams.
I use my brother's account for SKY on the PS4 and can watch in HD with almost no buffering.
Bein sports in Spain has the champions League for a tenner a month and no contract so I usually take it out about 6 months a year.
The only problem is for Southampton matches I have to watch on suspect streams when they aren't on Sky and tend to use a mini PC stick which is permanently in the back of the TV.

El Cid wrote:Sometimes it can be congestion at the server. I use Internet radio a lot, usually through Amazon Echo but I have used other boxes. My connection is about 35mb so that shouldn’t be a problem, but BBC Radio is the worst culprit especially around breakfast time.

Sid
If I get problems with the main BBC stream, I ask it to open either TuneIn or Radio Player
What do you think of the echo?

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby El Cid » Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:18 pm

Yes, I find TuneIn to be the best, but even that drops out occasionally.

What do I think of the Echo?? Not bad for the price, but I only normally use it in the bedroom to listen to the Today programme or late night. Sound quality is not brilliant. I prefer my JBL portable speaker streaming from my phone.

I will be ordering an Apple Hub next week when it becomes available in Spain. That makes it easy to access my Apple Music subscription. Apparently the sound quality is astonishingly good, but it needs to be at that price.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby gerrynag » Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:26 pm

I have Sonos speakers around the house and listen to radio via the TuneIn app on those. Sound quality from the Sonos is very good and don't get many drop outs, in spite of my slow Internet speed.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby firsttango » Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:50 pm

When going for a portable bluetooth speaker you can't really go wrong with the Ultimate Ears Boom 2, it's sound quality and room filling volume knocks the Amazon Echo for six imo. Got mine on a whim (whilst waiting for the Apple Home Pod to be available) from Buena Buy for an amazingly cheap 75€ all in price delivered from HongKong in 6 days. (130 on Amazon).

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby markwilding » Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:51 pm

I have a Spotify account so Amazon suits me. I agree for listening to music, it's not fantastic but for radio it's fine. The echo is connected to my HiFi set up and for me then it is good enough.
I have bought some Hue bulbs and a nest thermostat as well to compliment it.
I also bought the little dot and that definitely needs a separate speaker.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby fyfin » Sun Oct 14, 2018 4:04 pm

I have a 1.9mtr dish and a Gigablue quad plus box with a terabyte hard disk so can watch / record all UK freesat programmes BBC1 ITV etc. However, I use my android box for box sets and films using the showbox app and there is an app TVTAP which streams UK and other country TV channels free. I also use my Samsung Smart TV with an app SmartIPTV and a subscription to an IPTV provider which costs a €100 p.a. and you get all the sports channels and Sky channels etc. I only did this to see how it worked as I seldom watch much TV anyway. I believe the internet provider makes a big difference as we have adsl as opposed to the many wimax microwave systems in use. I'm convinced that makes a big difference.
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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby El Cid » Sun Oct 14, 2018 4:39 pm

fyfin wrote:I have a 1.9mtr dish and a Gigablue quad plus box with a terabyte hard disk so can watch / record all UK freesat programmes BBC1 ITV etc.

A very good solution, but it is worth pointing out that unless you live in the extreme east of Andalucia, as you do, that is not an option.

Those of in the rest of Andalucia could only do that if they had a 4m dish, which is why many of us use Intelsat 907 which can receive the UK main channels on a 80cm dish in full HD.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby fyfin » Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:08 pm

Sorry Sid, I had no idea, I thought all of Andalucia would get UK channels with a 1.9mtr dish. I didn't realise you could receive UK channels any other way without some sort of decoding device and I think the dish points west instead of east. I know some friends had it at one time but stopped using it when they had to pay every 6 months.
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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby El Cid » Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:42 pm

Yes, the dish for I907 is about 90 degrees to the right of a Sky/Freesat dish.

Apart from a new receiver and re-alignment of the dish, or a new small dish, (typically about €300) there is no monthly charge.

The other alternative to a basic Android/Kodi box is a box with a streaming IPTV service. These offer a huge number of reasonably good quality streams but you will pay up to €35 a month for a subscription. As this sort of streaming is illegal now in the EU the availability of these streams may well reduce in the future.

Another alternative is TV from Movistar which they are promoting heavily with their fibre broadband services. Obviously this is mainly in Spanish except for films and programmes originally made in English. They do cover an awful lot of football if that’s your thing and also Formula 1 and motorcycle racing. Apart from their introductory offers it’s not cheap - we are into Sky territory here. I haven’t seen it but I expect the picture quality is as good as satellite.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby fyfin » Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:29 pm

Believe it or not I just recently signed up for the new Movistar fusion package which came with their cable tv. The reason I did it was because I was already with Movistar and paying more that this new package which gave 2gB and 200 mins National calls on a mobile and 100mb download on fibre optic (not here yet but promised next year). I now pay €48 per month instead of €52 and as regards the tv it is always perfect and in HD but what I didn't realise was that they somehow split the download with 4mB for the TV and 6mB for the internet so I have lost 4mB for all the other stuff but it hasn't made much difference and when fibre optic gets here , well we should be one of the first to be switched on.
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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby Dunflittin68 » Wed Oct 24, 2018 2:32 pm

Sorry for not getting back sooner on this thread, I don't get notifications when replies come in so didn't know there were additional replies. All the technical info on Amazon Firesticks is right over my head, I am a technophobe. We have one router here running two android boxes for two TV's so whether that makes a difference to the stability I have no idea but yesterday I nearly kicked the TV in :evil: It constantly froze every 15-20 seconds and threw me off the channels onto the adverts every few minutes, so annoying !!

I thought it might be the age of ours (about 4 yrs old) that is causing the problems but my daughter's in the next room is only 6 months old and her's is just as bad and they hardly watch tv any more because of the problems. We have been told by our internet provider (Fobos) that the speed of the internet should be sufficient to run two TV's and 3 laptops downloading so that is not the problem presumably. I am completely at a loss tounderstand the problem.

Does anyone else get this freezing and being chucked off the live streams onto adverts? We are using NetLiveTV and Mobdro apps through Kodi and get the same problem with both.

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby casita-bonita » Wed Oct 24, 2018 2:44 pm

I'm also with Fobos and normally have no problems streaming live tv. TVPlayer runs all evening without a blip. Currently looking at transponder tv which also runs flawlessly all eve. Hoolatv looks pretty stable also, but my Android box doesn't like their app.

More likely it is the sources you are using that are the problem.

Have you tried iPlayer, itv player etc. Normally they are excellent, but you will need VPN or DNS redirection to view these. A bunch of us here, me included use Smartdnsproxy for this service. Cheap as chips and super reliable.
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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby Dunflittin68 » Wed Oct 24, 2018 5:02 pm

casita-bonita wrote:I'm also with Fobos and normally have no problems streaming live tv. TVPlayer runs all evening without a blip. Currently looking at transponder tv which also runs flawlessly all eve. Hoolatv looks pretty stable also, but my Android box doesn't like their app.

More likely it is the sources you are using that are the problem.

Have you tried iPlayer, itv player etc. Normally they are excellent, but you will need VPN or DNS redirection to view these. A bunch of us here, me included use Smartdnsproxy for this service. Cheap as chips and super reliable.
Is Smartdnsproxy an internet service you pay for, never heard of it ? :?

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Re: Best Android or other TV service box

Postby Dunflittin68 » Wed Oct 24, 2018 5:04 pm

Dunflittin68 wrote:
casita-bonita wrote:I'm also with Fobos and normally have no problems streaming live tv. TVPlayer runs all evening without a blip. Currently looking at transponder tv which also runs flawlessly all eve. Hoolatv looks pretty stable also, but my Android box doesn't like their app.

More likely it is the sources you are using that are the problem.

Have you tried iPlayer, itv player etc. Normally they are excellent, but you will need VPN or DNS redirection to view these. A bunch of us here, me included use Smartdnsproxy for this service. Cheap as chips and super reliable.
Is Smartdnsproxy an internet service you pay for, never heard of it ? :?
Sorry, also meant to ask, how do you put a VPN on your TV, know how to do it on the laptop, very straightforward but never tried on a TV set?


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