2016 Best Android Kodi TV box?

[AJB88]

Hi All,

The usual story, I Currently have SKY TV, Virtually the full package (Entertainment extra, Sky Sports, HD) I also have Fibre connection and anytime calls with them, I was lucky last year and tried my luck and got 50% off but I'm getting sick of it now. I'm a big football fan and find there is hardly any football on these days, my team (West Ham) were on BT Sports twice last week and I had to watch a steam.

Luckily my contract is due next month and I'm going to bin it off completely, I hardly watch TV (I've got a Firestick for watching stuff upstairs) but the missus watches cr4p.

So I'm thinking of doing the following, Binning off Sky for all my services.

1. Getting Fibre and Phone with somebody like BT,Plusnet or Talk Talk (I want a Fibre 2 connection 50mb+)
2. Buying a Freesat HD box to replace SKY box so she can download her cr4p
3. Android HD or 4K box so I can watch football

So what is currently the best box out there and best seller? Can I use a 4K box on non 4K TV?

[techguyone]

You'll need an Android box for this setup (I know you can put Kodi on your phone or tablet, but you'll drive yourself mad trying to work the UI on that size of screen)
I'm also going to dismiss the various sticks too (they have their place, but not in this guide)
Ok so it's a box you need, but which one?

This is entirely determined by your budget, but for me I'll showcase these ones at two different price points as good examples of what you should be looking for.

· Pricepoint 1 £40-50 Box: M8S http://tinyurl.com/q74hfxc

· Pricepoint 2 £100 Box: MINIX Neo X8-H Plus http://tinyurl.com/q3slnmm


Don't worry too much about the Amazon reviews on those, the important thing to remember is the actual models as they've been proven on various technical web sites in reviews etc.


Obviously you can choose your own box, but you won't go far wrong with either of those two models suggested. (I have the Minix Neo X8-H Plus)

• *You're looking for a minimum of Quad Core & 2 GB of RAM***

Please just try and avoid anything that is advertised as 'fully loaded' you'll invariably finish up paying double for what you'll end up doing yourself here. I also chose to go with using Amazon as the supplier purely because if there is any difficulties, their resolution service is second to none, if you go with EBay/AliExpress/bloke down the pub there's a high chance you won't be getting the real deal /may run into problems or be waiting for six weeks for it to arrive.

Keyboard/Mouse
-
Again there's a dizzying array of choices out there, I can only tell you what I've used & how I've found it to use.
You may well find that the box you get will come with a basic Air-mouse, mine came with two! But neither were much good.

I'll recommend this Air-mouse/Keyboard remote:
Measy RC11 - http://tinyurl.com/pph6p4b
You work it in a way that's similar to using a Wii controller, but it also has a full QWERTY keyboard too (you'll need this more than you realise)

Keys to remember for future use include:-

· Page Up/Down (going through TV Guide screen by screen)
· C (for Context, keyboard equivalent of a Menu button)
· I (information) Used in things like TV Guide for program details
· Esc (equivalent of the Android 'Back' button)
· Double clicking the 'green android' button locks the mouse mode on

Android remote apps (yes you can control your box via your phone too)
-
To my mind there are two contenders here:-
· Yatse (I use this) http://tinyurl.com/c7obfmz

· Kore It's made by Kodi http://tinyurl.com/kk7ptop

Look at this video to show you how to set up Kodi for remote access:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cYcc1rNk90

Placement/Connection
-
You'll need a power outlet & be able to site it close to your TV as it'll be connected by HDMI cable. Most boxes offer both Wireless & Wired connections to the Internet. If you can, always choose wired. Invariably the Wi-Fi capability of the box is far inferior to the wired and your performance will be much reduced if you choose Wi-Fi.
Powerline adaptors to get you Ethernet connectivity closer to the box are more preferable than using Wi-Fi.
If you have no choice but to use Wi-Fi, don't be terribly surprised if your experience is less than pleasant.

Internet Speed
-
Remember that you're ideally streaming Full HD information to your TV over your Internet connection, plus using whatever other connected devices are in your household too (PC's/Tablets/Phones etc)
I don't like to put a hard number on things but you may need to increase your Internet package to cope. The only way you'll know for sure is to see how you fare with buffering/viewability & your other household user's experiences when the box is running.

[Altrezia]

I have the v1 of this and it's ace.

https://osmc.tv/vero/

[weeboot]

Altrezia said:

I have the v1 of this and it's ace.

https://osmc.tv/vero/

I couldn't get on with the UI with OSMC, having used XBMC/Kodi.. Perhaps I should revisit.

[Altrezia]

weeboot said:

I couldn't get on with the UI with OSMC, having used XBMC/Kodi.. Perhaps I should revisit.

Err, it *is* kodi (just with a few pre-installed add-ons). You can use all the same themes/skins so just switch it to one you prefer.

[weeboot]

Altrezia said:

Err, it *is* kodi (just with a few pre-installed add-ons). You can use all the same themes/skins so just switch it to one you prefer.

It's *based*, in part, on Kodi.
The UI is very different, or at least it was when I last looked at it.

[AJB88]

Bit the bullet and bought the M8S, its due to be delivered in next few hours (Amazon prime)

Currently watching something on Kodi on my Nexus 9.. connected to TV via Chromecast and its doing pretty well so hoping the wired connection will be even better.

[Altrezia]

weeboot said:

It's *based*, in part, on Kodi.
The UI is very different, or at least it was when I last looked at it.

That's just the skin. You can install the default Kodi skin and it's literally kodi.

[HaplessBoyLard]

Just install kodi on your fire TV stick. There's plenty of guides out there.

https://seo-michael.co.uk/tutorial-how-to-install-...

[vladcjelli]

One of the better playlists, Rockcrusher on Phoenix, appears to have been taken down. Also, 1channel seems to be empty.

Have we seen the beginning of the end of streaming via kodi and similar? Will someone else rise up and fill the gap?

[HaplessBoyLard]

vladcjelli said:

One of the better playlists, Rockcrusher on Phoenix, appears to have been taken down. Also, 1channel seems to be empty.

Have we seen the beginning of the end of streaming via kodi and similar? Will someone else rise up and fill the gap?

Rockcrusher's links got taken down by bots. He put them back on, but they got attacked again so he just gave up. Apparently.

Addons come and go. Genesis was number one for ages, but that's more or less dead now from what I can see. The developers are working on something new.

I'm not struggling to find things I want to watch, but rockcrusher was good.

[_Rich_]

Just got kodi, but struggling to work it, it keeps coming up with 'using 16.0 alpha2 while 16.0 rc3 is available'. So I try and update but that tells me I have the latest version. Any experts able to help.
Also what add ons should I download?, I currently have the majority mentioned above which as said no longer work.

Thanks for any help

[HaplessBoyLard]

_Rich_ said:

Just got kodi, but struggling to work it, it keeps coming up with 'using 16.0 alpha2 while 16.0 rc3 is available'. So I try and update but that tells me I have the latest version. Any experts able to help.
Also what add ons should I download?, I currently have the majority mentioned above which as said no longer work.

Thanks for any help

What do you want to watch?

Phoenix is still excellent for TV and movies.

SALTS, velocity, entertainment hub and navi X are all good too, if a little more hit and miss with quality and dead links.

If you want football, then NJM soccer, operation robocop, UK turks, or sports devil are all good. Phoenix also had sports in the woody and Valhalla sections.

Other sorts are easily found through those add ons too.

[AJB88]

Watched a few movies on Phoenix Tried watching the football the other day and it was very poor picture, then found an almost perfect stream on sunday for united vs cheslea.

I was hoping to get Dolce sport from Romania to watch Dinamo Bucuresti matche, I find Dolce on Navi X but it just buffers like hell.

[HaplessBoyLard]

You'll find the best quality football streams on NJM soccer, operation RoboCop and in the Valhalla section of phoenix under live TV.

They're the ones I use and I always have HD streams.

For European leagues you'll probably find the games in sorts devil, but quality will vary.

[AJB88]

Found a HD stream for Hammers vs Liverpool last night but it buffered every few seconds so had to watch a lower quality stream. Suspect it was either high traffic on server or server is poor as I have a strong Fibre connection.

[Russ35]

Woody also gone from Phoenix now

[hotchy]

Get one of they dream box things. Just uses internet to unscramble sky then no buffering unlike streams. (no iv not got one, theres massive trees out the back that block all signal)

[pc.iow]

This little lot works a treat.
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/processor-microcontr...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131727080079
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/plug-in-power-supply...
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/development-board-en...
Less than £45 all in.