With your eyes.

As illegal as a kitchen knife. All depends on what you do with it. A lot of free and paid services are available on it. But it's essentially a machine with Android.

may be useful for some:-

Then we get to the Army of AMLogic devices including the likes the S812-H WeTek Core and the S905 MINIX U1.
There is also swarm of cheaper AML devices shipping out of Asia daily. For a first timer its hard to find a decent, reliable Kodi Android device.

Its very common with dirt cheap Android devices to come with lots of Bugs and no after sales support. Most are absolute rubbish, using pump and dump Marketing techniques to seduce unwary newbie buyers. False product reviews are very common.

Both the Core and the U1 are running the Android Lollipop OS, which results in a faster Android OS due to modern ART Android runtime optimisations, compared to Android KitKat you get on an older MINIX X-8H+.
I would no longer recommend any expensive Android device running KitKat because of this in 2016

Quote:
You need all the after sales support you can get with new Android Hardware. I cannot stress this enough.
The best Android device support comes from the 3 Kodi Diamond Sponsors - MINIX, nVIDIA and WeTek.
You get what you pay for with Android hardware devices. Smile

24p / 10-bit / HDMI 2.0 from here onwards...a peek into the future...without a Delorean !

You will need a compatible 4K HDMI 2.0 10-bit TV to take full advantage of these devices.
10-bit Video gives over 1 Billion colors vs 16,777,216 for 8-bit, see HERE for further details.
Even though these devices can decode 10-bit, video output will be 8-bit only due to lack of video player Software support (this includes Kodi)
The new AMLogic S905 has a fresh out of the wrapper, Android Lollipop 5.1.1 SDK, new Linux Kernel and comes with upgraded 10-bit / HDMI 2.0 tech specs compared to the S812-H's.
Excellent AMLogic VPU Hardware deinterlacing when using the amcodec decoder. However Android mediacodec uses inferior ff-mpeg2/h264 Software deinterlacing.
Speed is a tiny bit quicker compared to a Lollipop equipped S812-H device, but with a reduced number of cores in the GPU/VPU.
HD Audio Passthrough is activated in Android API Level 22 Firmware and will work when Kodi finally supports it in Krypton.
As all this is very new, users need to be aware the Firmware is immature with bugs currently being ironed out.
3D MVC (half res.) is a mixed bag too.
Hi10P H264 Anime decoding is not supported on the AMLogic S905's.
Even bug free 10-bit video output is an unknown quantity at this stage, and there are Hardware Problems with current SoC's.
After sales support is usually a BIG problem with dirt cheap AML Android devices.
S905's can be used as Fast cheap, 10-bit decoder, HDMI 2.0 boxes for those on a budget. If you can find one with decent firmware they represent good value, just beware of the current bugs for full Kodi feature compatibility.

Phoenix, Spartan, beast. Just watched a screener of batman vs superman on salts.
I bought this box last week from gearbest but it hasn't come yet. Gearbest send your stuff by Belgium to prevent customs getting hold of it. I've had about 10 items delivered from gearbest since Christmas and never been hit with vat.

***+++ STILL AVAILABLE +++***

*CLICK ON THE SHOPPING TROLLEY ICON ON THE MODEL YOU WANT AND IT WILL BE ADDED TO THE TROLLEY AT THE CORRECT PRICE*

Description:
Mini M8S TV Box is a multimedia center which enables you to have the absolute best and most versatile home media experience. It is worthwhile for you to possess this TV box because it will let you enjoy plenty of HD movies, TV dramas and more videos on demand whenever you like with your friends and family.

Main Features:
● Amlogic S905 CPU is rapid and stable which can give you high speed feedback and smooth response.
● ARM Mail-450 as GPU of this TV box which gives you the high definition pictures and videos.
● 2.4G WiFi, offers a more stable WiFi signal for you to enjoy higher quality video experience.
● 2GB RAM + 8G ROM capacity, extendable capacity up to 32GB gives you more space to download your favorite apps and caches to browse websites, play games, run apps, watch movies more smoothly.
● Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity: Easy pairing with most Bluetooth-enabled devices (computer, mobile phone, keyboard, and others).
● Supports sync screen technology which can sync your phone displays to a larger screen to make you game experience more real.
● Infrared remote control lets you enjoy your wonderful life which the wireless brings to you.

*CLICK ON THE SHOPPING TROLLEY ICON ON THE MODEL YOU WANT AND IT WILL BE ADDED TO THE TROLLEY AT THE CORRECT PRICE*

A lot of spec for the money. Remember import duty is a possibility.

Where is gearbeast located?

Anyone know any decent addons... Other than Genesis and navy

Phoenix, exodus, live mix and Turks are all good

Good value, i paid £40 recently for my M8S which is the same spec.
Performance wise i am perfectly happy with it.

OpenELEC builds for the S905 should be coming out eventually, if not early builds already. Something to look forward to.

Didn't think HUKD allowed deals form China?

Ths S805 chipset was better supported by developers, probably due to price at the time. I know of one developer that will be porting it to S905 eventually. I'm not sure about this exact box though.

Easy Rev

better spec than fire tv?
also customs..£8 royalmail handling fee+ vat? im probably wrong

I believe so.

forgive me, but how would you watch new movies on this?

I have this box... originally tried to buy from Gearbest but it was "lost" in the post by Yodel. Paid a bit more a bought it from an ebay seller in the end. I flashed an Openelec build on it and it works great, I had a few issues with Android but it's really stable now with Openelec.

You can see the Openelec builds discussed here http://amlinuxmedia.com/forum/index.php?topic=13.60
and the builds are available to download here http://amlinux.ru/image/devel/

I waited a while to buy one of these and did a lot of research, Openelec was a must for me. For the money this is great

Correction... the one I have is the MINI MX which costs about the same.

gearbest sent me the wrong android box. asked me to return at my own cost!!! contacted PayPal they sided with gearbest £12.45 was cheapest option

Good to know it's already being worked on. Thanks :smiley:
There's no guarantee the MiniMX version will work perfectly on this box, unless it's the exact same innards.

​Cheers for the link :wink:

I bought this recently, it shipped on the 24th, will let everyone know how it is when it arrives.

Do you actually get a UK PSU with this or do you get a 2 pin one with a crappy UK adapter?

Hi all , can I ask if anyone can recommend a good alternative on Amazon the does the same please.
I have been looking at Android tv/pc boxes for a while but being new to me I find it a bit confusing, plus it would be good to get some information from someone who knows what what they are talking about.
Thanks in advance.

It's probably entirely unrelated that Gearbest are signed up with Quidco, which by a happy coincidence is closely related to HUKD. There are big differences when buying direct from China compared with using a UK retailer. In fairness i have never had any problems with Gearbest but innocent punters should be made aware of the pros and cons involved.

nice specced piracy box

What, scr already?

I checked sites before i left for work yesterday and didnt see one.

I love how this is basically a computer in a tiny box for £26 with capabilities I would have killed for 15 years ago, paying £1000 for something remotely as capable

can someone explain if i use apps like showbox can i use this box so its on my tv? can i use my phone as a remote for stuff like games?

Not a screener

Cold.
Reason: Gearbest.

Can I sideload Roku?

Anyone tried 10bit x265 content on these and know if they will actually play?

I've got an s805 which though fine with regular x265 content just can't handle 10bit.

When you say slow on Android? How slow exactly? Laggy or unusable?

these types of devices plug into the hdmi of your tv, you can play games, but the processor is not powerful enough for much in the way of game playing.

ordered the beelink p2 from gearbest it turned up and didn't work - they want me to pay to return it and it looks like Paypal sides with them - crap from China avoid!

No gigabit but nice price. Hot!

Presumably the 4k fire TV Box is superior?

Anyone know what the Wifi is like on this? I got a hacked firestick and its not great upstairs, but good you can put the unit behind the TV unlike nowtv

Will this be supported and updated? I purchased a Minix recently due to there reputation, build quality and the fact they support there devices....

Isn't this the same? £5 cheaper

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_324842.html

So does this have Kodi preinstalled?

Isn't all this highly illegal? Just asking as if it is I'm genuinely surprised how openly people are discussing it.

sorry to inform this is not a screener the oscars season is over :smiley:

I was considering the Shield purely for emulation, Genesis and N64 primarily. With a bluetooth controller but this be up to the job?

Voted hot but decided against it. Rpi2 still doing it's job however slow

poor quality cam..pop corn crunching sound effects

More like a never-ending wait.

I have a slightly different box which is usable but kind of laggy. My box has the following specs:

CPU: Amlogic S805 Quad-Core Cortex-A5 at 1.5GHz
GPU: Quad-Core Mali-450 at 600MHz+
RAM: 1gb DDR3

I paid £23 for it but maybe I should get this one instead. Can someone with the knowhow tell me what exactly is causing the lag in terms of opening apps, scrolling the pages and menu etc. Should I get a box with a better CPU or a better GPU or with more RAM?

The specs on this box is pretty good but no WIFI antenna with 5ghz support seems like the only downside for me.

RAM and CPU are both important. In your case I think more RAM is essential. 2gb RAM will make a big difference with this box. I have this box and it never lags. Furthermore, I use an ethernet connection rather than Wifi

10-15 day direct delivery is free. Discount code doesn't work BTW.

may be useful for some:-

Then we get to the Army of AMLogic devices including the likes the S812-H WeTek Core and the S905 MINIX U1.
There is also swarm of cheaper AML devices shipping out of Asia daily. For a first timer its hard to find a decent, reliable Kodi Android device.

Its very common with dirt cheap Android devices to come with lots of Bugs and no after sales support. Most are absolute rubbish, using pump and dump Marketing techniques to seduce unwary newbie buyers. False product reviews are very common.

Both the Core and the U1 are running the Android Lollipop OS, which results in a faster Android OS due to modern ART Android runtime optimisations, compared to Android KitKat you get on an older MINIX X-8H+.
I would no longer recommend any expensive Android device running KitKat because of this in 2016

Quote:
You need all the after sales support you can get with new Android Hardware. I cannot stress this enough.
The best Android device support comes from the 3 Kodi Diamond Sponsors - MINIX, nVIDIA and WeTek.
You get what you pay for with Android hardware devices. Smile

24p / 10-bit / HDMI 2.0 from here onwards...a peek into the future...without a Delorean !

You will need a compatible 4K HDMI 2.0 10-bit TV to take full advantage of these devices.
10-bit Video gives over 1 Billion colors vs 16,777,216 for 8-bit, see HERE for further details.
Even though these devices can decode 10-bit, video output will be 8-bit only due to lack of video player Software support (this includes Kodi)
The new AMLogic S905 has a fresh out of the wrapper, Android Lollipop 5.1.1 SDK, new Linux Kernel and comes with upgraded 10-bit / HDMI 2.0 tech specs compared to the S812-H's.
Excellent AMLogic VPU Hardware deinterlacing when using the amcodec decoder. However Android mediacodec uses inferior ff-mpeg2/h264 Software deinterlacing.
Speed is a tiny bit quicker compared to a Lollipop equipped S812-H device, but with a reduced number of cores in the GPU/VPU.
HD Audio Passthrough is activated in Android API Level 22 Firmware and will work when Kodi finally supports it in Krypton.
As all this is very new, users need to be aware the Firmware is immature with bugs currently being ironed out.
3D MVC (half res.) is a mixed bag too.
Hi10P H264 Anime decoding is not supported on the AMLogic S905's.
Even bug free 10-bit video output is an unknown quantity at this stage, and there are Hardware Problems with current SoC's.
After sales support is usually a BIG problem with dirt cheap AML Android devices.
S905's can be used as Fast cheap, 10-bit decoder, HDMI 2.0 boxes for those on a budget. If you can find one with decent firmware they represent good value, just beware of the current bugs for full Kodi feature compatibility.

for the price its not bad

I have this
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/ZIDOO-X6-Android-5-1-Lollipop-TV-Box-RK3368-Octa-Core-Cortex-A53-2G-16B-1000M-LAN-Dual-Band-WIF-HDMI-2-0-4K-2K-H-265-KODI-3D---Silver-353626.html

Had it on pre launch and at the time the fastest box on the market other than the Shield which i also own with things like this you get what you pay for, dont expect any updates you get stuck with it as is and if its rubbish it stays rubbish. My Ziddo is always getting updates, supports everything including HD audio which no doubt this doesn't. My shield updated to Android 6 and since then Kodi hasn't worked all the backgrounds go black and its been unstable and unusable.

genietv is the only addon you need

Price gone up to 27.70'ish.

Now at £28.01.

£25.98. price is for the EU plug version.

Sorry I thought it was called a screener if fined at cinema sorry my mistake.

Sorry but there is no screener of BM v SM.. There is only an HD-TS which is awful quality.

Gearbest.... AWFUL service... Good luck ordering off these shoddy people... And then trying to get your money back..

Gearbest our terrible at posting takes forever,

Im a total novice to this.

I've added KODI app to my Android TV. Then added something called Fusion to it. Is there any other stuff I can add. I saw something called Genesis. Is it similar to Fusion?

Exodus and Salts, forget Genesis.

Will this play 4k?

https://seo-michael.co.uk/tutorial-how-to-install-ares-wizard-kodi/:wink:

£4 extra on Amazon prime you get it next day.

Got the older version of M8S from elsewhere a while back and its been mostly solid but stuck on KitKat. I remember they shortly released M8S+ with Lollipop. When I asked seller for a firmware update due to couple minor issues was told to send it back for refund but decided keep it. Great for the price just remember it may never be officially updated.

Shh! Don't give away the game..

.................

How did you pay the duty?

Damn I deserve a bit of that wonderful life that wireless brings. Sold!

Lesser specs

to be honest, i can't remember - it was a few years ago.

You might be better off buying one of these Andoer Z4 Android from a certain chinese website for £48. I got one and it is actually quite good. It does [email protected] and has HEVC support. However it doesnt have VP9 support which is not a dealbreaker for me. And it runs android.

Why spend £23 quid more on a box that does exactly the same ?. The one in the link does [email protected] and has HEVC support .. and runs Android (they all do...).

Weird reply ..

Bought stuff more expensive than this from Gearbest and never paid tax

I would recommend Ares Wizard. Loads of builds and add ons in one place

Any UK sellers available?

Has 16gb Rom vs 8gb. Only difference I can see.

Nice analogy.... if 99% of kitchen knife use was for stabbing people. :smiley:

Only 1GB Ram but has gigabit ethernet

I got this one from them and never had to pay import tax... works flawlessly with kodi and youtube etc.
http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_232374.html
Also it does have Blutooth which I wasnt expecting as its not in the description...

The one I saw was only 8gb - and a rockchip model as well. meh. horses for courses i suppose :smiley:

Flawless so far, no lag and no buffer.
Using the confluence skin in kodi helps for some reason and I got rid of the bloat and only use Exodus and Mobdro.

how does this box compare http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01A33EVYY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1459284008&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=amlogic+s905+2gb&dpPl=1&dpID=51yi7--2z2L&ref=plSrch

how does this one compare http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01A33EVYY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1459284008&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=amlogic+s905+2gb&dpPl=1&dpID=51yi7--2z2L&ref=plSrch

Is it possible to get sports on these boxes? If someone could PM me that would be great. Could do with some help :smile:

if your getting £28 price on the link go to

http://www.gearbest.com/mini-m8s-tv-box-_gear/

and press the cart icon next to the uk one.

Dont forget your a to a usb cable

If you dont brick it within the first 20 minutes your doing something wrong

Showing as £28

Excellent Thanks

I don't think your using your box to it's full potential if your just using those 2 add-ons, total waste. Try installing a build that comes with all the latest and best add-ons.

Why am I getting charged £26.68?

Depends on what your using it for exodus and one or two others give you access to the majority of movies and TV that the general viewer wants.

Assuming sports is not your thing what would adding other addons give me?

From your comment your another novice. You can add sooooooooo many video add-on's restricting yourself to only two is madness.

Who wrote this ****?

"Amlogic S905 CPU is rapid and stable which can give you high speed feedback and smooth response."

I am a novice, agreed. But on the couple of addons I have I have not as yet found a movie or programme not being there.

If I put more addons it will still just be the same movies and programmes. Admittedly I am not looking for sport or porn or amine or things of that nature.

So if I add more addons what extra will I get when I have all the top movies and programmes from a couple of popular addons?

There is nothing on any of those other add-ons that I can't get with the 2 I use, apart from some grainy live TV, radio and karaoke.
All you do is lag the box with infinite addons that show the same stuff.

id advise going for a pre-combiled build. Apollo buid is lightweight and easy to set up. it has everything you could need (and no XXX content)

I agree, had the beast for a bit, and the black box (which was decent), but ended up streamlining the addons for my firesticks and they work a dream.

Spend a bit more and get something with proper support.
Had 3 of these boxes over the last few years and can't recommend them.
They have many issues that never get sorted.

Google 'install paradox kodi' and youtube install super repo. That's all you need.

I'll give it a go on a tablet and see what's what but I can't see it giving me much extra in the way of mainstream content. Basically if the blue ray, or dvd screener, or rip is out in torrent land then something like exodus will generally have it (for mainstream popular content).

I'll give the build you mention a whirl though

Stick with those two add-ons and you'll be alright.

I've just tried one of these for the M8s that I have and it's done what it always does and soft bricks it. I can recover it as i figured out how to do it last year with one particular rom that i can boot from, but i always get this when i try any of the M8S versions of OpenELEC.

Makes me wonder if my box is a clone and has some different innards i suppose ..

addoninstaller and look through what you can get, join a kodi group on FB & look about

I am using a Gigabyte Brix GB-XM14-1037 with a 32GB mSATA and 8GB RAM with OpenELEC.
The CPU is a 3rd generation Intel Celeron 1037U 1.8GHz
Does anyone know if this KODI box will be faster than my existing machine if I install OpenELEC on it?

To tell you the truth, I don't think you are if you are streaming crappy low bit rate rips with poor stereo sound. Kodi is meant as a front end for a media library primarily. Download decent full copies and you'll appreciate the difference.

would it be better to install openelec on this device rather than using android?

That's the problem with all these boxes, there are sometimes different hardware variants and when the wrong rom is flashed the inevitable happens. That's why I went for the Mini Mx there just seems to be one version of that that made by Beelink, Openlec ROM is working well with it.

'To tell you the truth' everyone on here knows why they are using Kodi for. To tell me i don't know what I'm talking about is utter nonsense. I've been downloading for over 14-15 years and since using Kodi i probably only download from torrent sites now and again (If i see a film/TV series i like i will make a copy but that's very rare).
Kodi is very convenient if you just want to watch something of decent quality and not bother downloading it, something that is glaringly obvious if you knew what you was talking about.

It wasn't really slow but sometimes kodi would crash and sometimes I'd get lag. Also took about a minute or two to boot with android, with openelec it boots straight to kodi in about 15 seconds. The main thing is that it's very stable.

I have Amazon Fire TV 4K and have been enjoying Robocop add on for a while especially the exceptional coverage of BT sport HD channels for champions league . But recently they closed down the addon and now I there are not many addons for what I can see that match that viewing experience from Robocop. Can anyone here give me a recommendation for a HD BT Sport addon that is stable and free on Kodi ??

Thanks madmal.
I am rather intrigued by the fact that it can support H265 videos.

Just one more question.
99% of the material I watch is on three USB3 drives.
The Brix has a USB3 port to which I have connected a USB3 hub and it all works from there.
Would the lack of USB3 of this Kodi box affect performance at all?

I have a s812 2gb box and running ps1 and n64 games are good! (As long as you tweak the settings and make it openGL) makes them look upscaled. When ever i used to play old games i remember them looking good on a CRT tv. But if i plugged a ps1 to a big tv it would look bad so this little magic box lets me relive old games how they are in my head lol.
It can just about play Dreamcast games too.

Definelty gonna try openelec on my box when it arrvies, thanks for the link

Note I have the mini mx running openlec. Not this exact box although there are some openlec roms listed for it.

Not interested in 4K at all, but how about 3d @ 1080p?

tempted to cancel my order and get thge miniMX version 1.0. looking at the amliux forums seems its better supported.

Still don't see an issue with that

Good plan! There are some resellers on eBay that are selling the mini mx with that exact openlec rom on it for about 50 quid, cheeky ****. It was dead easy to DIY. Im using the January rom, haven't bothered updating to the march one.

done, canceled the and went with the miniMX 1.0 Has gigabit ethernet and 5ghz wifi so it seemed like a good deal all in all.

thanks for your help.

could you link me to the rom your using?

Could you put link to the box you bought?

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_321410.html

its slightly more expensive but looking at reviews and forums it seems like its better suported and has frequent OTA's the last ota it had seems to have fixed alot of issue people were having. and the openelec support is there.

Don't risk buying from Gearbest. Ever.

best programme for these boxes is wookie search in YouTube,exodus,etc all in one place and they have a lite version your welcome

Isn't this all pretty Dodgy ?

This box is very slow compared to Fire tv
Fire tv 10 times faster

Tbf, you seem to be the novice with your duff info. A few addons is all you need to access 99% of the media available. Different addins generally source their material from the same streaming sites so adding more just creates lag and increased kodi load times.

Mb = megabit

MB = megabyte

Max theoretical usb2 transfer speed is 480Mbps / 60MBps

That plug concerns me a little, it's a shame it isn't USB. I bought a tablet once that had a plug like that and the top pin on the plug broke as it was crappy plastic. Would be ok if it broke and was USB.

Can this do dts? And showbox using standard remote?

Could you run a Plex server on this?

I'm a novice is this better than the Amazon Fire TV 4K?

Please advise

Thanks

in my experience you can't beet just installing a couple of android apps called showbox, Megabox hd, mobdro, cartoon hd. It maybe something I'm doing wrong with kodi but there's always so many links that's not working it gets too frustrating for words...

Can you run a VPN on these? Call me paranoid but I expect the shoe to drop on using these one day.

I have the black box build any one know how to update it?

I already have a fire stick, is it worth buying a dedicated box or will the firestick be ok to run kodi?

Maybe you need to read what you had initially wrote as you talked about a build with latest addons which clearly refers to inferior quality streaming. You just stick with that and your torrentz , mate!

Genesis ended 4 months ago.Use Exodus & Phoenix.As for the beast and spartan,their not add ons,their over rated crap builds.

I recommend https://www.entertainmentbox.com

Ordered this on the 21st for $36.99, don't know whether still an option, but when I ordered you could just choose one up from the cheapest shipping for free. It was dispatched 4 days later, not arrived yet.

LOL, duff info?? Are you blind, stupid or both?? Wellhung has basically installed Hub wizard and not knowing what the video add-ons are or what they do (some video add-ons have 3,4,5 different purposes) has one by one uninstalled each one. Anyone in the know (obviously not you) will tell you what are the must add-ons to have. Wellhung thinks by only using 2 add-ons that's all he needs and the other add-ons just lag and slow down the box, if that's the case go to settings and turn off auto updates so he can manually update himself (Use google or youtube to find out how).
Regular Kodi users will have a go to add-on, if the quality isn't quite there i.e watching TV series and it's only showing in 480 they will use another add-on to see if they can get a better quality ideally in HD (this is why you have different video add-on, something completely lost to a novice like you and Wellhung).
With all these FREE to install add-ons at your disposal you think you only need 2?? I use 4 different add-on for my Movies and TV series, MTV add-on, 4 different sports add-on, Food network, Cooking channel, Football highlights, Youtube etc,etc...... Wellhung is missing out on so much because he is a novice that doesn't know and you thinking he is correct makes you look stupid doesn't it, makes you look like a novice that doesn't know.

Forget all this rubbish and hassle with boxes like this. Just get yourself an Amazon Fire Stick. Good specs, fast, easy to use. Done.

would be all over this if it wasn't gearbest, a truly horrible company

For the life of me how did you jump to that conclusion that me saying installing a build with the latest add-ons refers to inferior quality streaming?? Best thing to do when you get an Android TV box is to install a decent build that comes with the latest add-ons (which is the norm). You have never used Kodi before i can tell.

Apart from putting kodi on this box; what else can you do ?

Ah that's great, glad it's working for you... did you not try OpenELEC-Amlogic.arm-M8S-6.0.3.zip ? This is actually a pretty good box then as it has 2Gb RAM, the Mini MX only has 1Gb however it does have 1Gb Ethernet, which it not a big deal really.

The quote about Fire Stick is nonsense. The only good advantage the amazon devices have over any of these imported amlogic boxes is that they support netflix properly.

​Agreed! I try different builds using Ares wizard. Pulse lite is good on the fire stick and run the heavier build on my tab.

I got one of these from Gearbest, and its great http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_282313.html

However I have a question (which I have googled but cant find an answer) I have added a 32G SD card and also a 32G USB. I changed the download path in Exodus for example to either, it says download complete, but I can never find the downloads on the removable media?
If I download to the onboard 16G , everything is fine? Any ideas???

At the moment, I just connect my laptop up to the TV via HDMI. Not really too difficult. What's the benefit of this box? Does it stream as well as a laptop?

​NPET MXQ Pro S905 Android 5.1 Quad core Media Player TV Box https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ALLTIPA/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_.t5-wbH1B7MQD

not voting either way....but some great tv box advice on here :smiley: remember YouTube and google are your friends....loads of tutorials and advice....had the mxq but just sent it back to Amazon due to very poor wifi connectivity....I must have stable wifi....currently looking at the minix u1....more costly but by all accounts, A lot better with more support.....

​NPET MXQ Pro S905 Android 5.1 Quad core Media Player TV Box https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ALLTIPA/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_.t5-wbH1B7MQD

That's a different model with significantly lower spec.

​And zemtv

Sticks are wifi only so make sure you have a decent net connection.IMO you can't beat a fixed ethernet line.

Loads of help and support groups in facebook and tbh there's you tube with loads of help

no, fair point indeed. i've always had ethernet for my box. it's connected to my NAS drive as well which runs sickrage so i get all the tv shows i watch automatically downloaded as well.

just nosing around and see that the moneysports add-on is now dead apparently ..

Could use ethernet to USB adapter with sticks. Not perfect but generally more solid than wifi.

Day 9, the suspense is killing me with all the Gearbest haters. Ordered quite a bit from China over the years but never from these dudes.

Not voting but i'll just leave this here
The Piracy Box Sellers and Youtube Promoters Are Killing Kodi - direct from Kodi themselves...

https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters-are-killing-kodi/

​is there no means of tracking?

Can you order in GBP? £££

Does anyone know if there is much difference between this and the OTT M8s box that has been flooded on Ebay?

Personally I prefer using a Zotach Zbox than using this. Yes it is pricier but the spec is so much better

what kodi build is everyone using? currently using Pulse but think it's ****.

"It is worthwhile for you to possess this TV box"

Sounds like something a Jedi would say.

I have been using Kodi for awhile now on all my devices but things are abit different now...

anyway I would recommend Windows 10 for movies apps ect now, its as easy as pie from the app store, I have been using Windows 10 apps instead of Kodi now (just simpler and quicker) and can cast to my SmartTV (depending which apps)

but HOT for this

Doing it all wrong bud.

Merlin !!

There is no screener of BvS.... only a really poor camera copy.

​these boxes cannot cope with 4k. they also don't have hdmi 2

Dont need one, but ordered anyway! Thanks Op

This chipset (the S905) is made for UHD content. It has HDMI 2.0 ([email protected]), HDCP 2.2, it can hardware accelerate H.265 (UHD) and I believe 10bit support too, not sure if it's partial.

Can these do DTS? My Fire TV G1 can't at the moment and it's a real annoyance.

Thanks :smiley:

I've never tried Merlin, worth a look into?

Anyone know if this can be switched off properly (not hibernate) from the remote at night.

I have a fire tv box in the bedroom and it bugs me that its on and using wifi while I sleep - i really dont want wifi to be running through my bedroom while i sleep!

Thanks for answering.

What does this compare like for power with the Fire TV box/ stick.

Is it on a par with the Fire TV box or a lot more sluggish like the stick

It's very a capable SoC (chipset), it won't be anything like the Fire Stick. Feature wise, better than the Fire TV too. I guess it depends on the Android optimization but these run mostly stock.

Just taken the plunge and bought one.

Cheers OP. :smiley:

What should I actually be looking for in a Kodi box? I was looking at the Shield box a few days ago and two on Amazon a few weeks ago (PM me and I can link you them if you like?)

What are the most important stats to consider? The two Ive tried in the past were amazingly slow and unresponsive.

Great spec for price , use stand alone apps such as mega box had and mobdro as well as kodi

Might of just watched a CAM of Batman v Superman, but not a screener.

Sorry, I'm a noob and have lots of questions. Be grateful for any answers!
It says it has an RJ45, does anyone know if it works well on ethernet instead of wi-fi? Thanks.
Also, can you install apps to the SD card if it's Android 5.1?
Does it use Play Store for apps? Could I put the Amazon App Store on it?
Has anyone managed to connect any bluetooth headphones to it? Or a gamepad or anything like that?
Thanks!

Which is the best option raspberry pie or amlogic box ?
I thank you in advance
Flash

Other products exist where they perform better on Wi-Fi than on Ethernet?

By a decent build you are clearly referring to a ready made build which comes with streaming sources, aren't you? Otherwise the builds on kodi.tv are all standard builds. Your argument about the best thing to do holds no water either and if you are such a Kodi aficionado perhaps you'd be aware that installing borked, bloated builds isn't the best thing to do: https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-and-youtube-promoters-are-killing-kodi/

I've just ordered this item from Gearbest. It's obviously a risk when reading the bad feedback from the comments on here, but there are 6000+ reviews on TrustPilot and the majority of them are good. I don't believe Gearbest will fake that many reviews to bump up their ratings... You get what you pay for, and if you want a cheaper Android box with good enough specs then you'll have to take the risk and pay. Otherwise pay more and buy something from the UK.

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/gearbest.com

Cheers

What's the benefit of installing an entire build, is it just to cut time, for the novice?
I much prefer the idea of picking and installing addons, rather than just dumping a load on.

At the moment I'm only using Exodus, Salts, and Pheonix. I see a lot of people mentioning having multiple addons to ensure a quality stream, but tbh, two correctly setup addons is more than adequate.

Anyways, heat added, even though the UK plug price has gone up.

Sorry, I'm a noob and have lots of questions. Be grateful for any answers!
It says it has an RJ45, does anyone know if it works well on ethernet instead of wi-fi? Thanks.
Also, can you install apps to the SD card if it's Android 5.1?
Does it use Play Store for apps? Could I put the Amazon App Store on it?
Has anyone managed to connect any bluetooth headphones to it? Or a gamepad or anything like that?
Thanks!

And some beer... don't forget the beer

Download "The Beast" add-on for KODI, it has all the sports movies etc all in one :smiley:

Gearbest has one of the worst customer service I've ever encountered. Please avoid them.

Gearbest may not fake that many reviews but Trustpilot might. They are well known for fake reviews.

probably time i adjusted the price accordingly for the UK plug version. but then if you've got a spare power adaptor, you can always order the EU version for cheaper I guess.

finished tinkering with my new openELEC installation as well. VERY pleased i've finally found a working version after all this time.

So you never used Kodi before and now trying to tell me about Kodi?? seriously??

Exodus is a really good addon

Thanks, do you know if it can do DTS from Plex, Netflix as well?

The passthrough options are there in my Fire TV but if I enable DTS output in Plex or Kodi then I just get no sound.

Does this have optical audio?

all free, Cinema4free , movies online... animewatcherx if your into anime... Hotdrama/Couch Potato Drama if you are into korean/asian drama and asiandramaunlimited for asian movies too

and then ofcourse there are apps like Netflix, Viki ect lol

Has anyone actually bought AND received one of these from Gearbest..... was tempted then stopped short of payment after seeing the comments about faked reviews on Trustpilot and also mention of the better chipset the S905 (which machine??)

Could please someone roughly explain me how does it work? I am a PC techie a bit, but just don't get this.. You plug it with a monitor, then turn on and connect via wi-fi, let's say. What's next? Can you browse web with it? Can you access youtube and so on? Where do you get the movies from, than? Thank you very much for answer in advance!

Gearbest ❄️

Hilarious m8. Well done.

Have this - great box no issues yet. Only thing is don't expect to use sky go on it as it is rooted by default. I have tried unrooting but sky go still recognises it as rooted

Its not that, IIRC Sky and a few other application vendors use device whitelisting as a means to control installs and compatibility. If you changed the device ID on this box to match a Samsung Galaxy phone, Nexus tablet etc then it might very well work. Some banking apps use a similar system.

Cheers - Was only going to buy this if I could ditch android and run OpenElec

Interesting.. I will have a look at this, i can't see it working personally though as if it did, a lot of people would have no more need for Multiroom.

On the Android version of Kodi I didnt get the pass through options, Openelec I do. I dont have the means to actually test DTS on a receiver.

Not sure why you want to use Plex with this, it will play everything natively from a SMB share, and also give you all the metadata for your files if you set up kodi in library mode.

I don't use Sky but does Sky Go work on a TV/tablet/laptop via TV Out? If so then there's really no difference.

From Sky's standpoint I can see why they wouldn't want to support these devices. Providing telephone support for them would be a minefield especially since some of them come pre-loaded with Chinese hybrid Android ROMs that could be best described as 'non-standard'.

Because SMB support on Kodi is crap IMHO and Plex makes things so much easier and puts a nice 'family-friendly' interface on it to boot.

Obviously I'm talking about home LAN streaming there and not unofficial internet streaming. When it comes to the latter Kodi is pretty much unrivalled at the moment.

From what I read last weekend, Amazon Fire devices are weird when it comes to DTS. They use their own transcoding system to playback DTS from Amazon Video and Netflix but the likes of Kodi, Plex etc don't work because those try to get the box to decode DTS streams directly.

Because of the custom codec presence though, 3rd party apps still think that the hardware support is there which may be why I get the DTS options available in Kodi (even though they don't actually work) but you don't on your Android box.

I found the vast majority of the issues with my M8III similar spec to this were due to the launcher.

Using apex everything was far more reliable.

Better off just buying the Nvidia Shield, the reviews say it all.

this or Jailbroken Apple TV 2?

Could you explain how importing via Belgium avoids duties?

Quick question what are currently the best kodi addons for sports content.

thx in advance :-)

Simple, they don't manage customs as strictly as the UK does and once the item has been processed by an EU member state then its fair game so far as VAT is concerned.

I've seen similar re-mailing happen on Chinese products shipped through France as well.

I wouldn't say it's crap but I have had issues with some Kodi builds on Android devices, like it can't find the SMB share and you have to enter the IP address. Works really well with my Openelec ROM, I can browse for my Windows 7 PC (used as a server) no problem, everything works super quick as I'm using Gig ethernet not wifi. I can stream blurays uncompressed with zero stutter even when I skip backwards/forwards anywhere into a file almost instantaneously. Only slight issue I have sometimes is a short wait while my server spins up the disk but that's more to do with power saving settings on the server.

Plex is just more clutter and unnecessary CPU overhead on your server.

It's not actually, I tried a few versions from that forum just last night.

THIS is actually the M8S box I have - it's an Amlogic S812, but still has 2GB of RAM.


Well if you were up at about 2:30am last night when I finally found it, I could have told you then :smile:

I used the link posted by madmal back on page 2 at post #21

http://amlinux.ru/image/devel/

I specifically used the OpenELEC-Amlogic.arm-M8S-6.0.0.2.zip version. Booted my box into recovery, did the usual wipes and flashed it from the Memory Card and it all worked fine and continues to work - i've rebooted the box multiple times and watched some of my local content and some streamed stuff and everything is perfect.

Hope that helps :smiley:

Smashing. thanks very much

I had to setup a local Windows 10 logon just so Kodi could see it over the weekend (Kodi cannot use Windows Live credentials for file permissions). I only tried Kodi SMB to see if I could get full sized uncompressed Blu-ray rips to stream from my PC to the TV over our home network but unfortunately I don't think the required bandwidth was there and it just continuously paused to buffer. I'm considering retrying it again over homeplug (the Amazon TV is on Ethernet but the server was on WiFi).

My PC's CPU is Skylake so resource requirements aren't really an issue but I did notice that the server CPU use was a little sporadic via Plex.

I'll prefix this by saying that i am really not a fan of Plex.. however i'd be interested in knowing why you think Kodi's Samba support is lacking.. it works perfectly for me with a library of over 1500 movies and 14000 tv episodes.. I run Kodi (libreElec) on an RPI2 with a MYSQL back end and have 0 issues.

I'm using an MXQ box Dual core t4300 its ok, would this be a significantly better unit?

Also worth checking out the ODroid-C2 - similarly spec'd to this, but can run a Ubuntu build as well as OpenElec, Android, etc (as well as having HDMI 2.0, 2160p/60 H264/H265 decode, etc). Think this is only Android/OpenElec? More expensive at ~£45 though

forget atv2 atv 4 can run kodi very nicely now

It was just a lot of hassle to get it up and running. I think you have a dedicated server setup like that then it's probably much easier but just to get it to see files on a Windows PC was far more difficult than it should have been.

Yeah, I would look into it and it's definately worth it. only time I would consider Plex is to use the TVs internal media player that dosent support all file formats.

Also regards your "family freindly" concerns look into setting up library mode on Kodi makes eveything so much easier. No need to browse files, you'll have a netflix type interface. All you do is right click on your SMS share and designate the content as Movies or TV shows... Kodi then goes off to the internet to fetch all the metadata and images for all the files in your SMB share and then adds a Movies and TV section to main menu.

Forgot to mention, sometimes SMB issues are nothing to do with Kodi but the way Microsoft implements file sharing. You have to fiddle folder permissions or worst case with null sessions on your media shares.

Its a TS not a screener :wink:

The 'live Mix' addon is good also.

thanks Spark.

Thanks I could look into that. I use a custom build at the moment that uses its own skin but I occasionally find myself needing to dip back into Confluence to make changes and stuff anyway.

In the past when I've made a post that's been rejected by a Mod, they say they only accept UK dealers based in the UK :-/

Great deal BTW :-)

All films/sports can be found in one place>> Navi-x
Livemix will go down soon as it is a hack of a hack of a hack lol

​It can never be £6 or £7 because postal services will take £10 first for the privilege of taking the duty!

Robocop is dead now as it Genese & Moneysport.

Specto is the new Genesis :wink:

Question. If you're just watching movies in HD do you need 2gb or would 1gb suffice?

Yes it can. DHL don't charge the same level of admin fees as the Royal Mail do. I got something last year by DHL and the fee was only around £3.52. It was literally just the VAT based on the total declared cost of the product.

Adds to the basket at £25.98. Ordered!

If only they all did that. HATE the handling fees, they really spoil items at this sort of cost if you get hit with them.

This is £30.51 on AX if anybody would prefer not to use Gearbest (and I wouldn't blame you for that tbh).

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/MINI-M8S-2GB-8GB-Amlogic-s905-Android-5-1-Quad-core-support-4K-Bluetooth-H-265/32633466780.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.2.IYsU6F&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_2,searchweb201602_2_9982_10036_10035_10034_507_10020_10001_10002_10017_10010_10005_10011_10006_10003_10021_10004_10022_10009_10008_10018_10019_2020014,searchweb201603_9&btsid=3bba724b-3f58-43fc-9bb9-607b56c301ce

Exactly. I have no objection to paying the UK tax on it if I have to but it shouldn't be a way for courier firms to legally fleece people on the side.

don't buy Chinese boxes/ After some months they stop updating.. I have 3 boxes which are of no use since we don't know who made it and where to get it updated

search youtube for Ares Wizard March 2016 - I have Pulse CC for Jarvis build on mine.

If it's daunting then stick with it, took me a few days to get into it, wouldn't be without it now :smiley:

you can also install showbox,movie hd ,cartoon network, and megabox hd all apk file (stand alone from kodi)

​I host 4k content on kodi. I can tell you that these cannot cope. T8 boxes and nvidia Shields can

It's less illegal than a kitchen knife. Don't believe me? Try walking around in public with one of these devices in your hands.

I take my Kodi out in public with me out all the time on my phone, No problems o.O

Would I notice much improvement using this compared to my raspberry pi 2 with openelec?

Back down to $36.99 for the UK plug option (price changes when added to basket).
Ordered one for an older family member, so can anyone reccomend a very user friendly build?

What's it like compared to a Roku 3 box or are they different?

The fire stick is a different processor chipset and is only 1GB RAM.

Yes I know,but some people still have it on Kodi.

Why is this?
with that code it go`s from £25.98 to £31.37?
does not make sense lol

Yeah, I also tried this. It increases the base price and then applies a 9% discount. Then you cannot go back to your previous price unless you close out the transaction for a new one.

That has happened to me on the Chinese sites before unfortunately.

better without the code £25.98 lol :smiley:

Sorry if this has already been asked, I have a Nexus Player. Does this box have any big advantages over the Nexus?

Can we watch TV via this box without TV license?

Or just buy it on eBay from a UK seller for a couple of quid more and avoid any complaints or stress.

Any advantage of having one of these boxes over using a old but more powerful home theatre Pc?

I love how people are still not smart enough to know when something is a cam.

As said above yes
but if you can get a good pvr iptv simple client and you will have all the channels you want and in HD no extra add-ons needed
Just google it or look on youtube :wink:

hot

(saved for later)

I added the code FBGBES and the price went up by $4 :confused:

thanks for that will give it a go this evening :-)

Just realised this is the less powerful version of the M8S which I have, purely used for Kodi to watch tv/movies :smiley: Works great compared to the Fire stick which lagged on Kodi with multiple of add ons

i went on to the gearbest live chat to see if they could fix the code and got this ..

"Our agents are too busy to sever you now"

They take their jobs VERY seriously :smile:

Thanks for the info.

Yes you can .. not having a licence doesn't magically make the television stop working.

Legally, yes, you're supposed to have one but if you know your rights then you don't ever have to get one.

I'm struggling to get decent feeds off mine.
Everything seems to have been shut down.

What? Watching "live" TV? That would require bending the truth which in itself is a criminal offence.

Just remember the more people the worse the streams become and the quicker it gets taken down. So sshhhh

Good add-ons to get are
Specto/Phoenix/Exodus/Velocity/PubFilm/Livemix/UK turks/Navi-x/DNA/Go movies & Go TV/Izle/Niter/cCloud/Sportsdevil/NJMsoccer and many many more :wink:

China and Amazon own online retailing now. Chinese companies even have warehouses in the UK that they use to ship products and avoid tax, thus putting pressure on other retailers that do pay tax. HMRC are too slow to respond.

Probably a stupid question, but can I install skygo and amazon prime on this?

Any one know if you can upgrade android 4.4 to 5.1. If it can how do you do it

Watching live TV in the UK without a TV licence is an enforceable criminal offence. You absolutely can get summoned to court and fined for this. You do not have to respond to any letters from TV licensing or let anyone from TV licensing in to your house, however if they suspect you have a TV and are watching it live, they can apply for a warrant, however they have to provide evidence. The summary of this is, if you watch live TV you must get a TV licence or if found out you will be taken to court and fined, this is not about knowing your rights, this is the absolute truth.

Streaming any content whether you own it or not is NOT a criminal offence, although once we leave the E.U. this year it probably will be made in one as we won't be at the mercy of EU law then. Streaming live content without a TV licence is a criminal offence and you face prosecution if you don't have a licence. So don't go thinking you have rights to not get a TV licence if you watch live broadcasts. You rights are to not engage in conversation with TV licensing and you don't have to give them your name or any details if they ask.

TL;DR

Watching live TV without a licence is a criminal offence, you face prosecution if they discover you watching live TV. Can't make it any simpler than that.

If you DON'T watch live TV then you simply do NOT have to talk or engage with TV licensing at all, despite all their letters they send you.

nice upgrade for my 805 cheers

Sorry if it's been asked before, but is it possible to put something else on here for media streaming purposes?

Currently use my PS3 for streaming from my PC, would be good to get something that doesn't need to have the files transcoded and can handle various codecs.

Which M8S model do you have?

Anyone if there are big differences between the S812 and S905 processors?

+1

HOT

I have the one with S812 CPU / 2GB RAM / 8GB Storage but this seems close enough to be nearly similar. CPU differences aren't huge from the benchmarks available.

Gave in and ordered one. I realised that I had some loyalty credit so it came out at just under £20 delivered. I'll give it a try and compare it to my current Fire TV if/when it arrives.

Hey OP,

Good find, have some heat.

Cheers :smiley:

You know I had a reply all ready to go and I re-read your response and I get it - you're simply trying to stay on the right side of HUKD by not essentially "promoting illegal activity", which is absolutely fine.

My point still stands though - if you know your legal rights, you do not have to have a TV Licence, but of course you are quite correct in that the law states that a licence is required to own equipment capable of receiving live broadcast television.


It doesn't require "bending" of anything because you are under no obligation to even talk to the capita salespeople, so you are never in a position to have to "bend" anything.

Yep I read up and they seem super similar, other than this having Android 5.1 rather than 4.4 with the S812, I didn't know if I was missing something as the processor benchmarks are so similar

Feature wise, this is better. As it supports HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2, [email protected]


I would get a S905 chipset box over a S812. The S912 should be out this year.

what a **** you are, have you ever changed the plug on a transformer before? I'd really like to see it if you have.

It's best not to try to keep up with these things. Chinese hardware cycles change extremely quickly because their manufacturing to sale mark-ups are low and money for them is always in the new devices rather than supporting a current model. Tbh I wouldn't really want to change boxes anymore than once a year unless its unavoidable.

Ordered thanks Hank

Thanks for all the info, I'm just not sure I can handle waiting a month for one of these to be delivered when the S812 model is available for £33 from the UK!

Hi Max
Thanks for the link I am a novice but I will have a look .Any advice would be most appreciate
Regards Johnr8

Surely it's not worth buying the S905 if you already have the S812!

Definitely

Are there any benefits of this over using an android phone with showbox, mobdro and a chromecast?.....just curious.

Hi
I was told there is less buffering on 5.1 and its a lot faster . Thanks for the info
regards johnr8

well in terms of progression, I'd naturally assume 905 is better than 812. more efficient processing ? less power consumption- stuff like that maybe ?

Yes.

I just meant if you already have the S812 I'm not sure the benefits of the S905 are worthy of buying another box that's all :smiley:

paid over £60 for one of these from Amazon gutted!

I upgraded from my S812 box to an S905 box to achieve 10bit capability.

i went for the Mini MX Ver 1.0 as it seems the beelink devices have a small following of tech heads. and it has 5ghz wifi and gigabit internet. Cancelled this order last night and ordered the one i mentioned. they shipped it out this morning and started to process my refund in the afternoon.

Now lets just see it arrive.

the 1.0 revision has 2GB

How much was it?

Can you download music albums on these boxes?
PS Google or look on Amazon for Droidsmart - great support

Cheers. I'll add this to my growing pile of unused tech

the first rule is to always buy the latest version :smiley:

The second rule is to always buy the latest version.

Fishy is right, it's a popular misconception that you have to have the latest OS when really if you have an OS that works you don't need to update it (Kitkat 4.4 is solid). If you really wanted to upgrade you can always flash a different ROM on your device (your TV box might come already rooted, a lot of them do), install SuperSU and root checker to see.

A good root checker is to run an application you need root for :smile:

I see you are well schooled in the rules of owning technology. well done ! :smile:

my own take on having the latest version of android is that it's probably a lot more relevant for mobile phones than these boxes. with these boxes, as riverdragon has said, the last good, solid version is perfectly fine and it's not necessary to upgrade because it's like you'll be upgrading to get features you'll never use.

Or to check if you have root access, that's what you do right? if you root or check if your device already comes rooted you install root checker.

I wasn't starting anything with you... But if you need root, you need it for specific applications. I don't see the point of downloading a root checker to check for root, when you can just install and run the applications you rooted for and if they fail to get superuser access then you obviously haven't got root.
Both will give you the exact same result so I guess it doesn't matter how you do it. :confused:

Matey said how to you upgrade from 4.4 to 5.1 and my reply was to flash a different ROM, check first if your device comes already rooted because a lot them do, install SuperSU and root checker to see (2 mins of his time).

If the device comes already rooted, it should have Superuser or SuperSU installed already.

No, my last 2 Android TV boxes come already rooted and i had to install SuperSU myself. This is where your going wrong, your just assuming something without any real experience.

I said "should" not "will".

Stop assuming things, if you have first hand knowledge then by all means share your experience and help others.

Aye captain!

Looks OK for the money & rooted according to a review here Mini M8S

Anyone know if there's a similar box with tuner built in?

Might be a bit delayed at the airport then...

Worth upgrade from a mk808?

Can I just download kodi on to my hudl, and then chrome cast it to my tv?

I'm guessing you posted that picture for my benefit to show it already rooted with SuperSU already installed. What about other TV boxes that come rooted with no SuperSU? Like my Beelink mini MX and my Beelink M18??


How would you advise someone asking you how to upgrade from 4.4 to 5.1?

i remember my first plasma back in 2002 , it was classed as a plasma monitor
it never had a tv tuner,
if you wanted that they were £150 extra
i still had to give my name and address for tv licence laws
could of said no as it never had a tv tuner
but they said its capable of recieving tv broadcast
was no point in arguing lol as i had a tv licence anyway lol

The law was actually changed a while back to remove the requirement for stores to ask you for licencing information. some stores still try and get away with doing it though.

I didn't.

Ordered one for the mancave. Anyone know of a decent android stick with similar spec to plug into a wall mounted TV in my lounge? Cheers in advance

The problem is a lot of these boxes come with firmware that isn't at all optimised for the chipset so while the hardware is capable of doing UHD and 10bit in it's sleep there's nothing in the firmware that enables you to use the capability.

Couldn't agree more, the more addons you use the more you're needlessly duplicating the same thing over and over.

This one cannot be rooted, bear that in mind if you like to tinker like me.
The remote is crud. Damned awful. Luckily I only use it for XBMC and can use my phone to queue and play movies etc.
I have the MX III 4k. I cannot find any firmware that works with mine, and cannot update it to say lollipop, or just even flash it with a normal rom without all the crap that this one came with.
I dont think I will buy a china box again, probably go for a roku or something more mainstream .

Thanks! Ordered.

does it connect to sky ?

Does anyone know why Genesis on Kodi has stopped working? I've tried searching Google but I just get technological jargon answers!

learn a little, live a lot

I had the Apple and Android Boxes. Both fab. Android is easier to clean out etc thou
Fab for new films, sports live etc

What's the difference between this box and say Kodi on a laptop/Tablet for instance? Sorry if it's a dumb question, I don't really understand what this box does and why it is any better than any other box

is there any benefit to one of these as opposed to just casting to the tv from a phone with kodi?

What a deal! Already listed, thank you for the promo.

Decent price

I have my own files in a library. How do I get KODI to show the last played file? How can I make it show my files like Plex?
Thanks

Thanks op just ordered. Anyone tell me if an external HDD can be connected to one of the usb ports?

why ?

no wonder why Belgium is in a position like this now

Nice find op, I keep re trying Kodi for the live footy nut always find it so hit and miss and then go back to acestream links for quality. I suppose it's just knowing the latest best addons as they change so often. Heat added.

Surely you're not relating selling on chinese goods to terrorism?

Hmm...gearbest, I ordered something from them at Christmas & the item did not get delivered or even processed when I checked my account, I contacted them through the website numerous times demanding a refund but didn't get a reply till last week and finally got my money back.

There's an old saying if it looks to good to be true, it usually is.

I'm once bitten twice shy, wouldn't be ordering anything from them again!

my experience with gearbest
ordered a doogee x5 pro from gearbest on a tuesday was delivered saturday for £33 i cant complain and i am aware the warranty is not worth anything :smiley:

Is the one on Amazon any different?


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Android-Built-Channel-Updater-Player/dp/B00WIDHWI0/ref=sr_1_4?s=receiver-speakers&ie=UTF8&qid=1459326969&sr=1-4&keywords=android+tv+box

Anyone got a good add on for 3D films?

2 questions - Which delivery option do I choose? What is the best alternative to this box?

ok I'm still using an openbox V5s with sky content in sd. am I right in thinking that these android boxes / fire sticks are the next generation? my subscription runs out next month so would look to purchase this rather than paying £25 for 6 months.
thanks

ok. so you need to know what happens if your item does it turn up.

I ordered a tablet early Jan. it still has not arrived. they will not act until 25 days have passed.

item still not arrived so they offered me HALF of my money back as STORE VOICHERS?

unbelievable. stay well clear is my advice.

good deal heat added , but id sooner buy from amazon for £33 ( which I just have) with free next day delivery and the box fully loaded . It might end up costing you this any way with import tax .

does this accept "IPTV" or M3U file?
thanks

ordered! will replace my firetv stick with this..fed up with it buffering and timing out all the time!

Hot for the price. However as mentioned by the other good citizens of HOTUKD, gearbest suuuucks. I bought a small metal LED torch from them. it took 6 weeks to arrive. it was only about £1.50 so I did not complain.

I am also shocked that nobody has chirped up with 'You would be better off getting a Raspberry Pi' *In mock nerdy voice*.

anyone know how to install play store app on this?

it says on the q&a on the website that play store is not installed on it. any idea how you would install it?

I bought a Doogee phone from them few weeks ago, but the useless Hermes courier tracking shows parcel as delivered even though "mis sort to courier" was the previous status before delievered and paypal decided that since tracking showed delivered then I must have received it. I hate the courier company with a passion Hermes that is.

I've had a cheaper android box and been very happy with it from Amazon, now I've got my head around the whole kodi thing I've ordered another one for a different room, currently out for delivery.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OQ35BOW/ref=pe_1909131_77697001_tnp_email_TE_AMZLdp_1

its says in the q&a:

By Phillip Mar-30/2016 08:03:20
Question:
Is google Play Store and Amazon App store available on this box ? Can I install android apps from the google play store and amazon app store ? apps like PLEX and Games Can I install apps from other sources like showbox, cartoon HD and Mobdro ? Thanks
Reply:
Hello Phillip,
Thank you for your inquiry，you need to downlod google Play Store and Amazon App store.Of course you can install android apps from the google play store and amazon app store.Have a nice day.

I'll be very, very surprised if this doesn't come with play already installed.

ok, further reading implies it may well have been lost in translation and they don't quite know what they're on about ..

"f wi-fi.You can install apps to the SD card ,it's Android 5.1.It uses Play Store for apps.You can put the Amazon App Store on it.Y"

I have a MXQ quad core Kodi box. No problems with mine. Great piece :smiley:

cheers

Thank you. Would rather pay more and get it tomorrow and also knowing an easy return if no good. Ordered! What these pre-loaded with as I am new to Kodi and just installed on my phone with Pheonix... Having a play

ordered. let's hope it turns up...

It was installed on my MX8 box purchased from Amazon. I am pretty confident it will be pre-installed on this box. In any case you can easily download Google Play via the pre-installed browser on the box. Merely google 'Google Play APK' on the browser and download it.

I can not download to either my SD card or USB stick, I can change the download path in say, exodus, to one of them (have tried both) and when kodi says download is complete, I can not find any download. If I download to onboard storage then no problems.
Can anybody help with this?

i know its quite a bit more expensive but would this be a better option http://www.amazon.co.uk/VicTsing%C2%AE-Octa-Core-Resolution-Pre-download-Entertainment/dp/B01BEVTBSA?ie=UTF8&ref_=gbps_img_s-3_8407_1d6884bd&smid=A1598VULVVKBAL

What's this like for running local media off a HD? Does it run HD files off exfat, and high-bit files from camcorders etc.?

Thanks!

So your happy just to use Exodus and Mobdro on Kodi and nothing else (something both Wellhung and chocci thinks are acceptable), i personally think it's a waste with some many add-ons at your disposal. For example I'm using an add-on right now that only plays 1080 movies, an add-on that play TV episodes with one click mostly in HD (for the newer TV episodes) without clicking link after link (Something lost if your only using just 2 add-ons). I'm quite partial to the Food network i think that's got some great videos on that (15 different TV shows), i like watching Football highlights add-on so I'm up to date with the football home and away, etc,etc.......
If your more experience Kodi user you can disable auto update and manually update your favourite add-ons which helps with lag also you can select which sources that work so that speeds up load times. Both Wellhung and chocci are novices and inexperience, blind leading the blind.

I have read the last 26 pages and i am still none the wiser :neutral_face:

Wookie on Kodi, on laptop and Sony TV, works well.
Did i read Android has split from Kodi?
What repercussions would there be for TVs running android?
Sony are not known for elongated product support are they??:confused:

I was wondering what was the catch... and then I realized the WiFi only works on 2.4 Ghz. That's a massive deal breaker unless you are going to hard wire this.

Does this work with only 32gb expansion as per the website linked?

Lol, you can add me to this list also lol.

I hope this helps :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dot0wq3vxX8

How does one delete unused add ons from Kodi?

Hukd. Hot UK Deals. So why are you making dodgy website deals, from abroad as 'picks'?

Amazing deal

With respect: you haven't bought this box or any other box with same 2GB RAM spec etc from Amazon for £33 delivered ex-UK. You have purchased a lesser option, although it may suit your individual requirements. If you want a cheap fully loaded S905 box delivered ex-UK you can find them for circa £26 (1GB RAM) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182072371663 or http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201493929739 or £26.99 Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01B2E4ADU/

Save your money, but a fire tv stick or fire box if you need it hardwired, to many cheap clones that are unsafe to leave switched on for long periods of time and overheat etc.

I installed the beast on my box, Ive tried to use phoenix and salts but most things just dont load. I use sky BB, do ISPs block the streams? Ive also been using robocop for BT sports but have read that its closed, does anyone know of alternatives as good as robocop? cheers

Totally agree with Riverdragon. Spending a little time setting up each addon you use correctly is well worth it along with manually updating your addons.

£26.64 after paypal conversion this morning 31/03/2016 , still good price and deal

Just purchased, thanks!

If you think about it, it's even less illegal than your own body as, naked bike ride aside, stripping off naked and walking down the street would prove.

Indeed. Much more capable hardware and connections.

Wouldnt say the fire sticks are for the less technical. If they can manage to root them, install a custom launcher & sideload apps, then these boxes should be a doddle!

LOL absolute nonsense... you Watched a Cam / HDTS at very best... The HDTS by Hive-CM8 should be on now as it was released late last night... There are NO Screeners for Superman Vs. Batman !!!

is kodi already pre-installed?

excellent! thanks for the info

fire sticks have one big advantage a warranty thats actually worth using :smiley:

gearbest versus amazon i know which one i would prefer to deal with if i had an issue :smiley:

I got a phone from gearbest 120 quid , but decided to send it back , gearbest wanted me to send it back to China , so I phoned PayPal and they refunded my money straight away and said, you can't send a battery to China as there customs will refuse it , so "message gearbest and tell them to arrange pick up from you" , which I did , but they never did , so I got a free phone , I took in them and won

My cat always walks down the street naked.:smile:

Don`t buy from China they say.....
Yet everything they buy on Flebay/Amazon/Google is made in China lol

Last year I got a beelink it did not switch on
showed them in a video and instantly got a full refund
There is much worse out there than Gearbest.

Anybody know whats the shipping to choose from gear best? there is a few that state free shipping?

also used the 9% code and seems to put the price up, any one had this problem?

Played with this box recently as mate picked one up. Kodi preinstalled was still on Isengard/Genesis still a front runner, so dates it back a touch...upgrade was minor, direct via playstore so no issue there....but for its spec, its still somehow slower overall than a Firestick (had side by side) but that obv lacks on the inputs front - for £26 you cant really complain, its loads of bang for buck. Few quid more mind, i'd still take a rasb pi 3

I was gonna ask one of these vs firestick as well :wink:

Is there any way to get Sky Sports and BT Sports on this?

Which shipping method would be better? flat rate or Priority Direct Mail ?

Worth buying this if I already have a little firestick knocking about?

Has anyone tried SKY GO on this?

Of course it is of you want to use it for gaming comes with installed playstore and can plug a controller in via USB. Loads more options on this than a firestick.

Specto is the new Genesis
has up to date links/films/tv etc

I doubt skygo will work on this as the box is rooted.

As a firestick owner I was looking into this box as a possible upgrade, and I believe that the benefits compared to the stick would be:

-You can use a wired internet connection on this box, which is better than WIFI for streaming
-Better specs on paper (2GB ram for e.g.) but not sure how this will translate in real world setting
-USB slot - I imagine this would be handy if you wish to use a games controller?
-Expandable storage
-Support for 4OD, which is lacking on the stick presently

There may be other benefits?

So there are a few reasons to "upgrade" to this box, depending on your needs/circumstances. But of course, Gearbest warranty policy may not be satisfactory - thankfully I have never had to call upon it for my phone that I bought from them...

This ^

I was looking at another S905 box but dropped the idea after reading about issues with access to external USB drives. I think it is an Android 5.1.x bug. Has it been fixed?

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252392

Everything in most add-ons can be found in one place Navi-x
I do not know why people have a problem with it or they just dont know how to use it?
Open up Navi-x then go to >> Navi-x start here
then click Most recently updates and you will see thousands of links
Tip: Look out for Mazza`s list and hifi2007 :wink:
you will find everything in here first before any other add-on :wink:

Who expired this?

It's still available...

Suspect that is the lesser earlier version S812 box, not the latest and greatest S905 box as per OP.

Strange discount code appeared at the checkout where it actually made it dearer ! That's a 1st . But anyway after tcb it's about £24 cheers

​any idea if any of those builds will work on this box?

Ok so I've been doing my research about the legality of all this, as no one has really clarified it here. This is what I found. On one hand, don't watch anything that you don't have copyright of...on the other hand see below....Discuss...

http://kodicommunity.com/streaming-pirated-movies-and-content-is-legal/


Everyday we get tweeted of asked what are the boundaries of watching movies online and the answer we’ve always bounced back to them is that as long as your ‘streaming’ and not downloading you are perfectly legal to carry on streaming as your not breaking any copyright laws.

Well we just had concrete information that what we’ve been preaching is exactly right. Below is a statement from the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union) outlaying the guidelines.

“The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has confirmed that watching pirated video streams online does not break any copyright laws.

The ruling comes via a legal battle between rights holders and European media service company Meltwater. Copyright holders including the Associated Press charged Meltwater with copyright infringement when the company extracted headlines from various news sources and sent these via email to users.

In an interesting twist, the media groups suing Meltwater, led by the U.K. based Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), also argued that users receiving these emails should be liable for licensing fees, an argument which led to this week’s ruling.

Early court rulings initially favored the NLA, but the Supreme Court of The United Kingdom eventually ruled against the NLA, confirming that viewing copyrighted content online is not copyright infringement. The court cited existing EU copyright law which that temporary copies are given a specific exemption from copyright law. The court did refer the matter for further comment to the CJEU.

This week, the CJEU confirmed that the existing EU copyright exemptions for temporary copies applies to viewing and streaming online. Viewing or streaming, the court says, is different to making a copy and would be exempt from copyright laws, but the copies “must be temporary, that they must be transient or incidental in nature and that they must constitute an integral and essential part of a technological process.”

While this ruling provides clarification on this issue, the ruling may anger rights holders who have in recent times devoted more resources in tackling the piracy problem caused by the increasing use of streaming services. It’s worth noting that this ruling does not exempt operators of these streaming services from legal responsibility, only the viewers and users of these services.” – source http://www.digital-digest.com/

So as you have read you can stream to your hearts content without the worry that your breaking any law as your not! This ruling is obviously pointing at the EU so we are not sure what other countries views on this, but our EU readers can now stream in confidence.

Yes still shows as "200 pieces left" @£25.98

This hasn't expired, still available and just ordered one.

The odd film can be found here & some doco`s
Phoenix - One242415 - Imax :wink:

Which delivery method do I choose?
I chose:
Priority Direct Mail
7 - 15 business days
£0.00 (60% off)


British Direct Express

Is this ok?

Could you possibly expand on this please and be more specific? Thank you

Thanks

Fusion:
Go to system/settings
Add-ons
Install from zip file
pick Fusion
xbmc-repos
English

In there you will find Metalkettle/Lambda/Kilkin/MuckysDucks/Rodrigo/Blazerepo and others

Given it runs Kodi slower then the stick, i wouldn't hold my breath with it being much good for anything above basic EMUs. You would still need to invest in a decent pad really which if your going to do...prob be better off with something like a Madcats Mojo.

eBay has 20% off atm, so any other alternatives or is this the best?

All good but that remote is terrible others do work with it

Price increased.

Would this be a worthy upgrade on a Pi3? Processor seems 900Mhz faster, plus double the RAM.

How far away are developers from getting a box which is a Sky replacement?
So has HD streams, which you can save and record while watching other programs? TV Guide etc.

I use my Pi3 for football and films but hardly any for live tv as i find the quality not great.
Another problem is my parents are not great with computers so something easy to use would be great. I hope this has an interner browser built in. Pi 3 with OpenElec doesnt and it is very annoying when having to load zip apps on via a usb instead of being able to download them via the Pi 3 and just install from zip.

At this price there should not be any customs import duty to pay. I think the cut off is £30, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I've purchased from these Chinese sites a lot, and only got charged duty when my purchase amounted to £70. Even then the duty was £19, and half of this was the handling fee from DHL.

Another note. Having purchased from both gearbest and banggood, I would easily recommend banggood.com over gearbest. Much better customer support, and they don't seem to post fake reviews on their website. Of you trawl through the gearbest website, you will not find anything with a poor review. Banggood seem more 'honest', and they have pretty much the same products.

Really not much to say lol

I mean it's good with Windows 10 you get the best of both worlds (Kodi & Windows10 apps)

but yes just search for yourself (if you have a windows 10 device) if not then I still recommend Windows 10 devices over Android (if Kodi were to stop working) due to the movies apps :smiley: seems to be more on Windows 10 over Android (unless I am missing something but to my knowledge that's how I see it)

and plus Windows 10 seems to be NOW getting alot of support from MS...

or i just use https://seo-michael.co.uk/tutorial-how-to-install-ares-wizard-kodi/:wink:

£15+ inc p&p is the trigger threshold for import fees, sadly not £30 https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

I currently use an RPi 2 with the Yatse app. Is there an a similar app I can use on this box to navigate the system? Thanks

The first eBay link you posted is the 1GB version but the other two are ok :smiley:

Thanks for the info. Good price at the moment with 16GB storage & 1000M LAN...

I selected British direct delivery and it has been sent out of Hatfield UK via Yodel. No import fees guaranteed! Will take 7-10 days.

I like to be able to use the keyboard on my phone. Makes things a lot quicker!

Price has gone up to £31.37 and now saying was 3-5 days when deal was posted.

Fair enough :smiley:

It's bluetooth enabled anyway, so I imagine you might still be able to use Yatse with it anyway.

Yes I'll second that at least banggood has some scruples.

Interesting read... just ordered the MX2 mini with 2GB off fleabay using the 20% discount.

Now to get my head around all this lol ;-)

If had a budget of say up to £60 would this still be the best device to buy? I currently use a raspberry pi2 with openelec. And how much better than my pi2 would this be? Thanks

Yes

I bought the better model as suggested by others (extra £9) - has more ROM, 5Ghz wifi and better support;

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_321410.html

what's the best eBay offering at the moment considering the 20% off. happy to pay a bit more to have it pre-loaded and ready to go...

At the end of last year I bought an MXIII - G TV Box Android 5.1 1000M LAN - SKU 135066203 from Gearbest, though mostly happy was a bit cheesed when I realised it didn't play HEVC. With it's claims of 4K etc just assumed it would, my mistake. Also it came pre rooted which was a royal pain as most of the streaming services wouldn't work on rooted devices and even after rooting some still don't run.

Another thing which is more of an Android issue is the Netlifx app is really unfriendly for remotes. I believe there is an Android TV version which is remote friendly but had no luck side loading that. With the ebay offer at the moment I'm considering getting a new improved box for each room (x4). But it would need the following improvements:

1) Must comfortably decode HEVC. If realistic up to 4K for future proofing
2) Do any come with an Air-mouse to solve the Netflix issue?
3) Not rooted, really what's the point on a set to box!

Anyone aware of a box that ticks.... the boxes?

NB. Don't need anything loaded, really you're better off installing what you want than having to remove haalf the crap the like of which came with my MXIII

Cheers,
Martin

Price has gone up now

,............

edited to reflect new price - still a bargain, considering the spec

Academic now but first link states 2GB RAM in header text summary and 2GB RAM in final summary text table. The single ref to 1GB RAM is buried in one of the standard marketing images lifted from an earlier version.

To be honest it was pre loaded with a lot of crap on an old version of kodi, I deleted it and installed kodi 16 then added exodus, Phoenix, live mix etc.

Look for a guy in YouTube called toptutorials he makes it easy.

Mobdro works fine on my Firestick.

Can anyone tell me where I would start in wiping the box clean and starting afresh?
I'm assuming all I'd have to do after a wipe would be installing Kodi and my preferred addons, or is there a few more steps I'm missing?
I've got a HTPC myself, and this is the first android box I'll have messed with.
It's a gift for an older couple, so any suggestions of a build they can't get into too much trouble with would be great.

These will all be cheap soon anyway as the S905 is getting replaced as it lacks the needed DRM for a lot of 4K content.

http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/03/10/amlogic-2016-roadmap-reveals-upcoming-s905d-processor-android-6-0-for-amlogic-s905-and-s912-socs/
http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/01/12/amlogic-s905x-processor-specifications/

Well Spotted :smiley:

grrr .. someone expired again but it's still available ..

Was around £25 yesterday :-/

Gearbest are ****'s and fraudsters...............be warned if you have problems you're left with an expensive doorstop, and I doubt that this is even good enough for that!

Just got one for £28.16..

It's been fluctuating quite a bit over the past 24 hours or so.

Not sure why this deal has expired. I've just got one for £28.16

Same I missed it too and I regret it but I'm 100% sure there will be similar deals as there are new boxes coming out soon. Just pop 'S905' or 'Amlogic' as a deal alert and one would definitely come up soon.

EDIT: Comments above saying still available at that price but I am considering buying from a more reputable retailer as there way too many bad reviews for my liking.

Whenever I click on one of those, it jumps back to £31.37.

I've contacted the mods to un-expire as well.

When clicking the shopping trolley icon to add to cart instead of going through to the main product page it will add to basket as £27.56. :smiley:

Has anyone had their order shipped yet?

My order is still showing as processing and I purchased on the 30th.

So it does .. I'll edit the original post .. cheers :smiley:

Thank you very much :smiley:

ordered mine on 25th March, received today. 7 days total to delivery via Yodal. no import charges and item looks good. I've not plugged it in yet but came well packaged.

Is this still the best one to get. Or one of the the similar ones also mentioned from eBay /amazon?

still available

I was so close to ordering this yesterday but didn't want to be waiting ages for delivery so stalled and then heard about the 20% off ebay last night. Ordered the M8S+ for effectively £35 and should arrive on Monday.

Mine has arrived, no charges on it, will update how the install goes later

Ordered a week ago and arrived today. OTA straight out the box. Firmware is also rooted. Looks very similair to the Beelink MX64 to me. Antutu confirms it is 2g ram (shows as 1.779gb). Antutu score was 34728. Tried Netflix, WSS, Kodi (beast build), Showbox, Beach Buggy Racing, iPlayer and a few other apps and all run with no problems or buffering. Several well knownapps that I looked at in the playstore come up as incompatable, like Sky News app, but side load and work fine. Others like Disney Infinity 3.0 side load ok but crash. First impressions are it seems excellent value for the money.

Try clearing the data/cache for the Play Store.

​I manually updated the play services app and downloaded the latest play store app from XDA as it was an old one on the box and wouldn't update automatically.

Bought one earlier for 27.56. Thanks op.

For those that have received there's - is it any good?

PI will be great. But note that it won't do 4k decoding, not that there's much 4k content out there.

Installed and had a bit of a play with it now, seems very good for the cash. Few points:

1. On first boot it installed an update, hopefully that is a good sign that it might get some more.

2. Google Play Services seems to be on an old version and won't update through the store app. If you search for it on the browser though you can send the update to it. This is needed for a number of apps. Hopefully once done once it will auto update till the next firmware.

3. When Kodi updates on Play store it doesn't seem to break any of the built in add ons. The add ons installed are not the best though. I just cleared them off and used the Add On Installer in Programs to stick Exodus, Phoenix, YouTube and Turks on, plenty for most people to be getting on with and all in the featured section.

4. Having gone from a Shield to this I would say more apps are available on the store, but you seriously need a mouse to use most of the ones that you can't put on a Shield.

5. Compared to the shield this seems pretty much as fast for most general use and has ran anything I have wanted so far. Clearly it is not the same class of kit, but for most people it will do the job for a couple of years.

6. The remote is ok, particularly if you stick to Kodi

Anyway, hope the rest of you get them soon and they all work as well as this one does.

Mine did that till a reboot after a few thing updated

What keyboard did you go for?

​It must have came from Europe but it didn't indicate where the warehouse was when I bought it. I ordered a Beelink M18 the week before and it took 13 days to arrive from China. For £26 it is a decent box. Fast and smooth.

Just ordered myself one. Cost £28.50.

Anyone had a play with some 32bit emu on theirs yet?

Went for this one I had bookmarked for a while.

hope it works

Question, who has checked the status of their order, has it been shipped or is it 'Processing'. If its stuck in processing like mine is I'd suggest giving GearBest a kick up the backside. My last order sat in this state for two weeks and it was only when I emailed them they decided to send it to me.

Thanks, I'll have a look at this.

People how have got there's already what it the wifi like on it as I'm planning on putting it in a bedroom. I've got a normal m8s off eBay and the wifi is shocking, probably a clone.

I've got this remote and works fine on my normal m8s and ordered another one for this box. £7.20 it was minus the 20% eBay were doing the other night

I managed to get mine working, these are my steps:

1) I deleted the current kodi Jarvis version 16.1, and I reinstalled kodi Jarvis 16.0.

2) i followed youtube video: "kodi - the complete build 2016" by SimplyAustin. I did everything from 26.50 minutes in, installing "Ares" program, this let's do you install other people's kodi builds which have everything set up, this is great if you just want a simple setup and you're a novice like me . Anything on the video before is manual install, but still worth a watch in terms of learning.
3) Update the App Store like others have said.
4) I plugged in my computer USB keyboard and USB mouse to do everything. I'm going to order an air mouse with keyboard for future use. The MINIX Neo A2 air mouse looks great, about £20. or there are lots of cheaper options.

No great surprise from GearBest, out of stock, 10 day back order at least. They offered two options, wait or buy another item. Requested that the order is cancelled and a full cash refund, not a store credit.

​I ended up using mine with Ethernet cable, this because my WiFi router is so far away (three floors)..I have had to use one of those mains adaptors which sends the WiFi signal through the electricity. This is so far is very good and extremely reliable. I haven't had any issues with anything not playing well.

Another point I'd add:
I used the Pulse build (for Kodi Jarvis), but I found some apps like exodus would not work. the simple fix is to update via: "settings" - "add ones" etc..

Currently using Ethernet on mine too

There is one on Ebay that is very similar for £7.49 admittedly from China but works great here

Anyone who bought this model had shipping conformation yet?

I got the rii8+

I ordered one yesterday, as the price of it was a steal. I already have a wireless/bluetooth keyboard and mouse, which I bought for use with another box, and is a Rii mini i12.

My order is still processing as at about an hour ago.

Prepare yourself for a months wait, 2 weeks back order + 2 weeks delivery if you're lucky. GearBest support have surprisingly gone all quiet since I asked for a cash refund.

I went for one of these from Amazon and has arrived - Going to hook it up later and see what it's like - http://www.amazon.co.uk/COOLEAD-MX3-MXIII-Jailbroken-Chromecast-Black/dp/B00OQ35BOW?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

How does this compare to say a pi 3? Speed, ease of use ect?

Claim already raised with PayPal but they aren't the quickest to respond either.

And only apparently has an S802 processor, so it's quite a step down from the one in the original post.

Hmm, and I am not impressed with it either as it's not streaming anything! It's probably going back. Genisis all bad streams.... I will hold my head in shame and listen and read a bit more I think to you guys!!

Genesis is pretty much dead now. Install exodus as it's the new version. Same guy behind them both.

very tempting :d

That will be why then, but don;t want to update if I intend to return.. Thx, appreciated.

It's not an update, just another add-on. Give it a try to see if it makes any difference. If you're still intending on sending it back, just delete that add-on. Won't affect your right to return.

I have found a lot of the addons scrape from the same places so you end up with the same choices.
I use it as a front end to my local media but sometimes I want to find an older or obscure film I have never seen. Unfortunately a lot of them show up as not being available when you try playing them and a manual web search is required.

Not that I use torrents either even though they are less hassle than Usenet and finding stuff hidden on ftp servers was. They usually don't have the stuff I want. It's getting harder to find stuff I haven't seen between Netflix clamping down on vpn/smart dns use and blocked UK sites.

''I have found a lot of the addons scrape from the same places so you end up with the same choices''
If your using lets say Exodus for latest episodes i.e Big bang theory or Vikings it been shown in 480. If you use SALTS you can watch the same episodes in 1080. Same goes for movies, if one add-on is showing in 720 use another add-on to watch it in 1080. This is one of the reasons why you have multiple video add-ons. Use torrent sites to find hard to source viewing material.

I think raising the case with PayPal worked. I raised it as an authorized transaction which resulted in PayPal actioning it within 24hrs. Then GearBest have agreed to refund and are referencing the PayPal case, I'm sure they wouldn't have responded if I'd not raised the PayPal case.

So having done a little research I may opt for a Raspberry Pi 3 running OpenElec, already have a PI 3 but may even try a PI Zero just for fun.

For my M8S it still says this :-



But for another two orders it says they have been dispatched (made on same day)



i contacted gearbest on sameday i made the orders to see if they could be dispatched as one order they still have not got back to me.

My reply from gearbest :
Many thanks for your inquiry．

I have checked your order, it has not been shipped.

Because the item is so popular and it is not in stock recent times, but the stock of this kinds of items are on its way.

Could you please wait for around 7 business days?

We have two options:

(1).If you would like to wait, we will ship for you as soon as they are in stock.

(2).I can help you to exchange the item, could you please tell me the SKU (item number), the full name or the URL link of the new item.

It is recommended that you choose the items which are marked that can be shipped within 3-5 business days.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for your understanding and support.

Best Regards

Gentry

Gearbest Customer Service

​going to wait , not in a hurry for it , don't want to pick a different one

Same here, I'm in no rush for it as I have another box I am using just now.

I got the same reply, but with a restocking date.

Option 1 Wait a little more
We expect to ship the item on April 15th,2016.
Once we ship it you will receive an email from us.

Option 2 Cancel and refund
In that case, we will refund you 36.99USD to you on your GB wallet(store credit) and reward you with extra points.

(e.g.If your refund is 1USD = 5 points,3USD=3*5 points => get 15 points etc).

You can use these for your future purchase.

does this support wireless keyboard??

Wow, that was a good hour or so reading through all 37 pages here.

There were bits mentioned about the few here who use a RPi 2/3 already but nothing seemed... summed up. I currently use a RPi 2 with Kodi and have trailed OSMC.

I understand the RPi 2/3 isn't capable of decoding HEVC x265 video. Apart from the advantage here and having the extra 1GB of RAM, will I notice a difference with performance?

Ordered :sunglasses: Now to see if it comes..

thats within salts just picked a random movie played fine

Probably pi3 much better if you planning to run only kodi for streaming. There are Linux based builds for pi which are stable and will boot directly into kodi such as openelec and osmc. Pi 3 is more stable as well.
Don't know if there are any real superior performance advantages in comparison to pi3 if you mainly plan to use for kodi

anyone's been dispatched yet?

BTW:Down to £27.59 just now :-)

I use Exodus,Specto or UK Turks. What build are you using & who is your ISP ?

Got through to Live Chat next batch expected 4-5 days as out of stock !!!

Just saw this as a pre-order, can this be hooked up to a dish?

http://www.banggood.com/K1-PLUS-S2-T2-Amlogic-S905-64Bit-Android-5_1_1-DLNA-AirPlay-Miracast-Netflix-TV-Box-Android-Mini-PC-p-1043432.html?utmid=580

For anyone that hasn't had a despatch notice - "We expect to ship the item on April 15th, 2016." ~ Gearbest.

Ordered last Monday 28th shipped notice received today

Mine has just been despatched as well.

I'm sooooo excited, I can't wait! :laughing:

this is still available at the price so i really can't see why they can't unexpire. good to see that some are on their way as well

anyone reccomend a decent air mouse that will work with this as I hear the remotes are pretty bad.

OP item £35.99 delivered ex-UK at time of post. Obviously zero possibility of import fees unlike Gearbest delivery, and will arrive quicker http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182081732649

Despatched, delivery tracking is a Yodel number, as they've used for a previous tablet order I made from EU warehouse. Hopefully here in the next day or two then.

Yes, infinitely better than typical Gearbest reviews / comments.

I'm assuming its because that Product states 'DVB' on it? .. as in Freeview Channels, etc? (which typically require at least an Ariel/Dish to then function well ..... ) :-)

eBay Seller appears to be based in China....

Has anybody else still not had a dispatch notification from these **** clowns yet? I knew buying anything from GearBest again would be a bad idea. :man:

Yes the account owner will be in China but they will be sending the stuff from over here. A lot of Chinese ebay sellers use local contacts in the UK/US/Canada/Germany etc these days to send things. Its usually a part-time job for an international student or an expat who works evenings at their other job (e.g. a chef).

If it says that it is dispatched from Middlesex then it will be sent from the UK. The only problems come if you need to send it back because PayPal will want it returned to the seller's registered official address in China/HK.

27 out of 1182 this month is less than 3% and factor in that a lot of people don't bother to leave positive feedback.

Also factor in that a lot of numptys buy Android TV boxes on Ebay these days because next door's mate's brother's goldfish told them that they're the best thing ever and can completely replace their Netflix, Amazon and Sky subscriptions with absolutely no drawbacks whatsoever. They then complain and start kicking off when it inevitably turns out that all of that is complete nonsense.

Looks great for the price, but it looks like it has a usb receiver which will take up the only usb port on the Android box.

Is there such a thing as a bluetooth air mouse?

Thanks

Stupid Question, but have to ask, Do these remote/air mouse have have a source button? presume not as I got about 5 remotes already . Appreciate could get a universal remote but never came across a good one.

Nice! Thanks. If it ever gets posted, then this box just keeps getting better and better!

Would still prefer a Bluetooth air mouse though so one USB could be for a permanent hard drive, and the other for a pen drive. Anyone know if a bluetooth airmouse even exists?

Bought on 30th and shipped yesterday....

Is this good enough for my none techy flatmates who are very impatient when things don't work? they can handle the fire tv stick remote which works well

Ordered on the 30th, still processing :<
Thankfully I'm in no rush.

like this? http://es.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-wireless-bluetooth-optical-Air-gaming-Mouse-A8-gamer-wireless-Keyboard-for-google-iphone-Mini-PC/1828762417.html

Or you could just get a USB Hub.

Cool, thanks.

Still waiting for mine to be posted.....

Just got the email mines on it's way. Hopefully you'll not be waiting too long now

Probably be good for a card sharing service too...

When did you order?

Still processing.

After tracking my order with Yodel, it states that my delivery estimate is on or before the 8th but Yodel don't have the parcel yet so that can't be right.

March 30th

If you look at the description and Q&A on that page, that is clearly what the DVB-S2 tuner inside it and the preloaded software is designed to do.

That's actually not a bad box for the price.

Yeah same here. It's taken them a week to even bother to send it. These Chinese websites are a joke tbh.

Dont use them then. Jesus

I ordered mines 31st and not shipped so looks like wont be to long as released the 30th orders today by the looks of it! Anyone gets theirs dispatched 31st onwards please post a comment! Cheers

I have a Zgemma and an Amazon 4k box, would be handy to combine the both. The zgemma kinda does it with TSmedia but its not as slick as Kodi. I know some of the more expensive boxes like VU say they do both but never tried them, cost prohibitive really.

Grr... I ordered in the early hours of the 28th and mine's not been posted yet.....

I ordered a mini mx 1.0 on 29th and it just arrived this morning, no charges.

I ordered one on the 30th and it was dispatched yesterday apparently.

Just a thought, I want to play telltale games like the walking dead but it doesn't work on my tablet, would this box handle it if I use a controller? I'm primarily interested in tv and movies but I finally get to play walking dead it will be a bonus :smiley:

UK-sourced items are dropping in price by the day! Now £33.99 dlvrd ex-UK http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182081732649

since my big win last night i might have to finally invest in one of these to upgrade my S812 M8S that i've had for a while.

With any luck, the version of OpenELEC i found that works on it will work on this.

Does anyone who ordered on the day this was posted, and got a tracking number, get anything other than this when tracking it on Yodel's site?

You won't get anything from Yodels tracking till it hits the UK.
More often than not you won't get anything from Yodel at all, but that's a whole different story.

Try 17track.net for international tracking.

Ordered 9am on the 30th and my order shipped today.

Hope that gives people a rough time line.

Actually Wednesday night.

How does this compare?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/S905-MXQ-plus-Quad-Core-Android-TV-BOX-KODI-fully-loaded-up-to-2-0GHz-2G/32638833839.html

Yes looks very similar specs wise, but for dev support I would go with the Mini MX or the Mini M8s as they would be more popular.

Also there's no way these boxes can do 60fps @ 4k lol

Funny you should say that but since i posted that last night, i've actually decided not to upgrade after all. As you say, I'd hardly notice any difference and there's no guarantee i'd definitely get a version of openELEC for it as well. I waited long enough to get a working version for the box I have so I'm going to stick with it. I think the only way i'd ever really consider changing it is if i got the new QNAP Nas drive that's a hybrid android/nas drive where you can install Kodi directly on to it.

Cheers will give it a try!! Appreciated

Cheers will give it a try!! Appreciated

difference between amazon firestick and this box??

I've just got my shipped email. Ordered on the 31st :sunglasses:

Ordered 31st and it's finally shipped.

I love how they plaster "JAILBROKEN" over the advert :smiley:

shipped ordered 31st , to those who have this , review :smiley:

Ordered 31st still no confirmation, I need more patience!!! guess wont be long now............................

shipped

I ordered 25th March, box arrived 6th April.

Unfortunately I can't sign into my Google account. It usually returns the error "cannot connect to Google servers". I've tried installing the latest Play Store and Google Play Services APKs but that hasn't fixed it. Anybody got any ideas please?

I've also updated the box to the 29th March software but still no success.

Problem solved: http://androidforums.com/threads/solution-cannot-add-google-account-after-factory-reset.695054/

Hopefully this helps someone else.

Now been shipped and have tracking number, says to check re British Express but link doesn't work, anyone know if should check Yodel or what website link is?

If you check the shipping email, there should be a clickable photograph of your package with a shipping label. Mine had Yodel so I looked up the tracking code there.

Orded on the 1st April, despatched on the 8th April.

shipped

Ordered early 28th, posted today. And that only after I finally managed to send a message to customer service. Swines. Methinks I don't like Gearbest much already...

I've also checked Yodel, says delivery will be with me by/on 9th April. (Today)

Although if I check the details it says 'will be with us soon' so they may not even have the package yet themselves.

Ordered on the 2nd April, dispatched today

Ordered this one 30/3, it arrived 7/4

Thanks, just been looking where to get the best info. This looks ideal.

Are they all the same seller? :smiley:

What's the "jailbroken" mean?

As far as an Android box goes, nothing. The box may well be rooted so they've decided to refer to it as "jailbroken" in an attempt to get the more casual users to think they're getting something more than they're getting.

That is what I thought. Which one to go for then?

Gearbest item if ultimate low purchase price is acceptable combined with risk of circa £18 import fees, effectively no warranty and likely 2 - 3 wk delivery. Or £33-ish for same item ex-UK via ebay with no import fees, some potential for warranty servicing and delivery in under a week, or the £40 wildcard ex-UK with ex-UK benefits and that might have 16GB storage, dual band wifi and gigabit LAN - or might not, as the title seems contradictory to description at http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152047760006

£33 deal seems, although UK seller on Ebay and UK location (?), the seller address and details are in China, so i would have to question the location, but if through Ebay, then Paypal comes into effect and this helps in case of any issues I suppose.....

Business seller information
SHOUYUAN ZANG
SHOUYUAN ZANG
#308 HongDu Building BaoAn 43 District
518000 shenzhen
China

£40+ going too expensive! :smiley:

Lots of foreign eBay sellers will send bulk shipments to a UK warehouse. Which is what they'll advertise in their listing.

However, from experience, in this situation I've had stuff delivered from UK quickly, or had stuff delivered from UK but its taken ages (I assume waitingbfor the next container to arrive), or its just been shipped directly from China regardless of what the listing says.

At the end of the day it's a roll of the dice. Sometimes scouring the sellers feedback can help tho.

I had planned on buying this one: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=182081732649&alt=web

Supposedly shipped from Middlesex, but the shipping notes in the item description is full of "please note time difference with China", "orders will be shipped via airmail", and "shipping time is 9 to 35 days".

So... Yeah. :neutral_face:

Agreed, a bit of a risk and I think this is the one I was looking at also. I may ask the question and see what they say as the danger also is you may get hit with import charges although they say it ships from the UK and actually ships from China!

The flip side is that his feedback is full of comments saying stuff about fast shipping, quick delivery, etc.

So if they're to be trusted then maybe there is a warehouse full of them in Middlesex...

To hell with it. I'll roll the dice and provide feedback around 15-19 April :smirk:

If you tolerate the additional 30 pence, this £33.49 delivered item has the text "UK Stock" in the listing's subtitle http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391429167168

otherwise known as dropshipping

can anyone help me with website link for tracking my order?

please

thanks

Box was marked dispatched this morning with a Royal Mail tracking number. Looks promising.

Likewise... Same item, same seller "The sender has advised us that item JJ4665XXXXXXX will be posted into the Royal Mail network on the 2016-04-11.

We have been notified that your item is being shipped by the retailer; the next scan will appear when we receive this item.

Can anyone confirm if this needs to have its software updated? If so are there any pointers on how to do this?

I ordered this on 31st March.

After chasing them up and receiving numerous emails and a photo of what looks like my parcel with my home address.

Still no closer to receiving the order placed.

Can anyone advise what's best way to chase up order?

It's coming from China and takes about 21 days - once they've posted it there's not a lot they can do other than provide a tracking number!

Mine is on its way as I had an email the other day telling me it had been despatched.

Ordered on 30th....still with seller according to Yodel. I'm in no rush but this is taking the pish. Gearbest sent an email saying item had been shipped on 6/4. Attached a pic with my name and address and stated sender as being based in Hatfield. It is labelled up at my local Yodel base (Lichfield) and has delivery date of 7/4. This was my first foray with Gearbest so i'll chase up tomorrow and see whats going on!

I have a feeling they label it up in China with the yodel tracking, but it shows as still with Gearbest until China mail deliver it into yodels hands...... Which would explain why tracking says it's still with the supplier.

At some point in the process I got a tracking code starting YT and I have been tracking the item using http://www.yuntrack.com/Track/Detail/YT[insert rest of tracking code here] which shows many updates e.g. dispatched Shenzhen on 5th, left Hong Kong on 7th, arrived Belgium Brussels Airport 10th, cleared customs and handed to Belgian Post service 11th (yesterday) and the most recent message : "is it will take 2-8 days to complete delivery".

The other JD tracking code kind of works on the Yodel site now although at the moment they seem to be optimistic on delivery date (today's date) considering they also show it as still "With Sender"...

Price now appears to be back down to £27.41 with 400 pieces left at this price!

so around £5 more than gearbest from a seller with 96.2% feedback (i.e. quite bad in eBay land), also based in China with an 8 day quoted delivery time?

I have had no issues with Gearbest orders but I accept I may be on borrowed time. From comments posted on HUKD I suspect if Gearbest had an ebay feedback rating it would be below 96%. I have often purchased from far east ebay sellers who have distrubution arrangements for items to be sent from within UK. Item may originate from China but will most likely be sent to buyer directly via RM or other UK courier, hence no possibility of buyer being hit with import duty. This has been mentioned and acknowledged in earlier posts. The only common issue between shipping directly ex-China or ex-UK from Chinese sellers is the difficulty in servicing warranty if needed. That said, of the few items I have purchased from ebay Chinese sellers with UK distribution networks and that have required support, the seller has simply sent a replacement (ex-UK) and told me to keep the original. Again, I may have been lucky, but sellers from all countries are aware of feedback implications.

Any company that show shipping from the UK & dont, I report them to ebay & request a refund. Listing soons get removed & monies refunded.

Yeah specto addon for kodi is a good addon and very popular just recently, i found the install guide here...
https://www.kodibox.tv/addons/specto-addon/

Thanks for the info.

Has anyone received theirs yet? Just wondering before I order,
1. Did you get charged custom fees?
2. Was it DOA (Dead on Arrival)
I've had a Android TV box from China in February and I only recently got my money refunded because it was DOA.

christ on a cracker they've FINALLY UNEXPIRED IT AFTER ME ASKING FIVE TIMES TO DO IT !!!!

Blimey - if you ordered on the 31st and were expecting it to turn up by now you are living in fantasy land !
If they despatched straight away ( which Gearbest almost never do) you would be lucky if it arrived by now.

Typically it takes 7-10 days before these Chinese companies even despatch the item - then its 2-3 weeks in transit ( occasionally it may arrive quicker - but the average is 2-3 weeks ).
Chinese Ebay sellers usually despatch quicker than gearbest, pandawill etc as they usually have the stock in hand ( gearbest usually order from the supplier when you order it - hence the delay in despatching)

Some Chinese sites are starting to become more truthful - saying " ships within 24hrs" on some items. These are the items that are really in stock. The other items that say "in stock" are actually in stock at the manufacturer , not the reseller - and it takes about a week before they receive them in order to send to you.

paid for tracking but had none , is this a tracking number : blvs13763##########

Or some people are star trek fans and believe in teleportation :smiley:

When I ordered my first box, it took 5 weeks to arrive. I did actually pay for DHL express airmail for my M8S because it was something ridiculous like a fiver and it arrived from China in about 4 days.

Crackpot.

Can you specify Royal Mail instead of Yodel?

ordered 31st , belgium post on its way

Does anyone know of a good way to integrate MAME/SNES/NES/whatever emulation into Kodi? This is for my HTPC rather than the android box.

Anyone have recommendation Apps to download to watch basketball & Chinese drama/movie?

My tracking number shows its now with Yodel, so hopefully be here within a day or two...

anyone have this box and tested??is it worth the money??and waiting for long delivery and customs tax??

Mine is out for delivery today! Yay! I can't wait! :sunglasses:

I've never sat around anxiously waiting for a parcel from China before, but subscribing to this thread has got me biting my nails in anticipation! I've got my tracking number, but every day since last Friday, the delivery has always been put back to "tomorrow". So, on Friday it said it would be coming on Monday, on Monday it said it would be Tuesday......and now it says it will be Friday......

The combination of Shipping from China and Yodel has put me off. If Royal Mail was the delivery company I might have considered it, although there's probably a higher chance of import duty and admin fee.

There's a good chance of it never arriving, going "missing", possibility of having to pay import duty and admin fee , no warranty/refunds or smashed to pieces on delivery.

For an extra £12.58 you can get the box delivered by Amazon but there are only a few left now:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-keyboard-NEWEST-GoTron-Android-Streaming-Internet/dp/B01DJYXTQK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1460625084&sr=8-2&keywords=NEWEST+GoTron

Mine was shipped on the 5th and is out for delivery today with Yodel to give you an idea. :smiley:

Ordered mine on the 30th and it's now at my local depot so should get it by Friday

Mine was shipped 4 days after yours, so I reckon I should get mine early part of next week now.

Mines out for delivery today so I'll get to play with it tonight

​cheers

I'll give Hyperspin another whirl since there's finally been some movement on it. Last time I tried it just seemed like a hot mess, having to conjure up all sorts of scrips and whatnot just to get joystick control.

On another note, my android box is apparently with the Yodel delivery driver now, so should see it sometime today.

Lots of folk keep mentioning it, but if you're buying from Gearbest then you're not getting stung with import fees. They have methods.

Just to add that my one appears to be 'out for delivery' as well.

Got mine today, all set up now and working very good and seems to work faster & smother than others I have had
well worth the money.
Ordered on Mar 30

It arrived today, will try it out later :smiley:

It arrived today, will try it out later :smiley:

^ what they said.

Mine arrived today, very smooth. Better than my fire tv, great at 4k, smooth with no hiccups @60hz

I tried registering on that website but due a an error couldnt register - any chance you can post the thread somewhere?

Mine arrived today, all in all very good, playback is smooth, crisp and enjoyable. The box itself is tiny, comes with a hdmi cable, power cable is a bit on the short side. The box is nearly silent, so no back