We used to have a 1gb box & it was always buffering. I bought an MX3 box on Ebay for £20 which is 2gb Amlogic S802, quad core & it never buffers & has played everything we've thrown at it. Bear in mind that you need a minimum internet speed of 15mbps to stream 4K.
Latest comments (46)
bubblegum2910
29 Jul 16#46
It has HDMI, & just install SPMC from the play store, this is Kodi for android.
Raf11
29 Jul 16#45
Is Kodi already installed on MXQ? And to play it, I just need to connect it to my internet? Is that right? But I don't have fibre optical.
tan159
23 Jun 16#44
Not in the long run from a power consumption point of view.
Also there's the noise......
BikeGuy
22 Jun 16#43
I'm looking to get either this or the Beelink X2 TV Box. Despite having my Plex server wired through power adaptors to my router, my Fire TV stick had some stuttering issues last night requiring me unplugging it and restarting. Ideally I'd like something that I have a USB drive plugged into it and will work without the router. Just like my old OG XBOX with XMBC (but a nicer interface would be nice...)
I would still use Fire stick for Netflix etc.
codemonkey88
21 Jun 16#42
Does it come with a uk plug?
AndyRoyd
20 Jun 16#41
Cheap but certainly old machines generally can't output 4k, will struggle with x265/HEVC content, will fall over with 10bit x265, and consume considerably more power than a typical Android box. A Z8300-based tablet may perform similary to this Android box, but cost minimum 3-4 times more.
sam_of_london
18 Jun 16#40
Have you used windows version of Netflix?
thabiz
18 Jun 16#39
Aren't you better off using a cheap/old PC or Laptop?
sam_of_london
17 Jun 16#38
Maybe it is to protect the quality of the 4k reception and protect them from providing free technical support for all the pseudo 4k devices out there which claim to be 4k compatible but actually cannot play 4k. Apple TV and Amazon claim to have 4k quality but only come with hdmi 1.4 and not hdmi 2.0 which has the bandwidth to show 4K. But soon we will have BT and Sky 4k boxes. Also playstation and xbox have already announced boxes with hdmi 2.0 and ability to play 4k blue rays as they have 4k blue ray player built it saving lots of money on buying stand alone 4k blue ray player from the likes of Sony and Samsung.
poinsy
17 Jun 16#37
Thanks for that, I will check them out.
shaft
17 Jun 16#36
SportsMania. There are quite a few IPTV claiming to show all games in HD but i opted for SportsMania. i watched most of last seasons premier league and champion league games through SportsMania and there were a few games which didn't stream perfectly but most streamed perfectly. Overall i'm extremely happy and I'll definitely be extending my subscription for next season.
RealBargainHunter
17 Jun 16#35
We've had a MX3 box for nearly a year now, 8GB 2GB Ram brilliant piece of kit for the £26 I paid with a Air remote with keyboard.
Pre-installed with ShowBox along with other things, have to say ShowBox allowed us to watch anything.
About due an upgrade now though to be honest definitely a need for more memory.
WheresMeNuts
17 Jun 16#34
MX boxes are poor & still have heating issues.
zba78
17 Jun 16#33
I second that about the m8s box. Really good piece of kit and the 2gb ram really made a difference from my 1gb mx3
garykennedy1
16 Jun 16#32
i found zero caching helped and plugged an external hdd and all i had to do was pause what ever i was about to watch for 5 mins then play, didnt need fast internet, since then i have a pipox8 dual op sys with win 10. i love it. no limit to what it can do.
A couple of months ago, I bought a Beelink Mini from gearbest, 2GB ram, 16GB storage. It had addons already installed, but after playing a movie for a few minutes, an advert came up telling me to watch movies, I needed to go to Primewire, I used a kodi addon called fresh start & added addons manually.
Streaming addons works fine, but mine won't wirelessly stream from my NAS in the same room.
I suspect this particular box might not be powerful enough. http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-c_11262/
hifiboy
16 Jun 16#28
I got this not long ago. Majority of play store apps aren't compatible with it. The ones installed work okay but they are alpha versions. I think known firmware issue.. otherwise hardware specs looks okay
sam_of_london
16 Jun 16#27
4k TV won't work at 4k with this box for not having hdcp 2.2. Better get one with hdcp 2.2 or watch in low resolution only.
sam_of_london
16 Jun 16#26
The problem may not with Netflix. I guess it has to do with hdcp 2.2 to prevent piracy. If both TV box like nvidia shield TV and 4k TV have hdcp 2.2, Netflix works fine.
bednim
16 Jun 16#25
Get a decent remote for it, otherwise you'll be disappointed.
msharif911
16 Jun 16#24
Thanks OP was looking for one of these ever since I gave the last one I had away.
4K too, just need to get a 4K Telly now.
PESfan
16 Jun 16#23
True, the same for Amazon Instant video.You dont get 1080p. These boxes are good to have around as Kodi clients, but some of them won't even let you install addons on Kodi for some reason.
At the end of the day, if you want the best all around option available for the price just go with Amazon Fire Tv (not the stick).
Ross81
16 Jun 161#22
Good value. Most Kodi buffering issues relate to servers and Internet connection, not the ram
PESfan
16 Jun 16#21
nop, just stick with Plex. its the best streaming aplication available, unless like me you need subtitles and you need the server to transcode. In that case plex is crap because it requires a powerful machine to transcode the files, or at least the files i stream which are 1080 mkvs averaging between 8 and 12gbs. I use Kodi, but should they improve the Plex's transcoding capabilities then I will be back on it again!
118luke
16 Jun 16#20
Serious Q - Would this comfortably play the Android Grand Theft Autos?
I have a bluetooth controller and might try it if it will handle the games
shaft
16 Jun 162#16
I have the M8s and have had it now for about 6 months. Bought it to watch movies from hard drive and to stream sports from the internet. Installed Kodi and paid £50 for a years subscription to all UK most US sports channels. Can't fault it. Best money i've spent.
poinsy to shaft
16 Jun 161#18
Can you expand regarding the IPTV provider?
majestic2012 to shaft
16 Jun 161#19
What subscription do you use if you don't mind me asking?
fishmaster
16 Jun 161#15
Just about OK, but the Amazon Firestick is really hard to beat for the price. These MXQ boxes really are what you'd call cheap Chinese crap. The user interface is poor, the Android implementation is poor.
hcc27 to fishmaster
16 Jun 161#17
The problem with these Chinese boxes is that Netflix will not deliver a full HD stream (forget 4K) to them. They have a very narrow list of pre-approved devices they'll deliver full HD plus streams to (check it out on their website). I picked up the M8S 2GB box recently on the Gearbest offer; it works perfectly (apart from the widely reported WiFi issue) but the Netflix picture I get is pretty crap compared to what I had with the Amazon Firestick which this replaced.
Callum88
16 Jun 16#14
Will this come with the KODI add-on channels included or would you have to load these on yourself?
GR2
16 Jun 16#13
does this have access to the playstore? can you install mobile apps on it?
grahamc2003
16 Jun 162#7
Yeah, fibre is necessary for 4k. we waited for a decent offer and got it for an extra fiver a month, so cheap and getting cheaper and faster, By the time there's reasonable 4k content they'll be giving fast fibre away. Played around with kodi and playon (which seem to be what's required to drive these boxes?), i must say, they are very impressive.
bryanhaines399 to grahamc2003
16 Jun 161#12
never heard of playon before, just looked it up. is there any reason I should swap to this from Plex?
majestic2012
16 Jun 16#11
Yup, I've got Acestream installed and running on all my boxes. Especially useful for the Torrent Stream app for handling HD streams.
zillfish
16 Jun 16#3
I use acestream on tablet and pc. could I install acestream on this connected direct to TV?
Gary Brown to zillfish
16 Jun 161#10
That's what I am hoping to. Seen android boxes before and they have got Movies HD and stuff on so guessing its the same as a tablet but on your TV.
HarryPloper
16 Jun 161#8
Can you play mkv files from USB with this box?
majestic2012 to HarryPloper
16 Jun 161#9
You can yeah.
plymouthgal
16 Jun 163#6
We used to have a 1gb box & it was always buffering. I bought an MX3 box on Ebay for £20 which is 2gb Amlogic S802, quad core & it never buffers & has played everything we've thrown at it. Bear in mind that you need a minimum internet speed of 15mbps to stream 4K.
grahamc2003
16 Jun 161#5
I ordered something similar about 3 weeks ago, still waiting for it to arrive from China. There are thousands of adds on ebay/amazon, a , i think i paid about £23 for a 2gb version, model m8s+ - the extra is bound to be money well spent imv. Just need a 4k tv now! Also added on a small remote keyboard for a fiver.
welder299
16 Jun 16#4
ordered one. thanks
profdarkart
16 Jun 16#2
Bought this yesterday as a punt. Heat too.
HankHandsome
16 Jun 161#1
in a perfect world you'd have 2gb of ram, but for this price you certainly can't complain so heat from me.
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Latest comments (46)
Also there's the noise......
I would still use Fire stick for Netflix etc.
Pre-installed with ShowBox along with other things, have to say ShowBox allowed us to watch anything.
About due an upgrade now though to be honest definitely a need for more memory.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/why-android-and-other-devices-cant-stream-hd-netflix/
Streaming addons works fine, but mine won't wirelessly stream from my NAS in the same room.
I suspect this particular box might not be powerful enough.
http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-c_11262/
4K too, just need to get a 4K Telly now.
At the end of the day, if you want the best all around option available for the price just go with Amazon Fire Tv (not the stick).
I have a bluetooth controller and might try it if it will handle the games