Database Users

[Q] Ouya or GBox Midnight MX2?

OUYA Console by Ouya
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B0050SZD18
VS
G-Box Midnight MX2 Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Dual Core XBMC Streaming Mini HTPC TV Box Player by Matricom
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B00CH643A8
Which one should I go for guys, especially in terms of hardware. Tegra 3 vs A9+Mali400, apparently both have no issues with XBMC or 1080P playback. I do not plan to use either for games, mostly media and music and dowload box. If it doesn't matter, I might go for the MX2 as there are more connectivity options there.

I think that, in terms of brute force, Tegra 3 overhelms A9+Mali400. OUYA bears the last Tegra3 revision and, theoretically, NVIDIA works with OUYA Team to boost it up.
If you buy OUYA, you gain a Bluetooth controller for the same prize which can be used as remote.
At, the end, nobody knows if OUYA nor G-Box thing will have support from the scene, which, for me, is a key value.

I'd say if you're not interested in gaming, I'd go with the G-box. The ouya is marketed as a game console, and while they may add support for some media features in the future, for right now we're busting our tails trying to get better compatibility with the play store apps. the G-box is designed as a media player, and it already supports XBMC with some great reviews. It also includes the play store, so you can easily download the latest versions of netflix, hulu, etc.

Cool, I think that settles it for me, I wasn't aware that the regular playstore apps wouldn't work on the ouya. I will get an MX2 and post a review soon. Also it helps that I can connect a few spare portable hard drives and use this as a streaming box to other TVs in the house.

Didn't mean to mislead, because some play store apps will work. However, a lot don't, or are glitchy or crash occasionally, and they all have to be sideloaded because there is no play store access at all yet...

The gbox is pretty good. I have had it for a few days now and use my Logitech keyboard that also has a touch pad. It works great. Honestly, I would probably hate it if I didn't have the keyboard. The play store works perfectly. I haven't had a problem installing any apps. It is fully rooted. There has been a few times when it has restarted but it is android, it isn't perfect. Especially for 100 bucks. External hard drive works great but sometimes loses power. I don't think the gbox puts off enough juice. A powered hub would fix this issue. I wish there was development for the gbox but metronix or however you spell it won't release source.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

ouya vs mx2
plasmafire said:
OUYA Console by Ouya
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B0050SZD18
VS
G-Box Midnight MX2 Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Dual Core XBMC Streaming Mini HTPC TV Box Player by Matricom
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B00CH643A8
Which one should I go for guys, especially in terms of hardware. Tegra 3 vs A9+Mali400, apparently both have no issues with XBMC or 1080P playback. I do not plan to use either for games, mostly media and music and dowload box. If it doesn't matter, I might go for the MX2 as there are more connectivity options there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i have the G-Box MX2 i love it but it died on me. Wont boot up, stuck on the Matricom Screen. I love all the usb it has, was even able to use my Logitech Revue K700 Kb and add a 2TB WD Passport to it with an SDcard. But i think it needs a Quadcore to be a lil more fluid for video. I will return it to get the ouya. Dont like the fact that the Ouya has only one USB port but you cant have everything i guess. i hope the Ouya gets the same XBMC support as the G-box. Only had it for 17 days died on day 14 . Tried the reset option but that didnt work. Maybe it was my box. But when it worked it was awsome.

I'm actually going to be doing a review on the MX2 today and uploading it tonight, I'll be comparing it's gaming features to the Ouya and stuff.
Spoiler alert, the Ouya is way ****ing better.
EDIT: Vid's up, see the Ouya destroy the MX2 for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miTst6QE-34

Interesting topic. I was also looking at the Gbox before I pre-ordered the Ouya. I think the Tegra 3 on the Ouya would do a better job on graphics than the dual core Gbox Midnight. It's not just processor speed and number of cores, but also graphics processor. Plus, the bluetooth on the Ouya means one less USB dongle to plug in.
I went with the Ouya, hoping the hard working people on XDA will get a pure Android ROM for the Ouya soon. If I'm stuck with the Ouya's Android skin, it'd probably be an even split which way I'd go.

I saw the "XIOS DS Media Play" and considered it against the Ouya. I think these box with out of the box rooted + Play Store compatibility is better for the majority, especially non-geeks who don't want to fiddle flashing/etc. Not having PlayStore is still a big flaw for the Ouya in term of satisfying a wider audience imo.
For me the Ouya is the clear choice, it have a dedicated XDA forum section for a reason, it will get more community development and for sure the Ouya will likely get CyanogenMod and other roms, while its less likely with these other Android boxes.
For hardware performance the Tegra3 will be faster than these dual core 1.5GHz A9 with Mali-400 gpu.
If you are looking for a lot of gaming then the Ouya is the way to go, otherwise get one of these Cortex A9 boxes if you only need video playback. There will be some of these boxes that will exceed the Ouya in term of performance in no time, but the Ouya have XDA community that's the key for me. This is the case for all Android devices that I buy.

Went for the gbox for now as a no hassle xbmc box. What you mentioned is absolutely right that the ouya will overtake all these boxes as soon as a rom gets out. I will just wait for that to happen and maybe a tegra 4 device will happen too by then.
Thanks for all the insight guys.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Axelben said:
Well i have the G-Box MX2 i love it but it died on me. Wont boot up, stuck on the Matricom Screen. I love all the usb it has, was even able to use my Logitech Revue K700 Kb and add a 2TB WD Passport to it with an SDcard. But i think it needs a Quadcore to be a lil more fluid for video. I will return it to get the ouya. Dont like the fact that the Ouya has only one USB port but you cant have everything i guess. i hope the Ouya gets the same XBMC support as the G-box. Only had it for 17 days died on day 14 . Tried the reset option but that didnt work. Maybe it was my box. But when it worked it was awsome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just ordered the Gbox MX 2 and have a Logitech Revue KB - how do I get the two to talk?

plasmafire said:
Went for the gbox for now as a no hassle xbmc box. What you mentioned is absolutely right that the ouya will overtake all these boxes as soon as a rom gets out. I will just wait for that to happen and maybe a tegra 4 device will happen too by then.
Thanks for all the insight guys.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an interesting direct comparison between Ouya and the G-box Midnight MX2.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R35SEI3ONB5SCK/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R35SEI3ONB5SCK
It didn't make the Midnight look very good. The Ouya emulator games seem to work really well in the video. The Midnight had issues with games and 1080P videos, and the emulator games on the Midnight ran slow. The reviewer also couldn't get bluetooth adapters to work, so could use a PS2 wireless controller. Granted, this is just one person's attempt to use the Midnight box, maybe other people have overcome these issues with some setting changes.

Yep the guy is playing games and using plex..both of which the mx2 doesn't do well. I am just going to have it boot into xbmc launcher. Run utorrent with rss feeds from showrss in the background. And maybe run droidnas on it. I have seen logitech mini keyboards work so that is what I'll get.

coachclass said:
This is an interesting direct comparison between Ouya and the G-box Midnight MX2.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R35SEI3ONB5SCK/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R35SEI3ONB5SCK
It didn't make the Midnight look very good. The Ouya emulator games seem to work really well in the video. The Midnight had issues with games and 1080P videos, and the emulator games on the Midnight ran slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?

SamsungBlue said:
Just ordered the Gbox MX 2 and have a Logitech Revue KB - how do I get the two to talk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can use the Revue KB. Just buy the Unity USB. You will be able to use it anywhere.

mkhopper said:
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was my video. The settings I was using in Plex on both devices was to use the hardware to decode and playback the videos. The MX2's hardware just simply isnt nearly good enough to rely on for high resolution video playback, and on top of that there's some really annoying kinks with it like no bluetooth support at all and a very fussy keyboard input system that really sucks compared to stock android and what the Ouya uses.There's also a higher res version of the review on youtube, I linked to it on the first page of this thread towards the bottom.

Just got my MX2 today. I was quite apprehensive after reading some of the comments, but I must say that after using it for a while.. it is exactly what I needed. I am not saying it is better than ouya, but I have XBMC setup with all my local media and video plugins. It works like a charm. I will not play any games on it so I don't really care about the gaming performance.
All programs installed from Play store work
Full 1080p videos play no issues on xbmc.
Torrents are download via showrss to my xbmc monitored directory.
USB hard drive 1TB western digital is powered via the usb ports and shared via droid nas
Quick video 1080p: http://youtu.be/vQ6FvGtKbEw

mkhopper said:
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure if plex has the issue xbmc for ouya has at the moment but after the new firmware update last week most of my videos have stuttering seems like a framerate issue I reported it to ouya and they got back to me saying they are aware of the issue and are working on it. Before that update my videos were playing smooth.

plasmafire said:
Yes you can use the Revue KB. Just buy the Unity USB. You will be able to use it anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. There seems to be quite a few "Unity" USB recovers from Logitech. I couldn't find one that listed the Revue KB as a compatible device. Would any of those Unity receivers that work with other Logitech KBs or mice work? Seems like there are several in the $10-15 range. I appreciate your help.

How does it run emulators?

So this device apparently starts shipping tomorrow right? When it does can someone please download some emulators and try them out? I would like to especially see the performance of PPSSPP, the PSP emulator. I would be eternally grateful to you. If you have access to various Bluetooth controllers I would like to hear about the compatibility of those as well if possible

Yes, If this product can smoothly run some of the games I have downloaded, then I should be picking one up. I'm sure it going to be hard to download games with such limted storage, but hopefully someone can showcase some quality android titles. It basically has OUYA specs; however, with a more powerful CPU. I want to buy one, as it would be my first Nexus product. Some cool titles I would want to see runnig: MC5, GT racing as Asphalt 8 I've seen, and Need For Speed Most Wanted.
As a regard to emulators, It has 8gb of storage, good luck!

disorder78 said:
Yes, If this product can smoothly run some of the games I have downloaded, then I should be picking one up. I'm sure it going to be hard to download games with such limted storage, but hopefully someone can showcase some quality android titles. It basically has OUYA specs; however, with a more powerful CPU. I want to buy one, as it would be my first Nexus product. Some cool titles I would want to see runnig: MC5, GT racing as Asphalt 8 I've seen, and Need For Speed Most Wanted.
As a regard to emulators, It has 8gb of storage, good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah if this had a Tegra K1 chip in it I would've been there Day 1 no questions asked, but as it is standing I'd rather wait and see some impressions first.

disorder78 said:
Yes, If this product can smoothly run some of the games I have downloaded, then I should be picking one up. I'm sure it going to be hard to download games with such limted storage, but hopefully someone can showcase some quality android titles. It basically has OUYA specs; however, with a more powerful CPU. I want to buy one, as it would be my first Nexus product. Some cool titles I would want to see runnig: MC5, GT racing as Asphalt 8 I've seen, and Need For Speed Most Wanted.
As a regard to emulators, It has 8gb of storage, good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would hardly say the ouya's GPU compares to the G6430.

dethrat said:
I would hardly say the ouya's GPU compares to the G6430.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, definitely. It outscores the GeForce ULP in the Tegra 3 by 2x-10x depending on the benchmark, and specifically handles the higher resolution (like the 1080p at which these devices tend to run) much better. Given the fact that even the Ouya was able to emulate up through the N64 reasonably well I think that the Nexus Player will make a great emulation device.

Kerfuffle92 said:
So this device apparently starts shipping tomorrow right? When it does can someone please download some emulators and try them out? I would like to especially see the performance of PPSSPP, the PSP emulator. I would be eternally grateful to you. If you have access to various Bluetooth controllers I would like to hear about the compatibility of those as well if possible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it was the Ars Technica review where they had the N64 emulator running on it flawlessly. Seems emulation will be great on this box (seemingly one of only a few strong points).

Elrondolio said:
I believe it was the Ars Technica review where they had the N64 emulator running on it flawlessly. Seems emulation will be great on this box (seemingly one of only a few strong points).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh man, thanks for the reply. I was looking to emulate PSP games more than anything but I guess up to N64 and maybe Dreamcast is fine as well.

I use my N64 and SNES emulators and they work great!! It runs better than my Xbox one which sucks at most things.

Here are some pictures of it on my TV using Super GNES and Mupen64
The pictures I took aren't the best but it runs great. You can map the buttons on the gamepad however you want which makes it great and my wife loves it

Just wanted to chime in here and say that it works perfectly fine with the Wii U USB adapter and a Wii U Pro controller. Just make sure the adapter switch is set on the Xinput setting
Sent from my SM-G900A using XDA Free mobile app

smiley2billion said:
Just wanted to chime in here and say that it works perfectly fine with the Wii U USB adapter and a Wii U Pro controller. Just make sure the adapter switch is set on the Xinput setting
View attachment 3009109
Sent from my SM-G900A using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how many controllers does the adapter support at one time?

I'm using the PCE.emu and Neo.emu and they work fine. Only thing that makes me crazy is that sideloaded apps are too large for the TV display, some menu options are difficult to read. Does anybody know if there is a way to adjust the resolution for sideloaded apps so they fit the TV screen properly?

buda81 said:
how many controllers does the adapter support at one time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The listing on Amazon says that it supports up to 4 controllers with the 'direct input' mode, however I tried using the direct input mode and it seemed to not want to use the d pad and all of the buttons performed the same action. Using 'xinput' (I think this just emulates the Xbox controller input) everything mapped perfectly and all was well, the bad news is that it can only do 1 controller at a time using this method, so you'd need 1 usb adapter per controller. Also I have only 1 Wii U Pro controller so I don't have any way to test if multiple controllers even work with the direct input mode, it's worked perfectly with 'xinput' so I haven't moved it from there.
Its hard to see there but on the side there's a toggle switch that lets you pick between 'dinput' and 'xinput'.

How does one install the emulator? Do I need to do this over adb ? If so, how can I download an apk from the play store?

I can't get Super GNES to work. I install it and it says there is a new version on the play store and for me to download it. Well I downloaded it from the play store so I don't see how its not the newest version. Where are you getting your version of Super GNES?

Searching for a tutorial on how to sideload an app...

Elemino said:
Searching for a tutorial on how to sideload an app...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the app you want to "sideload" is in the normal Play store, all you have to do is load up the Play store on your computer then click install and select your Nexus Player as the device. That simple. You'll also want to install Chainfire's Sideload Launcher app from the Play store as well, as that makes accessing non-android tv optimized apps easier:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.tv.sideloadlauncher&hl=en
If you have an apk you'd rather install manually, you'll have to use adb and an a cable or use ES File Explorer (or equivalent) to transfer the apk from your computer/etc over wifi. There are already a few topics in these threads that discuss how.

DeVSS said:
I can't get Super GNES to work. I install it and it says there is a new version on the play store and for me to download it. Well I downloaded it from the play store so I don't see how its not the newest version. Where are you getting your version of Super GNES?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got the same error with the (non-free) non-lite version of GNES. Tried the (free) lite version and that works fine (version 1.5.4). I'm not too experienced with sideloading, but perhaps the non-free nature of the full version of SuperGNES is the issue? The free version sucks though, since you can't load saved states, so it seems I can't continue my progress even though the ROM in question has save functionality.

Just wanted to share my experiences so far, since this is one of the bigger reasons I bought the NP. I've managed to load NES.emu, 2600.emu, MAME4Droid (0.37b5), and Mupen64 AE so far.
Installing apps:
Like many have suggested, I was able to load a couple of apps like ES Explorer and NES.emu through the Google Play web site and selecting the NP as the installation target. However, MAME and a couple of other apps would not install this way, so I have to sideload Aptoide and use that to install the remaining apps. Note that since no web browser is available, I had to use another tablet to identify the stores where apps could be found, and add them manually before selecting apps and installing them.
Navigation:
For the most part, the remote suffices, but it's not perfect. I installed ChainFire's Sideload Launcher, as only NES.emu shows up in my apps menu on the home screen. However, I happened to own a Nyko Playpad (not the Pro) from a while ago that I never really used. While I can't recommend it as a great gaming controller, it does have one key feature that turns it from run-of-the-mill control pad to ultimate NP utility. It contains a switch that allows you to switch between HID, iCade, Mouse, and App modes. It's the Mouse setting that makes this controller truly useful, because without it, I couldn't navigate around MAME to set up my control pad, or navigate around Mupen64 to quit out of a game (how else are people achieving this? Just quitting out?) Basically, to really set up many of the emus properly, you need some kind of mouse input, so it's nice that I can switch the Playpad back and forth between HID and Mouse modes as needed.
Performance:
Obviously, NES.emu and 2600.emu are not really demanding, so they work "flawlessly" (as in, any problems are due to the emulators, not the NP.) I also chose the smaller MAME, and nothing in there really pushes the system too hard. Street Fighter II Turbo ran as fast as expected. The only really challenge to the system was Mupen64. I'm happy to say that it ran everything that it was capable of running at full frame rate, and the only hiccups were related to the emulator itself. It successfully ran Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, and Mischief Makers. It could not Blast Corps or Bomberman 64.
All in all, I can say that things work well, provided you have the right equipment. For me, the mode switch feature of the Nyko Playpad is indispensable, although if you have a bluetooth enabled mouse device, that will suffice. Things can only get better. I haven't tried PPSSPP yet, but that will be my next test.

Thank you so much sjj.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Free mobile app

worth the buy?

so its time for me to upgrade, i owned a g box and it was cool at the time year or 2 later it starts to give me problems its slow most things dont work ect so iv been using my pc to watch movies via xbmc, now i want to stop and look for a new xbmc media player and seen the nexus player and looks promising, and been looking around a bit about xbmc for it, is this recommended buy? id like a box that is fast able to use xbmc and more less problems lol

DayDaysTech said:
so its time for me to upgrade, i owned a g box and it was cool at the time year or 2 later it starts to give me problems its slow most things dont work ect so iv been using my pc to watch movies via xbmc, now i want to stop and look for a new xbmc media player and seen the nexus player and looks promising, and been looking around a bit about xbmc for it, is this recommended buy? id like a box that is fast able to use xbmc and more less problems lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At this time I would wait just a few weeks as both Razer Forge and Nvidia are releasing new boxes which have better specs.The Nvidia is a little more pricey at $199 the forge will be $99 according to the options you choose. Both will be better boxes if I had to choose. Roku is also due with the Roku 4 anytime now. There will be allot of choices by June.

Im currently using my nexus player solely for xbmc, ive unlocked and rooted it. And ive installed xbmc launcher. Actually im technically using the alpha nightly of kodi. Its amazing. Ive installed genesis, and aeon nox skin. I use the nexus player remote to control kodi. Unles you plan on using the nexus player for kodi, it's useless. But running kodi its damn near perfect.

i love my nexus player. it is not great for everyone though.
first of all you need a mouse and keyboard. and a gamepad.
second and most important you must have a thirst for tinkering to appreciate what you have.
if you just want to consume media stick with chromecast or a cheaper roku.

Kodi runs great on the Nexus Player...the only 2 things for me is the frame rate is locked to 60fps and the inability to play VC-1 (it plays but its pretty unwatchable as I believe it uses software instead of hardware).

What about if you want to play emulators?

if a tablet will run it you can most likely get it to run on the nexus player with some hackery.(lollirock rom will run most tablet apps without much fighting).
my bluetooth controllers work great with the emulators ive tried.

I still think for gamers there are better options coming up. I have the adt1 its a great box guess I am just waiting for the Android Tv box with strong specs. Nvidia Shield?

Don't buy it, I've had mine since 1/22/2015 and I have been having issues with it.
Netflix crashes when I try to choose a show/movie.
Slow at times, including having to fully reset it due to extreme slowdowns.
Remote feels very fragile, buttons feel bad.
Unresponsive when using the remote sometimes.
Voice search is terrible, it's laggy and unreliable. Not to mention it doesn't work with many of the apps.
Wifi connection only, unless you get Micro USB to Ethernet adapter.
No normal sized USB connector, meaning you absolutely need a Micro to Normal USB adapter.
Rooted apps require a mouse and keyboard, the remote most of the time does not work on them. (and remember to hook up a mouse and keyboard you need micro to normal usb adapter)
I feel bad for this Asus/Google product, and wish I could take back my purchase of this item.
Edit:
Most of these issues weren't noticeable when I first got it, but after a while all these things become a big issue.

Here is my take on the Nexus Player:
I've rooted, and installed Droidmote. This allows for controlling sideloaded apps. I have entered custom DNS values to allow for region restricted apps. I transfer apps using the SendAnywhere app. There is much more flexibility with this box than with ones that are locked down. It is more what it can do, than what it does out of the box. There are weaknesses with all streaming media players, but this does everything I need in one box. I haven't had any problems with the Netflix app. For those that like to tinker with android, the Nexus Player is ideal. For those that want an out of the box solution, time will tell.

I regret buying the Nexus Player. It freezes,Bluetooth controller/remote disconnect all the time,lack of apps even with side loading, various app crashes (Netflix mostly),voice search sucks and it just feels like a beta product at best.

DayDaysTech said:
so its time for me to upgrade, i owned a g box and it was cool at the time year or 2 later it starts to give me problems its slow most things dont work ect so iv been using my pc to watch movies via xbmc, now i want to stop and look for a new xbmc media player and seen the nexus player and looks promising, and been looking around a bit about xbmc for it, is this recommended buy? id like a box that is fast able to use xbmc and more less problems lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the Android TV platform is great. But the nexus player doesn't seems as good as what is coming soon hardware wise. I'd wait for the Razer forge tv or nvidia shield console.

cheeto said:
I think the Android TV platform is great. But the nexus player doesn't seems as good as what is coming soon hardware wise. I'd wait for the Razer forge tv or nvidia shield console.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the nvidia looks pretty sweet.

I love it!!
I have had many devices including ATV1,2,3 and the WD TV. The Applee 3 is still used for mirroring from Idevices. The WD was second device as it had and external HDD port but it was constantly rebooting. With my Nexus player I enabled devleoper mode and enabled the USB support. I bought an USB to go cable and installed file explorer. Now it's my favourite device. It can do HDD movies, netflix and Kodi.
Well worth it in my mind. Also had custom roms available if you don't like android TV and want to go to lollipop.

If you can find an Android ADT-1 (the developer's Android TV box), then you'd be better off with that. Much better specs - I've been using mine for nearly 2 months now and since the 5.0.1 update about 7 weeks ago it's been running flawlessly.

Lokke9191 said:
Im currently using my nexus player solely for xbmc, ive unlocked and rooted it. And ive installed xbmc launcher. Actually im technically using the alpha nightly of kodi. Its amazing. Ive installed genesis, and aeon nox skin. I use the nexus player remote to control kodi. Unles you plan on using the nexus player for kodi, it's useless. But running kodi its damn near perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there,
Were you able to get Navi-X up and running?
This is my main reason for wanting to buy the nexus player. This way, I'd not need to hook my laptop up to the TV and could just access Navi-X from the Nexus Player.
Please advise if you (or anyone else) has been able to get Navi-X running on the nexus player.
Thanks!!

I think the biggest plus for the nexus player would be regular android updates directly from google for a long time.

Thinking of buying and need help.

I currently have multiple Chromecasts, a laptop, and rotate between Androids and iPhones.
What can this do that I cannot do with the above?
I see this is on sale for 69 bucks at best buy, and I believe it is rootable, many of the reviews say its ok but literally just a chrome cast with a few more limited apps.
IS it worth the buy or is this another Google item that we are just Beta Testers for?

I just got one and will be keeping it. Here's what it has over just using Chromecast with phones:
1) You can play games from the Nexus Player. You can't really enjoy a game like NBA Jam from your phone while trying to cast the screen. But Nexus Player can play NBA Jam and many other games natively. So you get to play possibly some of your Android Game library on the big screen easily. The only other way I've been able to do this, is hooking a cable into the TV from a device. So Nexus Player makes playing some games much easier.
2) Suggestions from apps on the Player Home screen. The more content you play on the Nexus Player, the better the suggestions on the Home Screen get. For content you may want to see. The suggestions can be disabled per app.
3) Easier to have other people use than your phone/table, when they want to watch something on your TV. And Nexus Player supports Restricted Profiles.
Far as streamers go, I use my Roku more because it has way more channels. But the Nexus Player has better games than Roku. And the channel apps that are supported on the Nexus Player, look nicer than their Roku equivalents. The only thing Nexus Player needs to be make it better than Roku, is more channels. Especially since Roku has nothing such as Restricted Profiles.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Darnell_Chat_TN said:
I just got one and will be keeping it. Here's what it has over just using Chromecast with phones:
1) You can play games from the Nexus Player. You can't really enjoy a game like NBA Jam from your phone while trying to cast the screen. But Nexus Player can play NBA Jam and many other games natively. So you get to play possibly some of your Android Game library on the big screen easily. The only other way I've been able to do this, is hooking a cable into the TV from a device. So Nexus Player makes playing some games much easier.
2) Suggestions from apps on the Player Home screen. The more content you play on the Nexus Player, the better the suggestions on the Home Screen get. For content you may want to see. The suggestions can be disabled per app.
3) Easier to have other people use than your phone/table, when they want to watch something on your TV. And Nexus Player supports Restricted Profiles.
Far as streamers go, I use my Roku more because it has way more channels. But the Nexus Player has better games than Roku. And the channel apps that are supported on the Nexus Player, look nicer than their Roku equivalents. The only thing Nexus Player needs to be make it better than Roku, is more channels. Especially since Roku has nothing such as Restricted Profiles.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you referring to side loading games and playing them via emulators you side loaded, or games actually made for/compatible with the nexus player via the dedicated app store?

CashmereEsquire said:
Are you referring to side loading games and playing them via emulators you side loaded, or games actually made for/compatible with the nexus player via the dedicated app store?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Games actually made for the Nexus Player/Android TV, and are in its play store. There are emulators there too, but I don't use them.
Be sure you get the Game Controller when buying a Nexus Player. Or you won't be able to enjoy many games.
---------- Post added at 03:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:50 PM ----------
Games for Android TV/Nexus Player

I bought a Nexus Player to cut the cord. I installed Kodi on it, and enjoy it mostly for streaming of video through that, Plex, and Netflix.
I think it brings everything together nicely and easier to navigate than say a PC.

MaesterB said:
I bought a Nexus Player to cut the cord. I installed Kodi on it, and enjoy it mostly for streaming of video through that, Plex, and Netflix.
I think it brings everything together nicely and easier to navigate than say a PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I use things like Popcorn time and stuff via chrome cast from my Mac, never used Kodi, but I hear its set up where you have "live channels" and such.

I use Kodi(XBMC) on mine as well. There's a Kodi add-on called US TV VOD which basically lets you easily stream shows off of the TV Stations' websites. It's pretty slick. So with the NP, I have a single box that does everything we need (Netflix, Hulu, youtube, chromecast, games, music, and Kodi for local streaming and current TV episodes). If you have a backend DVR like MythTV, Kodi will also stream live TV and any shows that you've DVR'd. The only thing missing is Amazon Prime, but we don't use it very often.

bakaz said:
I use Kodi(XBMC) on mine as well. There's a Kodi add-on called US TV VOD which basically lets you easily stream shows off of the TV Stations' websites. It's pretty slick. So with the NP, I have a single box that does everything we need (Netflix, Hulu, youtube, chromecast, games, music, and Kodi for local streaming and current TV episodes). If you have a backend DVR like MythTV, Kodi will also stream live TV and any shows that you've DVR'd. The only thing missing is Amazon Prime, but we don't use it very often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you run your games via emulators? Outside of Casting, netflix, and Kodi I would like to be able to run emulators and games (Reicast for Dreamcast stuff would be the biggest thing I`d want along with other stuff). From what I understand the Nexus Player only has 5 or so gb out of 8gb total of free space, and you CANT expand the storage, is this true? That would be a deal breaker compared to me just getting a tablet to use as a Nexus Player type device.

CashmereEsquire said:
Do you run your games via emulators? Outside of Casting, netflix, and Kodi I would like to be able to run emulators and games (Reicast for Dreamcast stuff would be the biggest thing I`d want along with other stuff). From what I understand the Nexus Player only has 5 or so gb out of 8gb total of free space, and you CANT expand the storage, is this true? That would be a deal breaker compared to me just getting a tablet to use as a Nexus Player type device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use emulators on my NP. Can the storage be expanded via and external drive or thumb drive on the USB port? I know the NP will recognize a USB hub, but I've only used that for network adapters and keyboards/mice.

bakaz said:
I don't use emulators on my NP. Can the storage be expanded via and external drive or thumb drive on the USB port? I know the NP will recognize a USB hub, but I've only used that for network adapters and keyboards/mice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK, you can't expand the storage. I've read plenty of attempts, but nothing I've read is reliably successful. Storage is the one matter to keep in mind with the NP. Although it's a 8GB drive, only 5GB is supposedly usable. But I just got another new NP yesterday. Soon as I did the initial setup, I checked storage and only 4GB was free, since 1GB of that "5GB usable" had already been consumed by auto-downloaded stuff. And I didn't want to remove the auto-downloaded stuff, it was stuff I wanted. So pretty much out the gate, 4GB for me for other software.
Imagine a phone or tablet with just 4-5GB of space. How much can you get on it? You won't have some of the big apps you may use on a phone or tablet, like GPS navigation map apps. But there are some games, that can consume half or nearly all of the available space. Especially since some games in the Play Store may claim to use maybe 500MB, but after startup, they take up over 1GB additional.
Having said all that. I've read that Android M may bring some reliable expandable storage support. But there's no telling for certain.
It's good enough for me and the kids ,so I'll be getting more. I already have plenty of Rokus. But the Roku can't do what the NP does. And I doubt channels like Haystack TV will ever be implemented on Roku. So I'll have to enjoy the best of both NP and Roku and have both.

If you have extra money, and you want the Nexus Player Experience and then some, go with the Nvidia Shield Android TV. It's got everything the Nexus Player has and then some.

Sgt.JimmyRustles said:
If you have extra money, and you want the Nexus Player Experience and then some, go with the Nvidia Shield Android TV. It's got everything the Nexus Player has and then some.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure does, and there are games such as Sonic, which appear from advertising to play on the Shield, but not NP.

I went ahead and bought 2 nexus players, since Best buy has them for 69, and I had a 10 dollar coupon. Signed up for Sling TV which seemed cool, will look more into the Hacks too

CashmereEsquire said:
I went ahead and bought 2 nexus players, since Best buy has them for 69, and I had a 10 dollar coupon. Signed up for Sling TV which seemed cool, will look more into the Hacks too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amazon has them for $66.83 and Best Buy does price match. Maybe you could get a little of your money back ?

Shield TV and kodi

Hi all
I currently have a t8 android box and wanted to upgrade.
I am looking at this and I will mainly only be using it for kodi.
Does anyone else use it for kodi alot and if so how does it perform?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

This unit outperforms everything else I tried. Almost no crashes.
Sendt fra min D6603 med Tapatalk

Hands down the best device for Kodi. Super fast no lag and buffer
Sent from my ONE A2005 using XDA Free mobile app

Very fast indeed.
I have a small annoying issue with Genesis though. Thumbnails are not showing up. Tried reinstall addon amd even the whole Kodi doeant work.
Anyone know how to fix it?
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app

zhuozhi211 said:
Very fast indeed.
I have a small annoying issue with Genesis though. Thumbnails are not showing up. Tried reinstall addon amd even the whole Kodi doeant work.
Anyone know how to fix it?
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you running Full Android or stock? I had that issue on other pure android devices, but not Android TV.
Sendt fra min D6603 med Tapatalk

Stock rooted.
Strangely it works well on my other Android box.
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app

Kodi is kick in the butt on the Nvidia Shield very stable and smooth no lagged or shutter.

kodi makes only random woke ups from sleep --- and this is annoying when you have smart telly in bedroom and shield connected with cec future by hdmi and when this tricks start started at night time . hope guys there will fix this bug ---- otherwise kodi on shield is more then good

...

chrisnewton said:
Hi all
I currently have a t8 android box and wanted to upgrade.
I am looking at this and I will mainly only be using it for kodi.
Does anyone else use it for kodi alot and if so how does it perform?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Shield inbound today for exactly this purpose. You'll probably find more support on the Kodi forum.
http://forum.kodi.tv/index.php

BillTheCat said:
I have a Shield inbound today for exactly this purpose. You'll probably find more support on the Kodi forum.
http://forum.kodi.tv/index.php
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea thanks mate been on there too.. Can you let me know what you think of it?

I got my shield a couple days ago. I'm not a gamer. I got it mostly for media consumption. I learned about kodi a few days before my shield came. I have to say it runs much better in the shield than it did on my windows laptop, it also ran better than it did on my phones. I love kodi now.. Haha it makes my shield so much more enjoyable. All the movies, the live streams of channels.. It's awesome.. I feel like I'm back in the 80s when people had those big satellite dishes and would get TV from all over the world.. Haha. The use to have a laptop plugged into the TV that I used for all media but the shield has replaced that. Really love the device.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

JJ-KwiK said:
Exit Kodi and delete your textures13.db file using a file manager like ES File Explorer. From there, restart your box. This should fix your problem.
Path: android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/.kodi/userdata/Database/Textures13.db
Note: the path I provided above is probably wrong. I'm going by memory.
Sent from my SM-G925W8 using XDA Premium HD app
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Click to collapse
Thanks. Tried that but didnt work for me somehow.
Even tried reinstalling the whole Kodi, sidnt help as well... wonder why.
Sent from my SM-N910G using XDA Free mobile app

I see a lot of praise for the streaming abilities of this device. But how is it at streaming those 35+ GB full bluray rips with HD audio? Neither the Roku3 nor the AfTV were able to handle the video (let alone the lack of HD audio support) without transcoding down quality. Assume end to end hardwiring for the scenario.

audiophan said:
I see a lot of praise for the streaming abilities of this device. But how is it at streaming those 35+ GB full bluray rips with HD audio? Neither the Roku3 nor the AfTV were able to handle the video (let alone the lack of HD audio support) without transcoding down quality. Assume end to end hardwiring for the scenario.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Slammin'. My entire collection of Blu-ray is ripped full size to ISO, some are over 45gb. I watch them from a 4Tb drive in an external USB enclosure until I get a NAS unit.

BillTheCat said:
Slammin'. My entire collection of Blu-ray is ripped full size to ISO, some are over 45gb. I watch them from a 4Tb drive in an external USB enclosure until I get a NAS unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fantastic! I'm excited to see if this become the be all, end all media device for my living room.

audiophan said:
Fantastic! I'm excited to see if this become the be all, end all media device for my living room.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, 'be-all' means different things to different people, so YMMV.
I was looking for a way to consolidate my streaming media sources (HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) and have my movie collection accessible (Kodi) so that I didn't have dozens of movies cluttering up my shelf. If you're looking for the same sort of arrangement, you'll need some method to rip your collection to ISO (or another format) without the copy protection kicking in to prevent playback.
The one thing that the SATV lacks which would be great is a TOSLINK (optical audio out) so that I could connect it to a DAC for my semi-high-end audio system. Yes, I'm a bit of an audio snob and keep my two systems separate. But it's not a deal-killer and I can always either get a USB/DAC dongle for the Shield or cobble a Raspberry Pi2 and a TOSLINK daughter board to connect that to the NAS for my audio needs.
Anyway, feel free to PM me. In the meantime, you'll find some great information at these links here:
Kodi forum
Nvidia Shield TV Forum

chrisnewton said:
Hi all
I currently have a t8 android box and wanted to upgrade.
I am looking at this and I will mainly only be using it for kodi.
Does anyone else use it for kodi alot and if so how does it perform?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never used Kodi BEFORE I got my Shield (2 weeks ago), but I've fallen pretty hard for it pretty quick. Obviously, as such, I have no past experience with Kodi to compare it against, but my experiences have by-and-large been quite positive.
The Aeon Nox skin is working very well for me. Arctic Zephyr is as well. I tried Bello, but things moved pretty slow/slugishly, so that ended pretty quickly... not sure if that's unique-to-Shield or not, though.
I hooked up an HDHomeRun Prime, and added the Add-On to view Live TV within Kodi. I feel that motion-blur is a lot worse with this add-on than it is with the native HDHomeRun View app for Shield. I think this might be a deinterlacing issue? Hopefully SiliconDust improves this when they update.
Movie playback within Kodi is exceptionally. Kodi 15.2 is currently properly decoding Dolby TrueHD internally and outputting the LPCM. DTS-HD-MA is hit-and-miss, but all reports indicate that they have that nailed down for the upcoming update to Jarvis 16.0 (which just moved from Alpha to Beta this week).
The Shield is very snappy, moving into and out of menus and into and out of apps. I'm liking it so much I already ordered a second, it should be waiting for me when I get home tonight.... I think it's a great little device.

Kodi on shield.
Every this runs as smooth as silk on the nvidia console. I have had mine since june from the USA. paid import tax the lot, But it was worth it. Updates every other week you dont get that on any other china box.

Beta Build with working DTS/DTS-MA/TRUE-HD Passthrough
For those waiting for HD Audio Passthrough, there is an experimental build here(NOT MY WORK.. ALL CREDIT TO AUTHOR):
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252852
Also looks like the senior devs at kodi are rejecting this change as android Home Theater is not their "Vision". I strongly encourage people to sign up and post your opinions to the kodi devs/admins and show your support for the dev working to bring this to us!
I have loaded this and while I am still testing, all appears to be working perfectly with makemkv library full of truehd and dts-ma