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dont' think i've ever had a device so locked down that wasn't a total dog with this little talk going on. Bravo amazon... you broke XDA
Someone had to say it
I keep telling myself not to regret this purchase yet....just wait a little longer, but the lack of talk going on in the HDX forum is quite depressing and far from reassuring
Am I the only one who likes the tablet as-is without any modifications? The app selection leaves a bit to be desired but all the major media apps are represented (Spotify, Rdio, Hulu, Netflix, etc...) and there are plenty of games available. The only thing that irks me is not being able to play content I already purchased on Google Play, but it's not enough to kill the device for me.
I used to feel myself regretful until I have discovered 1mobile market. Now, beside I cannot change wallpaper, I have decent launcher and a market that is comparable to the Google play. Ok root and custom rooms would be nice, also do I enjoy using HDX. Even, I could choice one more time, I would still (wait ) take HDX because it's specs and weight.
Before buying the HDX I've tried high end Asus and Samsung devices, which were really of poor quality and performance (user experience, not synthesized benchmarks).
I don't think this is over yet....
I do not think it's impossible to root Amazon Kindle HDX, as long as there is developers who keeps this project alive, there is still hope! Why is it so hard to root the last update! Wouldn't it be good to discuss this at a thread in the forum? How far have you come? Where in the process is it impossible to reach further? Then we could help each other! Will Amazon really emerge victorious out of this battle? I think not!
raptir said:
Am I the only one who likes the tablet as-is without any modifications? The app selection leaves a bit to be desired but all the major media apps are represented (Spotify, Rdio, Hulu, Netflix, etc...) and there are plenty of games available. The only thing that irks me is not being able to play content I already purchased on Google Play, but it's not enough to kill the device for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had I done more proper research, I would have gone with the Nexus 7 to be honest. I'm not a fan of this device in it's default form. I know I made the mistake of jumping in based on specs and a sale that was going on at the time, but I wish it were more Android through and through. I'm not a fan of the Amazon Fire OS GUI, and not being able to get Gapps by default was a serious oversight on my part....that's my main regret. The device performs just fine and the specs don't disappoint. I simply should have done more research on the rooting and unlocking bootloader side
dimi5 said:
I used to feel myself regretful until I have discovered 1mobile market. Now, beside I cannot change wallpaper, I have decent launcher and a market that is comparable to the Google play. Ok root and custom rooms would be nice, also do I enjoy using HDX. Even, I could choice one more time, I would still (wait ) take HDX because it's specs and weight.
Before buying the HDX I've tried high end Asus and Samsung devices, which were really of poor quality and performance (user experience, not synthesized benchmarks).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Atise said:
I do not think it's impossible to root Amazon Kindle HDX, as long as there is developers who keeps this project alive, there is still hope! Why is it so hard to root the last update! Wouldn't it be good to discuss this at a thread in the forum? How far have you come? Where in the process is it impossible to reach further? Then we could help each other! Will Amazon really emerge victorious out of this battle? I think not!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I should add that I am still one of the lucky ones. I do have root still and as long as I keep playing it safe, I don't see me ever losing root. With that said, I guess my depressed and non-reassuring comment is a bit more selfish and on the getting an unlocked bootloader side of things. Of course, I definitely don't see that happening until a new root is found to get everyone back at the same place with root access.
icedtrip said:
Had I done more proper research, I would have gone with the Nexus 7 to be honest. I'm not a fan of this device in it's default form. I know I made the mistake of jumping in based on specs and a sale that was going on at the time, but I wish it were more Android through and through. I'm not a fan of the Amazon Fire OS GUI, and not being able to get Gapps by default was a serious oversight on my part....that's my main regret. The device performs just fine and the specs don't disappoint. I simply should have done more research on the rooting and unlocking bootloader side
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a first-gen Nexus 7 and was considering the 2013 model but decided on the Kindle Fire HDX even knowing that it couldn't be rooted. My usage of the Nexus 7 was mostly reading (through the Kindle app) and watching videos (Hulu, Netflix). I played a few games on it but I'm fine with Amazon's selection. I went with the Kindle HDX because I could get 64GB of storage for only slightly more than the 32GB Nexus 7 and also gain support for Prime Instant Video.
Edit: I will say, I like being able to tinker with my Nexus 5 but I feel that the enhancements that come with custom ROMs are more important to me on a phone rather than a tablet. With a tablet I typically open a single app and use that for a prolonged period of time so I don't see much of the interface.
Yep. I agree with raptir. It was fun while it lasted but I notice now, I don't even need custom ROM. As long as I have my prime and xbmc, life is good.
Sent from my LG-D800 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I am doing the exact same thing I did with my 16GB Nook Tablet noneHD version when I had it for 2 years. I upgraded to the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 for the larger screen and newer hardware for movie playback across the network via DLNA. I also use it for reading and have finished several books on it and the Nook alike. Nook was running CM 10 but I felt like I could have just kept the basic B&N OS around for what I did with it. I still feel the same way about the Kindle Fire HDX. Stock handles everything I throw at it and I can keep my apps updated thanks to 1mobile. Things like Skifta and MX player along with Cool Reader for epub and mobi formatted books that I have had forever and did not get through amazon. For me the kindle/nook are Media consumption devices and they fill that roll pretty nicely with stock. The kindle more so becuase of the updated OS and larger screen along with newer hardware that is capible of 1080p playback via network unlike the nook where it would struggle with 720p playback for me.
IMHO, it's a fine MEDIA device, but not so much a regular tablet.
kschang said:
IMHO, it's a fine MEDIA device, but not so much a regular tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pay attention. The Tech Geeks have decreed that this tablet must die. It must fail simply because Amazon has decided to be douchy about it. It must no be rooted and it must not be recommend. Amazon worked very hard to get this. I for one am going to do all I can to give them what they want. Kindle needs to go the way of the Nook which actually was better than kindle but not as popular imho lol. Regardless, Death to the kindle line.
kschang said:
IMHO, it's a fine MEDIA device, but not so much a regular tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree... however if i didnt' have amazon instant i wouldnt' even like it for that. my feedly crashes constantly, and i get way too many random reboots on this thing.
HOWEVER its become my treadmill partner thanks to the ability to download amazon instant
Pay attention. This thing is hard to hack, therefore it must die.
Listen to yourself saying that, 100 times.
kschang said:
IMHO, it's a fine MEDIA device, but not so much a regular tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess that's where my opinion may differ from others'. To me, a tablet is primarily a media device. Movies, TV shows, books, games, news, etc... which all work great on the Fire. Productivity is the one place that it really falls short, but even with my Nexus 7 I still prefer my laptop for productivity.
just keep it offline for the next few months...an exploit is going to be found and published, it's happened with the previous firmware versions...
raptir said:
I guess that's where my opinion may differ from others'. To me, a tablet is primarily a media device. Movies, TV shows, books, games, news, etc... which all work great on the Fire. Productivity is the one place that it really falls short, but even with my Nexus 7 I still prefer my laptop for productivity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on the media content. You can mostly work.around the YouTube issues with Google services, but that is a disadvantage other tablets don't have. I watch a lot of flash content on streaming movie sites and have found some ways to work around nuisances on most sites as well but without a good rooted pop-up blocker it is a disadvantage . It streams Amazon content fairly well but I learned how to do that long ago on a regular tablet. The screen is very nice and smooth though.
To the other guy. It isnt that the tablet must die because it's hard to hack. The tablet must die to teach corporations that they either give the public what they want or they lose. Simple pleasures I enjoy every day on normal tablets are either un attainable on the hdx or difficult at best, even if the build quality is excellent, and the hardware is outstanding Amazon needs an attitude adjustment.
FireOS is NOT Android. Never claimed to be. The current result is quite workable dual-use. I can use Unbeloved Host and/or AdAway and/or Chrome to block most ads. Amazon never designed an Android tablet. Amazon designed an AMAZON tablet (which happens to run an Android Fork).
Your "boycott" of Kindle HDX line is not going to have ANY effect on Amazon except deprive yourself, but then, you already own one. At best it's a mixed message. And you show a distinct lack of faith on ingenuity of the XDA Developer Community.
I have both Google Play services running fine along side Amazon services. I Chromecasted a bunch of cat videos to my TV today (there are two cats in the house). I download from both app stores, sometimes simultaneously. I am rooted and Xposed and Safestrapped and so on and so forth.
In other words, it's basically what you're willing to live with. Your have a different tolerance point than I do. The difference is you want Amazon to go against its nature and give you what you want, whereas I decided that the current HDX (well, technically last year's HDX) is quite usable as is with a few hacks.
Just because people aren't talking doesn't mean they aren't trying to work on it. Things come to those that are patient.
kschang said:
FireOS is NOT Android. Never claimed to be. The current result is quite workable dual-use. I can use Unbeloved Host and/or AdAway and/or Chrome to block most ads. Amazon never designed an Android tablet. Amazon designed an AMAZON tablet (which happens to run an Android Fork).
Your "boycott" of Kindle HDX line is not going to have ANY effect on Amazon except deprive yourself, but then, you already own one. At best it's a mixed message. And you show a distinct lack of faith on ingenuity of the XDA Developer Community.
I have both Google Play services running fine along side Amazon services. I Chromecasted a bunch of cat videos to my TV today (there are two cats in the house). I download from both app stores, sometimes simultaneously. I am rooted and Xposed and Safestrapped and so on and so forth.
In other words, it's basically what you're willing to live with. Your have a different tolerance point than I do. The difference is you want Amazon to go against its nature and give you what you want, whereas I decided that the current HDX (well, technically last year's HDX) is quite usable as is with a few hacks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not depriving myself in any way. I own literally dozens of tablets. I never claimed kindle as an android tablet. I claim it as an inferior product because it's OS holds it back since it is limited in many aspects that both Apple and Android have excelled in. Your argument is fragmented and invalid. You had to root in order to achieve your results. Asking for simple things such as a keyboard that half works or some control over turning off double space to period, simple things like widgets, well if that is against Amazon's nature then yes I am quite against Amazon tablets lol.
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.
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 ?
I own both a nexus Player and a Fire TV and it seems that there is very little in the way of apps on the Nexus Player. It is great for Kodi and netflix but that seems about it, there is TV Player but the quality of the picture is not great and I notice that on the Nexus Player and Fire TV it can be a bit buggy to start sometimes. None of the national broadcasters have any apps and things in general for video are slim pickings.
Are there any worth while apps to get? I like the way Pluto TV integrates with the Live Channels app so was thinking of getting a TV tuner for my PC to rig up all the OTA channels. Its a great little box with a reasonably nice interface but app support is sorely lacking. I would have thought that with it being a TV platform that other manufactures are using it would have had a massive catalogue by now.
I own an Nvidia Shield Android TV which like many non-Nexus Android TV devices has a device-specific iPlayer app. You could try side-loading it, though I doubt that would work. Here's a link to the forum where you can find the .apk anyway:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/shield-tv/general/nvidia-shield-android-tv-uk-t3214570/page4
I have no idea exactly why the BBC is making its service only partially available on the platform. Amazon are doing the same by only making Prime Video available on Sony Android TVs, but they obviously have their commercial reasons as they run the competing Fire TV platform.
On a side note I recently heard that there was a new Prime Video add-on for Kodi, though you'll have to try this for yourself as I haven't had a chance yet.
It seems that Channel 4 and ITV have no interest in the platform, however the Fire TV is itself a running a fork of Android. Maybe you could try ripping some of the .apks (such as iPlayer and 4OD) from the Fire TV and side-loading onto the Nexus Player. Again I doubt this will work smoothly but maybe it's worth a shot.
Other than that though, let's just cross our fingers and hope that we haven't invested in Google TV 2.0.
How do the tablets compare?
With prime day it is at a decent price and my poor Nexus took a trip down some stairs.
Can the HD8 cast to chromecast?
Can the ads be removed without paying?
Just bought one today. The price was finally right for the hardware, went on a group buy with some coworkers and got a 3 pack of 32 GB HD8's for $210. We'll see what can be done with it. As to the ads, i doubt we'll be able to do anything about that without rooting it, but I also doubt it'll take long before it's exploited.
Gamma Ray said:
How do the tablets compare?
With prime day it is at a decent price and my poor Nexus took a trip down some stairs.
Can the HD8 cast to chromecast?
Can the ads be removed without paying?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got my Fire 8 HD today and I can now confirm that YouTube, VICELAND, Google Play Music, and my random 3rd party podcast app (AntennaPod) all are casting perfectly to my Chromecast. Also casting perfectly to my Google Home as a speaker for the audio apps.
Unfortunately I don't currently have a Hulu or HBO account to test with.
But Netflix... I am very confused about Netflix. So I tapped the Chromecast button in the Google Play version of the app, and it gave me the option to cast... to the Roku Stick in my bedroom? Huh? That will be useful no doubt, but I was trying to send to the Chromecast in my living room. My Chromecast unit is not showing at all in the Netflix options, despite it showing for all the other apps mentioned above.
For the ads, nothing was showing when I first booted the device, but it soon installed a system update after which some obnoxious ads started showing as the lockscreen. I think only money or root will get rid of them.
Yep, I'm not able to cast Netflix either to my Android TV. YouTube casting works fine. Also, to get rid of the ads, just start a chat with Amazon, they'll probably disable it. Ask nicely.