So, I've been playing with my Evo for the last month or two, and i've finally come to the conclusion that there are enough things that I'd have *occasional* use cases for that I can't do with the stock firmware. So, I'm thinking about rooting my phone and trying another rom.
I found the list of roms in the wiki, but as someone else pointed out, it doesn't really go into what makes the different roms different. and the pages for the individual roms don't always have the info I'm looking for.
The suggestion that was made to that user was CyanogenMod. If nobody comes up with a better suggestion, that's probably where I'll start.
So, here's what I'm looking for, in a roughly prioritized order:
1) A non-lobotomized bluetooth stack. Specifically, in addition to the profiles included in the stock rom, I'm looking for SPP and HID (for keyboards and real gamepads)
2) I know the USB controller is OTG capable. It would be really nice to be able to use it as a host port. Things I could reasonably see myself wanting to connect: HID devices, storage, and USB->serial cables.
3) Unlocked wifi tethering and wireless access point. It's not something I see a regular use case for, especially since I have a standalone USB cellmodem, but there have been times where it would have been nice. And it's bad enough that Sprint's milking me for an extra $10/month for the privilege of having a 4G capable phone. I'm not about to spend an extra $30 to pay them to unlock it for me.
4) 4G/WiMAX. Not that Sprint has any 4G towers up around me yet. *grumble* one of the store reps I talked to a while back said they'd been told by Sprint that *hopefully* we'll have some towers by the end of the year. But not to quote them on that.
5) HDMI out. This is one of those things I'd rarely use, but it'd be nice. The current firmware only supports HDMI for certain apps (slideshows, movies on the SD card, youtube) and that's okay. It'd be nice to just send all video to the HDMI port instead of (or in addition to) the LCD, but I'd be happy with what I've already got.
I know Cyanogen doesn't (yet) support 4G and HDMI and it doesn't have the Sense UI (which I'm not sure why I should care about) but if it's a good fit for the other three points, that might be a fair deal.
So, what do you all think? Is CyanogenMod a reasonable fit for me? Can you suggest anything that might fit better?
Thanks.
Personally I keep a known good nandroid backup of the stock firmware with all my applications and settings intact and a known good copy of Cyanogenmod with my stuff.
I can't bring myself to keep using the stock Evo firmware due to the bugs in the media layer (audio files restarting from the beginning whenever I pause them and leave the audio player application for an extent of time is a huge problem when most of the media you listen to are long format podcasts, oh and Last.fm can't play a song all the way through without jumping to the next one). On the other hand I do have decent 4G coverage here in the Twin Cities area which I can't utilize while using Cyanogenmod.
You may want to look into doing the same. When you need 4G or HDMI out you can load up a nandroid backup of the stock firmware and otherwise use something like Cyanogenmod. That way you have access to all the capabilities of the phone (although admittedly not in a convenient way).
Hello. I was looking to replace my laptop these days and since i own a desktop pc,i was thinking maybe a tablet would be a solid solution for something more mobile. I own an android smartphone,but i don't know tablets and their limitations. So,to be more specific:
1) Is it possible to read/write data to external devices,like hdd or usb? And if so, does it need root or is it stock enabled?
2)Is it possible to mirror screen to a monitor? I'm reading strange answers about miracast and i am not completely sure if its micro hdmi out enables mirror screening or just movie streaming.
3)You think it is possible to do some programming on it? Obviously i am not talking about serious and heavy stuff, but since it comes with the best processor out on tablets-yet- and 2gb ram and there are many IDE's on play store i'm guessing it should be ok? Also,would it be a near laptop experience if i installed the linux app?
Hope i did't tire you,thanks for reading.
1)https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.homeysoft.nexususb.importer&hl=en <- non root.
2)HDMI out does complete mirroring iir
3)well, you could boot ubuntu if you HAD to. but i don't see why not.
I don't think Android in general is well suited for a laptop replacement. I need things like the ability to view more than one window at a time, particularly when programming.
That said, one of the first things I want to do is work on being able to dual boot Linux and Android. For most entertainment type things Android is best but for productivity I'd prefer to boot Linux.
Same here. I mainly got the Nexus 10 as a laptop/desktop alternative to connect to external LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse and possibly USB storage. It obviously seems powerful enough.
Questions:
Since the built-in display resolution is 2560x1600 and the HDMI output is 1920x1080 does it scale down the built-in display when mirroring?
In mirroring mode can you use the tablet as a touch input (laying it flat next to the keyboard) in place of mouse?
Thanks.
Thank you all for the fast answers.
1)From what i saw,usb importer is for reading only,not writing. So i'm guessing root is needed?
2)Thanks,i didn't know it mirrored to screen.
3)You are right about that part,programming needs many windows. Im guessing apps that offer ide's with multi tabs and possibly extending the display through the hdmi out to two monitors instead of mirror could be possible,right? How does the tablet do with compiling/running speed?
Obviously you are right though, dual boot would be the best option.
Thanks again.
If you are looking for the desktop experience, laptop is still your best choice, there's plenty of processing power, program compatibility, storage and screen space at ~$500. Tablets are mobile devices with limited HW and OS, but in return significantly faster internet, social media and multimedia access, better screen, longer battery life and much comfortable weight allowing the kind of easy use (e-reading in bed etc.) a laptop cannot. The closest tablets to a real laptop are the full Windows8 ones starting around $1000. If I wanted the programs and stuff I'd go with a $500 laptop, if I wanted the larger mobile, multimedia and reading experience, which I do, I'd get the Nexus 10.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7
That'll most likely happen on the Nexus 10 as well at some point
Hi there, guys.
First up, sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place. From what I've seen, this looks like it might fit here, but if not, I kindly ask a mod to redirect me. Thanks!
I have started seeing these "HDMI sticks" popping up recently, and I got rather curious about them. So much, in fact, that I have spent several hours trying to figure them out, and thinking about whether I should get one, and in case I should, which one. However, either I have been searching on the wrong places or I have simply gone through so much stuff that I seem to know less each passing minute... :S
So, since you guys have this subforum up, I though you could lend me a hand, so I might understand these things a bit better.
If possible, I would like to know:
- Is there any version available of these sticks with 2GB of RAM? I'm guessing not, from what I've seen. Primary reason for this: I'd like to make a Torrent box out of one. Also, I'm guessing 1GB of RAM might work, especially if I manage to get Linux working?
- What are the options for sticks with Bluetooth? So far, I've seen the MK802 IIIs, the MK809 II, the iMito MX2, the GK802 and the MK808B, but am I missing anything else?
- Which one is considered to be the best, in terms of build quality and problems? I have seen many complaints about WiFi issues, should I be worried?
- Is there a way to bitstream DTS/AC3/DTS-MA? I have read it might be, but I'm not 100% sure.
- Does the YouTube app support preloading? I have had that problem with my N7 (which doesn't support it, while my i9000 does...)
- Which one is being most actively developed (both on the Linux and custom firmware areas)? Also, any limitations known limitations on Linux?
Right now, I am considering either an MK802 IIIs or the 808B, which seem to have pretty much all the options, and are quite cheap at the same time. What do you guys think?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Miguel
__Miguel_ said:
Hi there, guys.
First up, sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place. From what I've seen, this looks like it might fit here, but if not, I kindly ask a mod to redirect me. Thanks!
I have started seeing these "HDMI sticks" popping up recently, and I got rather curious about them. So much, in fact, that I have spent several hours trying to figure them out, and thinking about whether I should get one, and in case I should, which one. However, either I have been searching on the wrong places or I have simply gone through so much stuff that I seem to know less each passing minute... :S
So, since you guys have this subforum up, I though you could lend me a hand, so I might understand these things a bit better.
If possible, I would like to know:
- Is there any version available of these sticks with 2GB of RAM? I'm guessing not, from what I've seen. Primary reason for this: I'd like to make a Torrent box out of one. Also, I'm guessing 1GB of RAM might work, especially if I manage to get Linux working?
- What are the options for sticks with Bluetooth? So far, I've seen the MK802 IIIs, the MK809 II, the iMito MX2, the GK802 and the MK808B, but am I missing anything else?
- Which one is considered to be the best, in terms of build quality and problems? I have seen many complaints about WiFi issues, should I be worried?
- Is there a way to bitstream DTS/AC3/DTS-MA? I have read it might be, but I'm not 100% sure.
- Does the YouTube app support preloading? I have had that problem with my N7 (which doesn't support it, while my i9000 does...)
- Which one is being most actively developed (both on the Linux and custom firmware areas)? Also, any limitations known limitations on Linux?
Right now, I am considering either an MK802 IIIs or the 808B, which seem to have pretty much all the options, and are quite cheap at the same time. What do you guys think?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Miguel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am more or less in the same boat, and i'm holding off the purchase atm, btw here are my findings:
- yes there is one model with 2gb but i don't remember the name and it's not popular at all. 1GB should be more than enough btw.
- i think you listed them all, minus maybe some nearly-unknown ones
- there isn't a "best" one. each has its own share of problems... most common is wifi, then video resolution, then a/v sync, then bugged roms/availability of custom roms, wifi/bt chipsets not supported by custom roms, overheating etc etc, the list is really long and i don't remember them all, but actually none of the available sticks is 100% issue free
- not really sure on this one but afaik it depends on the stick and the rom.
- dunno
- mk808. linux limitation is that hw video acceleration is not present, which basically means no accelerated 2d, no 3d, no hw video decode
i was going to buy the mk808b. it has heatsink and runs at full 1.6ghz while the mk802III does not. unfortunately though the mk808b's wifi sucks and while there is a linux distro available (pic untu) it doesn't/won't offer gpu acceleration which is pretty big
the best option would instead be the odroid but it is not a stick and costs much more.
I bought the MK808. It came rooted. I installed fullscreen, xbmc (hardware accelerated), and auto start. I then configured xbmc to read media from my windows shares, setup bluecops repo so I can stream media from abc, cbs, nbc, etc.. Wifi has been stable for me, but I have caused it to reboot a few times by overloading it (downloading movie info while setting up a stream and trying to add another vidoe location at the same time caused it to reboot). But now the system boots up, goes fullscreen, and starts xbmc Media Center Software on startup. It's not perfect, but I'm starting to like it.
Braccoz said:
the best option would instead be the odroid but it is not a stick and costs much more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, the ODroid, especially the 2nd versions, are quite interesting, but much more expensive. The U2 is over twice the price of an 808B/IIIs, and that's not even considering the extra eMMC daughterboard or cables needed (though it has double the RAM and CPU cores). Plus, I'm assuming that Linux will have the same problems as the MKs now have, since, well, it has the same GPU...
Maybe I'll be better off waiting for the Chinese New Year? From what I know, they'll stop just about everything between February 8th and February 15th. Can it be they'll present more options, like something based off the RK3188 chip?
Also, I don't necessarily *need* a stick, since it will be connected not to the TV but to an amplifier. It just so happens that sticks seem to be cheaper, more prevalent and with better 3rd-party firmware support than non-sticks... Maybe I should look into the X5 or the Prometheus?
Oh, by the way, any idea if Android has any limitations on webcam resolution? I read somewhere that the maximum video resolution for calls is 640x480, even if you have better hardware, because of the OS...
And, since I'm asking, I've seen something about 1080p firmwares. Can I assume that the stock firmwares are 720p upscaled to 1080p, which would mean video playback would also be upscaled? Or does the upscale only apply to the desktop, and video is properly rendered?
Androidawg said:
I bought the MK808. It came rooted. I installed fullscreen, xbmc (hardware accelerated), and auto start. I then configured xbmc to read media from my windows shares, setup bluecops repo so I can stream media from abc, cbs, nbc, etc.. Wifi has been stable for me, but I have caused it to reboot a few times by overloading it (downloading movie info while setting up a stream and trying to add another vidoe location at the same time caused it to reboot). But now the system boots up, goes fullscreen, and starts xbmc Media Center Software on startup. It's not perfect, but I'm starting to like it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the input. That would be my preferable setup, also, since XBMC is now able to properly access hardware acceleration.
If I may ask, does it handle audio properly, as in DTS bitstreaming and the likes?
Miguel
__Miguel_ said:
Thanks for the input. That would be my preferable setup, also, since XBMC is now able to properly access hardware acceleration.
If I may ask, does it handle audio properly, as in DTS bitstreaming and the likes?
Miguel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a full 1080P HD version of Die Hard that is listed as DTS (it is a .mkv). It is a huge file (13.7 GB) I am running it straight through HDMI to my TV and the sound is working. I did have to tinker with the audio because it was about 2 millisecs behind the picture. Once I fixed that it was perfect. Any of my .avi files have been perfect. Hi Def .mp4 files have been perfect as well.
Androidawg said:
I have a full 1080P HD version of Die Hard that is listed as DTS (it is a .mkv). It is a huge file (13.7 GB) I am running it straight through HDMI to my TV and the sound is working. I did have to tinker with the audio because it was about 2 millisecs behind the picture. Once I fixed that it was perfect. Any of my .avi files have been perfect. Hi Def .mp4 files have been perfect as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know. XBMC rocks... hehe
Now, are you using a 1080p firmware, or the stock one (which I believe upscales)? In either case, can you check if there's upscaling going on? And, is the problem of movies not running in true full-screen because of the task-bar I've read about resolved?
Oh, and sorry to be nosy, but how do you get XBMC to auto-run on boot? Is there an option in the program, or can it be set as the default launcher?
Thanks!
Miguel
__Miguel_ said:
Good to know. XBMC rocks... hehe
Now, are you using a 1080p firmware, or the stock one (which I believe upscales)? In either case, can you check if there's upscaling going on? And, is the problem of movies not running in true full-screen because of the task-bar I've read about resolved?
Oh, and sorry to be nosy, but how do you get XBMC to auto-run on boot? Is there an option in the program, or can it be set as the default launcher?
Thanks!
Miguel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used two apps, one called fullscreen, it hides the taskbar and it can be set to run on boot. I used another app called auto start. It lets me choose apps to auto start when the android OS fires up. I set it to auto start xbmc. I don't think it is upscaling because I have a 720 TV and I had to do some tinkering in the settings to get the display to shrink down and fit my screen.
Hi. This is one of those things that must be so simple, but a Google search just comes up with pages and pages of totally unrelated nonsense. Hoping you guys can help me.
All I want to do is be able to mirror my Nvidia Shield TV to my smartphone screen. Not the phone to the NVidia Shield. Like a PS Remote Play but for the NvS TV. My room is within remote and gamepad range so an on screen pad is not necessary. Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks
(P.S if anyone knows of any Kodi addons with 4k content...that would be awesome! - there were 2 but they have been discontinued)
Any luck or good leads?
"Allcast reciever"?
What app or apps are you suppose trying to get to your phone?
I've been looking into doing the same thing but to a note 4. I think I found a few ways that seems like they would work for media streaming if your Shield had root access or unrestricted app installation options. Things like allcast reciever and other casting options. They all seemed to have too much latency for gaming if that is what you were wanting to do.
I'm not sure if a chromecast can output audio and video using the HDMI port but that might work if it can do that?
The other issue with pulling this off os that I think the solution needs to be some sort of universal screen and audio mirroring, like googlecast, that doesn't care about what app it is mirroring. Otherwise you'll have to rely on the app that is on the shield being capable of casting, and the Nvidia Hub isn't as far as I know.
I search for terms like: Android to android screen mirroring, android remote display, android remote access, etc....nothing so far.
My most promising hope for doing something like this now are:
1. Making my phone somehow act as or emulate a display, TV, Monitor in a way that can utilize the output from the HDMI port of a SHIELD device. This would bypass all the various issues and complications with specific application capabilities and restrictions, though it is just a idea about how to work around the app issues, I have no idea if this would even be possible. I also don't know if anything that is coming out the HDMI port has any sort of HDCP protection. I would assume that some things would but I would also assume that most of those specific things are the kinds of things. I would just be casting via media players anyway.
2. I have a really REALLY fast LAN network, and I know I am able to remotely access my PC in various ways that are low latency and high performance as far as display and audio are concerned. So, assuming the latency could be kept low enough I have thought about working on getting what I want to access on an Nvidia shield device to my PC running Windows 10, then I can just access that from my phone.
I don't know if you're familiar with that saying about engineering which basically says: "It's not a question of what you want to do but how much you can pay to do it." I say that because there seem to be a couple of fairly good high end Headset based displays out there. One is called the "gylph" or something like that and I have looked fairly thoroughly into one or two others that seemed to be high quality and have reliable reviews and testing available to find online. Some didn't seem available for another year or two, and even then you are going to be dropping $500 to $1,000 for them.
3. Using something like Tridef 3d and a head mounted VR headset based display. I was able to get that working pretty well without too much effort from my PC. The Tri-def software creates a side by side view of the application that you tell it to from your PC. So I can basically get a display output from just about anything on my PC and use it with just about anything they can recieve display output from my PC or remotely view my computers display with low latency. I haven't looked too much to see if something similar to this software is available that can run on a shield device. I would assume they are powerful enough even if you had to scale things down just a little bit.
The kind of set up that could send from your SHIELD, to your PC, to your Head Mounted Display or VR headset could be have some interesting advantages if the overall network latency was low enough. Having the rendering of the initial source on one device and the side by side display conversion on another could have a lot advantages. I own a Samsung gear VR innovator edition headset that I can use with my note 4, but if I want to use it for more than 20 minutes I need to pre-cool my phone in the freezer and to get any significant amount of time I think I would need to develop fairly high performance cooling system. That obviously isn't very easy to do when you need it to interface with a phone you use daily and also be small and light enough to attach to something you're wearing on your face. The point is that doing anything more than receiving and audio and video stream on your phone is going to be very resource intensive for it to handle. Even maxing out the gigabit Wi-Fi on my land for my phone makes it really warm and consumes the battery at a very high rate.
Whatever you do if it is helpful I have connected a pluggable USB 2.0 to Gigabit LAN adapter to the shield portable and it more than doubled the network performance. I'm not sure what the actual LAN performance is on the SHIELD
TV but even if you didn't need to increase it you might be able to reduce latency by by separating the total network load between the internal Gigabit Ethernet port and a separate USB 2.0 or 3.0 lan adapter. I don't know enough about androids capabilities to use more than one network adapter simultaneously four separate purposes to know if that is possible.
Well, congratulations if you've made it this far into my post. I have obviously been exploring this kind of thing for a while but there is a lot potential out there and a lot things that I don't know about or understand thoroughly enough. It's nice to know I'm not completely alone in this specific ambition. Hopefully we can gather a few more people and make some progress with this thread!
...wow
Wow that is an indepth reply. Thanks!
I can tell you've put a lot of thought into this. You obviously have a better chance of pulling it off than I do! (I did read it all lol)
I'm basically wanting to be able to mirror the screen like the PS4 remote play. Not just specific apps.
The only reason I know it's possible is that the Playstation 4 handles it remarkably well. No noticable lag as long as you have a good wifi router. Those guys at Sony must be using some kind of black magic. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna be the one who figures this out. I'm in no way a software or network engineer....I am an electrical engineering student though.
Anyway it's also good for me to hear that I'm not alone here. I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia were working on this right now or at some point in the near future. And I sold the 6P and bought a Note 5 by the way. Wasn't a fan of the 6P at all.
Anyone get this to work or find another solution?
Thanks
Hi all, hopefully I am posting in the right place for this query.
So I bought a T95Z Plus TV BOX Android 12 Allwinner H618 and I thought I was making a decent upgrade from my old R10 box which still works despite being Android 7.1!!! However upon arrival and setup of the T95Z Plus I came unstuck when I could not open PIA VPN app. When I attempt to open the app, it literally tries to open then stops and nothing happens. All this in the blink of an eye. No splash screen, nothing. Just double click the app, brief spin as though it were loading then nothing.
I obviously went into overdrive to find a fix and basically came up with very little to try believing it was PIA app. Initially I read it was some kind of problem with Android 12 and all VPNs however has since been patched. But from what I can see it seems to be the T95plus is the issue.
The advice I have read and tried so far is:
to uninstall the app, reinstall the app.
Try the apk install that can be obtained directly from the PIA website rather than googleplay store
Turn of battery saver mode
Clear Cache of the app
I also tried another VPN, this time a free VPN, however this app opens but just sits trying to connect for ever.
So I am wondering has anyone with the same experience as me, or the knowledge got something for m to try in order to rectify the problem? I would return the box however it took so long to arrive to the UK that I don't think I can return it as it's past 14 days. Stupidly did not anticipate such a problem
If anyone can help I would be very grateful, thank you in advance.
I am compelled to write this before I give a real answer. Allwinner chips are utter garbage and avoid them. The H616 boxes were total garbage and riddle with spyware. You would do well to run a PCAP and see if its calling home like the H616 was.
First off download the APK directly from PIA. Once you have it just click on it. If prompted about install from unknown sources click ok. This will install the app. Don't do anything yet. Go to Settings and just search VPN. It needs to be there because the PIA app requires it to run. It's standard in Android and it should be there. But if the firmware was modified it could disable the feature or remove it as it could prevent the box from calling home.
Here is PIA's own guide on how to do all this.
Basically if its hanging it's because the PIA App isn't seeing the VPN service. I speak from experience since I disabled it once when I didn't haven't clue what the hell I was doing. Since you said a free VPN was having the same issue my suspicion would be the box itself. You can install one of the hidden settings apps and see if you can get to the VPN Setting. If you cannot then you need to just return the box and get a Amlogic or a decent Rockchip. For TV Boxes Allwinner chips are dumpster fires.
I blew my first Amlogic box a few years back before I knew that destroying them is near impossible and I recovered it later. I bought a T95 because it looked great, price was great, and I was clueless. I had nothing but trouble with it for the week or so I fought with it. The nail in the coffin was watching network traffic flowing when none should have been. That's when I ran my own PCAP and saw it was talking to Chinese servers for services I knew weren't in use. This isn't an indictment on Chinese boxes as I have a plethora of them. It's an indictment on the crap quality any of these boxes have. You get what you pay for. I'm a firm believer in cheap and cheerful. Just with AllWinner their reputation is utter garbage in the TV Box market. Most go with Amlogic because you have the most flexibility with them since Amlogic tools are readily available and custom firmware is easily obtained. Rockchip is the next up but the tools are much more limited and there is less options for custom firmware.
My real suggestion is RMA the box if you can. If you can't, eat the loss and buy a Amlogic. You can always look at getting *Elec projects or Armbian or something for the H618 but don't hold your breath as AllWinner isn't wildly supported. Their lack of tools for their chips means no one is inclined to deal with the pain involved for developing for their chips. Plus their habit of gimping chips due to heat throttling means it's inferior in the long run because you will constantly be running throttled as AllWinner chips run hot.
TV Boxes aren't known for their quality cooling already. If you are heavy user you get creative in providing cooling. The easiest is a USB powered fan. Not the best solution since thermal dynamics clearly operate in a parallel dimension in the factories where cheap Android boxes are made. Heat does not rise in that dimension. It sinks. This is why the majority of boxes have holes for heat dissipation at the bottom of the box. So while a USB fan does help, if you want to get wild and crazy check out what some the kids at 4PDA come up with. The easiest option is pop the box, take the board out and go nuts with a drill and a whatever sized bit you feel comfy using. Which means, use common sense. If you want to use a hole saw bit I'm not going to say no. Live your truth and don't let anyone stop you.
Hope this helps you.
PS - I'm far from a new member. Just a serial lurker. I figured consumed enough that I might as well return some of the knowledge I have gathered here and a plethora of other sites. Plus I felt bad for you. I was you with an AllWinner TV Box. I know how frustrating it was.
Hi Spudzz. First off thanks for the reply. Just a little additional info regarding this, but basically last night before your reply I had upgraded the firmware to a more recent version, if not the most recent version and despite install PIA again I got a little further as in the app will open, but it will not allow me to sign into my account.
So yeah, there is definitely something up with these boxes. I tried a free one VPNfast or something and this also failed to connect to a server.
What amazes me with these T95Z plus boxes is they seem very popular. There is a whole other thread on here regarding them indeed that is where I learnt about the different firmware img's. One single post has a guy asking them same thing as me saying he can't open his vpn. But no one replied to him.
Unfortunately I cannot return this box, I don't think I can anyways because it has been past 2 weeks since I got it. I will however lookout now for Amlogic box as you recommend. Do you know if there are Android 12 versions of these kicking around or does it matter if I bought one that is Android 11?
I am coming from using an old S10 Android Tv box that still works to this day. It's Android 7.1 would you believe. The reason I want to switch if every so often I get an app that wont work properly regarding the progress bar. Videos will play but you can't rewind,fastforward, click on the timeline anywhere in the video. The latest app to go was youtube and since I use YouTube a lot I thought I was making a good choice getting a more up to date Android Box with Android 12 installed. So many good reviews on Amazon regarding this box as well. It's crazy. I didn't buy my box from Amazon but I just use that as an example of where some good reviews are.
***edit*** by the way the VPN settings on the T95 I could find, but there weren't many options and I didn't know what to do with those that were there.