Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

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offbeatdave
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Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by offbeatdave »

In the absence of any urgent Joggler mods to do at the moment I used an Amazon gift voucher to purchase an Android TV stick (one that plugs into the HDMI of the TV). I plumped for the Justop K9B. The intention was to move the WDTV Live box into the lounge (to save using the XBOX 360 as a media player) and use the stick in the dining room.

I'd forgotten how much initial tinkering takes over! I think I've seen midnight tinkering every night for the last week! The usual pattern of tinker...tinker...tinker...break it...reflash...tinker etc. was followed all week. I finally found a decent, stable ROM (Finless 1.7a) for the stick and am running it at 720p. The stock one crashed loads! I also had to add a microUSB ethernet adaptor as the wireless is a bit ropey. Even this needed a bit of hacking to enable ethernet each time the unit boots!

I was a bit disappointed to be honest as the iPlayer app and ITV Player apps from the Play store don't display particularly sharply. The 4OD app doesn't output to TV and neither does the SkyGo app (although I thought this would be the case anyway!).

However, this led me to the world of XBMC. I have had a little tinker on the Joggler with it but this is what has taken all my time this week. I've tried various builds for Android but the all gave me problems with the iPlayer plugin and the ITV player plugin when it came to outputting. I've tried all sorts of external players too but never managed to get both plugins working properly. I came closest mid-week with a Gotham build but playback was very stuttery and unwatchable.

Anyway, today I've managed to find a build that works pretty well out of the box without having to add a playercorefactory.xml file to manage players! xbmcapp-armeabi-v7a-debug-2013-03-05-full-neon.apk It is clean (no additional backgrounds etc.) and is reporting as XBMC 13.0 Alpha1. The standard available version I found was 12.2 Frodo which I just couldn't get going with those plugins. There were various custom versions of 12.1/12.2 about but again, I couldn't configure them to get both plugins working properly.

I can't output to 720HD on the iPlayer - it stutters as I don't think the stick can take it, but it's OK on the 1500bitrate. The ITV player is OK too and of course, I can use either Android apps or XBMC to stream from he 1TB HDD attached to my router as a MediaPlayer! I can't get the 4OD plugin going though as it says it cannot connect to the network server.

The Finless 1.7a ROM also comes with an app (which I'm running on the Nexus 7) to act as a remote, although I've also got a normal USB mouse plugged in at the moment.

Anyone else using something similar with any tips/success to report? Any recommended XBMC add-ons?
"EVERY DAY I'M JOGGLERING!"
Jogglering since Dec '09;
Tinkering with Jogglers since Feb '10 thanks to PMJ, Jogtools, PnP & sqpOS;
Gave something back Feb '12 to Apr '14 with PnP Mk II & PnP III;
Finally 'completed' PnP III Apr '15!
castalla
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by castalla »

offbeatdave wrote: I can't get the 4OD plugin going though as it says it cannot connect to the network server.
4oD is broken - no ETA for a fix
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offbeatdave
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by offbeatdave »

Cheers for the info. I hadn't really had a chance to look for info on this as I've spent every waking (and sleeping) hour tinkering with combinations to get the other two UK TV catchup plugins working.
"EVERY DAY I'M JOGGLERING!"
Jogglering since Dec '09;
Tinkering with Jogglers since Feb '10 thanks to PMJ, Jogtools, PnP & sqpOS;
Gave something back Feb '12 to Apr '14 with PnP Mk II & PnP III;
Finally 'completed' PnP III Apr '15!
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dwl99
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by dwl99 »

tbh XBMC for Android TV sticks is a bit of a work in progress at the moment. You might want to look into getting a Raspberry Pi and running Raspbmc on it - it's a lot more stable and snappier.
gegs
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by gegs »

I concur with dwl99 on this one. I run Raspbmc on the telly in the kitchen and it's pretty darned good. Even my wife (an absolute technophobe) can use it, controlling it with Yatse on her Android phone. Sam Nazarko appears to be developing this on his own and I'm sure he'd appreciate any help with the project from talented developers (sadly, that doesn't include me).

Another (but more expensive) method would be running XBMC on OUYA. It costs about the same as an Apple TV but can run Gotham development builds of XBMC - Frodo doesn't have hardware acceleration for Android. The current version of the ATV can't be jailbroken and the OUYA does more fun stuff, so it looks by far the more attractive buy.

-- EDIT -- Apparently there will be an official XBMC fork for the OUYA. Consistency should be better in XBMC ports that are device-specific; there are so many variables when trying to run the Android port on a plethora of phones, sticks and set-top boxes.
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offbeatdave
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by offbeatdave »

Deliberately didn't go for a Pi as I figured it'd take up too much of my time continually finding things to tinker with! With my current Android Stick setup, once it's done, it's done - nothing further to explore/fiddle with.

I must be just about done now - I wasn't still tinkering past midnight for the first time in a week last night and I don't plan on fiddling any more this week! My current working XBMC does more than the WDTV Live box did (it only had iPlayer which was better quality but no ITV). ESFileManager with WondersharePlayer seems to be the most responsive way of playing from the HD attached to the router. Also, it's all set up basically like the 2 Nexus 7 tablets we have in the house which the non-geeks in the house can use!

If I had a Pi though...(contemplates his forthcoming few weeks off from work)...
"EVERY DAY I'M JOGGLERING!"
Jogglering since Dec '09;
Tinkering with Jogglers since Feb '10 thanks to PMJ, Jogtools, PnP & sqpOS;
Gave something back Feb '12 to Apr '14 with PnP Mk II & PnP III;
Finally 'completed' PnP III Apr '15!
gegs
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by gegs »

offbeatdave wrote:Deliberately didn't go for a Pi as I figured it'd take up too much of my time continually finding things to tinker with! With my current Android Stick setup, once it's done, it's done - nothing further to explore/fiddle with.
That's pretty much the experience with Raspbmc too. The only fiddling/tinkering is the screen calibration and the installation and configuring of addons, which you have to do with any XBMC setup. If your TV supports HDMI-CEC, you will be able to use your TV remote with XBMC on the Pi.

The one thing I can't vouch for is wireless capability (my Squeezeplug and Raspbmc Pi installations are connected by ethernet) but it appears to work well for those who use a supported dongle.
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offbeatdave
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by offbeatdave »

Ah, no, I meant that as well as TV stuff I'd find other uses for the Pi and be lost to civilisation once again!
"EVERY DAY I'M JOGGLERING!"
Jogglering since Dec '09;
Tinkering with Jogglers since Feb '10 thanks to PMJ, Jogtools, PnP & sqpOS;
Gave something back Feb '12 to Apr '14 with PnP Mk II & PnP III;
Finally 'completed' PnP III Apr '15!
gegs
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by gegs »

Fair point! The two I have were bought for specific uses, a low power LMS server and a kitchen TV unit, so when I set them up to my satisfaction, I left them alone. I do, however, have a hankering for another to use as a bare bones computer attached to my TV in the lounge ... so I understand completely where you're coming from ;)
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offbeatdave
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by offbeatdave »

Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

Having managed to leave the android TV stick alone for a week, I've been back to it to tinker.

I have just managed to get XBMC on my Justop K9B (MX809ii) playing iPlayer Plugin content in 720p! Just needed the right combo of alpha 13 build (and advancedsettings.xml file and it's playing as well as my WDTV Live box iPlayer app.

Satisfying!

Also managed to install clockworkmod recovery to the stick to back it up before serious tinkering.
"EVERY DAY I'M JOGGLERING!"
Jogglering since Dec '09;
Tinkering with Jogglers since Feb '10 thanks to PMJ, Jogtools, PnP & sqpOS;
Gave something back Feb '12 to Apr '14 with PnP Mk II & PnP III;
Finally 'completed' PnP III Apr '15!
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pete
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by pete »

Almost there here this morning I looked at the xios ds and XBMC support the started to look at the newer with fast CPU's "TV sticks".

Reading now that the new Android sticks ported to Linux / XBMC are fast and tiny (faster now than the RPi).
- Pete
O2 Jogglers running EFI Ubuntu / Squeezeplayer
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gegs
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by gegs »

Sad though it is to say, I don't think there's any real future for XBMC on the Pi.

Don't get me wrong, I did have it playing sweetly on the Pi as a kitchen TV device, but it suddenly froze on me and no amount of rebooting or tweaking could get it working again. After a couple of weeks I decided to start again with a fresh install of Raspbmc, which wasn't as straightforward as before. DHCP wouldn't speak to my Pi's LAN connection and wouldn't download the update image. I got round this by setting the install card to use a WLAN connection first and then installed to a USB stick. Strangely, I could enable the LAN connection again from Raspbmc settings after installation and it worked fine.

The problem is that every video stream now stutters then eventually freezes. The only streams I can play without issue are TVCatchup streams - and only then if I set the video quality to "mobile". I've tried overclocking, changing the cache memory buffer size and various other advancedsettings.xml tweaks. All to no avail.

I get the feeling that as new builds are released, they push the limits of what the Pi is capable of, even with Pi-optimized builds. In desperation I've tried Xbian and Openelec and they too aren't working properly. The streams that play also stutter and loads of addons that work on my Apple TV don't work on the Pi.

The truth is that XBMC on the ATV2 is a dream, but it's more of a nightmare on the Pi. I really can't be bothered with the massive investment of my time on a platform that I don't think can really cut the mustard in the long term. Time to invest on one of the fast, new generation Android sticks I think. If anybody knows of any good Android sticks that work well, I'd be grateful for the info.
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dwl99
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by dwl99 »

I also had problems with stuttering video on my Pi with both openELEC & RaspBMC and have given up on it. I've just bought the Pi camera module & will probably use the Pi as a CCTV once someone comes up with a GUI. As soon as anyone starts selling XBMC on a half decent Android TV stick which supports USB Freeview I'm in!
gegs
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by gegs »

It really is a shame that something that worked so well before is now so clunky. It's disappointing but I'll probably convert my XBMC Pi to a headless Squeezelite player (I already have Squeezeplug installed on another Pi). As this is is an Android stick thread, I'll restrict further comments to that particular platform.

The reason I wanted an XBMC box in the first place is because reception is so poor at the back of my house (where the kitchen TV is) that I wanted an IPTV solution. I've read some good reports about the newer Android sticks, especially when converted to the linux version of XBMC. Initially I would be tempted to use as an Android device with XBMC installed as an app, purely to get some other Android goodies like the Netflix app, and I wondered if anybody had good experiences with a particular model. There's so much junk out there that I'm wary.
gegs
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by gegs »

@dwl99 - it's funny to see how we've gone from enthusiastic optimism (in our earlier posts in this thread) to an air of defeat. I said that XBMC on the Pi was "pretty darned good" - and it was. Maybe my current problems are just "new release" issues that will be straightened out, but I doubt it.

I reckon there's better future-proofing with better hardware.
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dwl99
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by dwl99 »

It really just turned into a time-sink. Wife unimpressed.
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dwl99
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by dwl99 »

Looks like the MK808B http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A ... FZ45Y3D874 is currently the one to go for although it doesn't support DVB-T. One to watch?
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dwl99
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by dwl99 »

Even further off-topic! I'm very tempted by the Humax HDR-FOX T2 Freeview Recorder. It's basically a Linux box with customised firmware available http://hummy.tv/forum/forums/hd-hdr-fox ... rmware.28/ . Not quite comparable to the RPi but it looks like an interesting project.
gegs
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by gegs »

dwl99 wrote:Looks like the MK808B http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A ... FZ45Y3D874 is currently the one to go for although it doesn't support DVB-T. One to watch?
I am so tempted to buy one of these. The only thing that's staying my hand is the occasional report that it's not compatible with all TVs.

I'll probably buy anyway, but I'll hum and ha a lot before I do ;)
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dwl99
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Re: Android TV Stick - new addiction! Any advice/tips?

Post by dwl99 »

Well I came across a Humax HDR-FOX T2 1TB for £59 (RRP £249!) so I sneaked out of work this morning to get it before anyone else got it. The store also has one in the Edinburgh area so PM me if you want the details. I installed the custom firmware at lunchtime and am hugely impressed. It has an excellent web-based GUI & the ability to set recordings remotely.
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