BEST CHOICE FOR ANDROID OR LINUX TV-BOX (cheap, updates and community) ? - General Questions and Answers
First of all, sorry for my spelling, my english is not the best.
I know that there's a lot of chinese tv-boxes that run android and also a lot of single board computers in which you can install it (for example pine64 boards)
But it's well known that, in opposite to mobile phones, there is no brand or manufacturer that is critically acclaimed based on price, community support and regular updates.
I mean, if you have a smartphone you know that if you buy a google pixel, a oneplus, a samsung galaxy, a xiaomi etc. you know that you're buying a good phone (in some cases also cheap like the oneplus or xiaomi), and you 'll have official updates for a while, and in the case you don't, you have a large community cooking roms and extending your phone life.
I don't see this on tv boxes, and this become important in the case of tv subscription apps.
There's a lot of android apps that drops support on old versions of android (for example netflix, directv, fox, etc.). So, you can have a hardware capable box in terms of hardware (processor, RAM, GPU, etc.), able to upgrade to a new android version, but you get caught on the lack of will of your manufacturer on upgrading your android version.
You end up with a box with good hardware but you can't use your updated apps (because of course, the majority of that apps don't let you watch content anymore until you upgrade).
So, all this introduction is to ask if any of you know any box or single board computer that have regular official updates or a good community.
I know, raspberry is the best choice on community resources, but is well know that at the date it cannot run android normally.
I have a pi3 and it's terrible on running android, i also know that the new pi4 (with 4gb of ram!!!) does not come with out-of-the-box or official android compatibility and the guys that tried to install it came up with the same results as in the raspberry pi3.
Libreelec on rpi is not an option, because what i want is to run subscription sites (like fox, tnt, directv, my own cable operator app, etc.) and libreelec doesn 't have any addon to run these (i now that there's a lot of iptv sources but is difficult to find a good stream and i'm paying for these subscriptions)
Raspbian on rpi is also not an option ¿why? because, of course, this tv services can be accessed by their own site, but hardware aceleration for streaming video on raspbian doesn 't work well, so, yo cannot play youtube videos on 1080 fullscreen, and of course no other suscription page (is not a hardware thing, is a software thing, libreelec can play 1080p videos on raspberry). There is a solution specifically for youtube via omxplayer but doesnt work for other html5 sites.
I know that the pine64 androck64 boards come with android support but i dont know if those are good buys.
I don't want speccifically an android OS, but i think i will be easer an cheaper, if there´s one that run linux and you can have HW accelaration it would be great (because sites like netflix, fox etc. has their own html5 webpages to watch content).
What i have and what and tried:
1-) I have a raspberry pi 3, an incredible device that can run kodi, linux, and almost anything, unless android.
- libreelec: its almost perfect, but doesn't have addons for pay sites like fox, directv, hbo tc. to watch suscription content
- android: There's a lot of community builds but they are really alpha stage, really slow, and can´t do any HW acceleration and, if you want to have a tv box you will use it 90% to watch video, so it´s not an option.
- raspbian: you don 't have HW acceleration on html5 pages
I think if this one had the android compatibility will be the best choice, its a huge community , but it doesnt
- I bought a kii pro tv box (CPU: Amlogic S905 Quad Core - GPU: Mali-450 - 2GB), it runs well 1080p but it start to get slow when you try 4k videos.
But that's no problem for me now.
It also, of course, comes with a really little support (official and community) it is difficult to find how to root it, how to patch some things etc.
The real problem with this device is that for now i'm stuck on lollipop and i know that some time form now i will be unable to run some apps (not because of the hardware, like a said, but because of the android version).
So, in some months from now maybe i'll have a box with good hardware but no possibility to use it like a want.
I don't want this to happen again to me. If i buy some device i want to extend my device life for tv use.
Do you have any recommendation ?
Resuming, i want something relatively cheap to watch NAS content, and also streaming services (netflix, hbo, fox, etc.), but i want you to reccomend me something with a good community and by a manufacturer that periodically updates the roms or firmware,
I don't care if its linux, android, windows etc.
The closest to this is the raspberry but like i said it lcks support for this particllary thing
i also benn putting my eyes on the pine boards.
are ines ingleboards good?
is tehere any singleboard better?
and, out of the single boards, are there any android tv box well mainaned by community or manfecuater?
Thanks in advance
Resuming, i want something relatively cheap to watch NAS content, and also streaming services (netflix, hbo, fox, etc.), but i want some recomendations on something with a good community and by a manufacturer that periodically updates the roms or firmware,
I don't care if its linux, android, windows etc.
The closest to this is the raspberry but like i said it lacks support for this particullar thing.
i also been putting my eyes on the pine boards.
are pine ingleboards good?
is there any singleboard better?
and, out of the single boards, are there any android tv box well mainaned by community or manfecuater?
Thanks in advance
https://androidpctv.com/
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