I hear a lot about cartoon hd but coudnt find android tv version that works.

Seems it updated it's OS and now often it's not responsive , laggy etc especially if you go to the app store and my apps it just freezes

Anyone else hate the update ?

This is going to be a long post and I just wanted to share my experience with different devices.

My Use-Case: Mainly, only Netflix and playing back the local files on my NAS, using Plex or just Kodi. First only 1080p, but I knew a 4K TV was around the corner. Bonus Points for Passthrough (DTS and Atmos).

The four devices:

• Amazon Fire TV Stick (non 4K)
• Xiaomi Mi Box S
• NVIDIA Shield TV Pro (2019 obviously)
• Apple TV 4K

I know, the Fire TV Stick is not even running Android TV, but it's so cheap, I had to at least try it. And the Apple TV? I am sorry to bring that one up, but I'll come to that later.

Amazon Fire TV Stick

So this guy is an absolute disaster. The home menu needs forever to load, sometimes, it just decides to have no coneection, even though my wifi is stable and fast (100 Mbit/s). I tried using Kodi, but the app is so slow, that I sent that guy back after two days. I cannot recommend it at all.

Next.

Xiaomi Mi Box S

This one is definitely a better machine, does 4K, and after playing with Kodi for a while, I was about to settle. The remote has some seriously loud buttons, which makes the remote feel super cheap, even the Fire TV one is way better. You get what you pay for in this case.

Problems started, when I bought a 5.1 home cinema system (Teufel Ultima 40) and tried passthrough with Kodi. And that's when the Mi Box showed its limitations. While DTS and AC3 passthrough are possible, it could not handle DTS:X or Dolby Atmos, it simply went down to Dolby Digital and DTS.

Also, Plex had the offer to get the lifetime pass for about 30% less, and as that makes media tagging on different devices so much easier, I went for it.

Unfortunately, the Plex App had big problems on the Mi Box. Some files had no sound or just made static noise on the highest volume. It was poker with my hearing and my speakers, so I knew that I will not use the Box for too long.

I decided to make the next step and get to the big boy. The new Shield TV was introduced, our local retailer had some great deals, and I got the 219€ Shield TV Pro for only 197€.

NVIDIA Shield TV Pro

I expected the best, and the Shield TV delivered. The pure speed of this thing is amazing. Open Apps, switch between them, everything. Plex played everything I threw at it, passthrough worked. It could do Atmos in the Netflix App. The remote was an upgrade, solid buttons, but the giant Netflix Button got on my nerves about a day later, at least the box is fast, so switching back from Netflix was done in a second.

Well, in early December, a LG OLED was on sale, so I finally made a wish come true and got one for just under 1K.

And while everything seemed fine, the box did 4K60 output, Dolby Vision and HDR worked and even the 4K AI upsampling did a great job, I noticed that one thing that I didn't want to see: the "most powerful Android device on the planet" had the whole UI in 1080p. As I am sitting really close to my TV, thats not what a 200 bucks streaming Box should do.

I know, If the video is in 4K, what is your problem??? Well, This thing is marketed as a 4K Streaming Box, so why on earth are my subtitles not pixel perfect and smooth? I know, it's nitpicking, but I paid 200€. I tried everything, googled around, tried the adb shell wm ... trick, but that only created UI-bugs.

And that's when I considered the competition. The Apple TV 4K. I got one for 177€ brand new, and had nothing to loose.

Apple TV 4K

First thing that got me: The Apple TV can output the whole UI in 4K60 with Dolby Vision. It looks absolutely amazing, the OLED was finally pushed to its true potential.

And I noticed many great features that Android for some reason does not as well as Apple:

• skipping to a certain position in a movie is way better, you simply swipe on the touchpad and get to the time you want way easier, than on Android. Over there, every App uses its own Player UI, so in Plex for example it takes 2 Minutes to skip to the last ten Minutes of a 2 hour movie.
• Screensavers: as you might know, new OLED screens can burn in if they show the same picture for too long. So the screensaver videos, that Apple makes the ATV download are super cool. There is also no self marketing ("Chromecast bla bla") on the screensaver.

I have to admit, some functions are way cooler, if you use an iPhone. You can use your iPhone to write in any searchbar, the buttons to control whatever you're playing on the ATV just appear on the iPhone lockscreen and of course AirPlay.

There are also some downsides to the Apple TV:

• no Kodi (That's gonna be a dealbreaker, I know), so Plex it is
• sideloading is not an option, so emulators, Kodi and many more won't happen without a jailbreak
• no 4K upsampling like the Shield
• YouTube can't even play 4K Videos
• no external devices over USB
• real passthrough is not available, the ATV decodes the stream and pushes it as PCM. I can't hear a difference, so that's not a problem

The unique features, however - AirPlay, Siri, the remote and of course, some real 4K interface with Dolby Vision - were the reasons for me to keep the ATV and sell my Shield.

And as the Shield is sold out literally everywhere, I was able to sell it on eBay for 300€.

Conclusion

The Apple TV is definitely not the best device for everyone. While it does some things exceptionally well, it has its downsides.

So, if you really just want to watch Netflix and YouTube, or use Kodi in general, the Mi Box is definitely your boy. It has some annoyances (looking at you, Prime Video that I had to sideload) but it gets the job done. My parents use the Mi Box now, it hasn't failed them yet.

If you have some 4K-HDR content that needs to be watched, the Shield TV Pro (and of course any older Version) is so much better, that it is worth the price. 2x USB 3.0 and RJ45-Network are just the icing on the cake, you wont have any issues, the NVIDIA system is great and continually updated. Mind that fat Netflix button on the remote, and the 1080p UI, but if you don't care about that, you'll become great friends.

The Apple TV is the device for people who just want to enjoy content. It will never lag, plays literally everything, and supports every major streaming service.

So those are my thoughts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Edit: formatting is hard

This is for my dad

The official update to pie has caused my device to get stuck in an unending unrecoverable bootloop! (seems a common issue check forums) Xiaomi support just told me "We are so sorry for you but we don't give international warranty... "

Disgusting!

Anybody used this? Basically a video screen saver. Seems wildly overpriced.

Since android 8 we have not got a elegant NTFS storage solution. I was able to plug my hard drive in, use Kodi for playback and gave it a Netflix interface. Can't do that now, I know there apps out there that access the ext hard drive, JS otg USB for one, but you can't access storage through Kodi. Any solutions anyone? Seems like config issue as mi Box and shield support NTFS storage.

I went to watch tv on my shield as I do often but when I turned on my TV, shield and receiver, the screen was just blue (blue is the default color of no signal coming through av receiver)

I checked all ports and cords and no change. I turned the shield/tv/receiver all on and off again. No change.

I finally was able to start the shield in the fast boot menu (hold A and B on a USB keyboard plugged into the shield as you plug power into shield to turn on). I started in safe mode and I was able to get into the shield! All displays came up fine. I checked for update but no issues there. I set display settings to what they should be (4K at 59.9hz) which is the recommended. I rebooted and it happened again. Blue screen. All it shows at first is the nvidia logo for a while then goes to blue.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

My internet was amazing out my old house. Moved places and same internet but A LOT slower (were talking 500 down on PC to 20).

This means when I try streaming something on Chromecast from Cinema hd it buffers often (though YouTube, Netflix, ECT don't).

Would I get better Connection with an Android tv

Hello, /r/androidTV!

Soo, A little review about my experience from using cheapest(AFAIK) official AndroidTV Box from Xiaomi, Mi Box S.

So, setting it up is straight-forward and dummy proof - you can set it up through phone, and it logs in in minutes, you just need to be on a same WiFi with phone and box itself. Logged in, all set. I did an update to Android 9.0 (which is a lottery in itself judging by Reddit posts and variety of problems from that update), and did a factory reset right away. Then again, I went through the same first-time setup process, all goes well. And here we are, in Android TV! UI is not lagging, havent experienced any glitches or artifacts, or any problems. I feel like I won a lottery!

The first thing I did was set up accounts across all streaming services and tested all 3 of them (Youtube, Netflix and Twitch). With Youtube there were no problems at all, same goes with Netflix. With Twitch, same thing -everything works well and good, didnt experienced any sound delays or lags so far. Did an unknown sources trick, and installed MorpheusTV, that works too.

So far, I feel like I won a lottery after observing subreddits, where 9.0 update brought a lot of pain and suffering for everyone who updated it. I definetly got for what I paid for, which is a good streaming set-up box and potential emulator machine. I plan to buy UGREEN usb hub, and run some PSP and PS1 emulators, and maybe even SNES. I just need to figure out which controller I wanna buy and which works the best for me. If there is anything I should try or any recommendations, go ahead!

I was thinking it would be cool to be able to change the input thumbnail for inputs I have designated for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox to show the Switch logo and Xbox logo when pulling up the Input Menu. I was thinking maybe there is a way to use developer mode to gain access to where these images are stored. This is probably not possible but does anyone have any background in doing something similar?

I've recently got a new Hisense 65RG and no matter where I look I cannot find the Accessibility settings. This is a problem because every time I turn it on the Talkback option starts and I have to start up the app on my phone just to use the volume button shortcut to disable it. I have tried uninstalling the updates to the Accessibility app, restarting, reinstalling them, restarting. Nothing seems to fix it. I have no idea what I'm missing. Perhaps the options are somewhere else that I can't find. I haven't completely reset everything yet but that's probably my next option although I don't know if that will fix it. I'd appreciate any advice anybody has to offer. Thanks.

Hi, just need some of your insight. I have two ways of playing back my video files. Either I stream them from my macbook pro over wifi to VLC on my ShieldTV or play them locally on my microSD card loaded into my ShieldTV (sandisk extreme fast card).

Do you think VLC or the ShieldTV will play with the streaming quality over wifi to help smoothness or it should be the same.

tl;dr should i always transfer my 4k video files to my local microsd card to play them on my ShieldTV or if it's smooth wifi playback is fine.

Is there a working firewall (like AFwall+, NetGuard or NoRoot Firewall) for an unrooted Android TV?

I use a SONY Bravia (Oreo). Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone

A year and a half ago I bought online my 1st TV, it is a Philips 49PUS6412 which carries Android TV SO.

For a long time now, I've been having problems with Wi-Fi disconnection again and again, even when I tried direct plug to ethernet cable!

I checked recently and the firmware is up to date.

Was wondering if this is a common issue among Philips Android TV's or is just mine. And if there is any solution other than waiting for Philips/Android to fix the firmware.

EDITING for someone stumbling upon this. I managed to fix this by turning off Wi-Fi in the config menu and pluging the Ethernet cable. None other thing worked.

Just when I was about to give up on this, the H9E has finally received an update that included the Prime Video app. Time to binge!

Does anyone know if dual layer Dolby Vision playback is possible on Android TV?

So this happened twice today, which was pretty noticeable since I have HDMI cec turned on. After turning on its not responsive. Can't do anything with the remote. I will try a hard reset now but having it turn on at night would be pretty bad so I would have to disable cec. Has anyone got the same issue and maybe has a fix?

Recently bought a tv to stream presentations and so on at office. But there's no such an app "Wireless Desktop" I saw at some videos before. Any advices?

I use a paid VPN and would use it to watch Netflix for shows not available for my market. I have no problem using any server when I am using it this way on my Windows PC, iOS devices and Android devices, however, even if I use the same VPN server on my MiBox S, I get the proxy/unblocker error. The support of the VPN was able to help me find a somewhat reliable server I can use for 1 country but I would like to find a way to not go through the hassle of getting the error on my MiBox when I change countries.

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Did Netflix code the Netflix AndroidTV app with a more strict VPN detection because AndroidTV is supposed to be non-mobile?