What is android streaming box

Android TV Boxes: The Ultimate Guide

Are you looking in to buying an Android TV Box and you don’t know where to begin? Maybe you already have one but you have questions on how to set it up and install the best apps.

Either way, this guide is for you!

We have information on setup, apps, optimization, and other tips about Android streaming boxes.

Take a look through our table of contents below and find the section you need, or keep on scrolling and start from the beginning.

What is Android TV?

Android TV is an optimized version of the Android operating system by Google for your TV. It comes preinstalled on every Android TV box purchased around the world.

The Android OS works with the hardware to seamlessly playback audio and video files and other utility apps for you.

What is an Android TV Box?

A TV box is a small mini-computer that comes loaded with the Android TV operating system on it. It is optimized for your television screen and comes with a remote so that you can navigate menus and launch apps.

TV Boxes come loaded with the Google Play Store, which let you install officials apps such as Kodi.

Android TV vs Pure Android

Unlike the version of Android that comes preinstalled on many Google, Samsung, and LG phones, Android TV has the following changes:

1. The interface is optimized for a TV screen, which is in landscape mode unlike your phone, which is in portrait mode.
2. The interface is simplified so that you can navigate with a basic remote.
3. Media apps that let you stream audio and video are prioritized over games in the Google Play Store.
4. There is a limit on how much you can customize the interface on Android TV.

Overall, new users who are just finding out about Android TV has no problem getting up and running.

Is an Android Streaming Box Legal?

Yes! Buying and using a streaming box is 100% legal around the world.

Recently, there has been some bad press about TV boxes coming preinstalled with gray area apps. The key here is that the boxes come preinstalled with things.

After Amazon stopped selling pre-loaded boxes, most now come with only the operating system installed. You must install apps on your own.

What you do with your TV box in your home is your own business. And it is 100% legal.

Best Android TV Features

Okay, so you want to buy a streaming box but you have no clue where to begin or what to buy. What next?

In 2020, most boxes are very similar to each other in terms of specs and features.

However, these are the things that are important:

• Android 5 or greater
• 4K video support
• H.265 support
• 2GB of RAM (4 is better)
• 32GB hard drive (64 is better)
• A good price point

Let’s break down each of these features a bit more!

Android 5 or Greater

I assume that you want to install Kodi on your Android TV hardware, right?

The latest version of Kodi is not compatible with Android 4.4 or earlier. You need Android 5 at a minimum in order to install and use Kodi.

Today, most Android TV hardware runs Android 8 or 9. Android 8 offers the nice leanback suggestions feature. Android 9 added support for picture-in-picture video.

4K Video Support

Some cheap Android boxes do not have 4K video support. This is either a hardware or a software limitation from the supplier.

Ensure that 4K video is included even if you don’t have a 4K TV. You never know when you might upgrade and this will future-proof your TV box.

H.265 Video Support

H.265 is a modern video file type that most new Android boxes support. It allows for better quality videos in a smaller file size, which means less buffering.

If you live in a country where your internet usage is capped, smaller file sizes allow you to stream more as well.

Price

Generally speaking, you can buy a media box for between $40-80 depending on the hard drive size and amount of RAM.

If someone is charging way more than that, you are getting ripped off.

Which Android TV Box is the Best?

Nvidia Shield TV

If you are looking for the best Kodi box for your living room, the unanimous choice is the Nvidia Shield TV.

It comes with a few advantages over traditional Chinese made boxes:

• Optimized GPU from Nvidia
• A custom Android OS optimized for streaming media
• Good controller support for playing retro games
• The ability to play Steam games on your TV
• Custom made games and apps for Nvidia.

There is a new 2020 model of the Nvidia Shield TV worth checking out right now.

You can buy it directly from Amazon Below:

• The Best of the Best. SHIELD TV delivers an amazing Android TV streaming media player experience, thanks to the new NVIDIA Tegra X1+ chip. Enhance HD video in real-time to 4K for clearer, crisper visuals using next-generation AI upscaling. 2x USB 3.0 ports for storage expansion, USB cameras, keyboards, controllers, and more. Plex Media Server built-in, 3 GB RAM, and 16 GB storage.
• Dolby Vision — Atmos. Bring your home theater to life with Dolby Vision HDR, and surround sound with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus—delivering ultra-vivid picture quality and immersive audio.

Best Cheap Android TV Box

If you don’t want to spend the money on the Nvidia shield, there are lots of cheap streaming boxes you can buy. They all have a similar chip and specs and come shipped from China.

Here are some of the most popular boxes to buy for cheap:

• 【Powerful Android 9.0 OS】 This tv box adopts the latest Android 9.0 system and the 64-bit RK3318 quad-core chip, which makes it run faster and stronger than other tv boxes. Bring a seamless viewing experience
• 【4G RAM + 64G ROM】 The android tv box is designed with 4G RAM and 64G Rom, which gives it great capacity. You can download more applications, store more movies than before and you should not worry about running out of space. Race speed is also much better than other tv boxes

• 【Android 9.0 & RK3318】Equipped with latest android 9.0OS, RK3318 Quad-Core 64bit Cortex-A53, NinkBox Android tv box can provide you a smooth and fast running speed and make your TV more stable, reliable and smarter with a better compatibility of software, games and applications, giving you greater user experience.
• 【4GB RAM & 64GB ROM 】NinkBox Android 9.0 tv box provides you plentiful space to run more Apps and games fastly. Equipped with TF card reader, you can add an extra TF card to expand storage.

No products found.

So why buy the Nvidia Shield instead of the Amazon Fire or Apple TV (two other popular media boxes)? Let’s have a look next.

Android TV vs Fire TV vs Apple TV

In terms of popularity, Android, Amazon, and Apple make the three most popular media boxes.

The main reason why the Apple TV is not a good Kodi box is because you can’t directly install Kodi or third party apps on to it. Until a jailbreak comes out, the only way to install Kodi, TVZion, or other apps is to side load them. Sideloaded apps on the Apple TV have a 7 day time limit if you don’t pay $99 for a developer license through Apple.

The Amazon Fire TV is a very good media box. Compared to Android TV, the Amazon Fire comes installed with the FireOS. The functionality and look is very similar to Android, which users like. We would rank the Amazon Fire TV cube right underneath the Nvidia Shield TV and above Chinese made boxes.

Android Smart TVs

Some TV brands such as Sony, Hisense, and TCL have included the Android TV operating system as their smart interface. In this case, you don’t have to buy and connect a separate Android box to your TV.

Instead, you can install Kodi and other apps directly on to your TV instead. This is really convenient.

Android TV Apps

In addition to Kodi, there are many other Android TV apps that you can install from the Google Play Store.

Some of the best official Android TV apps include:

Most of the Android TV apps above will enable you to easily side load third-party Android TV media apps such as:

When you first setup your box, launch the Google Play Store and have a scan through all of the apps available to install.

How to Connect the Box to Your TV

All media boxes connect to your TV in the exact same way:

1. Plug one end of the power cable into your wall and the other end into your TV box.
2. Plug one end of the HDMI cable into your TV box and the other end into your TV.
3. Change the HDMI input source to the one you plugged your HDMi cable in to.

If you’ve done things right, then when you turn on the Android box you will see its display come up on your TV.

How to Set Up an Android TV Box

When you turn your media box on for the first time, the display should walk you through any setup options you have. Generally, this includes the following things:

1. Setting up your timezone
2. Connecting your box to your network
3. Configuring and display settings

When you are done, the Android TV home screen should appear. Most home screens are tile-based and the newest interface should look like the screenshot below.

If you have an older style box, your home screen may look like the following:

To test that your network connection is working, you can launch the Google Play Store and log in with a Google account.

Live TV on Android

As you become more familiar with your Android streaming box, you’ll eventually be interested in loading some live TV apps on it.

There are a ton of official live TV Android apps to check out:

In addition, we have a full IPTV guide for loading third-party IPTV solutions on your box.

Did we answer all of your Android TV questions? If not, comment below and ask your question and we would be happy to help you out!

Once again, check out our list of best Android TV boxes if you need to purchase something new.

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What is an Android TV box and should you buy one?

Find out the best way to upgrade your TV for cheap.

This competition is now closed

Published: Wednesday, 10th February 2021 at 1:10 pm

An Android TV box allows you to stream shows or movies onto any TV, including those that don’t have smart capabilities.

Android TV boxes are a little less common in the UK compare to across the pond, with many of us choosing the smaller streaming stick over these bigger TV boxes.

A smart TV stick and Android TV box work much in the same way; by plugging into the back of a TV so that you can wave goodbye to watching all your favourite shows on your tiny tablet screen.

However, as the name suggests, all Android TV boxes run on the Android operating system, rather than those designed by Apple or Roku.

In this guide, we will do our best answer the most common questions about Android TV boxes including how they work, whether they’re worth the money and list some of the most popular Android smart TV box brands.

An Android TV box isn’t the only way to upgrade your TV, read our guide on Roku vs Fire TV Stick to find out more. Or, try our round-up of the best streaming devices.

What is an Android TV box?

An Android TV box is a streaming device that you can plug into your TV to be able to watch streaming services, such as Netflix, which are typically only available on portable devices such as laptops, tablets and phones, or on smart TVs. These TV boxes are also sometimes known as streaming players or set-top boxes.

How does an Android TV box work?

Much like a NOW TV Stick or Google Chromecast, an Android TV box plugs into the back of a TV via the HDMI port. However, once plugged in an Android TV box will look and feel different to a NOW TV Stick or other devices because they operate on different systems.

The Android operating system can also be customised so while brands like Nvidia and Xiaomi use the same basis for their streaming player, the homepage will likely look very different.

Once the box is set up, various streaming services and apps can then be accessed on your TV, rather than on a tablet or laptop, and no casting is required.

Can you watch normal TV on an Android TV box?

The streaming services, on-demand services and apps you can access will vary depending on the brand of Android TV box. For example, the homepage of the Amazon’s Fire TV devices has a live TV tab where you can access apps to watch TV including BBC iPlayer, All4 and My5.

Many of these apps require you to create an account, but are free to watch. However, if you want to watch live football on an Amazon Fire TV Stick that does require a Prime Video membership, which costs £3.99 a month.

Android TV box or smart TV stick: which is better?

Smart TV sticks have become increasingly popular due to their small size and portability. Android TV boxes, on the other hand, tend to be bigger and a little more difficult to hide on a TV stand.

The size of the device can correspond to how powerful it is. For example, many of the most popular Android TV boxes offer 4K streaming or gaming capabilities, while this is only offered on mid-range or more expensive smart TV sticks.

However, even most 4K smart TV sticks are considerably cheaper than an Android TV box. The starting price for an Android TV box is £80 and it can go as high as £200. When smart TV sticks can be as cheap as £30, it is easy to see why you might choose a smart TV stick over a more expensive TV box, especially when both devices are primarily used to give a new lease of life to an already old TV.

Therefore, it largely comes down to weighing up your budget against streaming quality how powerful you would like the device to be.

If it is just for a small TV in the spare room, a smart TV stick like Roku Premiere would do a fine job for £39.99. Otherwise, you may prefer to invest in a device that’s powerful enough to game on or have more sophisticated voice recognition technology like the Amazon Fire TV Cube or Nvidia Shield TV Pro.

• For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 guides.

Popular Android TV boxes to buy in 2021

Interested in buying an Android TV box? Here are some of the most popular Android TV boxes available right now.

Nvidia Shield TV Pro

With Dolby Vision and Atmos, the Nvidia Shield TV Pro streams in 4K HDR. Google Assistant is built-in to allow you to control your TV with your voice. And if you’ve tried out previous Nvidia Shield devices, you’ll be pleased to know that this Android smart TV box is 25 per cent faster than its predecessor thanks to the Nvidia Tegra X1+ processor.

Amazon Fire TV Cube

A smart TV stick and Amazon Echo smart speaker combined, the Fire TV Cube is Amazon’s most powerful TV device. A great option for anyone with more Amazon subscriptions than they can keep track of with navigation made easy thanks to voice assistant Alexa. Read our full Amazon Fire TV Cube review.

For those looking to spend a little less, the Amazon Fire TV Stick offers access to the same apps, channels and streaming services in HD streaming quality.

Xiaomi Mi TV Box S

You may be more familiar with Xiaomi’s phones than TV boxes but the Xiaomi Mi TV Box S gives you access to a range of apps including Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play. This Android smart TV box offers 4K streaming and built-in Google Assistant means you can navigate the TV box via voice commands.

For the latest tech news, guides and deals, check out the technology section. Wondering what to watch? Visit our TV Guide.

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