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baglio
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2013-07-07, 12:15
(This post was last modified: 2013-07-07, 12:16 by baglio.)
Hello guys.
Since I'm tired of my "unuseful" apple tv 3 I'm thinking of buy an android solution.
I get my eyes on a couple of devices: the MK808 and the Minix neo x5.
Now, the main use that I would do of it is to stream content (possibly in 1080p) from my computer or NAS; of course using XBMC. Most of my video files are H264 compressed.
I know both are equipped with the same chip, even thought I'm not sure about the clock speed, but the latter has a dedicated graphic processor while the one of the MK is integreted.
Since they have two very different prices which one would you suggest me considering the use I would do of it?
I would like to clarify that is not my intention to play any kind of 3D awesome looking games. At least some ol' retrogames.
Thanks in advance!
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The graphics processor is the same in both. The GPU actually lives on the same chip the CPU does, along with some other stuff, creating what is called a System-on-a-chip.
One is a stick and one is a box. Since the box has wired ethernet, and wifi in android devices is almost never fast enough for 1080 content (or even some 720 content, depending on the device), I would go for the box over the stick.
Which is not to say that I would recommend for or against those specific devices, as I don't really know that much about them outside of forum posts that I've briefly scrolled through.
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Yep, I'm certain of it. Both have a quad-core Mali 400 GPU.
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Just registered & saw this thread, I have a mk809iii Android stick which only has USB ports but I have used a USB to RJ45 adaptor to connect to Ethernet (I tried wifi as I have a wireless router acting a switch right next to the TV & Android stick) but it's not so good, only 8Mb/s whereas it's 45Mb/s+ through cable.
You have to be choosy about the adaptor though, I first had a cheap one off eBay, which just disconnected repeatedly when it felt like it. Then I bought one by Bobjgear from Amazon (UK) that was specifically aimed at Android devices & that has performed perfectly from the moment I plugged it in.
Hope this might have helped as I am very new (less than a week) to this &. found every little bit of knowledge was worth having.
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(2013-07-08, 18:06)alanlsmith Wrote: Just registered & saw this thread, I have a mk809iii Android stick which only has USB ports but I have used a USB to RJ45 adaptor to connect to Ethernet (I tried wifi as I have a wireless router acting a switch right next to the TV & Android stick) but it's not so good, only 8Mb/s whereas it's 45Mb/s+ through cable.
You have to be choosy about the adaptor though, I first had a cheap one off eBay, which just disconnected repeatedly when it felt like it. Then I bought one by Bobjgear from Amazon (UK) that was specifically aimed at Android devices & that has performed perfectly from the moment I plugged it in.
Hope this might have helped as I am very new (less than a week) to this &. found every little bit of knowledge was worth having.
Thanks for the recommendation on the USB ethernet adapter.
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I've just registered and would like to share my experience.
About the last question, I measure the WiFi and Ethernet speeds throught iperf. It's a multiplataform client/server tool. Run iperf -s on one side and iperf -c <ipaddress> on the other side and you'll get the bandwidth values.
Well, I did some tests on X5 and the best results I've got is 30 mbps for WiFi and 100 mbps for Ethernet.
I only can run 1080p content with XBMC XAF (using MXPlayer as external player). In the native XBMC player, 1080p content plays very slow, skipping frames and freezing, even with local video files.
I had problems with some 1080p content when playing over WiFi then I tried it over Ethernet and the problems were gone. So I think that 30mbps isn't enough bandwidth to play 1080p content.
My Asus WiFi router signal is pretty good (and Minix is very close to the router), so I think that the problem is the limited WiFi from X5 that can't get better bandwidth.
I'm buying a 300mbps pocket router to try getting better bandwidth. When it arrives (about a month) I'll do some tests.
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baglio
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Hi everybody, I'm back on the topic just to let you know that is about 3 weeks that I'm testing the MK808B.
So,will I recommend it to use as an XBMC platform? HELL NO!
The device itself is pretty interesting, and it's good for adding smart functionality to your TV set such as Youtube, maps, mail, social networking ect.
But not to be used with XBMC.
I've tried different roms and different build but in conclusion I definitely don't recommend it.
Why?
Streaming local video is choppy, not that the content result unwatchable but you can clearly see the framedrops.
Forget 1080p resolution. I tried different roms with different kernel but this device isn't enough powerful to output such resolution.
On the other hand the UI results nice and smooth even with heavy themes.
On conclusion this is a useful device, but at this time, is not the best support for streaming content with XBMC.
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I'm happy with my MK808, but as you said, it isn't suitable for XBMC..
...Yet. There is still ongoing work with stagefright, if this is optimised, things should work just fine.
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Are you still running the original Rom or have you installed the one by Finless? Gave me a impressive boost in performance.
