[tgilbert]

I am considering buying an Android 4.4 M8 XBMC TV Box to improve access to my media files and internet from the TV (currently using a combination of Humax PVR and Serviio Media Player on Win 7). But there's one question I can't seem to get an answer to and that's about the ability of these boxes to manage media files.

I see that the box can scan media files from a shared folder on my PC across the Wi-Fi network. I also see that the box seems to be able to mount an external USB hard drive which could be used to store media files (but not sure what max size). But I don't see how to best manage those files from the TV Box.

Is it better (or even possible) to share the USB drive attached to the XBMC TV Box so I can write media files to it from the PC (e.g. as a mapped network drive)? Presumably if this was possible I could delete media files directly from the TV Box when we've watched them.

Or is it better to leave the media files on my PC shared drive and load them from the TV Box? If so, is there any way the TV Box can be given permissions to delete watched files on the Win 7 shared drive?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Tony

[damaja]

I am considering buying an Android 4.4 M8 XBMC TV Box to improve access to my media files and internet from the TV (currently using a combination of Humax PVR and Serviio Media Player on Win 7). But there's one question I can't seem to get an answer to and that's about the ability of these boxes to manage media files.

I see that the box can scan media files from a shared folder on my PC across the Wi-Fi network. I also see that the box seems to be able to mount an external USB hard drive which could be used to store media files (but not sure what max size). But I don't see how to best manage those files from the TV Box.

Is it better (or even possible) to share the USB drive attached to the XBMC TV Box so I can write media files to it from the PC (e.g. as a mapped network drive)? Presumably if this was possible I could delete media files directly from the TV Box when we've watched them.

Or is it better to leave the media files on my PC shared drive and load them from the TV Box? If so, is there any way the TV Box can be given permissions to delete watched files on the Win 7 shared drive?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Tony

Pretty much all the things you ask are no problem on the good Android TV boxes, especially if it's rooted.
You just need to read up a bit more. I take it you don't use Android on any other device, like your phone or a tablet?
There's a very good file manager for Android that's free, called "ES File Explorer" (Google it), that's especially suitable for TV boxes as it's interface is remote-control friendly. With that you can do most of the things you ask about, including networked file sharing. And pretty much any Android TV box with a USB port is compatible with a standard 'plug and play' mouse and keyboard, so for things like file management, yes, it's no problem doing it all on the box. It's pretty much like using a PC via a different interface - like Linux.

[tgilbert]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, I do actually have an Android tablet and I am familiar with ES File Explorer. I guess I had not considered the TV Box in the same way as my tablet. So if I can do something using my Android tablet, I can probably do the same with the TV Box?

[Frozin]

in short YES.