[Tinwarble]

Not true actually. Android TV is actually not an OS but a leanback launcher App interface running on top of the Android 5.x/6.x OS.
This is a very common misconception, when users refer to generic Android boxes as Android TV.
See here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...cher&hl=en

Actually, yes it is, just not what you would consider a completely independent OS. Yes Android TV is still just Android underneath, but there is more too it than just LL.

Leanback is the front end and yes it is just an app, but you can't just install it on a Android box and it automatically becomes Android TV. Just as you can't replace the LL on Android TV and make it become or behave like standard Android.

As for the misconception, that's mainly on Google for not using a name that they could TM and using "Android TV" which has been used to describe every box that ran Android from the beginning. But the point was that there is actually a difference between an actual Android TV box and just a box that runs Android and you can connect to a TV.

[bbsc]

I got one of those Rii keyboard/mouse combo units that are practically MADE for media.

I believe that what you're holding in your hands must look like a remote, not keyboard or mouse.
That's why I have mouse disabled in Kodi and use this thing:

It works on 2.4 GHz, powered from internal accu, charged via micro-USB and needs charging every 2 months or so.

[dishe]

Y'all have some funny ideas about remotes. Or some antiquated ideas about Windows. Or maybe both?
Do you guys actually LIKE television remote controls? Or is it just what you're used to?

I do, yes.
If I'm watching or listening I don't want to start picking up keyboards, mice or anything else other than one remote. And I don't want to wave it about or type on it. I want to press a minimum of buttons and have everything work seamlessly.

Obviously you can use a remote like that on any os.

This is my remote.


No waving, typing, etc, required. I hold it like a game controller, as does my wife and kids. No complaints. Minimal button presses. But, I can do all of the above if I wanted to, and there are times even with a basic cable box that I wish I could type or just jump to a button in the corner instead pressing side-side-side-up-up-down-enter. Demoting yourself to something that resembles a clicker from a rabbit-eared TV 3 decades ago is not at all appealing to me. But all this is aside from the point.

[trogggy]

Y'all have some funny ideas about remotes. Or some antiquated ideas about Windows. Or maybe both?
Do you guys actually LIKE television remote controls? Or is it just what you're used to?

I do, yes.
If I'm watching or listening I don't want to start picking up keyboards, mice or anything else other than one remote. And I don't want to wave it about or type on it. I want to press a minimum of buttons and have everything work seamlessly.

Obviously you can use a remote like that on any os.

This is my remote.


No waving, typing, etc, required. I hold it like a game controller, as does my wife and kids. No complaints. Minimal button presses. But, I can do all of the above if I wanted to, and there are times even with a basic cable box that I wish I could type or just jump to a button in the corner instead pressing side-side-side-up-up-down-enter. Demoting yourself to something that resembles a clicker from a rabbit-eared TV 3 decades ago is not at all appealing to me. But all this is aside from the point.

You control your tv and cable box and amp from that monstrosity too?

Edit: just to be clear - as a keyboard it looks neat, I'd quite like something like that. For watching a film? Nah. But each to their own - some people have some funny ideas about remotes.

[dishe]

You control your tv and cable box and amp from that monstrosity too?

Edit: just to be clear - as a keyboard it looks neat, I'd quite like something like that. For watching a film? Nah. But each to their own - some people have some funny ideas about remotes.

Monstrosity? This thing is the size of an Xbox gamepad, roughly. I don't have TV or cable service anymore. The TV comes on by itself when the HDMI is active, and goes into standby when the signal drops so it doesn't need its own remote, and the only other thing to control is the sound system, which does have its own controller (which I also use for music without the TV).
But I'm curious, why nah? In case you can't tell, this thing is not that big, and actually easily held and operated with just your right hand. Seeing as XBMC began as a media player for Xbox, I think many people didn't mind too much using those controllers to que up their media. Oh, those buttons all light up in the dark, too. But you don't really need them to unless you are typing- you can easily feel the directional pad with your thumb and navigate Kodi with one hand and without looking. I really don't understand why this isn't more preferable to a traditional clicker, perhaps some people find comfort in what they are familiar with?

[dishe]

Here's it in someone's hands for scale. Mine is black so it fit rights in next to my game controllers.


Funny, this was really not at all where I thought this thread would go, but interesting none the less!

[trogggy]

Monstrosity? This thing is the size of an Xbox gamepad, roughly. I don't have TV or cable service anymore. The TV comes on by itself when the HDMI is active, and goes into standby when the signal drops so it doesn't need its own remote, and the only other thing to control is the sound system, which does have its own controller (which I also use for music without the TV).
But I'm curious, why nah? In case you can't tell, this thing is not that big, and actually easily held and operated with just your right hand. Seeing as XBMC began as a media player for Xbox, I think many people didn't mind too much using those controllers to que up their media. Oh, those buttons all light up in the dark, too. But you don't really need them to unless you are typing- you can easily feel the directional pad with your thumb and navigate Kodi with one hand and without looking. I really don't understand why this isn't more preferable to a traditional clicker, perhaps some people find comfort in what they are familiar with?

I use one remote:

I can press one button and it turns my tv on, sets it to the right input, turns on my amp and sets it, wakes a pc or satellite box, adjusts a HDMI switch if necessary, performs a task or 2 within kodi (if that's what I'm using).
And after I've pressed that button all the buttons on my remote are configured exactly as I want them for the particular thing I'm doing.
The keyboard looks great for using a computer. I'd certainly stick one in the drawer under the tv for maintenance.

[ianuk2005]

Do you guys actually LIKE television remote controls? Or is it just what you're used to?

Yes, the buttons are labelled correctly e.g. TV Guide, Back, Play/Pause/skip/rewind/fastforward, channel/volume up/down. I can't imagine giving that air mouse or keyboard "thing" to my grandparents and expecting them to change channel or put a movie on. I'm sure those things are great for navigating something like windows but they are just confusing for a set top box.

I gotta say, Windows has become a lot more stable over the years- things that like don't happen to me anymore, especially if you aren't installing the same things as you would your home computer. I have a Windows 7 tablet (recently updated to 10) that I've been using for Kodi on the go since it was still XBMC. I barely have anything else installed on it, and I've *NEVER* had Kodi crash, or an error / java update take over my screen focus.

Windows is still the least stable OS out of the major ones. These things still can and do happen regularly. My system had Windows, Kodi, PVR services, Chrome and then most of the gunk cleared off. Shit still crashes, dialogs, kodi crashes etc, I'm talking about a machine that is running 24/7 and being used the majority of the day. The issue isn't that these things happen it's the inelegant way windows presents and handles them, it's just not suitable for a set top box.

That just simply isn't true! I bought the rii remote mouse/keyboard because I NEEDED IT IN ANDROID. And even if I didn't, as I mentioned before, sometimes we like using the touchpad to quickly hit something instead of using the direction pad to get the button we wanted.

I'm not talking about stock android I'm talking about Android TV or other OS's like Fire OS. The UI and apps are all designed for remote. Running stock android with one of those hacked together launchers is almost as bad as running windows.

But anyway, this conversation has very quickly derailed. All I wanted to know is if Kodi on windows would work well and have similar compatibility and performance as it would on an Android platform of similar hardware specs.

Agreed. You can, performance is snappy on windows, good compatibility and performance. Minimum specs probably similar to the acer revo build with an N3050, 2GB ram and 32GB HDD. You might want to upgrade though for better performance depending on your needs.

What specs you need is subjective to your needs and what you deem as acceptable performance, for example many people will swear by a fire tv stick for kodi usage, for me it's unusable, literally runs out of RAM and crashes once it's loaded in my PVR data and library.

[nickr]

I have one of those Rii keyboards. It skips most of the keypresses. Hate it. Remote control works every time.

A keyboard is great sometimes, like searching. Then I use Kore.

[dishe]

I have one of those Rii keyboards. It skips most of the keypresses. Hate it. Remote control works every time.

A keyboard is great sometimes, like searching. Then I use Kore.

Maybe it is interfering with your Wifi or other RF interference? Mine has been rock solid, especially since using the extenstion USB cable it comes with to move the receiver away from the box. These cheap little boxes don't do much in the way of RF shielding, which doesn't surprise me. When I first got it, I found that using the Rii and Wifi together would cause problems. The Wifi speed would suffer and the the keyboard would sometimes lag. I found that using the USB extender it comes with (to also charge the KB) helped tremendously. But in the end, I just ran a CAT5e cable through my crawl space that comes out right by the entertainment unit, and it hasn't had a problem since.

I even used it as a player 2 input for light NES emulator gaming. The buttons weren't great for that, I'll admit (you have to press them with a little more force than a game controller), so I ended up buying another cheap BT controller, but it definitely wasn't skipping "most of the keypresses", as you say. About on par with any other remote I've used- give a button a deliberate press all the way down, and it will register 100% of the time.

[dishe]

Yes, the buttons are labelled correctly e.g. TV Guide, Back, Play/Pause/skip/rewind/fastforward, channel/volume up/down. I can't imagine giving that air mouse or keyboard "thing" to my grandparents and expecting them to change channel or put a movie on. I'm sure those things are great for navigating something like windows but they are just confusing for a set top box.

I don't have TV Guide or Channels. I don't have TV service anymore. What purpose would buttons like that have for me? Back, Play/Pause/rewing/fastforward ALL EXIST AND ARE CLEARLY LABELLED ON THE DEVICE I'M USING. I'm not using a desktop keyboard/mouse, I'm using one made as a media remote! I specifically picked one like that so that my wife and kids would be able to use it without explanation, and sure enough they can. On the flip side, since I also do light computing on it, like loading up a webpage (which I ended up doing for the superbowl broadcast this past year on my laptop, mentioned in the first post) the ability to do that and other computer UI stuff while NOT MISSING OUT ON THE MEDIA BUTTONS is the key to success with a remote. At least, for me.
But none of this really was up for debate- I've been using that keyboard and we've all been really happy with it, no one in my household misses a regular remote and I actually prefer this to typing in search boxes. So I really don't see why this has sort of become an intervention to tell me how much I don't like something I actually love. :/
I'm also convinced a lot of you haven't tried it, and are hating out of habit. But that's neither here nor there. No one is complaining about their controller in this thread, we're all just sharing what we prefer as if everyone has to agree with it. Use whatever you personally like!

I'm not talking about stock android I'm talking about Android TV or other OS's like Fire OS. The UI and apps are all designed for remote. Running stock android with one of those hacked together launchers is almost as bad as running windows.

Yet if you look at the first post, that is what I'm coming from. I'm very much aware that it isn't the most elegant user experience, but it works, it was cheap as heck, and I like to tinker with it and make it do other things (My kids play DDR and emulator games on it, we have a family email account that the grandparents can sent pics/videos to it with, I used it as a file server when I went away on a trip and wanted access to some stuff I was downloading, and I knew it would stay on unlike the other computers in my house). Basically, I'm happy with the "hacked together Android" experience, in some ways more so than I would be with a crippled single-purpose OS like Fire (which I tried and hated) because I have to jump through hoops to make it do anything beyond what it says on the box. Did I mention I liked that the MXQ came rooted? That's a big plus for me. Came ready to tinker, and has never really let us down. The only reason I opened up this dialog is that I was interested in a box that did more- Netflix in HD for starters, and other streams like the aforementioned official NFL one which didn't work in Android, but did in Windows. I only complained about Android's compatibility with the things I wanted to do, I never complained about the user experience.

Agreed. You can, performance is snappy on windows, good compatibility and performance. Minimum specs probably similar to the acer revo build with an N3050, 2GB ram and 32GB HDD. You might want to upgrade though for better performance depending on your needs.

What specs you need is subjective to your needs and what you deem as acceptable performance, for example many people will swear by a fire tv stick for kodi usage, for me it's unusable, literally runs out of RAM and crashes once it's loaded in my PVR data and library.

Right. My needs aren't crazy. I do find that occasionally my MXQ chokes on something high bitrate (or H265), but it is extremely rare that I do anything like that. The machine I'm looking at, I can get at a crazy discount through a friend (nearly what I paid for the Android box), and sports a Quad Core Atom Z3735F, 2GB DDR3 /32GB ROM/Storage, and Windows 8 32-bit (bing edition) that can be upgraded to 10. I think if I can find someone willing to buy my MXQ, I'm sold on this.

[trogggy]

...I really don't see why this has sort of become an intervention to tell me how much I don't like something I actually love. :/

Probably because...

Y'all have some funny ideas about remotes. Or some antiquated ideas about Windows. Or maybe both?
Do you guys actually LIKE television remote controls? Or is it just what you're used to?

[dishe]

...I really don't see why this has sort of become an intervention to tell me how much I don't like something I actually love. :/

Probably because...

Y'all have some funny ideas about remotes. Or some antiquated ideas about Windows. Or maybe both?
Do you guys actually LIKE television remote controls? Or is it just what you're used to?

LOL- Fair enough, I guess I sort of asked for it. But with all due respect, I did make that comment AFTER this had already become the topic!

Either way, I do appreciate this discussion very much. I hope I didn't come off as stand-offish or anything, this has actually been very interesting!

[trogggy]

Compared to some of the stuff here you're Mister Fluffy.

And enthusiasm is seldom annoying - it's always good to read about what people use / like.

[Shomei]

Maybe it is interfering with your Wifi or other RF interference? Mine has been rock solid, especially since using the extenstion USB cable it comes with to move the receiver away from the box. These cheap little boxes don't do much in the way of RF shielding, which doesn't surprise me. When I first got it, I found that using the Rii and Wifi together would cause problems. The Wifi speed would suffer and the the keyboard would sometimes lag. I found that using the USB extender it comes with (to also charge the KB) helped tremendously.

I had the same problem with Rii mini i6 RF-version. USB extension was useful.

>Upgrading to Windows box from Android. Good idea?

Good idea.