2014-04-06, 12:52
A word about speed on this box:
It blows away any android device I've ever used. My Samsung Galaxy SII, 1rst gen Nexus 7, Gbox Midnight 2.2, do not hold a candle to this thing.
Just for an example, my single core GBOX could handle 1080p decoding (In linux, only recently in Android) at 24 fps with audio passthrough. I cannot tell you how many ROMs I've tried on that GBOX, nor how many different builds of XBMC. I've been trying to get a good Android experience out of that box for a year now, and even learned how to re-package ROMS and edit source code in APKs to get the experience I really wanted. I would say I only made it 80% of the way. I still couldn't get Netflix to work on the same build that would play 1080Pp mkvs in XBMC. No 1080p kernel either, which I would have been fine with so long as I could still play 1080p files and have Netflix. Never quite got there, although it's closer now than it ever had been. In fact, I'd say for the $50 that I paid for it, it served me well and has been my only source of entertainment for a year.
A common process for me was to install a new ROM on the GBOX, then XBMC, then wait for it to settle down before I even tried playing HD. Basically when I opened XBMC for 1rst run I'd go smoke a cigarette or do some laundry. Then come back and check to see if the CPU usage had settled down. When it got below 10% I knew it was ready to start viewing content. I still feel it's a decently fast machine for what it is, and I dare say that it's color output and clarity are almost better than fire tvs.
That being said. The Fire TV is as far from a slouch as I think you could get. While it was playing a 1080p movie with Dolby D off of Netflix I adb'd into just to see what would happen. I installed XBMC while it was doing that, and I never even saw it miss a frame. Installing apps on the GBOX grinds it to a halt. The 1rst time setup honest to god made me drop my jaw. The load bar FLEW accross the screen in comparison. And when it loaded, the add-ons updated as fast as they would on my I5 OC'd to 4.5 Ghz. It was ready to roll in probably less than 1/10th of the time. Obviously the build needs some help to make it flawless, but do not for 1 second think this box doesn't have the balls for XBMC. The system information in XBMC was glorious after dealing with a chines box for a year: Full 1080 at 60 fps in confluence. That's what I'm talking about right there.
It blows away any android device I've ever used. My Samsung Galaxy SII, 1rst gen Nexus 7, Gbox Midnight 2.2, do not hold a candle to this thing.
Just for an example, my single core GBOX could handle 1080p decoding (In linux, only recently in Android) at 24 fps with audio passthrough. I cannot tell you how many ROMs I've tried on that GBOX, nor how many different builds of XBMC. I've been trying to get a good Android experience out of that box for a year now, and even learned how to re-package ROMS and edit source code in APKs to get the experience I really wanted. I would say I only made it 80% of the way. I still couldn't get Netflix to work on the same build that would play 1080Pp mkvs in XBMC. No 1080p kernel either, which I would have been fine with so long as I could still play 1080p files and have Netflix. Never quite got there, although it's closer now than it ever had been. In fact, I'd say for the $50 that I paid for it, it served me well and has been my only source of entertainment for a year.
A common process for me was to install a new ROM on the GBOX, then XBMC, then wait for it to settle down before I even tried playing HD. Basically when I opened XBMC for 1rst run I'd go smoke a cigarette or do some laundry. Then come back and check to see if the CPU usage had settled down. When it got below 10% I knew it was ready to start viewing content. I still feel it's a decently fast machine for what it is, and I dare say that it's color output and clarity are almost better than fire tvs.
That being said. The Fire TV is as far from a slouch as I think you could get. While it was playing a 1080p movie with Dolby D off of Netflix I adb'd into just to see what would happen. I installed XBMC while it was doing that, and I never even saw it miss a frame. Installing apps on the GBOX grinds it to a halt. The 1rst time setup honest to god made me drop my jaw. The load bar FLEW accross the screen in comparison. And when it loaded, the add-ons updated as fast as they would on my I5 OC'd to 4.5 Ghz. It was ready to roll in probably less than 1/10th of the time. Obviously the build needs some help to make it flawless, but do not for 1 second think this box doesn't have the balls for XBMC. The system information in XBMC was glorious after dealing with a chines box for a year: Full 1080 at 60 fps in confluence. That's what I'm talking about right there.