[Tinwarble]

What was wrong with the developer box, actually had a design to it.

Probably couldn't keep the price point at $99 with the K-1, and may not be able to meet the launch schedule.

Like I said once we get the new house built the networking situation will change for the better. the DLNA server is an i5 3570k with a gtx 660 ti and 8gb of ram and windows 7 so yeah its also my main gaming rig but doubles as a DLNA/Transcoding machine for when its needed and I am not using it to game. I am hopping for a 10/100/1000 ethernet enabled Android TV box since all the cheaper chinese made stuff seem to have 1gbE on the ethernet ports.

I'm really happy for you that your new house will be completely wired. Personally, I do prefer wired and have my whole house wired with CAT 6, Four 4 port GbE routers and One 8 port GbE

But I don't see what that has to do with the Nexus Player. Having a GbE port on a Android box is like putting lipstick on a pig, you don't need it. If you were coping files to/from the box then maybe, but it's not needed just to stream. The max stream size for a BD is 48Mbps (bits not bytes) and you can do that over 10/100.

[Starstream]

There are very likely to be other official AndroidTV boxes with ethernet and IR.

Marvell for instance have an AndroidTV certified chip that does HD audio bit-streaming along with everything else (codec wise) but someone has to make a box using it first.

Whether the Chinese Amlogic/Rockchip Android box makers get AndroidTV support is another thing.

[theslime]

Am I the only one who's really excited by this?

Would I prefer a bigger hard drive, proper USB support and ethernet? Probably. But this is basically a combined Chromecast and improved Android TV box with gaming capabilities. In one beautiful package with a good-looking remote with mic. For 99 dollars.

For the regular consumer this is everything one needs. It's a much better package than the Fire TV on the basis of Google Cast support alone. I think Chromecast is the only interesting solution to the TV box problem to have come out ever. I basically dislike TV boxes (apart from XBMC boxes because you can do anything with them), but the Android and Chromecast combo can be the ecosystem winner that makes this ten times better than disappointing boxes like Apple TV, Fire TV and, for that matter, the old Google TV.

I'm buying this on release day, regardless of whether or not it gets Kodi support (although I really hope it does).

I'm also hoping that Sony or Asus or possibly LG or Motorola release a box with ethernet and USB hard drive support, so everyone can embrace this platform. As much as I love my XBMCbuntu box, it will never get proper support for most streaming services. Kodi on Android TV will be as close to a perfect solution as I'm likely to get.

[grey]

this if you have any streaming services.

where i live, i can rely only on XBMC addons.

[Topken]

My other issue with this is Emulators since most are built for ARM based android I don't know whether or not if they will run or if they do if theres going to be a performance hit. Be nice to have a box that can run the emulators via gamepad and then to use XBMC for media. and keep it all in a small package. Hence one reason I might go with a chromebox to replace my midsize tower HTPC. IT would handle x86 based emulators under linux perfectly fine and handle xbmc+1080p 1:1 blueray rips as well as stream everything over the ethernet port. For games I can always share them via network or use one of my USB hdds.

[zehner]

The hardware specs of the Nexus Player look promising, very decent for the price.
But if AndroidTV has all the disadvantages of other Android platforms, I don't t think the player is superior to a linux build on a Celeron NUC or an AM1.

A few interesting questions could be:
- Is it possible to sideload Kodi with or without rooting?
- Is hardware acceleration with libstagefright or mediacodec possible?
- Does the box have enough power to use HQ upscalers (lanczos3 or spline36 in its optimized versions) or at least playback 1080p@24, 1080p@50 or 4K content without framedrops?
- Does AndroidTV at last support automatic resolution and frame rate switching?
- Does the box support DD, DTS or even HD passthrough?
- Is it possible to install linux as a compromise? (Intel has released VA-API drivers for older versions of the PowerVR chip and still advances them http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=ne...px=MTgxMjY )

Most of these questions could be answered "YES" for the NUC or the AM1 platform, but the Nexus Player has to prove for the time beeing, if it's on the same level

[yellowman]

For you who need ethernet, I think there are micro-usb->ethernet adapters like this:


Although probably limitied to something like 480mbps. But still, might be an option.

[calev]

Thats assuming it even has otg support and drivers for usb ethernet.

[BORIStheBLADE]

There are very likely to be other official AndroidTV boxes with ethernet and IR.

Marvell for instance have an AndroidTV certified chip that does HD audio bit-streaming along with everything else (codec wise) but someone has to make a box using it first.

Whether the Chinese Amlogic/Rockchip Android box makers get AndroidTV support is another thing.

Yeah I think we will see other boxes come out at different prices. So most likely we will see the K-1 and an ethernet port soon.

[jjd-uk]

I saw the ADT-1 at our DevCon as one of guys had one, very nice bit of kit even if it got a bit toasty, so it's a shame they didn't do a modified version of that for the official end user release as it had a ethernet port.

[theslime]

I know that this is the XBMC/Kodi forum and all, but I think it's a mistake to think of this as a fully-capable box. This is an inexpensive new Android app platform with a Chromecast built-in - and it might run Kodi as a bonus. We're not the target audience for this, the dissatisfied Apple TV customers (of which there are many) are.

Also, most of the audience will run streaming services that only 60 hz anyway. Frame rate switching won't be a dealbreaker for most people. That said, I hope Android starts supporting it, especially in their Android TV relelases.

[fyodor]

I know that this is the XBMC/Kodi forum and all, but I think it's a mistake to think of this as a fully-capable box. This is an inexpensive new Android app platform with a Chromecast built-in - and it might run Kodi as a bonus. We're not the target audience for this, the dissatisfied Apple TV customers (of which there are many) are.

Also, most of the audience will run streaming services that only 60 hz anyway. Frame rate switching won't be a dealbreaker for most people. That said, I hope Android starts supporting it, especially in their Android TV relelases.

I thought that Android L was supposed to support auto-frame rate switching? Does it not do so?

[PantsOnFire]

[/quote]
I thought that Android L was supposed to support auto-frame rate switching? Does it not do so?
[/quote]

Did you read that somewhere?

---let's not get ahead of ourselves.. its a platform focused on media consumption. -it's quite likely that it will support a variety of output modes.

[mattv]

For you who need ethernet, I think there are micro-usb->ethernet adapters like this:


Although probably limitied to something like 480mbps. But still, might be an option.

Agreed.

FireTV ethernet is only 100mbit anyway. I have a USB "gigabit" adapter that I use on my ATV1 with openelec and it's supported out of the box on the FireTV. I'm sure the Nexus Player will support USB OTG.... connect a small powered USB hub, add your hard drive, add your USB network interface and off you go.

Killer for me is the lack of IR, and no information about mouse functionality. If the remote had a gyro mouse function in it, that would be huge.... sucks to by flirc and something to deal with basic interface operations for market and sideloaded apps. This is the only thing keeping me from replacing my openelec box in my living room with the FireTV...

[theslime]

My point is simply that most people don't even know what frame rate switching is, and the user experience without it is fine anyway. I'm back on fixed 60hz myself after my main htpc broke and I'm not really bothered by the quality. It's not perfect, but it's good enough. The gazillion Netflix users out there (the target audience) probably agree.

Also, maybe I'm dense, but why do you need IR on this? It already has a remote.