Beelink S82 Round Guidance - Resolution and More...

[beezle]

Hi,

I've always had either a HTPC (Linux) or a proprietary/commercial media box (ie: Seagate) and this is my first Android based media box. I'm a Windows and Linux software developer so by nature it seemed like it would be fun and handy to try a Android based box for the low cost and good performance with seemingly the bulk of the flexibility I would have with a HTPC (Win, Linux or otherwise). I am not an Android power user though. I have a Android phone that is used for email, web, phone... basics.

So, I got this bad boy today and I'm starting to wonder if it is a good fit for what I need. Right off the bat it has quite a bit of overscan on TV. It is probably a 5 year old LCD, but the screen on my laptop and Seagate media box aren't clipped when connected to the HDMI, so it seems like the resolution needs changed or the screen resized to compensate for it.

I tried switching it to 720P, 1080i... no change as expected but worth a shot. I can't find any applicable info on how to adjust the resolution for the Beelink or even Android in general really that would correct this. Anyone have any advice on this?

Also, is there any primer out there that really gives a good overview of playing with these and configuring them. I'm not sure if it is beneficial to install any of the ROMs offered, which Apps are best to mount Window file shares or an NFS to the machine, which Root app is the best... all that good stuff.

Oh, the remote that comes with it is actually not bad if you had everything dialed in and just needed to click around to play a video or something, but it is hair pulling to actually use it like a phone, let alone a computer. =) Is there a clear winner for wireless mouse/keyboard/remote combos for a decent price for this type of application. I kind of like the idea of a touchpad mouse by a fly option would be ok. It has to have a keyboard. It would be great to be able to switch between modes.

I want to stay the course with thing and not go back to my aging little HTPC I built years back but after debugging all day long at work I don't know if I have it in me to battle the media player so I'm hoping someone can give me some insight to get me moving in the right direction here.

[beezle]

I totally forgot the most important thing that is frustrating me with this box... I was going to try one of the Resolution Changer apps to see if that helped but I cannot install any apps at all.

When I go into the Play store and pick an app, I click install, it pops up with the permissions, and I click the install button on the popup, the popup disappears. Now normally you would expect the main "Install" button to switch to "Installed" or whatever, but it never does and the app never appears on the device. No errors, no progress, nothing... once you click install from the permissions box nothing happens. I've tried several apps, including common apps.

Something is definitely wrong but I can't figure out what it is. Any thoughts on this before I throw this box at the wall,? Maybe a different ROM, or some setting I'm overlooking?

I wish I could just control the box from my phone where it is like a remote desktop but actual native my droid phone so the touch screen and everything worked, it would make it so much easier to try to configure and troubleshoot but I can't find anything like that. Is there anything to make your phone the display/touchscreen input for the box?

[beezle]

If anyone has any suggestions on getting the Play Store to work that would allow me to at least try to fix the resolution and get some apps in place to be able to access network shares to stream from. Without a working Play Store though this is going to have to be returned unfortunately.

Even though I have very limited use with this box my initial impressions are that Android is just a bad fit for a media platform without tweaking the ROM to make it less touch interface geared or without including a remote that can simulate the same functions. For instance, there was no way for me to display the notification screen with the included remote, so there was no way for me to read the errors related to the failed app installs.

I think my best bet is to find a box that can run a full Linux stack so I can still get all the flexibility out of a media player that I was trying to get with the Android, but have a more predictable experience and one I can troubleshoot.

It is a shame though because all I really needed outside of playing media remotely and locally was for it to be a lightweight NFS so I could have a low power device handling that always on functionality, and also be able to pop open a browser from time to time. It seems like that would have been easy to accomplish on this media box if it had Play Store enabled.