Looking for advise for a TV Player

[BubbaLovesTV]

Hi,

So I'm looking for a TV box. Primarily to watch 720/1080 movies from my USB Hard Drive. But any other features are good too.

The boxes I hear about the most are ->

Measy B4K
Minix NEO X7
Matricom G-Box MX2

Can someone please tell me what the major differences, strengths, or flaws are for any of these boxes?

Thanks.

P.S. I'd be open to another suggestion too, but the company name has to start with the letter M.

[mitchell4you]

Measy - No support /a31 little to no ROM development /no xbmc support /but cheap

Neo x7. Support / rk3188 chip good community support / xbmc h/w acc is bugy / lots of custom roms / expensive

Mx2 . Support / amlogic chip good community support / xbmc support / dual core bit less for gaming / user friendly / linux

Any of these device should do 720 out of the box..
1080 depens on player used.. and media/codec used.. firmware used..
* note

B4k no 1080p kernel
Neo x7 has 1080 kernel ( but you lose MINIX support)
Mx2 android interface can be 720.. but video out-put is 1080p
1080p flawless.. is big No.. on all these devices

Currently is best to wait for the next gen am logic quad cores --is my advice

[BubbaLovesTV]

Hi mitchell4you,

Thanks for your very informative breakdown.

So to clarify...

1 - MX2 android interface is at 720, and from what I read, xbmc playback is also at 720. But does that mean videos directly from a USB HD played through the player come out at 1080? Or are they upscaled?

2 - How often are new products rolled out? Like when would you expect the next gen cores you mentioned to be available, and from which companies first?

3 - And are any of the sticks better than the boxes? And if there another product that I didn't mention that is also just as good?

Thanks again.

[mitchell4you]

The mx2 uses a special build xbmc
* but on xbmchub forum there is a debate.. is this true 1080 or not...
* there is also a solution to make the ui 1080

* note..
there a solution/howto for making 1080 kernels.. a31 and mx2..
but finding someone with skill/time to make one.. test and share... aargh

next gen boxes like :
Geniatech atv1800 (amlogic quad) / huwei m3 & m8 (cortex a15) / samsung homesync / odroid xu / nuvola (tegra4)
are here... ( but are so new.. finding a review is... )

A tvbox has rj45/lan... when/where wifi fails.. you can always fail back on lan
A stick.. just has wifi.. ( you can not tell if your bought unit has good/great/bad wifi by looking at the specs)

also.. if you see great user-feedback on a stick and you buy it...
there is a chance.. for differend pcb or a clone.. same model / differend version / perhaps with more or less bugs

[yanman]

Thanks for the info - I'm after similar

It's a bit disappointing to hear that there's still no box that'll play 1080p flawlessly

I didn't even need it to be wifi - I was planning to use ethernet.

I'm also planning on playing back the majority of content via CIFS shares or DLNA.. will that add more issues? Currently I'm playing most of my media directly on the TV (Panasonic ST50A) via ethernet to my windows microserver running Serviio DLNA.

[BubbaLovesTV]

So I'm leaning towards the X7, but still have a few more questions....

1) - How useful is Bluetooth on the Minix X7 ? I noticed that the G-Box MX2 does NOT have Bluetooth. Is that a feature that I should look for?

2) - Also, is there any way to use RCA Composite cables with the Minix X7? I know it doesn't have a port, but can you use Composite cable via a USB port or some other way?

Thanks.