Yes i do know the difference but i did saw a few live tv channels like nikelodeon, fox, disney channels in xbmc thus i brought this into such comparison between these two but i cant remember if they were HD. Justin iptv channels have HD channels mostly .

The market scenario here divides into few categories, english and cantonese /english, cantonese and mandarin / english , taiwan , cantonese, mandarin. Im the 1st category. The other channels in mandarin not bother bcos i dont even understand.

I got to pick the right one .

www has involved into such a monster that sometimes, nobody knows what is where, where it comes from, etc...!
nicko, disney, cnn, discovery, bbc, etc. - each one has a hundred or a thousand versions, peculiar to each country or langauge or resolution or paid/free.
what "xyz" iptv like cloudtv do is to somehow tap into whatever is available and workable, then package them for sale via vpn. stability or legit over time, who can guarantee? then again, given how fast tech change and the price u pay, they may be worth it for the individual - for as long as it works well.

you surely need to find the right box that can do the right things that u want. if mandarin is not wanted, a lot is eliminated. if canto stuff is wanted, i suppose there r only these options or a combination:

.. astro wahlaitoi - pay or foc with aotg
.. hypptv scm, red - ruby pack foc with unifi10
.. azdrama browser - foc
.. azdrama via xbmc - foc
.. csplayer - asian domains incl azdrama, koreandrama, japanesedrama, chinesedrama, drama.se, other vod, p2ptv - foc (?)
.. paid iptv packages - how good, how big library, how good for live and vod...

the canto-eng subs combo is in demand in malaysia and malaysia only, i think. elsewhere, mandarin/jap/kor-eng subs are far more popular.

This post has been edited by AVFAN: Sep 18 2014, 02:27 PM

Is red ruby foc now? Have unplugged hyptv device for a long time now. Nice write up. Tq

can be a long story....
u can read my story at the hypptv thread.
in short, ruby and platinum pack = megapack, rm50 pm.
new vip10 users get megapack or sports pack foc.
old vip10 users like me paying same price need to call, yell n scold for 2 months, then get it.

but... ruby stuff is kinda old. if ur looking for new young pretty boys n girls in canto, it's not there.
jackie chan, maggie cheung, chow yun fatt, et al are there.

This post has been edited by AVFAN: Sep 18 2014, 07:18 PM

okay, will write in and ask for it . damn, new user can get it , loyal customer were dumped. When begging us to upgrade, we gave in. damn.

write in, they'll bury it in the drawer. u need to call, 5 times in my case. and they will taichi with all kinds of funny stories like "we called twice, nobody picked up" or "approved but...".

like i said in that thread, the norm for local biz is spend zero for loyal customers, spend more n more to get new disloyal ones. banks behave same way for credit cards and fd rates.

they have become either very clever or very stupid... becos i was trained to remember "it cost 5 times to get new customer than keep existing one".!

Its unethical and plain stupid or should i said pure greed. They were too long in monopoly until short circuit their brain now. Life too easy for them, no longer reward loyal customers or do we have a choice? They knew we dont have other better choices too.

for androidtv, entertainment apps like xbmc and cloudtv are popular, need no intro.

i recently tried these 3 apps, work reasonably well, should work on all androids. shared by generous members, discussed elsewhere but i tot will be useful to consolidate them here under androidtv thread to share with all. try them if they interest you.

http://androidcsplayer.weebly.com/
this is a "mini asian xbmc". Simple, easy to navigate. mostly asian (particularly chinese) content, many with eng subs. azdrama and drama.se are there. english stuff not so good. has live tv channels from many countries incl uk, canada, thailand, korea.

http://www.time4popcorn.eu/
this is a nice english hd movies app. simple to use, very updated. only thing is it needs >1gb (i think) memory to stream 1080p video. <500mb will get u only 720p ones. all english, no subs. audio is either 2.0/1.0 only.

http://down.znds.com/apk/live/2014/0125/138.html
this is a good china live tv stations app. a thousand channels, some in hd, many smooth and stable. incl some user made sets. china mainland ones r good, taiwan/hongkong/macau ones limited. english ones are far and few between, not so good.

before they disappear like they always do, enjoy!

This post has been edited by AVFAN: Sep 23 2014, 11:10 AM

hi, i have not much knowledge about android tv boxes.

can anyone tell me about it? and tell me about the xiao mi box?

Thanks

Summary: An android TV box is basically a phone/tablet packed into a box shape and software tweaked to allow HDMI out connection. For more details, go back a few pages.

Has anyone here bought an adroid tv box from china via aliexpress? At around usd100, you can get a rk3288-based box, typically with 2gb of ram and 8/16gb of expanded memory with an additional up to 32gb of micro-sd card. There is even one with a 5mp camera for skype use, the cs928.

With xbmc now in native android environment, plus tons of free tv channels, can easily replace astro. And if not enough, can always subscribe to paid-tv, if you have good internet service at home.

most androidtv boxes are from china. usd100 for the specs u mentioned is very good.
my experience is not all boxes are created the same given the same tech specs.
a lot has to do with hardware reliability, firmwares, inhouse apps and on-going service support.
if u post more details about this box like brand, model no., link, people might be able to comment further.


i will not say a box can "replace astro"... astro is astro with some inhouse programs that u cant find elsewhere.
"an alternative to astro" is a more accurate description, imo.

Hi AVFAN,

I am talking about relatively 'famous' brands like Tronsmart (go ahead and google or youtube search their products). Below are two links from Aliexpress.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Tronsmart-O...2047221828.html

The above one at USD99.99 is for 8gb of ROM and 1.8ghz speed of the latest RK3288 SOC.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Tronsmart-O...2030288298.html

And this one above is a bit more expensive at USD119.99, but it comes with 16gb of ROM and a faster processor speed of 2.0ghz (same RK3288).

You can find subscription service packages ranging from USD90-120 per year with channels typically found in Astro. So, yes you can possibly replace astro if you don't mind not having the exact same channels available.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/CS928-Quad-...211319.html?s=p

This one, the CS928 (the older model CS918 is can be found in lelong or mudah, but can be found even cheaper in Aliexpress).

i dunno if tronsmart is famous or not, have not come across a thread for it.

cs has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread, but nobody commented so far, i think.

anyway, updated list of brands:

.. vigica
.. miniand
.. mx
.. himedia
.. minix
.. mele
.. modeo
.. xiaomi mibox
.. techgear
.. CS918/928
.. tronsmart

there are quite a few youtube reviews on tronsmart (r28 being the latest, with rk3288 chip), and it appears to be quite widely used. if you search for tronsmart, you can find 2 mentions of the products under the name.

re the subscription iptv packages, i have recently tried out one and it is quite reasonably good, although cannot match the picture quality of astro byond. i am currently arranging to trial another one from china, at usd90 per year. i am looking into getting a proper android box to replace the current one i have (still running on 4.0). Hopefully, on kitkat 4.4.2, i can get rid of the bottom black bar.

Can't wait for my Mi Box to arrive, this will be my first Android TV box, previously only used those classic A.C.Ryan Playon players.

Rikomagic MK802 IV

May i know how's the video n audio quality for downloaded content (.mkv) when playback on Android TV box compare to Realtek based player ?

ah... welcome to the club!

i had so much fun with acryan for 3yrs, thoroughly enjoyed it for media playback. but i did not like it when they stopped paying license for youtube. i was thinking of a way to stream youtube when I read about android tv boxes. after getting one, I realized the power of it, the need to dwnld became much less, just stream, watch n forget the casual ones.

XBMC is the biggie, have fun.