I bought an android box a few months ago and have played around with it quite a lot recently. I would probably not recommend it for most people as it is quite fiddly to get working exactly the way you want, and often the channels you do set up disappear and you need to go hunting for new streams.

For watching on demand stuff, it's not too bad. The 1channel and icefilms apps work pretty well, although sometimes you have to try a few different streams to get something to play. Again, it's ok if you are a bit tech savvy but I wouldn't recommend it for most people.

The most disappointing thing about it is the Netflix app. It is the android version so obviously designed for touch screens. It's difficult to use with a remote. And also it won't stream in HD or 5.1 sound, so I still use my PS3 for Netflix stuff.

I think the best usage for my android box/xbmc is for accessing my local media though, the scrapers mean my ripped DVD collection is displayed very nicely with all the movie posters and synopsis etc.

Anyway that's my 2 cents, it works well for me as I have the patience to play around with the settings and follow tutorials to fix broken streams but for most people it's probably better to go with another device (say an apple TV) which will be more relable, albeit more limited in functionality.

It's a Minix Neo X8-H. Cost me MYR500 new.

On my apple TV I just changed the DNS settings in the ATV itself.

I think the hardware is quite good. The only difficult aspect of it is setting up XBMC to work the way you want it to. I would recommend downloading it on your PC and trying to set it up there. If you can follow the youtube tutorials and get that working, then maybe its worth buying a minix and setting up XBMC on there too. Better to do it that way round than buying an android box and giving up because it is too fiddly to set up.

That is unless you just want to use the cloud tv app on the minix. I don't use it so no idea if it is reliable or worth the money.

If you have any more questions just give me a shout