Android TV boxes

Linus Tech Tips has just released a video about these cheap Chinese Android TV boxes that promise access to paid streaming services for free.

And his conclusion is to avoid them because the version of Android they are running has malware that turns the box into a botnet node to launch attacks. Nice!

They also lie about their hardware specs, but in a far more convincing way than in the past. They say they have 4GB of ram, and opening them up the chips actually do look like 4GB, but testing this from a commandline they are really only 2GB. And they can't output at the promised 4K either. Most only manage 1080p, and some only 720p.

So you are better off either setting up a Raspberry Pi for around the same money and using Kodi, or spending a bit more for something like a Chromecast, nVidia Shield or Amazon Fire TV that can all actually do 4K.

If you want to watch the Linus video about this it's here:

https://youtu.be/1vpepaQ-VQQ

We had one that Lady Ts dad picked up in the middle east and it gave us live tv from all over the world, including subscription services like sky, sky sports etc. It was quite good, really, but because of how it worked there wasn't any epg or programme information so it was not that great to use. we ended up not using it anywhere near as much as we imagined. In fact, it barely got used at all.