Here in Brazil the government is cracking down hard in these. A school work on received a literal pallet of these boxes provided by the police to be repurposed for educational purposes.
wait brazil is worried about Chinese products ???, i belived brazil was friendly towards china, and didnt mind the oppression and hostilities china is known for these days.
I work at a Internet Provider and we get contacted by server protection companies all the time from abuse reports in our network from home users. When we inspect what has happened, it is almost always one of these boxes that attempt to bruteforce or attack servers online. These boxes are part of toxic botnets and also use your IP address and network to perform illegal actions online and DDoS without the users knowledge
my wifi has been so bad with packet loss, my stepdad had one of these with an ethernet, he was kicked out recently and ever since ive had no issues with packet loss at all, i feel like the box couldve been using the connection to its advantage i would be running on 800mbps but 35% packet loss it made no sense
@@ninjrr you were getting packet loss because there was interference from android box causing the Wi-Fi signal to be wonkey. Eating up bandwidth and throttling you doesn’t cause packet loss on game servers.
@@OmgHeDidntJustDoThat if the android box is trying to pull more bandwidth than what they were subscribing to it will create packet loss. Once the buffer fills up those packets are dropped. Usually gaming and VOIP are the first to notice. Then streaming apps. Web browsing usually not because people try again and it works the second time.
@@ninjrr sounds like it kept attempting to reach blacklisted IP, those things are made so horribly they just spew garbage on your ethernet, because they aren’t grounded
The "legitimate 4k" Android TV's (so Google TV & Nvidida Shield) still also run the UI at 1920x1080. It's only videos that are passed through at 4k. The ADB command used in the video is just reporting the UI size & not the actual display resolution being sent out, so it doesn't actually mean much.
Yea I'm running Kodi on my Pi4 in 1080p60 because it's more responsive. Still able to run up to 4k30 video content. The device changes resolution and refresh rate on the spot.
Even the Xbox Series X|S does this. It's to save on performance and resources, reserving extra for content and games. I'd take a 1080p UI over a stuttery mess any day.
Fun fact, when you showed the screen grab from Walmart you were actually looking at Amazon's store still. Unless you select the filter to only show stuff sold by Walmart then it will mix in things sold on Amazon. I work at Amazon and we have a few dedicated pack stations for Walmart items to make sure we only use generic packaging material and don't accidentally send a Walmart order out in an Amazon box and confuse the customer.
@Nick Bylsma maybe needing to take that action is frustrating to him, Nick. The effort required to fix it is irrelevant. You also could have provided that information to him without the snark. Alternatively, you could've just not responded. Clearly, you get off on giving people a hard time. I suggest a therapist. Have a great day, Nick. Edit: I could have not written could of if I would have. I probably should've. Thanks for making me a better person, grammar nazis.
Stores that added "marketplace" like, say Newegg, basically just ruin their reputation imo and the only way I ever shop on them is by sorting products only from Newegg themselves for instance. If buyers aren't aware they deal with the consequences, which is basically the story of our lives.
Except he found nothing here. 10 minutes of pure speculation (minus the sponsored segments). Just Linus in another chapter of his crusade against China. "Tencent is bad, give your ass to Google and Nvidia instead".
@@sovo1212 Not true, what he said is a real problem. Not everything made in China is bad, but most of theese cheap (re)branded electronics have serious problems. Linus also bashes against Google and Nvidia and other western brands when they do something wrong. It's just less because stricter regulations and external quality controls prevent more bullsh*t. I think people and companies are equally bad around the globe, just the difficulty to f*ck other people up is different from country to country
I've been using my old i5-5200U laptop as as repurposed media player for the past couple of years and it has served me brilliantly. I Am not aware of the 4K capabilities but I do not use a 4K display either, it is technically free and I know what I am running. Running Debian with a cheap wireless remote mouse+keyboard (plentiful on amazon) and if i ever wish to dabble on the dark side, I can run that risk without much of a hassle. I think for a lot of people, re-purposing an old computer or in some cases, even a mobile phone can be a great alternative to purchasing a device, and especially when you talk of 'manufactured e-waste', this can be a smack in the face if such too.
While smartphones SoC is much more powerful than any of those from Amlogic, I don`t see how I can connect it to my monitor via HDMI. Not to mention a remote.
i be using a amd 2400g or 3400g ryzen i love that is like so good gpu wise and 100.00 or so for a running ebay hp elite desk is a great deal i suggest the one with dvd drive yea its bigger but better unit just stay away from lenovo they cpu lock the cpu so i ant buying it out of principle .and if sub 300 is your thing AMD 5700g 8 core units are floating around
Literally any x86 cpu can do that ,but it also come with a cost of heavier CPU usage which lead to electricity bill, and run hotter than those tiny arm chip which operated around 5w.But repurposed it is good idea rather than throw into trashcan
It's not just TV boxes, some smartphones with random brands also contain malware. But if you are lucky, you can find a clean ROM somewhere. Also for the TV boxes, some can boot up libreELEC so you can avoid the tampered Android altogether. I had a TV box that would only started snooping my home network when it was turned off! If you turn them off with the remote, they are still on! You need to unplug them from the power.
To add to that discussion, Blu phones and Amazon had a free phone at one time (probably 2009-ish) that was basically locked and home screen ad-supported. It worked well until everyone realized that the phone came pre-loaded with malware that stole user data. After Amazon found out, they discontinued the program entirely. One day, my on screen keyboard got hijacked. I'm generally an optimist so I'm going to assume that it was someone trying to warn me that my phone was compromised. The whole ordeal put me off from Blu entirely, as it should anyone at this point.. Furthermore, I have a Motorola G7 Power from 2020 and when you uninstall Facebook and reboot, it re-installs it. No where in my user agreement did I agree to allow Facebook on my device, but here we are. My current phone is a G Power from early 2022 and it doesn't appear to have that issue.
OSMC (a FOSS linux-based OS that runs Kodi out of the box) produces something called the Vero 4K+. It's pretty much an Nvidia Shield but smaller and runs OSMC.
random brands? try iPhone, Google Phone and the entire "big name" brand, they are all spying on you in every way possible. why nobody is making so many vids about that?
The worrying part of all this, is that a bunch of common devices that appear to be the same devices or slightly rebranded as this are used as streaming legal audio, media board controllers and even lighting control boards.
i write this under here because the probability that you see this is way higher under the top comment. these boxes in the video are trash, but the company orbsmart makes very good ones with really good hardware and software, in small formfactors.
Linus is completely right here...I used to love these boxes until my isp blocked the ports...the android boxes don't update time and date anymore, apparently my boxes were used in a ddos attack.
I made the mistake of buying a T95, and after using it twice, felt uneasy about what I had bought. I went back to Amazon, to check out reviews, and all the T95's like the one I bought have disappeared.
I hate that Amazon feels like Aliexpress these days, so many categories flooded with garbage and you can only hope for the best when you order. That uneasy feeling getting confirmed sucks, I hope customer service reimburses you somehow.
@@Mr_Stone1 I have prime and haven't touched the store of Amazon in almost a year. If it's not a bunch of fake garabge it's pricing that doesn't even match local retailers, even small independant shops. It's insane how bad Amazon has gotten. If the price IS better, it's only by a dollar or two.
This is why I watch this channel so often. Videos like this are an absolute godsend and are fantastic for increasing peoples awareness of dubious products out there which can really screw them over.
The vast majority of buyers are pirates. They buy them from local resellers who load custom Kodi in order to get free streaming, especially for pay-per-view sports. Whenever people dabble in illegal backcorner stuff, they know (or ought to know) what they're getting into.
Or you could just not blindly trust cheap products that are listed under 25 different names all with the same picture. You only fall into these traps if you wear a blindfold and refuse to listen to all the warnings. The internet and China are not your friend. They are not selling cheap products out of some goodness of their hearts.
Something scary is some of these units end up running in digital signage and on business networks. I used to work for one such company who would send these out to customers. I was highly against it due to many of the things mentioned in this video. I was overruled of course as they were 'a cheap way to get an internet connected media player'. I did try to custom image one of the units to get a clean unit once but was stopped as 'there was no point'. I stopped working for them shortly after. So yeah, some of these ended up in places they really should not have done, and have internet connectivity. The only place these belong is in the bin.
That really sucks, man. Good job for standing up to them for potentially harming their consumer base. Although I have to ask, if you can and if it won’t impact your future job opportunities: Where did you work that had such a scheme going on?
Also a previous digital signage worker. We toyed with android boxes, but we wanted a solution that could do 3 screen outputs for some of our clients, and none of them could do more than 2 at best. I was wary of the China branded cheap boxes, as well, but it's because of hardware inabilities and jank that the boss finally said no to them. Instead we went with masses of Pi4's.
WIndows embedded now IoT can be stripped down to just be the minimum Windows boot environment and a single application. Digital Signage is a example deployment where you deploy it to boot to Edge in full screen kiosk mode with the no chrome switch. A min win install is less idea attack risk because it lacks the 99.9%of the attack surface of a full setup. I used a Windows server install in college in the min win install. You don't get explorer for a UI it logs on to command prompt and and is aimed at running single use servers that can't go down. Like DNS servers.
In malaysia(my country) some isp salesman offer these kind of android tv player for free to customers who sign up with them. These set boxes with pirated software built in is not legal here, but since the government is so hardworking here they do nothing to stop the sales and distribution of these units, they just say its illegal. You might faces criminal charges if captured though. But the chances of getting caught is 0.0000001% so yeah nobody actually cares. And my country loves free stuff and most of the people here doesnt know what a malware is.
They actually make a very usable Linux PC with armbian. In fact there is a TV box version of armbian specific to set top boxes like these. Should be interesting to see Linus get armbian working on one
a few months back my (very not tech savvy) parents were pushing to 'cut the cable' and replace with a bunch of these boxes... what sparse information i could find on them easily didn't look promising & i managed to convince them out of it mostly based on gut feelings. thank you so much for this video, this is the kind of accessible information average consumers need before making what could be a grave mistake. my parents are now especially relieved to have been persuaded out of picking these up 😅
Maybe but pirated box and illegal iptv host is still illegal in malaysia. My opinion : get an HDTV tuner like my freeview, or get an astro njoy box (my personal pick), or just plug an antenna that is good enough on the back of your tv (will need some work but just search the internet for guidance). All of these options is completely free of monthly payment (njoy allows some content to be subscribed just like postpaid internet, absolutely recommended) just like using an fm radio is free.
In Brazil there is a TV BOX called BTV... some say it's legal, others illegal... but no one talks about it's safety and it is VERY POPULAR here. Hope you guys can take a look at it!
Using T95Q for 5 years now and no issues. Sadly this thing isnt cheap in Europe. Around 80$. To additionally. 4K was played by your own Downloaded Videos. And I could easily run Fhd TH-cam and Pirated streaming websites. I am not saying what he said isnt true. But also. Many of these offer good quality if you use them wirelessly.
You ignored the most common Chinese TV setup box : the Xiaomi Mi box S series. vanilla AndroidTV OS. range at 60-70$ on Chinese markets . Certified by Google and still gets frequent OS security updates. The spec is not great but it will do the work (Netflix 4K HDR). These are so common they surpass Google's own device in sales. Unlike some Chinese boxes the Xiaomi boot loader is locked. Hard to root and mess it's base android security. Unlike some Chinese boxes , Xiaomi does not include alternative google play stores that also expose you... . A rooted device from the box is red alert to any user.
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Absolutely. I have two of these (one a stick, the other one a box). They're kind of slow but once you hit play they work very well. And they do Netflix HD, which none of the other boxes does. Can you do HD with a RPi, for example?
There are a lot of maybe's, possibly's and we don't knows on this video's script. Not endorsing these boxes but there is a lot of "it comes from said country so watch out!" here.
@@cassiodalcin This is exactly my problem with a lot of US centric tech content in general , a lot of sinophobic fear mongering without any facts to back them up.
my ROM that Linus mentions is based on this devices firmware (Mi box), although Xaiomi hasn't had an update in over a year for this device, older security patch :)
Thanks for making this video. Finally, someone with influence addresses this issue. I was in the market years ago shopping for an Android TV box. I noticed so many red flags. Plus, many people say those TV boxes overheat so much so quickly. I am surprised they are even worse than I thought. I ended up buying an NVIDIA Shield Pro for over $360 CAD at the time.
I'm glad to see this being brought to light. I've suspected that these devices were malware since they began to appear and I already tell people I know not to buy them. It's unfortunate, though, as an Android box is quite attractive for this purpose; it's already optimized on many chips for high def video and games. I didn't expect the exaggerated memory problem, though.
they do not have malware but it's implied, these are manufactured in china so they will call home to a china ip adress for firmware etc... that's the only thing. These things will not steal you CC or have any malware installed but they are vulnerable.
I seriously don't understand the issue here. Does it really matter if it is some Chinese company invading the privacy of every single customer, or if it is Google, Facebook or any other entity charting your every step and selling the information to whomever?
"I'm glad to see this being brought to light. I've suspected that these devices were malware since they began to appear and I already tell people I know not to buy them." The kodi community call them "loaded boxes", you could create your own legitimate TV box with any computer hooked to a TV and by installing a clean Kodi. Kodi devs even had to spend money to register themselves as a brand, in order to be able to retaliate in courts (which is guy those scammers switched to other names like "android box"). The HUGE issue is that those loaded boxes give the mainstream idea that Kodi is a piracy malware tool while it's simply a client to manage local files and custom addons. *And to answer the obvious question : yes, you could add yourself the addons for illegal content. Those exist somewhere in the world. Not in kodi's official repo of course (those ask for an API key to prove you paid for legal access, HOW DARE THEY?)... but at least you'll get a free malware instead of one priced at 30$ ;)* Oh and by the way... that also voids your right to support : if you report a Kodi issue and your debug log shows illegal addons, your ticket is closed. Why should the already overworked devs provide free support, if you paid *somebody else* for a full (illegal) setup?
@@johanmetreus1268 The problem is invasive malware that may physically compromise your (network) data and/or contribute to bot attacks on institutions. Not the same thing (nor goal) as stealing privacy data.
Thank you for making this video. Security is becoming more and more important and with teleworking people at home should be aware of what is happening in their infrastructure.
Sounds like it’s time for LTT to make a streaming box. Since the only option is the shield and it doesn’t fully support Dolby vision. And it’s now covered in ads.
I don't know if this would help or not, but you can install alternative home screens on the shield, so you don't need to see the ads if you don't want. 😊
Apple TV supports Dolby vision, but obviously if you want android you’re out of luck there. I do like my Apple TV though as it’s very smooth and polished and NOT covered in ads (yet)
I remember buying a few of these back when and getting frustrated with how slow and incapable they were (despite the specs they promised) I'm not surprised to hear that they lied about their capabilities and that some were probably loaded with malware. Glad I spent the extra money to get a nVidia shield, although I wish more proper companies would step up to make more affordable/powerful tv boxes.
I got the Nvidia Shield TV when it was first released, I think it was in 2015. They weren't selling as well as expected and were discounted. It came with both the remote and controller for, I think, around £120. It has never faltered since and plays everything I've thrown at it so far. Money definitely well spent!
looks like you have identified an gap in the Android TV market. These chinese brands are cheap and unsafe. Nvidia is safe and expensive. You can provide something in the middle. Affordable and safe
I got a MI Box S that I've been using for serval years, and I'm happy with it - I use it primarily to run Kodi to play videos hosted on my Raspberry PI based file server/Pi-Hole/torrent client (just a simple Raspberry PI 4 with SATA M.2 drive connected to it using USB enclosure).
especially devices made in China after the CCP imposed their National Intelligence Law. A law that no one speaks about, read and understand its scope and purpose.
A very useful and necessary video! As a follow up I wonder what other cheap Amazon tech has malware installed out of the box? Would be class to see LTT make this a series ❤
Yes, I'm late to the party here but, an open-source project for these Google tv/ android tv to either clean or replace the bootloader/OS itself would be something I'd invest in. Very informative LTT ty ,
what I think it's concern-able is how normal house networks are so unprotected by something that just connect to. That more testifies against our network than TV Boxes themselves.
What about if - I don't log-in nothing important on TV box - I put a dedicated hotspot just to TV Box ? will it still can have privileged access to my main router? it can not be a problem without solution.
@@AfonsoBucco i guess guest access is for preventing things like getting access to control ur router, but I don't really know what modern hackers can do
@@AfonsoBucco It still can "steal" your resources, like mining cryptocurrencies, use your internet connection for sharing pirated files or be used as client for DDoS attack or be used as mail server to send spam. Your IP address could be "banned" for some illegal activities. Interesting article on this topic is "Abuse of Honeygain".
@PolymorphicBytes But then, is it expected for a vast majority of consumers to be tech-literate? I don't think so. I believe it should be the responsibility of somebody else to secure these things, or to attempt to educate people, PSA's, school's, something. Just going, "oh well" doesn't seem the correct thing to do.
The local mall used to have a kiosk selling these. I was shocked they allowed them to sell the boxes as they advertised it as $250 for all channels and life long subscription.
Like the days of the cheap sat receiver with super software (smartcard encryption emulator) being sold even in petrol stations in Germany 13 years ago. Good times, all major sat pay TV providers encryption cracked across Europe.
Great video, there's also a plethora of cheap projectors with "built in smart OS" that should never be connected to your WiFi for the same reasons you showed here.
The T9's can be turned into a Octoprint/Klipper host as a cheap replacement for a Raspberry Pi. Chris's Basement did a video on this a few weeks ago. So they turn it into a full desktop experience Linux system
Yes, especially with s905 soc. In China they have a box called unt403a(which is a retired tv box from isp called china mobile)it has 2gb ram and less than 10 bucks(RMB70) and people flash armbian and openwrt into it.
Been quite happy with my Odroid N2 + CoreElec software, giving me 4k HDR10, Dolby ATMOS...and it was cheaper than the Shield. It's my go-to Plex client for my 82" TV.
We Vietnamese are very familiar with these boxes and the community is quite active. We have some devoted android rom dev flash the stock atv rom to these boxes for an amount of fee. Some are quite enthusiastic to share those roms for free or modded them with reduced bloatware and reup. Try checking xda, 4pda. But thanks for reminding us, now i'm quite scared of those boxes. 😂
For me i don't use amlogic android tv boxes for Android, there is an amazing small yet big enough open source community for those things, we have EmuELEC and Lakka for retro gaming, we have LibreELEC And CoreELEC for kodi media center, we have somewhat official linux manjaro support, we have armbian that has two build one on top of debian and one on top of ubuntu.
If you buy a box to steal the data from someone else, such as stealing movies from Netflix without paying. Then you shouldn’t be surprised if someone steals from you via data theft as well.
I have one that says 6k of course it was fake but the actual specs where good. I have never used Kodi honestly in my country maybe that don't work and I found 0 tutorials on how Kodi is supposed to work ?? But Stremio is the best honestly. I have watched everything for free on Stremio
You guys should do a video on IPTV subscriptions and programs. There are hundreds of companies trying to sell live and on-demand tv/movie content for a monthly fee.
God bless you linustech. I had a feeling there was something wrong with these. Now it explains why they would flood the whole market with these. This is insane.
More like manufactured E-Waste that demolishes the home media community, in particular the popular image Kodi which is prominently listed in the components ( at 0:19 ) despite being a totally legit software when you download it by yourself
The video is full of errors. He completely missed his subject. This kind of box is great for audio passtrough, and 4k video playback from a NAS, for retro gaming... Better than chromecast and fire tv.
@@JJ-bu8sq "This kind of box is great" this kind, yes. Not the ones who claim to provide illegal access to content. In particular, the ones tested in the video are NOT capable of 4k, they can do 1080p or sometimes not even that [check edit below] The issue is that Linus is implying all "Android boxes" are "loaded boxes" [EDIT] Yup, video is really substandard. The command they show is the size of the UI but doesn't reflect the resolution of the video. Seems like somebody wanted linus to say "third-party boxes are bad" and they rushed through production.
My TV has Roku built into it. Frankly I never used the apps until recently, and then I realised that Roku added a ton of streaming TV to the 'Live TV' channels, so uh. I have like 300 channels of streaming and I bought an antenna awhile ago, and hooked it up, so I also get a couple over-the-air local TV stations. I'm happy, considering last week I didn't have any of this, and I thought my antenna didn't even work. The apps might be a bit sketch, but that one single feature of Roku, adding the streaming channels to live TV just made me change my opinion of Roku. Right now there are very limited ads (might be because I'm in Canada) but the ad spots are locked 120 second blocks, just like live TV, so even when they do bring them in, they do have a limit, and set times where the ads are brought in. For example, I now have an Unsolved Mysteries channel, and right now the ad spots are literally just a countdown timer with the channel name on it. Most channels are like that right now. CBC, Al Jazeera, etc. Like I said, probably because I'm in Canada, but considering I actually have my OTA local channels on in the background all the time now, commercials and all.
Great video! Thank you. These Android boxes are so tempting to a person if he/she didn't know what else they are buying with it. I'm glad I saw this as I started to think again about getting one after staying away from them for so many years (mainly due to performance issues - they never worked for me as well as the main brands like FireTv, Google, NVIDIA, TiVo, Roku, etc. These boxes involved a lot of hassle to operate consistently). You just saved me a few $$, time and a lot of headaches!
I finally broke down and ponied up for an Nvidia Shield Pro and never looked back several years ago. Can't believe Nvidia actually still updates them but I'm glad they do.
I was checking out tv boxes and concluded it was worth paying for a shield a little while ago. Then I checked out the user interface I stumbled upon the fact that they have ads. I will not tolerate ads even if nvidia pays me to use the device. Finally landed on a generic android box for a third of the price with CoreELEC. Since I only stream from my own file server it works flawlessly. I have 1800 hours on my projector I bought together with that thing and it hasn't displayed a single pixel of ads.
🎉 🎉 He mentioned my Custom ROM! Wow THANK YOU! 🎉 🎉 > I make ROMs for these devices, based on the mi box firmware, I DONT include any piracy apps though, debloated and empty
@@baki1682 they already were as some markets were getting certified devices for similar prices to these boxes rather than 2-3x the price (onn for example)
Love your work. As a developer, what do you think? This video sounds like bullshit cuz he didn't prove anything. If the box is pinging chinese IPs, it must be malware? You must have used a lot of these boxes for testing. Ever got a malware due to it?
@@epicsaves5644 i cant say ive notaced anything crazy, ive logged into apps on some these stock firmwares & not seen any issues with account details being compramised, i would be more inclined to see it more like telemetary, the amount of data Google/Micrrosoft collect on you is probably far more information, i cant say ive dug deeper into network traffic coming from these Firmwares speciffically (usally overwrite the firmware anyway fairly quickly), i cant say linus is wrong, hes just giving the reasonable advice to err on the side of caution & just like anything there are probaly some shady firmwares out there, like dogey copies of windows exist :)
I had one of these a few years back! Bought it because a college classmate was telling everyone how her boyfriend was watching “thousands” of anime shows and movies. Did the whole shabang of getting Kodi on. What made me toss it is how slow it became after a year of use(despite not installing a job of apps), and being unable to update the android os or Kodi for some reason. Ended up getting a Firestick 4K. Glad I did after this video!
Lmao, you could have just ran the OS from the SD card as the bootloader is unlocked on these. It probably slowed down because it was probably being cooked to death as these have pretty horrible cooling.
@@madmax2069 yea, these box usually not lasting long because of the cooling, have a few that broke after few years. but it does its job well, stream and tv.
They slow down because the video quality slowly gets better over time online and the processor cant keep up because they are cheap. Buy a used phone from like 5 years ago and itll be 8x better than any of these devices and still cost like $100 because no one wants Samsung and you have a retro gaming masterpiece
@@chiquita683 you can even see the issue with a local video file, not just internet streaming, so no it's not what you're saying it is. Doing a factory reset usually helps, but if it doesn't it's usually due to the poor cooling causing the components to cook themselves to death causing the system to run unstable which effects performance and often crashing all the time when they're too far gone. A few holes and a small fan completely stops this from happening. You're not going to find a 5 year old phone for $25 that's going to beat the performance of a s905x3 or an s922.
Google Chromecast with Google TV is everything I wanted: a streaming player, and with a USB-C hub, it allows for VLC. Plus, Black Friday sales make it super cheap (HD for $20, and $25 for 4K). Easily replaced my Roku Premiere and Amazon Fire Stick.
Over the last few years I set my family up on Amazon fire devices it started with me giving them ones when I was done playing with them. Black Friday sales also. I have had Shields since about 2016. I was getting them for family. Now that Amazon is making it abundantly apparent that they own the device and you are just renting it, I am switching them off and I'm going to start getting Chromecast with Google TV. I wish they would have put Android TV in them years ago. I figured I would do exactly that again, wait for a Black Friday sale and get a few and let them junk the fire OS.
Could we make them into useful devices? Yeah, I use an X96 Air Android TV Box to run EmuElec. I play retro console games for the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, TG16, PSP, PS1, Dreamcast (hit or miss though), and many other consoles and arcade systems (Sega Naomi, Atomis Wave, etc.) on the said TV Box with two wireless controllers and a 128GB microSD card that overrides the built-in Android system. Pretty neat. As a TV Box though, it's utter crap.
🐝 links gt king pro dl boots os you do bouth for emaution hes just trying to scare people to buy Amazon tv os crap the bouth actly have adds and tracked too lol 😆
But why would you need to use these TV boxes for emulation? You can probably use an older PC or laptop and it'd be much more flexible and convenient. If space is a concern, a second hand mini PC is also an option. Those cheap TV boxes might even be too weak to run 3D games.
Since 2019 im a Nvidia Shield Pro user and I can say it's the best purchase I done in long time. Secure, fast, good ram and storaga, real 4k, I can play my PC videogames using GForce, Steam and Amazon Luna. During long time I enjoyed my shield pro + Google Stadia, but what I like the most is the update software option. Most of those Android TV boxes won't allow systems update.
I still remember the time my dad won an android tv box at some kind of silent auction or something that he gave to me because he already had an apple tv, and the box was covered in "4K" "quad core CPU", but TH-cam on it only supported 720p on my 1080p tv, and was laggy as all hell (iirc it was running android Lollipop) these things reeeeally push for those gullible buyers
I was looking at cheap no-name Android TV boxes awhile back. But my main concern at the time was finding on which didn't just have drive by update support, so was only looking for one which had supported open-source firmware (either by a project or building the firmware myself). In the end, I didn't find anything and ended up buying a Tivo TV android box, figuring a well known company would [more] likely do a better job at product support. After getting it, I heard rumors they were going to ditch development of the devices (and support going with it). 😟 But so far I've been getting occasional updates. Down side it barely has enough storage for the OS. Installing additional apps on an external USB drive is a must.
I recently considered one of these, and instead decided on a barebones mini PC and installed a reputable NVME with a fresh install of Windows. It was 3x the price of these boxes, but it runs everything I could ask for (including the thinks that the android tv boxes can't) - so glad I dodged that bullet!
@@jimmydandy9364 Well, there can be, but i’m much more confident that a barebones PC fitted with an NVME from a reputable seller, with a fresh instal of windows (don’t by myself) is much less likely to have any malware in it the moment I buy it… Which was clearly my point - so I feel like you intentional ignored it?
I actually had a few of these several years ago. Absolute CRAP. Built a mini htpc same as you and never looked back since. Runs Kodi or VLC I just use most of the time and it runs regular browsers so you can surf or play YT videos. Dell came out with a super mini pizza box several years ago that you can pick on on ebay for 100 bucks. Has HDMI or Mini DP out and with a few upgrades like memory and SSD these work perfect.
@@jamescole6846 The problem is that the streaming apps.. At least the ones in my country, that stream TV stations and so on, they're only available as apps and not accessible from the web browser.
Haven’t watched it but just from the title alone, I need to send it to my dad He keeps getting those 40-50$ ones that stop working or are slow af, then he complains.. buys the next one and repeat
I don't know if I'd call it an e-waste... I got myself an X96mini box specifically to put LibreELEC OS on it and use it as a simple network media player. It's quite decent as a 1080p player.
Love how the US government bans Huawei for supposedly national security reasons, but allows any god-knows-where is made android device that will be used at homes.
huawei is installed AT SCALE across the country because huawei can/will be bought by corporations, while god-knows-where devices are bought individually by users (limiting the reach)
@@Optimistas777 Again, that wouldn't make the ban make sense as you can simply ban corporations from buying Huawei, and it's not new for USA's government to do that.
I've had a tablet from AliExpress with confirmed malware. Sometimes a horoscope ad popped up instead of the website which you were trying to visit. Since i also have Pihole, i could see it trying to access dubious domains just like in this video. As soon as these domains were blocked in Pihole, the ads also stopped popping up... Even more terrifying was that when you put in a pre-paid SIM card, it would randomly dial expensive nternational numbers until the SIM was out of balance (and also it would *receiv* text messages with account verification codes for services i don't use).
The only valid reason to buy any of those tv boxes, tablets, etc with a supported SoC from china is to flash a linux rom like armbian onto them. Wouldn't touch the stock image with a 10 foot pole otherwise.
@@elijah_m not having problems just means you arent aware of what could be going on since its not in front of your face, the devices in this video didnt have bloatware but that didnt mean they didnt have backdoors wide open.
Best thing I've set up was an ONN 4k puck (cheap WalMart brand) with a USB hub & custom everything, running f-launcher, kodi, & smart tube plus. Works like a charm.
@@chefboyardeeznutsinyourmouth I have one laying around. They should be generic installs of Android TV, as its based off the Google reference board. I'll have to check.
Running the menu at lower res is common, even the Nvidia Shield does this. Video content uses native decoding hardware, which then is able to output true 4k directly
I went the opposite direction and bought a Vera 4k directly from OSMC! It was more expensive than the competition, but all the money was going directly to the developers of OSMC, so I supported Open Source instead of China.
@@prysma2057 I'd guess the people that got it just didn't see a reason to respond, that's what likes and dislikes are for. I'm not claiming it's high-brow humor, but I don't see how it wasn't fairly obvious. Their channel was just hack a couple weeks ago and they release a video talking about Android boxes they bought with backdoor exploits leading to people getting hacked. It's like the headline of an Onion article: "Recently Hacked TH-cam Channel Releases Video About the Dangers of Being Hacked by Chinese Streaming Devices"
They are not bad, e.g. I'm running CoreElec on Ugoos boxes and it's a very good experience in terms of compatiblity with different formats played back from NAS. But 1) you lose streaming services applications, even TH-cam experience will be bad and 2) you lose Dolby Vision support, which is available on some boxes but only in native Android because it works through proprietary module that isn't supported in Core or Libre Elec. So if you need quality improvements from Dolby Vision.. using Android is the only option.
Benn using NVidia Shield for over a decade and it's a flawless, plug and play, beautiful solution. 24 x 7 operation, yeah, really, and like 7 or 8 yrs for it to finally give up the ghost. I would recommend no other.
I bought 2017 Shield, its great, awesome, although a bit laggy compared to a Roku, but there's no end for content, just having android with a reasonable powerful chip there's a lot of possibilities even with the death of GameStream (which as of April 2023 still works for me). I also bought Walmart's Onn 4k android box which only costed me $20, its not powerful but its extremely impressive and outputs 4K content with AC wifi antenna, it has 0 Dolby support but you have all the Android goodies and a good remote with volume and power control :D AND NO ADS/JUNKWARE.
Makes me wonder about the car-display-units sold on various sites. Do they have mallware/backdoors installed on them? And what happens when you connect your phone to it?
For self-dependent video setup for a proper copyright abolitionist I can recommend Rock64 or Raspberry Pi 3, as you can run Linux, Kodi or whatever you like on it and cram as much storage as you want via USB or SATA (via HATs) ports. It's secure as soft is FOSS and both of them can do 4K
I've had the Nvidia shield tv pro since 2015 and it's still a beast, today we have one shield in every room in the house, latest one it's a must have. Probably the best purchase I've done in the last decade. Thanks for this video and information guys!
@@GauravKumar-wb9xp Well, at least you know it would be a blow to a serious brand if it came out. Random no name android boxes doesn't have a reputation on the line.
@@rBennich How many times did Facebook close for leaking/selling data? Lost couple of bill and still breathing. Blowback is a joke for multibillion companies that have no competition, because they are backed by the ones whose names we should not mention.
@@rBennich I can agree on reputation part but from my understanding they all do it's just "how they are doing", normally no one going to find out what happening inside.
@@GauravKumar-wb9xpWell, it's hard to disprove speculation. But honestly, it's even worse than a virus-infected andriod box. Ericsson has made the telecom infrastructure that makes up the internet, and they're probably the most corrupt company in the world. Nothing sent over the internet escapes them.
Yessss!!! More security videos.. it's like you actually listened to me (which I know isn't the case, lol) -- but I love these and how you guys present them and you guy's security research is top notch. Thank you so much and pleeeease make more of these!
I would love a way to install Android TV on a Raspberry Pi 4 or a micro PC like an Intel NUC or Lenovo ThinkCentre. Android TV's casting feature is great, the Play Store has decent apps and there's even a ports of Kodi, VLC & RetroArch to Android TV.
I really enjoy the Chromecast, but I wish that Google would also release a more serious model with more RAM for my main TV. My brother has the Apple TV and the ability to toggle through apps that you have in the background is a game changer.
@@formerlycringe i have two, it is so good. I bought an amazon FireTV the same time, back then the FireTV was better, but over time NVidia did a hell of a job on adding new functions and making the device better while Amazon pushed the gui more and more towards buy this and buy that and making it unusable. By now, the Shield still is snappily fast while the support of the FireTV is basically gone (same device) and the device has become dog slow with the last updates it was getting. My Shield is now 8 years old, bought it in April/May 2015 afair! Some complain about the ads, which were added over time thanks to Google, but at least from my perspective I have yet to see that (I live in Europe) but even then there is always the option to add a different launcher, some people did.
I run an older Nvidia Shield, still going strong for almost 7 years now. I have considered buying one of the newer ones. Got my parents a new one a couple of years back and the AI upscaling in that is no joke. Watching older shows from before HD you only see that it's not really full HD or even 4K in dark scenes where the edge finding has a harder time working.
You can also use Xiaomi Mi Box set top boxes too. Essentially you want to be sure its running a certified Android TV version and not like most of the knockoff as shown that run normal android.
One big reason why its better to buy the big brands is to get Dolby Vision support. There are very few Android devices with this certification. Sadly the best is the Nvidia Sheild which badly needs a modern upgrade.
As a 2019 Shield TV owner myself (well, infact I've had them all since 2015....and it still works well) What is it that needs updating so badly? I suspect you'll say HDMI 2.1, but for Nvidia themselves, they wouldn't be all that interested in upgrading those ports, especially after just removing Gamestream from the Shield just in an attempt to push non techy users to try out the Nvidia cloud gaming platform. Other than that, the 2019 model works great and plays everything. But yeah, as someone who's always picking up new tech, I'd always be keen on a new Shield......but the Gamestream drama has left a bad taste in the mouth.
@@toontonic dang!! i was wondering why i couldn't figure out how to stream from my pc after the lastest update. i kept getting mad because it would just push me into the cloud gaming service seriously?? man... thats really the only thing i use it for. is there a way to go back to the last version?
Hey Linus - how about security cameras connected to our wifi - could they be collecting data on our networks and sending it out? How about the phone based apps for those cameras?
Yes, every device in your network can possibly sniff your network data and send it out remotely, unless you took some precautions like segmentation of the network using vlans. An IOT VLAN is internet 101 these days.
Here's an odd thought, could you get linux running on these things? Could be an interesting Raspberry Pi substitute if you just want low powered compute and not the gpio pins. Gets away from the shady software too.
sounds like an interesting idea. might get one of those to mess with it, i would need to find an ARM-friendly distro, so my ears are open to suggestions
Great video and information Linus. Have you tested a Superbox Android TV box? My brother has one and really likes it, but I wonder if they are also rooted.
Any chance you could do something like this for car audio units? After seeing this I'm guessing they would probably have the same issues, but since they not connect to home network maybe the risks are lower. Also would be interesting to check the audio quality on those things.
I've tried a couple of those android head units and they were real bad. Not sure if they're any better now but the sound quality was not good on the ones I had, and the interface was pretty rough.
I have one in my beater car it runs fine just use it to have apple CarPlay it’s almost never connected to a network and if it is it’s the hotspot on my phone. They do crap out after like a year or 2 and you gotta replace em.
@@deepblue812 I've seen them being used and installed on cars, most of them are terrible AF, especially the resolution which looks washed out. Don't know why people replace their shitty head unit with another shitty ones.
What's the worry here? You don't connect car stereo units to wifi, so there's no point in malware being on them. Even if it is on them it has no way to phone home. Those cheap head units are also absolute garbage quality. Donut did a "hi/lo" episode on cheap head units and they're just awful. The sound quality is garbage, the touch screen quality is garbage, the responsiveness is garbage, the features are garbage, etc. Like, for real, your speakers won't be as loud and the quality of the audio is just horrible.
I had two of these (H96 and H96 Max). Both died after a year of use. These boxes get terribly overheated, throttling most of the time. They work better with a fan, but in the end I bought the HP 705 G2 (Win10Pro) + Microsoft All-in-one Media Keyboard and it's MUCH better. BTW Fun fact: i had H96 Max which was freezing at random times, turns out the chinese PSU was soo bad that it causes the issue. I replaced with old one from H96 and it started works fine. Soo quality control also doesnt exist on those.
I have it as well and always overheated if I put in a non air conditioned room. Now I put it in air conditioned room and it works well. I think the H96 doesn't have cooling system so that's why it always terribly overheated because basically mobile phone with cheap plastic
I have 3 S905x3 X88 pro minis (bought them around 3 years ago), all three have a very tiny heatsink in a small case, a case like that it wouldn't have mattered if they had a bigger heatsinks as these cases have absolutely no airflow. I bought a single USB powered small speed adjustable fan and put holes in the case of one for a test and the thermal throttling went away.
Not sure if those are Amlogic CPU boxes, but I have 3 boxes with Amlogic and it's going strong. X96 mini is 6 years old. T95Q is 4 and now using Vontar X4 with latest budget amlogic cpu s905x4. No stutters or anything.
The problem with all those "smart TV" brand names sony, LG, Samsung etc... The software become obsolete after 4 years so you end up buying a new TV box 😐
Nvidia shield is quite good but expensive, although now is a little outdated, I would love to see a new version and since they are nvidia, they could also have that new RTX super resolution for videos or something similar, that would be amazing. Yeah, they have AI upscaling, but it could be better, and for that it needs more power. Best
Isn't Linus one of the people who said the Shield already does "amazing" quality upscaling? The new RTX upscaler doesn't even beat half a decade old free technology (MadVR and NGU). The recent tech is only good for low resolution content, not for anything over 720p. And it often uses 2-4 times as much gpu power to do the same job. I doubt you would buy a $150 box just to stream at 480p.
If you have a very fancy router and know what you’re doing, you could always just segment your net work and make sure this thing doesn’t talk to any devices on your real network and don’t use any real logins for anything. However, if you’re going to go through all that hassle you might as well just learn how to install Kodi onto a little Linux device. Some NAS units can run stuff in containers or VMs.
Everyone *should* have a separate Vlan for this kind of junk since almost everyone out there has some IoT device at home. Every single one of them should be on that Vlan. As far as the capabilities that are advertised. Please, just pirate like a normal person. The community is more than friendly and it hasn't ever been safer to pirate than today. As long as you stick to reputable sources.
Man I still can't believe people will pay $30 for a McDonalds meal... Like to me, McDonalds and Burger King are supposed to be cheap. Like $5 for a burger being the upper limit. But that's not the case anymore. Burger King usually has some deals to supplement, but McDonalds has fully embraced this idea of "we're premium." Only problem is, it's still McDonalds! It's insane.
I am wondering the same thing. I just bought a Mi Box S and a Xiaomi TV Stick 4k so I would not have to suffer Amazon's feature breaking updates on the Firestick.
I wonder if this issue extends to Smart TVs too. Some cheap TVs may not be much more than one of these things attached to a screen, is the problem limited to more "legally iffy" boxes, ones that promise easy pirating or whatever? Or to other boxes as well?
Would be nice to test LibreELEC and OSMC on a Raspberry Pi or Vero 4K hardware. Or something like Zidoo media players which are also Android based but appear to be serious. The Zidoo Z9X was the only media player I could find that supports playing 3D BluRay rips with MVC framepacked 3D. Apparently the Vero 4K+ can also do this but I haven't gotten that one delivered yet
I use OSMC on a Raspberry Pi 4 on my home television. I have my DVD collection ripped to my NAS, so I use it for watching locally hosted video and occasionally TH-cam. I really like how it works, but it requires more tweaking than I really like to set up. Especially getting TH-cam to work. It doesn't use "apps," it uses "add-ons." So if you get the TH-cam addon, which is a third party thing not affiliated with Google, it pulls TH-cam data into Kodi's UI rather than a separate TH-cam UI. Which frankly I like because then I don't have to learn how to use my device 19 times. But! TH-cam wants individual Kodi users to sign up as developers for access to their API, so the process of setting it up is about as user friendly as the TSA.
@@thegardenofeatin5965 Yeah I've tried OSMC on my Raspberry Pi 4 but couldn't get it to output custom resolutions which I need to play on my CRT TV so I went back to LibreELEC. Unfortunately after about an hour of playback it gets jerky and skippy. Possibly due to playing 24 fps content at 25 fps (perfect playback on a 50 Hz PAL TV). Kind of hoping the Vero 4K will be able to solve all of that. If not I can use it for 3D movies on my 3D LG OLED 😊
I run libreelec (I used to run osmc, but it seems their more interested in their dedicated hardware and also the OS is bloated and libreelec does better memory wise)on 4 rpis 2 rpi 4 4gb and 2 rpi 3 1gb, all sharing the same smb media share on the local network, with sql backends and individual user profiles to wall off content. Works extremely well, tho hi10 10 bit color chokes even the rpi4s at 720p. I do also have a pihole running, on a rpi3 1gb. Which is attached to my dd-wrt flashed router. Everything is hardwired with cat5e (including the rpis) in my home atm (gigabit speeds have been plenty even with my entire family on my home network at once) so only phones and tablets use wifi.
Hi, I’m wondering what those boxes can do to your network. If I just plug them into my tv and just connect them via WiFi, how would it affect anything?
@@franky9658 it will be connected to your internet and will start various Ddos attacks ... Internet provider will cut/ban your internet as the disturbances will be coming from your IP address
@@dvilstrider bullshit I’ve literally had tens of these products never had such a thing at the most what ends up happening is the apps stop working after a while
I like the investigation but why the click-bait title? There are commercially available safe Android TV boxes from reputable companies. You could easily clarity by adding one or two words to the title. But you gotta get those clicks.....
"why the click-bait title?" why does a bear shit in the woods? this is LTT, i don't know what else you're expecting out of their video thumbnails and titles.
I managed to get a Mi Box S and for the most part it's been working fine. Heck even Linus made a video about them. Apart from random issues it does work although I don't use it in 4K mode .
Thanks for the warning, I was using one on Allwinner H6 for actually legal Prime and Twitch so that means a password change. That said I'm looking forward people panicking and getting rid of theirs/stop buying them... so I can buy some more used ones for what you forgot to mention - emulation. You can actually install an emu focused OS (mostly linux) on some chips, for example EmuELEC for Amlogic S905 series. Those can handle up to PSX/limited N64, and aside build in USB ports, SD reader, and BT support, they actually tend to have AV port which you could use to PROPERLY :P play on CRTs - something a more expensive branded devices aren't capable of. Used ones can be hunted down for as little as $15, so I certainly wouldn't mind picking up several for $10 or less, so I could have such emu box set everywhere :P If only budget mobile phones had USB beyond 480mbit, allowed to output AV onto external screen using cable while also allowing to keep it powered using passthrough (or a second port?), preferably while disconnecting the battery, well that could render those boxes more obsolete. Especially since it is the budget phones that got the microSD and 3.5mm jack back, and they still have chips capable of emulating consoles above N64. I know there are people who convert phones bought cheap due to a broken screen into a desktop emu console, but honestly it is too much work unless someone does tinkering as a hobby.
Honestly used mini PCs are better for that. You're wasting your time on these things, they're barely capable of emulating 3D stuff. I know they're cheap but how much cheaper are we talking vs. the time wasted for a mediocre experience in the end.
@@tessellationarts2971 I disagree, its up to 1.5GHz A53 vs for example A35 in Playstation Classic. People run PSX at 2x render fine, I tried native and it was effortless even when using RetroArch on Android so there certainly is space to work with, N64 is hit and miss depending on the game and settings. For me personally its enough to have all 2D and some early 3D consoles, as at $15 it is not intended to be a primary gaming platform to replace my PC or consoles, rather something I can drop at family's places I often visit so I don't need to travel with it every time, or take for a drinking party to play MK without risking actual retro consoles and wearing out their original controllers. Hence I mentioned buying multiple of them in my original post, mini PC's are way too price ineffective for such use.
Okay, lets talk about the Nvidia Shield. It was a great device in it's time and still gets the job done, but IMO its feeling long in the tooth these days. Noticeable latency for every command-- considerably worse at higher resolutions. Also on top of the $200 price tag you get the privilege of enjoying as many ads as they can stuff into every nook and cranny. I'd love to see some kind of solution with the RK3588(S) and as much of an open source bent as humanly possible while still maintaining good Widevine support.
My original Shield TV is still kicking in my basement. It isn't quite as fast, but my newer Shield TV Pro is still a beast. I use it as my server for Plex and have had no issues.
I've had my fair amount of issues with the shield being slow or unresponsive, but avoiding ads is quite the cinch. I have a custom launcher with a single giant plex button on the home screen, and nothing else lol.
You can get licensed android TV boxes running proper android TV with pretty powerful CPU's. Mecool make loads. Like MECOOL KM2, clean OS but less powerful, but also half the price.
It's not the Nvida Shield that is causing all the ads but the apps you are downloading. Without a VPN your internet provider sees what you are viewing and throttles your speed. If you doubt me do a speed test and watch your speed magically pick up. I can tell if my VPN is down (after a reboot), it's a major factor in the speed. 4 years a very happy customer, best $200 I ever spent!
Here in Brazil the government is cracking down hard in these. A school work on received a literal pallet of these boxes provided by the police to be repurposed for educational purposes.
Lulz, Brazil will get new customers then. Not even Nintendo chases the clone consoles in Latinamerica...
Was literally going to say this, my college project involves using a surplus of these as hardware, so far we've only had sucess with one model
dedo no cu e gritaria !
I work on an ISP and we receive a lot of complains of these boxes slugging or locking up. The box doesn't work and the client blame the ISP.
wait brazil is worried about Chinese products ???, i belived brazil was friendly towards china, and didnt mind the oppression and hostilities china is known for these days.
I work at a Internet Provider and we get contacted by server protection companies all the time from abuse reports in our network from home users. When we inspect what has happened, it is almost always one of these boxes that attempt to bruteforce or attack servers online. These boxes are part of toxic botnets and also use your IP address and network to perform illegal actions online and DDoS without the users knowledge
my wifi has been so bad with packet loss, my stepdad had one of these with an ethernet, he was kicked out recently and ever since ive had no issues with packet loss at all, i feel like the box couldve been using the connection to its advantage i would be running on 800mbps but 35% packet loss it made no sense
@@ninjrr you were getting packet loss because there was interference from android box causing the Wi-Fi signal to be wonkey. Eating up bandwidth and throttling you doesn’t cause packet loss on game servers.
@@OmgHeDidntJustDoThat thankyou bro
@@OmgHeDidntJustDoThat if the android box is trying to pull more bandwidth than what they were subscribing to it will create packet loss. Once the buffer fills up those packets are dropped. Usually gaming and VOIP are the first to notice. Then streaming apps. Web browsing usually not because people try again and it works the second time.
@@ninjrr sounds like it kept attempting to reach blacklisted IP, those things are made so horribly they just spew garbage on your ethernet, because they aren’t grounded
The "legitimate 4k" Android TV's (so Google TV & Nvidida Shield) still also run the UI at 1920x1080. It's only videos that are passed through at 4k. The ADB command used in the video is just reporting the UI size & not the actual display resolution being sent out, so it doesn't actually mean much.
I was wondering when I would see someone else say this ^^
Yea I'm running Kodi on my Pi4 in 1080p60 because it's more responsive. Still able to run up to 4k30 video content. The device changes resolution and refresh rate on the spot.
Even the Xbox Series X|S does this. It's to save on performance and resources, reserving extra for content and games. I'd take a 1080p UI over a stuttery mess any day.
Thanks to bring up ANOTHER reason why this video is pure garbage. "Tencent is bad, give your ass to Google and Nvidia instead".
Apple TV 4K also does this to save on resources.
Thanks!
Fun fact, when you showed the screen grab from Walmart you were actually looking at Amazon's store still. Unless you select the filter to only show stuff sold by Walmart then it will mix in things sold on Amazon.
I work at Amazon and we have a few dedicated pack stations for Walmart items to make sure we only use generic packaging material and don't accidentally send a Walmart order out in an Amazon box and confuse the customer.
Walmart and best buy adding "marketplaces” is incredibly frustrating when you are trying to fine out if they have something locally.
@@forrest225 The "In-Store Item" check box doesn't exist in your browser? Your frustrating "problem" is fixed with basically less than minimal effort.
@Nick Bylsma maybe needing to take that action is frustrating to him, Nick. The effort required to fix it is irrelevant.
You also could have provided that information to him without the snark. Alternatively, you could've just not responded. Clearly, you get off on giving people a hard time.
I suggest a therapist.
Have a great day, Nick.
Edit: I could have not written could of if I would have. I probably should've. Thanks for making me a better person, grammar nazis.
Stores that added "marketplace" like, say Newegg, basically just ruin their reputation imo and the only way I ever shop on them is by sorting products only from Newegg themselves for instance. If buyers aren't aware they deal with the consequences, which is basically the story of our lives.
@@0741921 i think we all need therapy. Especially when exposed to your average TH-cam comment section.
I like that after getting hacked LTT said, "let's buy as much malware as we can find!'
Probably was the cause of the attack n only just got this video through production
@@kevzz108 Linus stated what caused the attack in his video about it weeks ago. th-cam.com/video/yGXaAWbzl5A/w-d-xo.html
its easy to make an isolated wifi network and monitor it
Except he found nothing here. 10 minutes of pure speculation (minus the sponsored segments). Just Linus in another chapter of his crusade against China. "Tencent is bad, give your ass to Google and Nvidia instead".
@@sovo1212 Not true, what he said is a real problem. Not everything made in China is bad, but most of theese cheap (re)branded electronics have serious problems. Linus also bashes against Google and Nvidia and other western brands when they do something wrong. It's just less because stricter regulations and external quality controls prevent more bullsh*t. I think people and companies are equally bad around the globe, just the difficulty to f*ck other people up is different from country to country
I've been using my old i5-5200U laptop as as repurposed media player for the past couple of years and it has served me brilliantly. I Am not aware of the 4K capabilities but I do not use a 4K display either, it is technically free and I know what I am running. Running Debian with a cheap wireless remote mouse+keyboard (plentiful on amazon) and if i ever wish to dabble on the dark side, I can run that risk without much of a hassle. I think for a lot of people, re-purposing an old computer or in some cases, even a mobile phone can be a great alternative to purchasing a device, and especially when you talk of 'manufactured e-waste', this can be a smack in the face if such too.
While smartphones SoC is much more powerful than any of those from Amlogic, I don`t see how I can connect it to my monitor via HDMI. Not to mention a remote.
i be using a amd 2400g or 3400g ryzen i love that is like so good gpu wise and 100.00 or so for a running ebay hp elite desk is a great deal i suggest the one with dvd drive yea its bigger but better unit just stay away from lenovo they cpu lock the cpu so i ant buying it out of principle .and if sub 300 is your thing AMD 5700g 8 core units are floating around
Literally any x86 cpu can do that ,but it also come with a cost of heavier CPU usage which lead to electricity bill, and run hotter than those tiny arm chip which operated around 5w.But repurposed it is good idea rather than throw into trashcan
@@Athy_P Real men install Gentoo in a tvbox from stage 0
It's not just TV boxes, some smartphones with random brands also contain malware. But if you are lucky, you can find a clean ROM somewhere. Also for the TV boxes, some can boot up libreELEC so you can avoid the tampered Android altogether.
I had a TV box that would only started snooping my home network when it was turned off! If you turn them off with the remote, they are still on! You need to unplug them from the power.
True and same for many smart TVs.
Mine stick is powered from usb, so it turns on with projector
To add to that discussion, Blu phones and Amazon had a free phone at one time (probably 2009-ish) that was basically locked and home screen ad-supported. It worked well until everyone realized that the phone came pre-loaded with malware that stole user data. After Amazon found out, they discontinued the program entirely. One day, my on screen keyboard got hijacked. I'm generally an optimist so I'm going to assume that it was someone trying to warn me that my phone was compromised. The whole ordeal put me off from Blu entirely, as it should anyone at this point..
Furthermore, I have a Motorola G7 Power from 2020 and when you uninstall Facebook and reboot, it re-installs it. No where in my user agreement did I agree to allow Facebook on my device, but here we are. My current phone is a G Power from early 2022 and it doesn't appear to have that issue.
OSMC (a FOSS linux-based OS that runs Kodi out of the box) produces something called the Vero 4K+. It's pretty much an Nvidia Shield but smaller and runs OSMC.
random brands? try iPhone, Google Phone and the entire "big name" brand, they are all spying on you in every way possible. why nobody is making so many vids about that?
That is the kind of reviews the public needs.
Would be great if he makes one on cheap Android car stereos flooding the internet
Biased wooohooo USA, USA, USA? Edward Snowden would like a word with this biased nonsense.
Linus getting hit by viruses so we don't have to!
Except it's largely BS and shows lack of deeper knowledge
@@VincentFischer
-says it's largely BS
-doesn't further elaborate the claim
-leaves
yeah.... sure buddy.. retard
The worrying part of all this, is that a bunch of common devices that appear to be the same devices or slightly rebranded as this are used as streaming legal audio, media board controllers and even lighting control boards.
Same thing with those shitty 1000 + joystick game systems
@@ProximalGames ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
@@ProximalGames And 1000+ shitty in-car dash camera systems
i write this under here because the probability that you see this is way higher under the top comment.
these boxes in the video are trash, but the company orbsmart makes very good ones with really good hardware and software, in small formfactors.
@@wile123456 endless laws are what we need
Linus is completely right here...I used to love these boxes until my isp blocked the ports...the android boxes don't update time and date anymore, apparently my boxes were used in a ddos attack.
Did your ISP notify you?
@@goku445 no
@@action963 wow, so you figured it by yourself?
@@goku445 I rang them and they told me this was the reason they blocked the ports
I made the mistake of buying a T95, and after using it twice, felt uneasy about what I had bought. I went back to Amazon, to check out reviews, and all the T95's like the one I bought have disappeared.
Welp
I didnt know they sell american military tanks on amazon now
I hate that Amazon feels like Aliexpress these days, so many categories flooded with garbage and you can only hope for the best when you order. That uneasy feeling getting confirmed sucks, I hope customer service reimburses you somehow.
@@rokutv8870 t95 tank is russian my guy
@@Mr_Stone1 I have prime and haven't touched the store of Amazon in almost a year. If it's not a bunch of fake garabge it's pricing that doesn't even match local retailers, even small independant shops. It's insane how bad Amazon has gotten.
If the price IS better, it's only by a dollar or two.
This is why I watch this channel so often. Videos like this are an absolute godsend and are fantastic for increasing peoples awareness of dubious products out there which can really screw them over.
The vast majority of buyers are pirates. They buy them from local resellers who load custom Kodi in order to get free streaming, especially for pay-per-view sports.
Whenever people dabble in illegal backcorner stuff, they know (or ought to know) what they're getting into.
@Mister God I hate zoomers
My god, dude... if this channel is godsend for you, you should question your life a bit.
Or you could just not blindly trust cheap products that are listed under 25 different names all with the same picture. You only fall into these traps if you wear a blindfold and refuse to listen to all the warnings.
The internet and China are not your friend. They are not selling cheap products out of some goodness of their hearts.
Dubious food heals 1 heart
Something scary is some of these units end up running in digital signage and on business networks.
I used to work for one such company who would send these out to customers. I was highly against it due to many of the things mentioned in this video. I was overruled of course as they were 'a cheap way to get an internet connected media player'. I did try to custom image one of the units to get a clean unit once but was stopped as 'there was no point'. I stopped working for them shortly after.
So yeah, some of these ended up in places they really should not have done, and have internet connectivity. The only place these belong is in the bin.
That really sucks, man.
Good job for standing up to them for potentially harming their consumer base.
Although I have to ask, if you can and if it won’t impact your future job opportunities: Where did you work that had such a scheme going on?
Also a previous digital signage worker. We toyed with android boxes, but we wanted a solution that could do 3 screen outputs for some of our clients, and none of them could do more than 2 at best. I was wary of the China branded cheap boxes, as well, but it's because of hardware inabilities and jank that the boss finally said no to them. Instead we went with masses of Pi4's.
I had one of these. Specifically the 'Tanix' one. Can this thing infect other devices in the network? Especially a windows PC
WIndows embedded now IoT can be stripped down to just be the minimum Windows boot environment and a single application. Digital Signage is a example deployment where you deploy it to boot to Edge in full screen kiosk mode with the no chrome switch. A min win install is less idea attack risk because it lacks the 99.9%of the attack surface of a full setup. I used a Windows server install in college in the min win install. You don't get explorer for a UI it logs on to command prompt and and is aimed at running single use servers that can't go down. Like DNS servers.
In malaysia(my country) some isp salesman offer these kind of android tv player for free to customers who sign up with them. These set boxes with pirated software built in is not legal here, but since the government is so hardworking here they do nothing to stop the sales and distribution of these units, they just say its illegal. You might faces criminal charges if captured though. But the chances of getting caught is 0.0000001% so yeah nobody actually cares. And my country loves free stuff and most of the people here doesnt know what a malware is.
They actually make a very usable Linux PC with armbian. In fact there is a TV box version of armbian specific to set top boxes like these. Should be interesting to see Linus get armbian working on one
Beat me to it ☺
Who is they? Why would you buy a virus when legit android tv boxes and Netflix exist. Why would you buy Chinese crap instead of solid USA hardware
could you give some source? it sounds awesome. cheap linux box
Glad I did an "armbian" search before commenting ;)
A simple media server with all main *arr apps and plex is easy in one of these (no transcoding)
Doubt it works with HDR and Dolby Vision.
- Amazon Fire Sticks
- Rokus
- Google Chromecast
- Xiaomi tv box
- A LOT of windows mini PCs
There are a few alternatives i think...
a few months back my (very not tech savvy) parents were pushing to 'cut the cable' and replace with a bunch of these boxes... what sparse information i could find on them easily didn't look promising & i managed to convince them out of it mostly based on gut feelings. thank you so much for this video, this is the kind of accessible information average consumers need before making what could be a grave mistake. my parents are now especially relieved to have been persuaded out of picking these up 😅
Amazing “I told you so” moment 😂 That’s really cool that you put effort into persuading them out of it though!
Now you can show them Linus's video about those to make it even more clear your _gut feelings_ were right ;)
@@TwinShards i actually sent it to them as soon as i finished watching through myself, hence the extra sense of relief! 😂
Its called amazon firestick... LoL... go ahead keep paying the cable company Haaa dumb
I was going to tell you to show your parents this video ASAP.
Then I read the last sentence 😅
In Malaysia, TV boxes have basically replaced traditional cable since they also can stream cable channels. Not sure if ours are localised tho
how do you get cable channels from those boxes?
@@xilllllix iptv
Maybe but pirated box and illegal iptv host is still illegal in malaysia. My opinion : get an HDTV tuner like my freeview, or get an astro njoy box (my personal pick), or just plug an antenna that is good enough on the back of your tv (will need some work but just search the internet for guidance).
All of these options is completely free of monthly payment (njoy allows some content to be subscribed just like postpaid internet, absolutely recommended) just like using an fm radio is free.
Yeah iptv seems quite popular, it does serve its purpose tho, win or lose is win for now right here
@@ryantzl3199 it's provided by the local ISP bro, like unifi
In Brazil there is a TV BOX called BTV... some say it's legal, others illegal... but no one talks about it's safety and it is VERY POPULAR here. Hope you guys can take a look at it!
Mention this on their forum. They'll be more likely to take notice.
Unless the content is properly licensed it’s illegal.
same things in asia, all illegal especially if you're watching any Americana content.
@@EvertG8086 Illegal in Brazil or USA?
@@64fanatic: Every country except North-Korea, South-Sudan and a few others.
Using T95Q for 5 years now and no issues. Sadly this thing isnt cheap in Europe. Around 80$. To additionally. 4K was played by your own Downloaded Videos. And I could easily run Fhd TH-cam and Pirated streaming websites.
I am not saying what he said isnt true. But also. Many of these offer good quality if you use them wirelessly.
That's stupid. In Pakistan the T96Q Goes for 4k Rs native currency, roughly 15 usd.
You ignored the most common Chinese TV setup box : the Xiaomi Mi box S series. vanilla AndroidTV OS. range at 60-70$ on Chinese markets . Certified by Google and still gets frequent OS security updates. The spec is not great but it will do the work (Netflix 4K HDR). These are so common they surpass Google's own device in sales. Unlike some Chinese boxes the Xiaomi boot loader is locked. Hard to root and mess it's base android security. Unlike some Chinese boxes , Xiaomi does not include alternative google play stores that also expose you... . A rooted device from the box is red alert to any user.
Absolutely. I have two of these (one a stick, the other one a box). They're kind of slow but once you hit play they work very well. And they do Netflix HD, which none of the other boxes does. Can you do HD with a RPi, for example?
There are a lot of maybe's, possibly's and we don't knows on this video's script. Not endorsing these boxes but there is a lot of "it comes from said country so watch out!" here.
@@cassiodalcin This is exactly my problem with a lot of US centric tech content in general , a lot of sinophobic fear mongering without any facts to back them up.
He doesn't like the real chinese stuff, like Xiaomi, DJI, Anker, Ugreen,
my ROM that Linus mentions is based on this devices firmware (Mi box), although Xaiomi hasn't had an update in over a year for this device, older security patch :)
We need a similar video on the android car head units. That would be a great expose to see if those are infected, as well.
Thanks for making this video. Finally, someone with influence addresses this issue. I was in the market years ago shopping for an Android TV box. I noticed so many red flags. Plus, many people say those TV boxes overheat so much so quickly. I am surprised they are even worse than I thought. I ended up buying an NVIDIA Shield Pro for over $360 CAD at the time.
After owning two cheap Chinese boxes I purchased the first gen shield. I've had it for like 7 years still going strong.
It also seems that these boxes like to overheat.The maximum temp could be 70-80°c,which is not good for a soc
u can add on simple cpu casing fan, bring down about 20 deg celcius if u box have holes or good ventilation from bottom
I'm glad to see this being brought to light. I've suspected that these devices were malware since they began to appear and I already tell people I know not to buy them. It's unfortunate, though, as an Android box is quite attractive for this purpose; it's already optimized on many chips for high def video and games. I didn't expect the exaggerated memory problem, though.
they do not have malware but it's implied, these are manufactured in china so they will call home to a china ip adress for firmware etc... that's the only thing. These things will not steal you CC or have any malware installed but they are vulnerable.
I seriously don't understand the issue here. Does it really matter if it is some Chinese company invading the privacy of every single customer, or if it is Google, Facebook or any other entity charting your every step and selling the information to whomever?
"I'm glad to see this being brought to light. I've suspected that these devices were malware since they began to appear and I already tell people I know not to buy them."
The kodi community call them "loaded boxes", you could create your own legitimate TV box with any computer hooked to a TV and by installing a clean Kodi. Kodi devs even had to spend money to register themselves as a brand, in order to be able to retaliate in courts (which is guy those scammers switched to other names like "android box").
The HUGE issue is that those loaded boxes give the mainstream idea that Kodi is a piracy malware tool while it's simply a client to manage local files and custom addons.
*And to answer the obvious question : yes, you could add yourself the addons for illegal content. Those exist somewhere in the world. Not in kodi's official repo of course (those ask for an API key to prove you paid for legal access, HOW DARE THEY?)... but at least you'll get a free malware instead of one priced at 30$ ;)*
Oh and by the way... that also voids your right to support : if you report a Kodi issue and your debug log shows illegal addons, your ticket is closed. Why should the already overworked devs provide free support, if you paid *somebody else* for a full (illegal) setup?
@@johanmetreus1268 The problem is invasive malware that may physically compromise your (network) data and/or contribute to bot attacks on institutions. Not the same thing (nor goal) as stealing privacy data.
@@johanmetreus1268 yes it matters, child
Thank you for making this video. Security is becoming more and more important and with teleworking people at home should be aware of what is happening in their infrastructure.
Sounds like it’s time for LTT to make a streaming box. Since the only option is the shield and it doesn’t fully
support Dolby vision. And it’s now covered in ads.
I don't know if this would help or not, but you can install alternative home screens on the shield, so you don't need to see the ads if you don't want. 😊
Google's the one that added ads into the AndroidTV stock image, not NVidia.
My Roku TVs support Dolby Vision. I got an ONN QLED set that also supports Dolby Atmos out of the box.
@@MrMega200 Your roku does not support every dolby vision proifle
Apple TV supports Dolby vision, but obviously if you want android you’re out of luck there. I do like my Apple TV though as it’s very smooth and polished and NOT covered in ads (yet)
I remember buying a few of these back when and getting frustrated with how slow and incapable they were (despite the specs they promised) I'm not surprised to hear that they lied about their capabilities and that some were probably loaded with malware. Glad I spent the extra money to get a nVidia shield, although I wish more proper companies would step up to make more affordable/powerful tv boxes.
I got the Nvidia Shield TV when it was first released, I think it was in 2015. They weren't selling as well as expected and were discounted. It came with both the remote and controller for, I think, around £120. It has never faltered since and plays everything I've thrown at it so far. Money definitely well spent!
looks like you have identified an gap in the Android TV market. These chinese brands are cheap and unsafe. Nvidia is safe and expensive. You can provide something in the middle. Affordable and safe
@@BuckingHorse-Bullxiaomi boxes are pretty cheap their like a bit more expensive than those cheap ass boxes and well Xiaomi is a trusted brand
@@BuckingHorse-BullSo Xiaomi mi tv box is safe right?
@@Asian_Italydid you not watch the video. anything from china is not safe. you have to spend money to get a name brand device to be safe
I got a MI Box S that I've been using for serval years, and I'm happy with it - I use it primarily to run Kodi to play videos hosted on my Raspberry PI based file server/Pi-Hole/torrent client (just a simple Raspberry PI 4 with SATA M.2 drive connected to it using USB enclosure).
But that's Xiaomi, a reputable brand, even when in America it's ignored by most people.
Going on the security run you should peak into wifi or server based baby monitors. Would like to see some digging into those
especially devices made in China after the CCP imposed their National Intelligence Law. A law that no one speaks about, read and understand its scope and purpose.
A very useful and necessary video! As a follow up I wonder what other cheap Amazon tech has malware installed out of the box? Would be class to see LTT make this a series ❤
Yeah, I remember my only ever Lenovo PC having that problem.
yeah the cheap amazon china phones are the same deal
those malware is a requirement if u understand CCP laws.
Read up and understand China's National Intelligence Law.
Yes, I'm late to the party here but, an open-source project for these Google tv/ android tv to either clean or replace the bootloader/OS itself would be something I'd invest in. Very informative LTT ty ,
what I think it's concern-able is how normal house networks are so unprotected by something that just connect to. That more testifies against our network than TV Boxes themselves.
What about if
- I don't log-in nothing important on TV box
- I put a dedicated hotspot just to TV Box
?
will it still can have privileged access to my main router? it can not be a problem without solution.
@@AfonsoBucco i guess guest access is for preventing things like getting access to control ur router, but I don't really know what modern hackers can do
@@AfonsoBucco It still can "steal" your resources, like mining cryptocurrencies, use your internet connection for sharing pirated files or be used as client for DDoS attack or be used as mail server to send spam. Your IP address could be "banned" for some illegal activities. Interesting article on this topic is "Abuse of Honeygain".
100% agree
@PolymorphicBytes But then, is it expected for a vast majority of consumers to be tech-literate? I don't think so. I believe it should be the responsibility of somebody else to secure these things, or to attempt to educate people, PSA's, school's, something. Just going, "oh well" doesn't seem the correct thing to do.
The local mall used to have a kiosk selling these. I was shocked they allowed them to sell the boxes as they advertised it as $250 for all channels and life long subscription.
yeah.... can say the same in brazil
Like the days of the cheap sat receiver with super software (smartcard encryption emulator) being sold even in petrol stations in Germany 13 years ago. Good times, all major sat pay TV providers encryption cracked across Europe.
@@mr.bee5225 I’m aware. Just weird to see it being sold in the middle of a mall.
Great video, there's also a plethora of cheap projectors with "built in smart OS" that should never be connected to your WiFi for the same reasons you showed here.
The T9's can be turned into a Octoprint/Klipper host as a cheap replacement for a Raspberry Pi. Chris's Basement did a video on this a few weeks ago.
So they turn it into a full desktop experience Linux system
Yes, especially with s905 soc.
In China they have a box called unt403a(which is a retired tv box from isp called china mobile)it has 2gb ram and less than 10 bucks(RMB70) and people flash armbian and openwrt into it.
Been quite happy with my Odroid N2 + CoreElec software, giving me 4k HDR10, Dolby ATMOS...and it was cheaper than the Shield. It's my go-to Plex client for my 82" TV.
Too bad there is no Dolby Vision support. I went with Ugoos AM6+ and really enjoying quality improvements from DV!
😂 most people that buy these Chinese boxes are not Odroid customers
We Vietnamese are very familiar with these boxes and the community is quite active. We have some devoted android rom dev flash the stock atv rom to these boxes for an amount of fee. Some are quite enthusiastic to share those roms for free or modded them with reduced bloatware and reup. Try checking xda, 4pda. But thanks for reminding us, now i'm quite scared of those boxes. 😂
Hello Mr. La, i'm quite interested in those debloated custom roms. Where can i contact the devs or what should i look out for?
@@blkgravidoXDA
For me i don't use amlogic android tv boxes for Android, there is an amazing small yet big enough open source community for those things, we have EmuELEC and Lakka for retro gaming, we have LibreELEC And CoreELEC for kodi media center, we have somewhat official linux manjaro support, we have armbian that has two build one on top of debian and one on top of ubuntu.
If you buy a box to steal the data from someone else, such as stealing movies from Netflix without paying. Then you shouldn’t be surprised if someone steals from you via data theft as well.
I have one that says 6k of course it was fake but the actual specs where good. I have never used Kodi honestly in my country maybe that don't work and I found 0 tutorials on how Kodi is supposed to work ?? But Stremio is the best honestly. I have watched everything for free on Stremio
You guys should do a video on IPTV subscriptions and programs. There are hundreds of companies trying to sell live and on-demand tv/movie content for a monthly fee.
God bless you linustech. I had a feeling there was something wrong with these. Now it explains why they would flood the whole market with these. This is insane.
This is by far the best video explaining these Android Boxes. They are basically as Linus said "Manufactured E-Waste" 😉
More like manufactured E-Waste that demolishes the home media community, in particular the popular image Kodi which is prominently listed in the components ( at 0:19 ) despite being a totally legit software when you download it by yourself
The video is full of errors. He completely missed his subject.
This kind of box is great for audio passtrough, and 4k video playback from a NAS, for retro gaming...
Better than chromecast and fire tv.
@@JJ-bu8sq
"This kind of box is great" this kind, yes.
Not the ones who claim to provide illegal access to content.
In particular, the ones tested in the video are NOT capable of 4k, they can do 1080p or sometimes not even that [check edit below]
The issue is that Linus is implying all "Android boxes" are "loaded boxes"
[EDIT] Yup, video is really substandard. The command they show is the size of the UI but doesn't reflect the resolution of the video.
Seems like somebody wanted linus to say "third-party boxes are bad" and they rushed through production.
@@laplongejunior none of them claim to provide illegal access to content. They dont have any streaming apps on them
@@chiquita683
The boxes discussed in the video are bundled with apps providing illegal access. So I'm confused with what you are talking about
I'm loving the security content lately.
My TV has Roku built into it. Frankly I never used the apps until recently, and then I realised that Roku added a ton of streaming TV to the 'Live TV' channels, so uh. I have like 300 channels of streaming and I bought an antenna awhile ago, and hooked it up, so I also get a couple over-the-air local TV stations. I'm happy, considering last week I didn't have any of this, and I thought my antenna didn't even work. The apps might be a bit sketch, but that one single feature of Roku, adding the streaming channels to live TV just made me change my opinion of Roku. Right now there are very limited ads (might be because I'm in Canada) but the ad spots are locked 120 second blocks, just like live TV, so even when they do bring them in, they do have a limit, and set times where the ads are brought in. For example, I now have an Unsolved Mysteries channel, and right now the ad spots are literally just a countdown timer with the channel name on it. Most channels are like that right now. CBC, Al Jazeera, etc. Like I said, probably because I'm in Canada, but considering I actually have my OTA local channels on in the background all the time now, commercials and all.
Great video! Thank you. These Android boxes are so tempting to a person if he/she didn't know what else they are buying with it. I'm glad I saw this as I started to think again about getting one after staying away from them for so many years (mainly due to performance issues - they never worked for me as well as the main brands like FireTv, Google, NVIDIA, TiVo, Roku, etc. These boxes involved a lot of hassle to operate consistently). You just saved me a few $$, time and a lot of headaches!
lol you’re a sad person if you believe this sell out guy
If you are into 3d printing you can flash them with Armbian and install whatever you need ( klipper,Octoprint,ssh) etc .
I finally broke down and ponied up for an Nvidia Shield Pro and never looked back several years ago. Can't believe Nvidia actually still updates them but I'm glad they do.
They have to keep updating them to gradually keep increasing the ad content without you noticing. It's the whole slow boiling the frog thing.
I was checking out tv boxes and concluded it was worth paying for a shield a little while ago. Then I checked out the user interface I stumbled upon the fact that they have ads. I will not tolerate ads even if nvidia pays me to use the device. Finally landed on a generic android box for a third of the price with CoreELEC. Since I only stream from my own file server it works flawlessly. I have 1800 hours on my projector I bought together with that thing and it hasn't displayed a single pixel of ads.
bought mine in 2015, still getting updates 8 years later
It's because they still sell them and the switch has the same cpu so the patches are already partially made
Or just stream using a PC to the TV. Much better. Smart TVs has the same as a shield pretty much.
🎉 🎉 He mentioned my Custom ROM! Wow THANK YOU! 🎉 🎉
> I make ROMs for these devices, based on the mi box firmware, I DONT include any piracy apps though, debloated and empty
Sales for these are about to go down down down
@@baki1682 they already were as some markets were getting certified devices for similar prices to these boxes rather than 2-3x the price (onn for example)
@Gomam0n awesome :D
Love your work. As a developer, what do you think? This video sounds like bullshit cuz he didn't prove anything.
If the box is pinging chinese IPs, it must be malware? You must have used a lot of these boxes for testing. Ever got a malware due to it?
@@epicsaves5644 i cant say ive notaced anything crazy, ive logged into apps on some these stock firmwares & not seen any issues with account details being compramised, i would be more inclined to see it more like telemetary, the amount of data Google/Micrrosoft collect on you is probably far more information, i cant say ive dug deeper into network traffic coming from these Firmwares speciffically (usally overwrite the firmware anyway fairly quickly), i cant say linus is wrong, hes just giving the reasonable advice to err on the side of caution & just like anything there are probaly some shady firmwares out there, like dogey copies of windows exist :)
Great work....your channel really has matured...
I had one of these a few years back! Bought it because a college classmate was telling everyone how her boyfriend was watching “thousands” of anime shows and movies. Did the whole shabang of getting Kodi on. What made me toss it is how slow it became after a year of use(despite not installing a job of apps), and being unable to update the android os or Kodi for some reason. Ended up getting a Firestick 4K. Glad I did after this video!
Lmao, you could have just ran the OS from the SD card as the bootloader is unlocked on these. It probably slowed down because it was probably being cooked to death as these have pretty horrible cooling.
@@madmax2069 yea, these box usually not lasting long because of the cooling, have a few that broke after few years. but it does its job well, stream and tv.
They slow down because the video quality slowly gets better over time online and the processor cant keep up because they are cheap. Buy a used phone from like 5 years ago and itll be 8x better than any of these devices and still cost like $100 because no one wants Samsung and you have a retro gaming masterpiece
@@chiquita683 you can even see the issue with a local video file, not just internet streaming, so no it's not what you're saying it is.
Doing a factory reset usually helps, but if it doesn't it's usually due to the poor cooling causing the components to cook themselves to death causing the system to run unstable which effects performance and often crashing all the time when they're too far gone.
A few holes and a small fan completely stops this from happening.
You're not going to find a 5 year old phone for $25 that's going to beat the performance of a s905x3 or an s922.
Google Chromecast with Google TV is everything I wanted: a streaming player, and with a USB-C hub, it allows for VLC. Plus, Black Friday sales make it super cheap (HD for $20, and $25 for 4K). Easily replaced my Roku Premiere and Amazon Fire Stick.
Over the last few years I set my family up on Amazon fire devices it started with me giving them ones when I was done playing with them. Black Friday sales also. I have had Shields since about 2016. I was getting them for family. Now that Amazon is making it abundantly apparent that they own the device and you are just renting it, I am switching them off and I'm going to start getting Chromecast with Google TV. I wish they would have put Android TV in them years ago. I figured I would do exactly that again, wait for a Black Friday sale and get a few and let them junk the fire OS.
Could we make them into useful devices? Yeah, I use an X96 Air Android TV Box to run EmuElec. I play retro console games for the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, TG16, PSP, PS1, Dreamcast (hit or miss though), and many other consoles and arcade systems (Sega Naomi, Atomis Wave, etc.) on the said TV Box with two wireless controllers and a 128GB microSD card that overrides the built-in Android system. Pretty neat. As a TV Box though, it's utter crap.
surprised he didnt mention this
Whats the name of this stuff? Or what do i search for to find info? I have a box to i could use for something else!
thing is, lots of those boxes cant even emulate snes. There are cheaper alternatives for emulation
🐝 links gt king pro dl boots os you do bouth for emaution hes just trying to scare people to buy Amazon tv os crap the bouth actly have adds and tracked too lol 😆
But why would you need to use these TV boxes for emulation? You can probably use an older PC or laptop and it'd be much more flexible and convenient. If space is a concern, a second hand mini PC is also an option. Those cheap TV boxes might even be too weak to run 3D games.
Since 2019 im a Nvidia Shield Pro user and I can say it's the best purchase I done in long time. Secure, fast, good ram and storaga, real 4k, I can play my PC videogames using GForce, Steam and Amazon Luna. During long time I enjoyed my shield pro + Google Stadia, but what I like the most is the update software option. Most of those Android TV boxes won't allow systems update.
yaaa most of us dont have 300 bux to spend on a streaming box
I still remember the time my dad won an android tv box at some kind of silent auction or something that he gave to me because he already had an apple tv, and the box was covered in "4K" "quad core CPU", but TH-cam on it only supported 720p on my 1080p tv, and was laggy as all hell (iirc it was running android Lollipop)
these things reeeeally push for those gullible buyers
I was looking at cheap no-name Android TV boxes awhile back. But my main concern at the time was finding on which didn't just have drive by update support, so was only looking for one which had supported open-source firmware (either by a project or building the firmware myself). In the end, I didn't find anything and ended up buying a Tivo TV android box, figuring a well known company would [more] likely do a better job at product support. After getting it, I heard rumors they were going to ditch development of the devices (and support going with it). 😟 But so far I've been getting occasional updates. Down side it barely has enough storage for the OS. Installing additional apps on an external USB drive is a must.
Open source firmware sounds interesting, how would I get that on my laptop
Some SBCs like Raspberry and Orange Pi can run Android TV OSs
I recently considered one of these, and instead decided on a barebones mini PC and installed a reputable NVME with a fresh install of Windows. It was 3x the price of these boxes, but it runs everything I could ask for (including the thinks that the android tv boxes can't) - so glad I dodged that bullet!
Right, because there are no malware or viruses on PCs, no way 😁
@@jimmydandy9364 Well, there can be, but i’m much more confident that a barebones PC fitted with an NVME from a reputable seller, with a fresh instal of windows (don’t by myself) is much less likely to have any malware in it the moment I buy it…
Which was clearly my point - so I feel like you intentional ignored it?
I actually had a few of these several years ago. Absolute CRAP. Built a mini htpc same as you and never looked back since. Runs Kodi or VLC I just use most of the time and it runs regular browsers so you can surf or play YT videos. Dell came out with a super mini pizza box several years ago that you can pick on on ebay for 100 bucks. Has HDMI or Mini DP out and with a few upgrades like memory and SSD these work perfect.
@@jamescole6846 The problem is that the streaming apps.. At least the ones in my country, that stream TV stations and so on, they're only available as apps and not accessible from the web browser.
"Free cinema HD"
From Apk pure
(Kodi 2.0.)
Install a armbian on it and you got a true low cost sbc with case.
Especially with S905/H616/rk3xxx soc
0:03 i like how the £ is represented as really strong here, but after the trussening this isnt the case...
Haven’t watched it but just from the title alone, I need to send it to my dad
He keeps getting those 40-50$ ones that stop working or are slow af, then he complains.. buys the next one and repeat
For 40-50, he could just buy a Chromecast. Which also runs Android/Google TV. It's the exact same thing except not bad.
@@Marco_Onyxheart Chromecast is shit. Install a couple of apps and watch it stutter. Not enough RAM to keep it smooth. Same with Firesticks.
I don't know if I'd call it an e-waste... I got myself an X96mini box specifically to put LibreELEC OS on it and use it as a simple network media player. It's quite decent as a 1080p player.
Love how the US government bans Huawei for supposedly national security reasons, but allows any god-knows-where is made android device that will be used at homes.
huawei is installed AT SCALE across the country because huawei can/will be bought by corporations, while god-knows-where devices are bought individually by users (limiting the reach)
@@Optimistas777 Again, that wouldn't make the ban make sense as you can simply ban corporations from buying Huawei, and it's not new for USA's government to do that.
Funny that.
I believe Huawei parts were set to be used in 5G antennas. That is a major reason they were banned. It was a security risk.
You should do the same tests with similar tablets. I have 2 tablets from aliexpress, and now I'm worried 😅
I've had a tablet from AliExpress with confirmed malware. Sometimes a horoscope ad popped up instead of the website which you were trying to visit. Since i also have Pihole, i could see it trying to access dubious domains just like in this video. As soon as these domains were blocked in Pihole, the ads also stopped popping up...
Even more terrifying was that when you put in a pre-paid SIM card, it would randomly dial expensive nternational numbers until the SIM was out of balance (and also it would *receiv* text messages with account verification codes for services i don't use).
The only valid reason to buy any of those tv boxes, tablets, etc with a supported SoC from china is to flash a linux rom like armbian onto them. Wouldn't touch the stock image with a 10 foot pole otherwise.
@arjanvlek I've not had any problems tbh, I bought the iplay40 and iplay50, and they've been running smoothly, and also no bloatware
@@ky5666 true
@@elijah_m not having problems just means you arent aware of what could be going on since its not in front of your face, the devices in this video didnt have bloatware but that didnt mean they didnt have backdoors wide open.
Best thing I've set up was an ONN 4k puck (cheap WalMart brand) with a USB hub & custom everything, running f-launcher, kodi, & smart tube plus. Works like a charm.
Does it I've the Corejava folder though? That's the real question
@@chefboyardeeznutsinyourmouth I have one laying around. They should be generic installs of Android TV, as its based off the Google reference board. I'll have to check.
@@chefboyardeeznutsinyourmouth no its basically the same thing as the official Google Chromecast.
@@Miguemely101 thanks for the reply, that's neat, maybe I'll have to check one out!
@@Mobin92 thanks for the reply as well, I appreciate the info. Will have to look into one more :)
Running the menu at lower res is common, even the Nvidia Shield does this. Video content uses native decoding hardware, which then is able to output true 4k directly
I went the opposite direction and bought a Vera 4k directly from OSMC! It was more expensive than the competition, but all the money was going directly to the developers of OSMC, so I supported Open Source instead of China.
9:34 is the masterpiece moment of this segment!
Well Linus, its nice to see, that you create more security content after yourself being hacked ;) counting for more^^
I bet testing these boxes is the reason they got hacked.
@@TheDalisama were you living under a rock?
@@Laughing_Individual no, but I'm sad to see that you don't have a sense of humor.
@@TheDalisama It was supposed to be a joke? Had no funny part, that's why everyone mistaken it for just a strange statement
@@prysma2057 I'd guess the people that got it just didn't see a reason to respond, that's what likes and dislikes are for. I'm not claiming it's high-brow humor, but I don't see how it wasn't fairly obvious. Their channel was just hack a couple weeks ago and they release a video talking about Android boxes they bought with backdoor exploits leading to people getting hacked.
It's like the headline of an Onion article: "Recently Hacked TH-cam Channel Releases Video About the Dangers of Being Hacked by Chinese Streaming Devices"
It would be interesting to see tests of LibreElec or CoreElec running on a DIY box like an ODroid or a Raspberry Pi.
This. I've been running the HardKernel's Odroid N2 since it came out, 4K HDR.. awesome little box.
@@dkeller626 Same. I have three little Odroid N2+ boxes they are great!
Agree, thats the way.
OR, some i3 7th gen device cheaper than Anyshit Pi these days.
They are not bad, e.g. I'm running CoreElec on Ugoos boxes and it's a very good experience in terms of compatiblity with different formats played back from NAS.
But 1) you lose streaming services applications, even TH-cam experience will be bad
and
2) you lose Dolby Vision support, which is available on some boxes but only in native Android because it works through proprietary module that isn't supported in Core or Libre Elec. So if you need quality improvements from Dolby Vision.. using Android is the only option.
Benn using NVidia Shield for over a decade and it's a flawless, plug and play, beautiful solution. 24 x 7 operation, yeah, really, and like 7 or 8 yrs for it to finally give up the ghost. I would recommend no other.
I bought 2017 Shield, its great, awesome, although a bit laggy compared to a Roku, but there's no end for content, just having android with a reasonable powerful chip there's a lot of possibilities even with the death of GameStream (which as of April 2023 still works for me). I also bought Walmart's Onn 4k android box which only costed me $20, its not powerful but its extremely impressive and outputs 4K content with AC wifi antenna, it has 0 Dolby support but you have all the Android goodies and a good remote with volume and power control :D AND NO ADS/JUNKWARE.
Makes me wonder about the car-display-units sold on various sites. Do they have mallware/backdoors installed on them? And what happens when you connect your phone to it?
For self-dependent video setup for a proper copyright abolitionist I can recommend Rock64 or Raspberry Pi 3, as you can run Linux, Kodi or whatever you like on it and cram as much storage as you want via USB or SATA (via HATs) ports. It's secure as soft is FOSS and both of them can do 4K
Get an n2+
I've had the Nvidia shield tv pro since 2015 and it's still a beast, today we have one shield in every room in the house, latest one it's a must have.
Probably the best purchase I've done in the last decade.
Thanks for this video and information guys!
And what makes you think nvidia is not doing the same as this tv box? Most companies does the same thing regardless of user concern.
@@GauravKumar-wb9xp Well, at least you know it would be a blow to a serious brand if it came out. Random no name android boxes doesn't have a reputation on the line.
@@rBennich How many times did Facebook close for leaking/selling data? Lost couple of bill and still breathing. Blowback is a joke for multibillion companies that have no competition, because they are backed by the ones whose names we should not mention.
@@rBennich I can agree on reputation part but from my understanding they all do it's just "how they are doing", normally no one going to find out what happening inside.
@@GauravKumar-wb9xpWell, it's hard to disprove speculation. But honestly, it's even worse than a virus-infected andriod box. Ericsson has made the telecom infrastructure that makes up the internet, and they're probably the most corrupt company in the world. Nothing sent over the internet escapes them.
these get returned through amazon a lot, its one of the things i see the most
Yessss!!! More security videos.. it's like you actually listened to me (which I know isn't the case, lol) -- but I love these and how you guys present them and you guy's security research is top notch. Thank you so much and pleeeease make more of these!
One of these boxes, the t95 I think, has been successfully repurposed as a rpi replacement to run Debian and Kilpper for 3d printing.
this! using armbian os i believe
fr? i already have an rpi doing it but thats cool
Just never, ever plug it in before reimaging it to armbian.
I would love a way to install Android TV on a Raspberry Pi 4 or a micro PC like an Intel NUC or Lenovo ThinkCentre. Android TV's casting feature is great, the Play Store has decent apps and there's even a ports of Kodi, VLC & RetroArch to Android TV.
Would love to see a video tackling the same matter with all the "android car multimedia" units
I really enjoy the Chromecast, but I wish that Google would also release a more serious model with more RAM for my main TV. My brother has the Apple TV and the ability to toggle through apps that you have in the background is a game changer.
@@Galf506 I second this, I don't own one but there's a reason the Nvidia Shield is about to hit 8 years of OS Support
@@formerlycringe i have two, it is so good. I bought an amazon FireTV the same time, back then the FireTV was better, but over time NVidia did a hell of a job on adding new functions and making the device better while Amazon pushed the gui more and more towards buy this and buy that and making it unusable.
By now, the Shield still is snappily fast while the support of the FireTV is basically gone (same device) and the device has become dog slow with the last updates it was getting. My Shield is now 8 years old, bought it in April/May 2015 afair! Some complain about the ads, which were added over time thanks to Google, but at least from my perspective I have yet to see that (I live in Europe) but even then there is always the option to add a different launcher, some people did.
I run an older Nvidia Shield, still going strong for almost 7 years now. I have considered buying one of the newer ones. Got my parents a new one a couple of years back and the AI upscaling in that is no joke. Watching older shows from before HD you only see that it's not really full HD or even 4K in dark scenes where the edge finding has a harder time working.
You can also use Xiaomi Mi Box set top boxes too. Essentially you want to be sure its running a certified Android TV version and not like most of the knockoff as shown that run normal android.
Yeah the mi boxes are awesome for the price. I run 2 of the 4k ones and they work very fluidly
Let's hope the materials used in these boxes are recyclable.
One big reason why its better to buy the big brands is to get Dolby Vision support. There are very few Android devices with this certification. Sadly the best is the Nvidia Sheild which badly needs a modern upgrade.
As a 2019 Shield TV owner myself (well, infact I've had them all since 2015....and it still works well)
What is it that needs updating so badly?
I suspect you'll say HDMI 2.1, but for Nvidia themselves, they wouldn't be all that interested in upgrading those ports, especially after just removing Gamestream from the Shield just in an attempt to push non techy users to try out the Nvidia cloud gaming platform.
Other than that, the 2019 model works great and plays everything.
But yeah, as someone who's always picking up new tech, I'd always be keen on a new Shield......but the Gamestream drama has left a bad taste in the mouth.
@@toontonic ohh that is disgusting behavior from nvidia. They just can’t stop themselves from tripping up gamers. Sad!
@@toontonic dang!! i was wondering why i couldn't figure out how to stream from my pc after the lastest update. i kept getting mad because it would just push me into the cloud gaming service seriously?? man... thats really the only thing i use it for. is there a way to go back to the last version?
@@umamifan yeah disgusting from Nvidia yet again.
Hey Linus - how about security cameras connected to our wifi - could they be collecting data on our networks and sending it out? How about the phone based apps for those cameras?
I sure hope this is a joke and not a sincere question?
Yes, every device in your network can possibly sniff your network data and send it out remotely, unless you took some precautions like segmentation of the network using vlans. An IOT VLAN is internet 101 these days.
Sean I'm stunned you need to ask.
The depressing answer is that no consumer electronic product are made with user security as a key criteria.
Yes, that cheapo chinese nvr you bought for $50 is in fact snooping and feeding images back to Chinese Govt.
Here's an odd thought, could you get linux running on these things? Could be an interesting Raspberry Pi substitute if you just want low powered compute and not the gpio pins. Gets away from the shady software too.
I was wondering myself the excat same question. Because those would be cheap "replacements".
sounds like an interesting idea.
might get one of those to mess with it, i would need to find an ARM-friendly distro, so my ears are open to suggestions
What a cool idea
it is possible. I put android for desktop and then a similar android tv launcher. there's a whole thread on xda on how to do it
@@itsdokko2990 Most of the well known distros are already releasing arm isos - if not debian then fedora, ubuntu or arch might be worth a look
Great video and information Linus. Have you tested a Superbox Android TV box? My brother has one and really likes it, but I wonder if they are also rooted.
Baby this guy is lying to you
Any chance you could do something like this for car audio units? After seeing this I'm guessing they would probably have the same issues, but since they not connect to home network maybe the risks are lower. Also would be interesting to check the audio quality on those things.
Linus would just saw it "COULD" contain malware with no proof.
I've tried a couple of those android head units and they were real bad. Not sure if they're any better now but the sound quality was not good on the ones I had, and the interface was pretty rough.
I have one in my beater car it runs fine just use it to have apple CarPlay it’s almost never connected to a network and if it is it’s the hotspot on my phone. They do crap out after like a year or 2 and you gotta replace em.
@@deepblue812 I've seen them being used and installed on cars, most of them are terrible AF, especially the resolution which looks washed out. Don't know why people replace their shitty head unit with another shitty ones.
What's the worry here? You don't connect car stereo units to wifi, so there's no point in malware being on them. Even if it is on them it has no way to phone home. Those cheap head units are also absolute garbage quality. Donut did a "hi/lo" episode on cheap head units and they're just awful. The sound quality is garbage, the touch screen quality is garbage, the responsiveness is garbage, the features are garbage, etc. Like, for real, your speakers won't be as loud and the quality of the audio is just horrible.
I had two of these (H96 and H96 Max). Both died after a year of use. These boxes get terribly overheated, throttling most of the time. They work better with a fan, but in the end I bought the HP 705 G2 (Win10Pro) + Microsoft All-in-one Media Keyboard and it's MUCH better.
BTW Fun fact: i had H96 Max which was freezing at random times, turns out the chinese PSU was soo bad that it causes the issue. I replaced with old one from H96 and it started works fine. Soo quality control also doesnt exist on those.
Cat got my tounge 5:38
I don’t 😂
I have it as well and always overheated if I put in a non air conditioned room. Now I put it in air conditioned room and it works well. I think the H96 doesn't have cooling system so that's why it always terribly overheated because basically mobile phone with cheap plastic
I have 3 S905x3 X88 pro minis (bought them around 3 years ago), all three have a very tiny heatsink in a small case, a case like that it wouldn't have mattered if they had a bigger heatsinks as these cases have absolutely no airflow.
I bought a single USB powered small speed adjustable fan and put holes in the case of one for a test and the thermal throttling went away.
Not sure if those are Amlogic CPU boxes, but I have 3 boxes with Amlogic and it's going strong. X96 mini is 6 years old. T95Q is 4 and now using Vontar X4 with latest budget amlogic cpu s905x4.
No stutters or anything.
The problem with all those "smart TV" brand names sony, LG, Samsung etc... The software become obsolete after 4 years so you end up buying a new TV box 😐
Nvidia shield is quite good but expensive, although now is a little outdated, I would love to see a new version and since they are nvidia, they could also have that new RTX super resolution for videos or something similar, that would be amazing. Yeah, they have AI upscaling, but it could be better, and for that it needs more power. Best
Isn't Linus one of the people who said the Shield already does "amazing" quality upscaling? The new RTX upscaler doesn't even beat half a decade old free technology (MadVR and NGU). The recent tech is only good for low resolution content, not for anything over 720p. And it often uses 2-4 times as much gpu power to do the same job. I doubt you would buy a $150 box just to stream at 480p.
If you have a very fancy router and know what you’re doing, you could always just segment your net work and make sure this thing doesn’t talk to any devices on your real network and don’t use any real logins for anything. However, if you’re going to go through all that hassle you might as well just learn how to install Kodi onto a little Linux device. Some NAS units can run stuff in containers or VMs.
Here's an idea: why would you even take that risk?
Everyone *should* have a separate Vlan for this kind of junk since almost everyone out there has some IoT device at home. Every single one of them should be on that Vlan.
As far as the capabilities that are advertised. Please, just pirate like a normal person. The community is more than friendly and it hasn't ever been safer to pirate than today. As long as you stick to reputable sources.
Finally, a useful and relatable video in a while. So, when is LTT adding a good Android box to the store? I will gladly buy one from you.
Man I still can't believe people will pay $30 for a McDonalds meal... Like to me, McDonalds and Burger King are supposed to be cheap. Like $5 for a burger being the upper limit. But that's not the case anymore. Burger King usually has some deals to supplement, but McDonalds has fully embraced this idea of "we're premium." Only problem is, it's still McDonalds! It's insane.
@@TurtleSauceGaming fast food discussion was in another thread
You never mention the Xiaomi Mi Box. Are those safe as I thought they were basically less powerful versions of the Shield.
I am wondering the same thing. I just bought a Mi Box S and a Xiaomi TV Stick 4k so I would not have to suffer Amazon's feature breaking updates on the Firestick.
@@touma-san91 No, these Xiaomi boxes are safe. I wouldn't trust TikTok.
I wonder if this issue extends to Smart TVs too. Some cheap TVs may not be much more than one of these things attached to a screen, is the problem limited to more "legally iffy" boxes, ones that promise easy pirating or whatever? Or to other boxes as well?
smart tv,s snoop on you to youtube it .
Would be nice to test LibreELEC and OSMC on a Raspberry Pi or Vero 4K hardware.
Or something like Zidoo media players which are also Android based but appear to be serious. The Zidoo Z9X was the only media player I could find that supports playing 3D BluRay rips with MVC framepacked 3D. Apparently the Vero 4K+ can also do this but I haven't gotten that one delivered yet
I use OSMC on a Raspberry Pi 4 on my home television. I have my DVD collection ripped to my NAS, so I use it for watching locally hosted video and occasionally TH-cam.
I really like how it works, but it requires more tweaking than I really like to set up.
Especially getting TH-cam to work. It doesn't use "apps," it uses "add-ons." So if you get the TH-cam addon, which is a third party thing not affiliated with Google, it pulls TH-cam data into Kodi's UI rather than a separate TH-cam UI. Which frankly I like because then I don't have to learn how to use my device 19 times. But! TH-cam wants individual Kodi users to sign up as developers for access to their API, so the process of setting it up is about as user friendly as the TSA.
@@thegardenofeatin5965 Yeah I've tried OSMC on my Raspberry Pi 4 but couldn't get it to output custom resolutions which I need to play on my CRT TV so I went back to LibreELEC. Unfortunately after about an hour of playback it gets jerky and skippy. Possibly due to playing 24 fps content at 25 fps (perfect playback on a 50 Hz PAL TV). Kind of hoping the Vero 4K will be able to solve all of that. If not I can use it for 3D movies on my 3D LG OLED 😊
I was just Guna say Alex elec on SD card
I run libreelec (I used to run osmc, but it seems their more interested in their dedicated hardware and also the OS is bloated and libreelec does better memory wise)on 4 rpis 2 rpi 4 4gb and 2 rpi 3 1gb, all sharing the same smb media share on the local network, with sql backends and individual user profiles to wall off content. Works extremely well, tho hi10 10 bit color chokes even the rpi4s at 720p. I do also have a pihole running, on a rpi3 1gb. Which is attached to my dd-wrt flashed router. Everything is hardwired with cat5e (including the rpis) in my home atm (gigabit speeds have been plenty even with my entire family on my home network at once) so only phones and tablets use wifi.
It’s been next to impossible to get your hands on a RPi in the last couple of years. I’ll probably end up with a Vero 4K at this rate.
Hi,
I’m wondering what those boxes can do to your network.
If I just plug them into my tv and just connect them via WiFi, how would it affect anything?
@@franky9658 it will be connected to your internet and will start various Ddos attacks ... Internet provider will cut/ban your internet as the disturbances will be coming from your IP address
@@dvilstrider bullshit I’ve literally had tens of these products never had such a thing at the most what ends up happening is the apps stop working after a while
I like the investigation but why the click-bait title? There are commercially available safe Android TV boxes from reputable companies. You could easily clarity by adding one or two words to the title.
But you gotta get those clicks.....
"why the click-bait title?"
why does a bear shit in the woods? this is LTT, i don't know what else you're expecting out of their video thumbnails and titles.
@@SeiruOkibi Because he almost says only nvidia is safe.
I managed to get a Mi Box S and for the most part it's been working fine. Heck even Linus made a video about them. Apart from random issues it does work although I don't use it in 4K mode .
Am using xiaomi box too. Linus even made video about it. I wonder if xiaomi is included 😢
@@Aygcgegduwabai I don't think Linus will include. I think Xiomi products have issues just not malware.
I own two xiaomi boxes and still use them ever since 2015. No worries, no fuss, no malware, etc. still working beautifully.
Xiaomi other then the CCP paranoia “ warranted” is a legitimate company. So those are fine to use.
Mi Box has widevine Level 1 security from Google. So it's all good!
Thanks for the warning, I was using one on Allwinner H6 for actually legal Prime and Twitch so that means a password change. That said I'm looking forward people panicking and getting rid of theirs/stop buying them... so I can buy some more used ones for what you forgot to mention - emulation. You can actually install an emu focused OS (mostly linux) on some chips, for example EmuELEC for Amlogic S905 series. Those can handle up to PSX/limited N64, and aside build in USB ports, SD reader, and BT support, they actually tend to have AV port which you could use to PROPERLY :P play on CRTs - something a more expensive branded devices aren't capable of. Used ones can be hunted down for as little as $15, so I certainly wouldn't mind picking up several for $10 or less, so I could have such emu box set everywhere :P
If only budget mobile phones had USB beyond 480mbit, allowed to output AV onto external screen using cable while also allowing to keep it powered using passthrough (or a second port?), preferably while disconnecting the battery, well that could render those boxes more obsolete. Especially since it is the budget phones that got the microSD and 3.5mm jack back, and they still have chips capable of emulating consoles above N64. I know there are people who convert phones bought cheap due to a broken screen into a desktop emu console, but honestly it is too much work unless someone does tinkering as a hobby.
Honestly used mini PCs are better for that. You're wasting your time on these things, they're barely capable of emulating 3D stuff. I know they're cheap but how much cheaper are we talking vs. the time wasted for a mediocre experience in the end.
@@tessellationarts2971 I disagree, its up to 1.5GHz A53 vs for example A35 in Playstation Classic. People run PSX at 2x render fine, I tried native and it was effortless even when using RetroArch on Android so there certainly is space to work with, N64 is hit and miss depending on the game and settings. For me personally its enough to have all 2D and some early 3D consoles, as at $15 it is not intended to be a primary gaming platform to replace my PC or consoles, rather something I can drop at family's places I often visit so I don't need to travel with it every time, or take for a drinking party to play MK without risking actual retro consoles and wearing out their original controllers. Hence I mentioned buying multiple of them in my original post, mini PC's are way too price ineffective for such use.
tvboxstop youtube channel explains all this very well and reviews them.... he also explains why no 4k support on some devices
Okay, lets talk about the Nvidia Shield. It was a great device in it's time and still gets the job done, but IMO its feeling long in the tooth these days. Noticeable latency for every command-- considerably worse at higher resolutions. Also on top of the $200 price tag you get the privilege of enjoying as many ads as they can stuff into every nook and cranny. I'd love to see some kind of solution with the RK3588(S) and as much of an open source bent as humanly possible while still maintaining good Widevine support.
My original Shield TV is still kicking in my basement. It isn't quite as fast, but my newer Shield TV Pro is still a beast. I use it as my server for Plex and have had no issues.
I've had my fair amount of issues with the shield being slow or unresponsive, but avoiding ads is quite the cinch. I have a custom launcher with a single giant plex button on the home screen, and nothing else lol.
You can get licensed android TV boxes running proper android TV with pretty powerful CPU's. Mecool make loads. Like MECOOL KM2, clean OS but less powerful, but also half the price.
people seem to forget apple tv exists too and its the fastest tv box out there
It's not the Nvida Shield that is causing all the ads but the apps you are downloading. Without a VPN your internet provider sees what you are viewing and throttles your speed. If you doubt me do a speed test and watch your speed magically pick up. I can tell if my VPN is down (after a reboot), it's a major factor in the speed. 4 years a very happy customer, best $200 I ever spent!