Review: Amiko A3 and other Android boxes

[steve1978]

Summary:
The software is buggy but I love it and wouldn’t give it back if you paid me!

Hardware:
The box is solid feels well built. Quite small and gets quite warm after a fair bit of use. The hardware spec seems quite low but you wouldn’t know when using the box. It responds well and doesn’t have any lag. The remote control is brilliant, lots of features and I especially love the “air mouse” feature it works really well.

Software:
I don’t know about you but I have a projector, an AMP a VU UNO, a NUC computer, Xbox one and a Roku stick. I have a server in the garage that has all my TV shows and films on and updates through Sickbeard. I have always had problems with the UNO and the AMP they seem to loose each other if I don’t turn them all on in a set sequence and then if I put the Xbox on I lose the Uno, not good.

When I saw the Amiko A3 I thought, Kodi, Plex, Satellite all in one simple android box. This is like heaven. The reality is a little further from that though. The Kodi and Plex side are great. The voice recognition is a bit hit and miss. the Satellite side needs work, a lot of work. I really believe that Android OS is the future for our Hobby and can see a lot of them appearing on the market place in the next 12 months. I pray that the VIX team start to create images for these android boxes, I have already replaced 2 of my VIX boxes and I am certain that as they get better more of you will be moving to Android based boxes. The future is bright!

[Rob van der Does]

I consider my A3 box as a very poor satellite receiver, and I never ever use it anymore.
Only disadvantages compared to any E2-box.
Even Fulan, the manufacturer, must have realised this, as they have stopped the development shortly after the box hit the market.


Rest assured: ViX has no plans whatsoever to support thes poor little things.

[twelfd]

like pretty much all of the android based receivers the dvb side of things is not up to the standards of enigma2- but there's plenty of development going in to them. But the multimedia side is much better than the enigma2 receivers, and generally the android based receivers are much better spec'd than equivalent based receivers so they will always out-do enigma2 boxes for multimedia uses (Kodi etc).

I like the A3 because it's got (provisions for) an internal HDD, as I've always found USB2.0 to be a limiting factor for HDD performance- so it's nice to have everything stored on there.

Putting enigma2 on them (at this stage) would cripple their multimedia capabilities- and unless there was plenty of development on the enigma2 side- would probably make the dvb side of things worse.

But like Steve1998 (OP) I think my A3's great- and haven't yet found a box to replace it- easy to setup, performs well and looks good, and the remotes very nice in everyday use.

[DaMacFunkin]

My Vu+ boxes run xbmc for multimedia, I don't think it is going to get any better than that anytime soon.

[Rob van der Does]

like pretty much all of the android based receivers the dvb side of things is not up to the standards of enigma2- but there's plenty of development going in to them. But the multimedia side is much better than the enigma2 receivers, and generally the android based receivers are much better spec'd than equivalent based receivers so they will always out-do enigma2 boxes for multimedia uses (Kodi etc).

1) DVB is indeed far below (any) standard; that's my main reason for not using the A3-box anymore.
2) There may be development, but not for the A3 (because Fulan has pulled the plug, as I stated above).
3) Indeed: MM is better then in E2. But it's DVB I have a satellite receiver for, not for playing around with all kinds of files.


PS: Indeed XMBC runs (as a plugin) to some degree on some VU's, but that MM-playground is not integrated in the DVB-side of E2.

So my conclusion so far: DVB & MM don't mix very well together (yet???). that means that for optimal use one needs a satellite receiver (E2 for me) and a MM-box.
And this has always been the case; so much for 'development'...

[steve1978]

Question: why is the DVB side not as good? technically?

[Rob van der Does]

Not sure, but I presume because E2 has had
1- the time to mature, and very important
2- the strength of a large Open Source community.

[steve1978]

So technically there is no reason why this box can't be as good in the future as any other e2 box. All that it needs a good community because it has a sound foundation on android which we know will be continued to be developed for many years to come. E2 hasn't changed in at least three years as far as I'm aware every update is exactly the same as the last with the exception of a few bug fixes (no disrespect to the Vix team who do a fantastic job and are clearly the market leaders in e2 operating systems).

If my view if e2 boxes were not updated ever again it wouldn't be the end of the world because they are so good now that I am completely happy to never update them again, and very rarely do! There is a huge market for these android TV sticks and dvb boxes, it's the future like it or not.

In this game we are all innovators we don't use the easy option such as Sky, we choose Something different because we are all the same type of people. We enjoy new technology and messing around with hardware and software. In order to evolve into the next generation of hardware the Vix team. And all teams need to be open-minded as to what they're going to be developing not just tomorrow but the next five or 10 years to come.

I just hope that the Vix team are the android tv innovators.

[judge]

E2 hasn't changed in at least three years as far as I'm aware every update is exactly the same as the last with the exception of a few bug fixes (no disrespect to the Vix team who do a fantastic job and are clearly the market leaders in e2 operating systems)

If you think that you're not using new features or are using them & expecting them as standard?

[Andy_Hazza]

If you think that you're not using new features or are using them & expecting them as standard?

I had to bite my lip last night when I saw this post.........


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rob van der Does]

So technically there is no reason why this box can't be as good in the future as any other e2 box.

I'm not sure where your 'so' stems from, but it certainly can't be distilled from my posting.
I have no idea if Android could be as good as E2 is now.

E2 hasn't changed in at least three years as far as I'm aware every update is exactly the same as the last with the exception of a few bug fixes (no disrespect to the Vix team who do a fantastic job and are clearly the market leaders in e2 operating systems).

Well, your awareness is either not very good or you have only used DM-based images. There has been a lot of development, and although the basis remains the same E2 cannot possibly be compared with a 3 years old version.

Anyway: I'm not sure where you're heading to in this post. atm E2 can't be beaten and none of us knows what the future will bring us.

[2stein]

i feel like steve... e2 might have changed a lot under the hood but for the user it looks the same like 10 years ago when i started to use e2.
the time seems right for something new.
tvs already come with webos, android, etc. so stbs can't stand still.
i think wetek etc. are good starts in the right direction. hope to see more with more powerful (solo 4k like) hardware.

[Rob van der Does]

Really, how can your memory be so short?
Please try a ten year old E2 and be surprised about the lack of functionality.

And not sure what 'more power' you see in the Solo 4k? Of course a new codec (h265) has been added, but for the rest there doesn't seem to be 'more power', nor does it need more power.

[2stein]

yes, my memory may be a little short... it might be more perception...
with more power i mean more processing power, more tuners... i read that wetek play takes more than one minute to boot android: that's too long... just one tuner... not enough...
would hope that with solo 4k hw android would run much better.
also: e2 boxes (and kodi as well) will be cut off from new multimedia offerings with drm like netflix, vox now, etc.
on an android platform I would hope that you could just run the apps from the app store.
so you'd have much more choice and flexibility.
paying 400 bucks for a box that just shows and records tv is like paying 400 bucks for a laptop that can run dos.
just my perception

[Rob van der Does]

First of all: E2 doesn't need any 'processing power' at all.
Secondly: E2 has no limitation on the number of tuners.

E2 boxes are far cheaper then 10 years ago. and you continue to underestimate what E2 does for you (when you compare it with DOS).

There is still no good combination box; a box is either a good and versatile satreceiver (only e2 is that nowadays) or a good MM-player (which are extremely cheap atm).
For the moment combining a car and a bicycle in one vehicle is asked too much, but one never knows what the future will bring us.