A NEWBIES GUIDE TO MX ANDROID

This has to be the best advice that I have yet to read on the subject of Android streamers on the net! When I eventually get mine, this will definitely be my reference point.

I'm considering getting the Android MX3 but am bein put off by warning messages by some eBay vendors that not all the units are alike, stating that some of the units are inferior and that after a few months they won’t update and the like. The other thing that concerns me is that if I purchase a fully loaded one I have been told that this could invalidated the warranty on some models. I really would prefer to buy one that is fully loaded but ideally from a reputable retailer with a full 12 moths warranty. Can anyone recommend a good place to buy?

 

I bought an mx2 from ali express a while back and have no problem with it (took a while though!) here is a link :http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-...GPU-1GB-8GB-Media-Player/32262457991.html?s=p , worth a look . When you do get a box my advice would be to update to the latest kodi and I would recommend putting " Andys build " on to it here is a guide : .Here is a forum that comes in handy too ! http://totalxbmc.tv/new-forum/index.php?topic=3023.60

 

if the supplier fully loads the box and sends it to you your warranty is intact . even if the box wasnt fully loaded and you loaded it your warranty would still be intact , the reason i say this is because kodi is merely an android addon like other android addons that will be in the box as standard . so if the seller gives you the box fully loaded or if you load it your self that has no effect on warranty because all that is happening is that an android app has been installed .

that said fully loaded is not ideal . what i mean is that suppliers obviously think that more addons equals more box sales , more addons may be good for the seller but not for you or your box . probably half the addons the seller will install will either not work at all / not work properly / be intended for foreign countries , and more addons will be addons that you just wont have any use for . so why clutter up your box ? .

these boxes dont have memory/ storage that goes on to infinity , they have limits . the average seems to be about 1gb memory and 8gb hdd , but some boxes can have less , and of course others can come with bigger hdd etc , obviously more memory / storage equals more cost . but even if you have 2gb memory and 16gb hdd their is still a limit . while 1gb and 8gb is quite a bit all those addons will take up space even if they arent being used , they will be updating , some addons require additional addons to work and so on , and all that will take up memory/storage . what you dont want is to fill the memory /hdd because the box just wont function , i have a friend who did just that , now i fixed his box fairly easy but in doing so he lost all his addons and all data attached to them . now i set up his box in the first place and i did that by installing a backup copy of my kodi , so i was able to reinstall kodi and he was back near to where he was before his box crashed , but it could have been avoided .

everything needed to load your box with xbmc/kodi and addons is here on this thread , all you need to do is install some quality repos , once thats done you can install only the best addons . what im saying is if your box doesnt come loaded you can easily load it yourself , i know its not as easy as having it loaded for you but in my opinion its a better way to go . and also you will be learning as you go , remember loading doesnt mean installing the firmware on the box it simply means installing kodi which is an android app and then adding addons to it .

i can only assume that the seller is talking about clones versus genuine (but maybe im wrong ) , well if you would rather buy a genuine box thats ok , what ever your more comfortable with i suppose the better . but there is nothing wrong with clones at all , my own box is a clone so i can say that from experience . as for the updates well the xbmc/kodi addons get updates and they update automatically be your box clone or original , so if your seller is saying that the kodi addons wont update after a few months if your box is a clone well im sorry but he either doesnt know what he is talking about or is conning you , i dont mean that in the sense that i think he is a con man now just that he may be telling you this stuff to get you to buy from him as opposed to another seller .

i would also say regarding buying a box from a company outside of europe such as asia , that this can be problematic and also can end up costing you more than you bargained for . what i mean is that if you for example buy from asia if something is wrong with the box when it arrives or if it encounters a serious problem some time soon after that if the box must be returned to the seller that means it has to go back to asia AND THAT USUALLY IS AT THE BUYERS COST . some asian sellers are known not to honor warranties . now not all asian companies are like that but you have to be careful , if you have a reputable company fine but if not i recommend that you buy as locally as is possible . another snag with buying from outside europe is this , you may save some money buying say from asia but then when your box arrives the courier may catch you at the front door for VAT or you may get a bill in the posts soon after delivery . so there can be hidden costs when buying outside of europe .

 

Hi, I have been looking at Android boxes to use as a streamer as well as browsing and watching TV. I have visited all sorts of dross and then came here, brilliant thread.

Should I splash out the extra £25 to get the Amlogic S812 chipset with 2GB/16GB compared to the S802 with 1/8 or would I be wasting money. I am looking at MXIII Plus or M8S.

 

well more memory is good , but you can get by quite well with 1gb /8gb tho , thats what i have and i have no problems . but if you can afford the extra for more memory then i suppose why not .

 

Hi guys

Pretty new to all this. Looking at getting a preloaded mx android box. But had a couple of questions.

- Is there a review site or a reliable source to find out the top spec boxes etc, is there a box you would recommend?
- I am relatively capable with tech stuff.... If I bought a preloaded box, would I be able to uninstall/reinstall addons and apps as I become more familiar?

Thanks

 

Thanks for your reply its really appreciated.
I've decided and order a mx3 box with 2gb ram from Amazon that is not loaded. Hopefully I will learn more by taking this route in the long run (I hope).
Re your tutorial, my first question. Why is it necessary to install Gotham when xbmc is already installed? I realise that this may be a stupid question but I don't quite understand.

 

gotham is xbmc , they tend to give versions of xbmc names such as frodo / gotham / tvmc and now kodi . so what i am saying is that if you have gotham installed that means that xbmc is installed , so in that sense no you dont have to install xbmc again .

however as we have xbmc /tvmc/kodi that can be useful , all three are xbmc just with a different name , and kodi is the latest incarnation. because they have different names you can install 2 or more of these , for example i have xbmc and kodi installed . i use xbmc for testing addons and settings , and if i like something i then install it in kodi , the point of this exercise for me is simply that kodi is what i use mainly but i use xbmc for testing . of course you dont need to install both xbmc and kodi as i have done , just xbmc or just kodi will be just fine .

these boxes usually come with xbmc installed , and if so as long as its reasonably up to date such as gotham 13.2 then all should be fine , but you may and probably will find that some new addons are compatable only for use on kodi , hence its a good thing to know how to uninstall the version of xbmc you have and install kodi , but its quite easy as /xbmc/kodi is an android app just like all the other android maps . if your box comes with the latest kodi you wont need to update atleast for a while .

 

yes you can easily install/ uninstall apps and addons .

 

Thanks for that

 

Thanks for the advice
Would the below system be good in your opinion?

Apologies for what is probably a stupid question!!

• OS: Android 4.4 Kitkat + KODI 14.0, Google Play store, Flash player Installed
• Amlogic S802 Quad core Cortex A9 r4 2.0GHz processor
• Octa-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 600MHz 3D engine
• 2GB DDR3 Ram,
• 8GB NAND flash,
• 2.4Ghz/5Ghz WIFI+ Bluetooth 4.0

 

Okay, thanks again. Hope to be getting it tomorrow when I will be putting into practice your helpful advise

 

Hi all first off I have found his tutorial excellent well done . I have a problem though I can not get zi files to enable .
I have and MXQ Box , I have been trying to put the new metalkettle repo on I have been using the file new updated address and gone through everything and it will not work. I can not get any new repos on my box and when I go through settings / add ons / install from zip file then go to the relevant file and click ok but the age just slides over it should come up add on enabled this will not happen no matter what I do . I have updated from 14.0 to 14.2 and nothing its just the same 9 by the way I change the file name before I did this to keep all the data , I am thinking should I let Kodi create a new file to over ride the old one . I also installed XBMC Updater to make sure that everything was right u to date so I am now running on Isengard 15.0 Beta , I am a newb so any help would be appreciated . I bought this box fully loaded bt looks like the guy did not know what he was doing and sold it on can get him on the phone now but am liking the challenge to get it fixed but am hitting a wall now . Any help would be appreciated , I have not been able to add a repo since getting it . Plus at first there were bucket loads of script errors but not really bothered about that think it may be an issue with WinRAR or something to do with opening up the zip file .Please help cheers

 

i wouldnt recommend using beta versions , beta are test versions and as such can possibly have problems or be very unstable . its always a better idea to use a known stable version , if your using kodi i think kodi 14.2 is the last stable version that was released so i suggest that you use only that and uninstall or disable xbmc updater and stop it updating and installing beta/test versions .

as you say the box came fully loaded i assume that xbmc/ kodi was already installed for you , well from what you say it seems that xbmc/kodi may have a problem of some sort . so its probably best that you unininstall xbmc/kodi , if you dont know how i can probably help you with that , i say probably as my box is different to yours but really for the most part the principils are the same . so my advice is to uninstall your current version of xbmc / kodi as it may have a problem , sadly of course that will mean that you will lose all currently installed xbmc addons , when when a box comes fully loaded it usually comes with much junk , many foreign addons / addons that dont work / addons that really you wont use or simply poor addons , and on top of that all these unused addons will not only be taking up valuable memory space but also as they are always updating they will be taking up hdd space . if the box memory gets full , the box wont operate and all memory will have to be cleared meaning you will lose all that has been saved / installed . so for those reasons i dont recommend fully loaded boxes . or if people reading this have one to uninstall any and all addons that they wont need / dont use and keep the amount of addons to a managable size , for example some boxes (fully loaded ) have hundreds of addons where as i only have 40 to 50 and they are all good addons .


but as your version of xbmc / kodi seems to have a problem i think uninstalling it is best . download the latest version of kodi 14.2 from the following link
http://mirrors.kodi.tv/releases/android/arm/old/

now i dont remember but it may download in zip file format , if it does you will have to unzip it . however if the downloaded file ends with .apk thats great as .apk files are android files . so if you download the file and its a .apk file send that file into a usb memory stick (thats connected to your laptop ) then safely remove the usb memory stick and insert it into a usb slot on the android box .

now i posted instructions to install android apps and xbmc addons in page one of this thread , i think the posts are post number 3 and post number 4 . on my mx2 i have an android application installed called filebrowser , this came pre installed on my box by default via the mx2 firmware . your box may also have filebrowser installed , it will be listed among all the other android apps , if so following the instructions in post number 4 of this thread to install kodi . if you dont have filebrowser you should have another similar application like esfilebrowser or something like that , they are different apps but the process and principils are very similar . if you are unsure look through your android apps and let me know what file browser app you have installed and maybe i can talk you through it .

once you have kodi installed you can then start adding repos/ addons to it just as you have been doing , and i hope then that the zip files will open . also some repos can be added by simply adding a link/ url , i mean that not all repos have to be installed via a zip file .

script errors can occur for various reasons but most often because you tried to open a channel or movie and the link to it is now dead ,or that the addon you opened (or tried to open ) is not working for what ever reason .

also talking about fully loaded boxes with 100s of addons . well usually an application is used to install all these addons at one time , but these addons are made by different people and these people may have their own repo or atleast store all their addons in one particular repo . for example mettlekettle has his own repo , and any updates for his addons (or new addons ) will be in that repo . my point being that if you have mettlekettle repo installed and you install some of his addons you will then get any new updates automatically as soon as he makes them available , where as if you install mettleketle addons from other sources they may likely not have all the latest updates , and if that is the case the addon may not work hence SCRIPT ERROR . so where ever possible my advice is not to use one app to install hundreds of addons in one go many of which dont even work , where ever possible install the proper repo and only install the addons that you like / want / need and that way your box is uncluttered and your box memory is not needlessly filled and script errors should not occur that much . i say that much simply because the nature of this business is that links go down and then have to be replaced via updates , so non working links can cause script error to appear .

 

thanks for posting this. I joined this back when trying out different video converters and players, and now it's evolved to streaming devices and guides. I run a gbox mx2, open elec 5, which runs great. I use fusion and xunitytalk repo, and it pretty much covers the bases. Your guide is great for the newbies out there!

 

thanks startrek i appreciate your kind words .

 

You're welcome. I posted a link to this guide on one of my facebook streaming groups. Hope that was okay.

 

I've got the sd card wizard installed and configured on my Amazon fire stick but when I try and create backup i get script error.
I have a backup from the backup add on but when I did a restore it didn't copy over the build

Want to copy my build to a friends stick. Any help would be appreciated

 

hi , im not familiar with the amazon fire stick , that is to say i know them but never worked on one . its possible that sd card wizard isnt compatable with fire stick , or perhaps the version you are using has a problem . you could try locating and installing sd wizard from another source . or look for a backup app that is designed for use on fire stick .

 

http://www.xunitytalk.com/showthread.php?5578-RELEASE-USB-SDCARD-Wizard
have a read