Minix Neo X8-H Arm Cortex A9 Quad Core Android 4.4 2GB RAM 16GB Smart Media Hub FHD 4K UHD WiFi

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Excellent device for xbmc love it

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I was looking for something to replace my venerable Asus O!Play media player as it was on its last legs. There were certain aspects of the O!Play that my wife really liked - no lag, ability to fast forward 5 min at a time, could play just about everything, very simple user interface. However, there were also certain problems like it wouldn't "remember" where it last played a file for certain files or if too many files had been played.I also have the Patriot Box Office. She didn't really like the interface but could use it if she had to. So, in searching for a replacement, I also tried the latest WD TV Live. In a word, that was horrible. Super laggy and crappy user interface - and that was playing off a USB drive.I thought I'd give the Neo X8-H a try and it was awesome (for her needs). Again, I play off a USB drive, don't need to connect to internet, don't subscribe to channels of XBMC. There is NO lag, start-up time is decent, and the XBMC is fairly easy to use. It plays everything I've thrown at it, even files that the O!Play didn't really like. It remembers the entire playing history, regardless of how many files it's gone through. There are also "markers" beside the files to show whether you've finished it or are in the middle of it. She uses the supplied IR remote, which is fine if you don't head on to the internet. My TV isn't 4K and I don't have a DTS system. So, I can't comment if that works. There are options for FF/RW 30 secs or 10 min so she loves that.In a word, if you are like me looking for an alternative to the Asus O!Play, Patriot Box Office, or even Popcorn Hour without needing to head to the internet, this is an excellent replacement unit to have.Lastly, I did try to load a couple of XBMC channels using the free M1 remote and I have to admit it's pretty bad. If you do need a remote like that, better to buy a good one separately. As for playing those channels, the X8-H had no issues.

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First, this device isn't for everyone. Techies though will find it exceptionally easy to configure (android, XBMC). Initial firmware and several beta's had reboot issues, some linked to the M1 remote. Beta 009b however fixed my issue and things have been stable since. Good news is Minix is providing regular update  beta firmware and OTA upgrades are said to be in the near future. For now the Minix and other forums and their users have come up with easily flashable version of all the firmware.When streaming from a 5ghz wireless connection that only the Minix uses it has no problem running any file from NAS and while some online video streaming has initial buffering nearly all run fine after. These things are the future and when some company consolidates some of the setup and streaming apps to make it easy for main stream folk, these things will take off. Until then you have to settle for adding repositories to XBMC for example and picking and choosing what you want. It's hit or miss with XMBC at best as some things that worked yesterday may not be cooperating today. Also, it seems that certain mainstream XBMC apps have become incompatible since mid 2014. These are mostly the mainstream streaming services (says incompatible in XBMC despite many various attempts to get these to work) and Netflix is limited to SD streaming by Netflix as android is not a supported medium according to the forums. No issues with any android apps skype, songza, spotify, etc).The Minix launcher isn't entirely bad but there are lots of opportunities to change that given it's android base. The video quality is superb and I've had no issues whatsoever with sound previous media player had sync issues with certain files but not the Minix.Overall, love this thing so far and may be looking for another soon

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Upon getting the unit home, I found that many of the streaming services that I used with my notebook regularly simply wouldn't work on the Neo x8, such as MLB.TV, Sportsnet World Online, etc., largely because they were Flash based services and Flash is not natively supported in Android 4.4, having been deprecated in favour of HTML 5 based solutions.When services did work, they tended not to work exactly as I had been experiencing them on my notebook, so Netflix Canada would stream, but it wouldn't stream in HD, leaving me with a notebook and tablet that played back Netflix in 780P, but a Neo x8 stuck with 480p.Trying to bypass this by using the built in or downloaded browsers (Chrome and Firefox are both available for Android) didn't work, because Flash support is built in at the OS level in Android, not in the browser itself.On top of all that, 4K video support didn't work out of the box, DTS/Dolby Digital streaming didn't work out of the box ... so I was initially kind of disappointed in this hardware.After struggling with it for 2-3 months, I determined that there simply had to be a solution, so I hit the Minix forums and started asking questions, which got people pointing me to the many customer-supplied alternative firmware solutions out there, some available from links right at the forums. I flashed my unit with one of these, using a USB stick, and within 15 minutes I had a box where virtually all my issues disappeared. All of a sudden, 4K worked, and so did surround sound, and my Netflix was streaming in HD again.About two weeks later, both MLB.TV and Sportsnet World Online update d their apps with HTML5 upgrades, and now my box supports everything I want. With that firmware update  and some time for app makers to adapt to the new Android OS, this box has gone from good to amazing.

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I've bought 2 of these units, initially 1 and then another a few weeks later due to being so impressed with the first. I bought this as an upgrade to replace a Patriot PBO media player i used to play video on tv streaming from home network. After quickly realizing the Minix was capable of more i bought a bluetooth game remote and setup unit as an arcade/nes/snes/n64 game emulator and will be trying PS emulation soon. I've cancelled my cable and am also using unit to stream tv from the net (have not tried netflix yet but will soon), streaming movies wirelessly from my network NAS and computer, youtube, internet, email and more. These two units are now entertainment systems for my apartment and i no longer have to use my cell for the above (at home). Stock remote is completely useless and the bonus air-mouse has it's uses but is impractical for typing so i recommend buying a keyboard. I bought a k400 which works great.