Cheap Mini PC, Buy Google Android TV/ WIFI Network Media Players - DX

We now have one on every TV.
Plugged in a USB game controller, installed GNES, now plays old SNES games ! lol.
So far everything I've plugged into the USB ports works, mouse, keyboard, webcams.... Like a little computer!!!!

Android market works, NetFlix works, and also plays movies over the network that are on the main living room computer.
It's like turning you're TV into an android tablet, but you need a mouse or pointing device as the monitor doesn't have touch obviously.

We've had zero issues with ours so far, and I was amazed at what they cost, so I thought I'd share.
I'm even going to put one in the camper, cause I can plug in an external hard drive with music and movies.
Maybe I'll find out a way to rig one into the truck dash yet lol.

 

Also I'll add that I bought the more expensive ones, at 70$ that came with the remote, but should have bought the 50$ ish ones, and spent the 20$ on mini keyboard mouse combo's like we ended up doing.
The remotes are kinda dumb, cause theres way to many features to use a TV style remote control.

I ended up buying 3 of these :
2.8" Mini Wired Handheld QWERTY Keyboard and Mouse Touchpad - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

As cheap as they look, the kids are still working several months later despite massive abuse and even cable tugging.

I am constantly amazed by what these little suckers can do, even download movie torrents and stuff, the kids find all kinds of junk to watch even on youtube etc. You can download all the games and stuff like angry birds, kids games like painting..... I don't want to sound like I'm an advocate for the product, or store, but for 50$ including shipping, I doubt you could find a cooler toy.

 

So, I'll bite -- which one? The link opens to a page full of them.

Just wondering which ones might be the best,

hj

 

I don't know, every time I look, I want to buy a whole bunch lol.
What do you want it for?
Usually I buy stuff from there that has 4 or 5 star rating only haha.

I would suggest this one :
MK808B Dual Core Android 4.1 Google TV Player w/ Bluetooth / 1GB RAM / 8GB ROM / TF / HDMI - Black - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

But you'd need a mousepad/ keyboard such as the one I posted earlier perhaps. Or spring for the wireless?

 

what is it? i looked, and it looks like they are portable storage devices.

 

No, they are like tiny android computers.
They all come with some type of cable to hook to a TV or monitor.
You can plug in USB mouse, usb keyboard, anything I've pluggin in so far, works.

You can download apps from google play, or market or whatever it's called now, and play games and stuff.
Netflix works, so you can use it for netflix, you can plug in USB stick or USB hard drive and play media off of it, you can download skype, plug in a USB web cam, and skype people, lol.

The desktop is essentially like an android phone, but on you're TV.

 

That A9 processor is no joke. Looks like a fun toy. Thanks for the heads up, parkland.

 

I know quite a bit about desktops, but nothing about small CPU's.
That one is even dual core !!!! mine that I got are both single core.
One plays old SNES games fine, the other one is laggy. Both play 720p hd video flawlessly though. Supposed to play 1080, but they're not hooked up to 1080 TV's, so I dont know.

I don't know enough to know which ones are "better".

Get one of these, a wireless keyboard / touchpad, and you got a pretty sweet media computer in you're living room for under 100$ lol.

 

you lost me with the first sentence.
does it plug into the internet, or is it like a 1975 macintosh computer?

 

It's basically a mini computer meant to plug into a TV.
It uses the android linux operating system, like on phones and tablets, instead of windows or mac operating systems.

Some of them have wireless, some have a ethernet plug, but yes, they can connect to the internet either with the cable, or wirelessly depending on the model, and home network as well, if you got one.
They have in internet browser, music playing software, movie playing software, and you can download a ton of other programs to do a hole bunch of things.
If you get a wireless keyboard, (one with a track pad, like a touch pad that laptops have), you can sit on you're couch, and use the device on you're TV to do whatever you want.

You can even download movies from torrent websites, but I won't talk about that any further as some people only do that activity illegally.
You can watch youtube, visit websites (even ford-trucks.com!) and do most thing you can do on a computer.
These things aren't really powerful like a desktop computer, so don't think that 3d games will work good, but for listening to music, watching movies, playing some games, and some internet browsing, they actually work pretty damn good from what I can tell.

If you still don't really follow, if I sent you a USB stick or SD card, and told you there was some cool movies and awesome music on it, you could plug it in, and listen to it or watch it on you're TV.

Some new TV's called "Smart TV's" also have a lot of these features, but I like the computer box seperate, because 1st of all, you can add these new features to an old TV, plus, even with a new TV, if it's inside, you're stuck with it.
Plus, I bet a "smart TV" costs a lot more than 100$ more than a regular TV.

 

ahh. ok. so it is pretty much useless to me because i don't play any games on the computer, don't play or download music, or watch movies.

i use the laptop for the auto enginuity, and sometimes to connect to FTE if i am in the shop and need to ask a question. otherwise i am usually on the desktop.

 

Yep, sounds like you don't have much need. I also have a computer in my garage, actually quite useful just for looking stuff up and playing music haha.

I have about 30 GB of music, and about 3 TB of movies and TV shows, so having a device to play that back is a great thing.

The kids being able to play games and muck around on the internet is a bonus.
My daughter is only 3, and she can already use it to play drawing games and stuff, and theres actually quite a few kids games you can download.
I think you can also add skype accounts, so you can actually make phone calls through the TV's, but I haven't really tried yet.

 

I got one of those and a wireless keyboard/touchpad on the way now.

FWIW, the A9 is over a year old and has been clocked at 3GHz+ under normal conditions. They typically run around 2GHz, but can deliver the data when it's needed. Unbelievable power for the price. I'll post back to let you know how they perform.

 

What stuff did you end up ordering, and please let us know how it works for you!

 

I ordered the MK808B(Bluetooth enabled), and a . I have a couple of pretty decent 1080P TV's to try them on, and a nice smartphone and tablet to compare them to.

I'll definitely post back after I put them through their paces. The reviews, and your recommendation, are all excellent.