JUSTOP Android 4.0 TV Box HD Network Media Player / Streamer, Smart Internet TV Set Box, Built-in WIFI Support HDMI Flash 11 , Skype , Youtube , uPNP Play—Great for Watching HD Movies, Youtube Videos, Surfing Internet, Online TV, Android Game, 2 x USB Ports, Comes With Remote Control, HDMI Cable, UK Adapter
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102 of 105 people found the following review helpful
Fantastic value – with a few caveats., 15 Sep 2012
This review is from: JUSTOP Android 4.0 TV Box HD Network Media Player / Streamer, Smart Internet TV Set Box, Built-in WIFI Support HDMI Flash 11 , Skype , Youtube , uPNP Play—Great for Watching HD Movies, Youtube Videos, Surfing Internet, Online TV, Android Game, 2 x USB Ports, Comes With Remote Control, HDMI Cable, UK Adapter (Electronics)
I was wary about buying this box. I liked the spec compared to the others but I’ve seen a few Android “Smart TV” boxes, and some have been so slow as to be almost useless. After a while of dithering, I just went ahead and bought it. When it came I was very pleasantly surprised.
The remote is perfectly usable, but some apps might be a bit trickier, especially games. The wireless keyboard (with trackpad) that comes with this is just perfect for it and any issues disappear. Even keeping in mind Android is really meant for phones (and getting better for tablets), and not as a media player; if you want a smart TV box, or just some streaming services on your TV you can’t go far wrong with this little gem… as long as you know a few tricks. People who don’t know anything about computers and just want Netflix “just to work”, maybe should think about a much more expensive smart TV box.
Plus points:
Android Market! When run, it immediately upgraded itself to Google Play. This is a HUGE plus. I’ve seen Android devices with alternative markets, or no market at all, and had to resort to trawling the internet for apk files to install. Even when given the proper market, sometimes you’re limited only to a handful of fairly useless apps when the thing can do much more. This can download and use almost all of them, with some weird exceptions that I’ll go into later.
Usable flash: Adobe Flash is difficult for these little boxes to do, and often doesn’t work at all. Not this one. It can play BBC iPlayer, ITV player, YouTube and play flash animations easily. It can even handle HD flash on iPlayer, if with some sync lag.
Usable out of the box: it comes with a good video player, file manager (supports Windows networks), music player and a few other things like maps and gmail. Also comes with its own launcher, that’s much easier to use with a remote than the default Android one (which is also installed if you prefer it).
Games all work: I haven’t tried many games, but Angry birds works fine, and they’re all installable. 3D is fast and usable.
High Definition: I threw 1080p mkv files at it from across wifi, the hardest test I know. It handled them like a champ. That in itself is worth the price, even if you’re not interested in Android apps.
Impressive hardware: it has a good A10 CPU, a healthy amount of RAM and storage, HDMI, and very fast wireless N wifi. It can output 1080p, even 1080p/24. It’s just a little thing about the size of the palm of your hand, doesn’t get hot, and is totally silent.
Negative points: Slightly sluggish browsing. A LOT faster than most sub-£100 Android devices though and definitely usable.
Startup: not sure if it hibernates or reboots when you shut it down with the remote, but it takes about 10-15 seconds to wake up again. It may actually just be booting. This isn’t at all long, but maybe longer than it could be.
Strange app “compatibilities”. Some apps, just a few, that obviously work can’t be installed from Market. You can get around Google Play’s dumbness but it’s nicer to have regular updates and not rely on dodgy app sources. I would mark the box down a star for this, but this is Google’s fault, and to be honest the other features and price kinda make up for it. (NOTE: From writing this original review, both BBC iPlayer and Netflix WILL install from the Market. But, d’oh, Netflix isn’t working properly. Use 1.7.0 until they fix it please.)
Working apps I’ve tried (* means you can’t get from the market, but they work): Adobe Reader, Amazon Kindle, BBC News, Daily Mail, Dropbox, Google Earth, ES File Explorer, Facebook, FBReader, Skype, FilmOn, Firefox, Opera, TVCatchup, ITV Player*, Chrome*, STV Player, SlingPlayer, YouTube, Xiia live, WattPad, BBC iPlayer. Many, many more are downloadable and many that aren’t work if you can find the apk files. Don’t pirate them please.
Some, but not a lot, of flash videos don’t work. They’ll crash the browser or app. These are usually HD ones. So far, I’ve only met two. Upgrading flash on this box is possible but NOT recommended as what you get might be less optimised and slower.
All in all, I’m very happy with this Android box. Great value. Top marks.
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This review is from: JUSTOP Android 4.0 TV Box HD Network Media Player / Streamer, Smart Internet TV Set Box, Built-in WIFI Support HDMI Flash 11 , Skype , Youtube , uPNP Play—Great for Watching HD Movies, Youtube Videos, Surfing Internet, Online TV, Android Game, 2 x USB Ports, Comes With Remote Control, HDMI Cable, UK Adapter (Electronics)
This is the second Android TV box I have bought, and this one is far superior to the Sumvision Cyclone I bought before – faster, better remote (includes mouse mode), better menu system. I also bought a little wireless keyboard and touchpad, as these are no longer included. I have connected the TV Box to a Teco (not Tesco!) 40″ LCD TV via the included HDMI cable, and the picture looks great. As I seem to lose a little of the left side of the picture, I have used the TV box’s display settings to shrink it to size. One slight annoyance is that it doesn’t seem to remember this after I switch the box off. Maybe a firmware upgrade will sort it?
Like all of these, as far as I know, you will need to use the installed file explorer (or ES File Explorer) to find and play movies, music etc from network drives, as the built-in media player apps only show media from local storage, so not quite as family friendly as it could be. However, installing the MediaHouse app from the Play Store makes things a little more user friendly with a bit of fiddling. Playing DVD (VOB or ISO) files sort of works with MX Player (from Play Store), but I think I would be better converting these to MP4s to get a smoother experience.
If you want to watch live TV on it, I can highly recommend downloading the MyPlayer app (a few quid), or if you want to do it for free, try the TVCatchup app, which is sometimes not as smooth as MyPlayer.
The specified 1GB RAM and 4GB flash RAM doesn’t take into account memory used by the Android OS. I queried this with Justop technical support, who replied “The ram will be shown as 8xxMB and storage will be 2.xx GB. It’s a bit less because android system cost some ram and flash.”. So, one star less as I think they should declare the usable memory.
I have installed games console emulation apps, and these seem to work fine, although playing games is fiddly. I’m just trying to work out how to interface a ‘proper’ games controller with the TV box to make it easier.
All in all, great value, although you need to be a little geeky to get the best from it. Luckily, I am a lot geeky!
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This review is from: JUSTOP Android 4.0 TV Box HD Network Media Player / Streamer, Smart Internet TV Set Box, Built-in WIFI Support HDMI Flash 11 , Skype , Youtube , uPNP Play—Great for Watching HD Movies, Youtube Videos, Surfing Internet, Online TV, Android Game, 2 x USB Ports, Comes With Remote Control, HDMI Cable, UK Adapter (Electronics)
I had a few problems with the box at first. After 2 days it stopped working. However, with the help of Justin (of Justop) I managed to download the latest firmware, burn it onto an SD card and re-program the box. Since then it has been working OK. I have got iPlayer going, which was my main aim – it plays OK over WiFi. And I can also browse the internet. I haven’t tried YouTube or any of the social sites, but I expect them to work as well. I must say that I think that this is only suitable for someone with a bit of computer knowledge. It is not really ‘plug and play’. I had to change a setting to ‘desktop’, and that took a bit of finding. It is in the Apps page, marked Settings, then Labs (I think) near the bottom of the settings page. Downloading and running iPlayer brought up a message that iPlayer was going to download BBC Media Player. After that it all started working. The wireless keyboard which was in with the box is very useful. I find that the touchpad is a bit sensitive – perhaps I am heavy handed.
Once set up the box is good, and does what the product description said. I selected this one because it was the best that I could find for the price, and I still believe that to be the case.
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Fantastic value – with a few caveats.,
I was wary about buying this box. I liked the spec compared to the others but I’ve seen a few Android “Smart TV” boxes, and some have been so slow as to be almost useless. After a while of dithering, I just went ahead and bought it. When it came I was very pleasantly surprised.
The remote is perfectly usable, but some apps might be a bit trickier, especially games. The wireless keyboard (with trackpad) that comes with this is just perfect for it and any issues disappear. Even keeping in mind Android is really meant for phones (and getting better for tablets), and not as a media player; if you want a smart TV box, or just some streaming services on your TV you can’t go far wrong with this little gem… as long as you know a few tricks. People who don’t know anything about computers and just want Netflix “just to work”, maybe should think about a much more expensive smart TV box.
Plus points:
Android Market! When run, it immediately upgraded itself to Google Play. This is a HUGE plus. I’ve seen Android devices with alternative markets, or no market at all, and had to resort to trawling the internet for apk files to install. Even when given the proper market, sometimes you’re limited only to a handful of fairly useless apps when the thing can do much more. This can download and use almost all of them, with some weird exceptions that I’ll go into later.
Usable flash: Adobe Flash is difficult for these little boxes to do, and often doesn’t work at all. Not this one. It can play BBC iPlayer, ITV player, YouTube and play flash animations easily. It can even handle HD flash on iPlayer, if with some sync lag.
Usable out of the box: it comes with a good video player, file manager (supports Windows networks), music player and a few other things like maps and gmail. Also comes with its own launcher, that’s much easier to use with a remote than the default Android one (which is also installed if you prefer it).
Games all work: I haven’t tried many games, but Angry birds works fine, and they’re all installable. 3D is fast and usable.
High Definition: I threw 1080p mkv files at it from across wifi, the hardest test I know. It handled them like a champ. That in itself is worth the price, even if you’re not interested in Android apps.
Impressive hardware: it has a good A10 CPU, a healthy amount of RAM and storage, HDMI, and very fast wireless N wifi. It can output 1080p, even 1080p/24. It’s just a little thing about the size of the palm of your hand, doesn’t get hot, and is totally silent.
Negative points:
Slightly sluggish browsing. A LOT faster than most sub-£100 Android devices though and definitely usable.
Startup: not sure if it hibernates or reboots when you shut it down with the remote, but it takes about 10-15 seconds to wake up again. It may actually just be booting. This isn’t at all long, but maybe longer than it could be.
Strange app “compatibilities”. Some apps, just a few, that obviously work can’t be installed from Market. You can get around Google Play’s dumbness but it’s nicer to have regular updates and not rely on dodgy app sources. I would mark the box down a star for this, but this is Google’s fault, and to be honest the other features and price kinda make up for it. (NOTE: From writing this original review, both BBC iPlayer and Netflix WILL install from the Market. But, d’oh, Netflix isn’t working properly. Use 1.7.0 until they fix it please.)
Working apps I’ve tried (* means you can’t get from the market, but they work): Adobe Reader, Amazon Kindle, BBC News, Daily Mail, Dropbox, Google Earth, ES File Explorer, Facebook, FBReader, Skype, FilmOn, Firefox, Opera, TVCatchup, ITV Player*, Chrome*, STV Player, SlingPlayer, YouTube, Xiia live, WattPad, BBC iPlayer. Many, many more are downloadable and many that aren’t work if you can find the apk files. Don’t pirate them please.
Some, but not a lot, of flash videos don’t work. They’ll crash the browser or app. These are usually HD ones. So far, I’ve only met two. Upgrading flash on this box is possible but NOT recommended as what you get might be less optimised and slower.
All in all, I’m very happy with this Android box. Great value. Top marks.
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|Good, but memory specs not entireley accurate.,
This is the second Android TV box I have bought, and this one is far superior to the Sumvision Cyclone I bought before – faster, better remote (includes mouse mode), better menu system. I also bought a little wireless keyboard and touchpad, as these are no longer included. I have connected the TV Box to a Teco (not Tesco!) 40″ LCD TV via the included HDMI cable, and the picture looks great. As I seem to lose a little of the left side of the picture, I have used the TV box’s display settings to shrink it to size. One slight annoyance is that it doesn’t seem to remember this after I switch the box off. Maybe a firmware upgrade will sort it?
Like all of these, as far as I know, you will need to use the installed file explorer (or ES File Explorer) to find and play movies, music etc from network drives, as the built-in media player apps only show media from local storage, so not quite as family friendly as it could be. However, installing the MediaHouse app from the Play Store makes things a little more user friendly with a bit of fiddling. Playing DVD (VOB or ISO) files sort of works with MX Player (from Play Store), but I think I would be better converting these to MP4s to get a smoother experience.
If you want to watch live TV on it, I can highly recommend downloading the MyPlayer app (a few quid), or if you want to do it for free, try the TVCatchup app, which is sometimes not as smooth as MyPlayer.
The specified 1GB RAM and 4GB flash RAM doesn’t take into account memory used by the Android OS. I queried this with Justop technical support, who replied “The ram will be shown as 8xxMB and storage will be 2.xx GB. It’s a bit less because android system cost some ram and flash.”. So, one star less as I think they should declare the usable memory.
I have installed games console emulation apps, and these seem to work fine, although playing games is fiddly. I’m just trying to work out how to interface a ‘proper’ games controller with the TV box to make it easier.
All in all, great value, although you need to be a little geeky to get the best from it. Luckily, I am a lot geeky!
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|Potentially a good TV box,
I had a few problems with the box at first. After 2 days it stopped working. However, with the help of Justin (of Justop) I managed to download the latest firmware, burn it onto an SD card and re-program the box.
Since then it has been working OK. I have got iPlayer going, which was my main aim – it plays OK over WiFi. And I can also browse the internet.
I haven’t tried YouTube or any of the social sites, but I expect them to work as well.
I must say that I think that this is only suitable for someone with a bit of computer knowledge. It is not really ‘plug and play’. I had to change a setting to ‘desktop’, and that took a bit of finding. It is in the Apps page, marked Settings, then Labs (I think) near the bottom of the settings page.
Downloading and running iPlayer brought up a message that iPlayer was going to download BBC Media Player. After that it all started working.
The wireless keyboard which was in with the box is very useful. I find that the touchpad is a bit sensitive – perhaps I am heavy handed.
Once set up the box is good, and does what the product description said. I selected this one because it was the best that I could find for the price, and I still believe that to be the case.
Was this review helpful to you?
|