MINIX NEO X8-H-4K Media Hub for Android. Quad-core Amlogic S802-H,8-core Mali450 GPU, Android 4.4, DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 Channel Audio Decoding,XBMC + MiniX NEO M1 Airmouse 104.99 Delivered @ Futeko

£104.99

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Quad-core Amlogic S802-H plus 8-core Mali450 GPU Android 4.4 KitKat box. Delivers more performance and compatibility than ever before. Pre-installed MiniX XBMC optimised specifically for the MiniX NEO X8.
The NEO X8-H uses the S802-H chipset variation which offers hardware decoding of DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio streams. Compared to the NEO X8 it has 16GB RAM vs 8GB and is bundled with the MiniX NEO M1 Airmouse.

MiniX are the proven market leaders for Android box hardware quality and firmware updates+support. The X8-H is MiniX's own unique hardware and they offer a comprehensive English language manufacturer support forum.

Quad-core Amlogic S802-H CPU New 2014 Amlogic S802-H CPU offers a performance increase of ~75% on top of the RK3188 used in the NEO X7 (Antutu benchmark ~29000).

Octo-core Mali450 GPU The 8-core Mali450 offers a big performance leap compared to the Mali400 used in previous generations.

XBMC with Integrated Hardware Video Acceleration The NEO X8-H ships with pre-installed XBMC MiniX edition optimised for the X8-H with hardware video acceleration. Amlogic support is built into the latest releases of XBMC so these will also work well on the X8-H.

DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 Channel Audio Decoding and Passthrough Essential for use in a home cinema, the X8-H has DTS and Dolby Digital licences so can decode and pass 5.1 channel surround sound.

4K Ultra-HD Video Playback Super-sharp 4K Ultra-HD offers a whole new viewing experience. The NEO X8-H is prepared for this evolution.

High Quality Hardware MiniX have established themselves as the premium Android box manufacturer. Whilst other brands use OEM (external factory) PCBs and low quality components, MiniX design their own high quality hardware.

Comprehensive Technical / Firmware Support MiniX offer a comprehensive English language support forum and MiniX products are always well supported for custom firmwares and user enhancements.

2GB DDR3 RAM and 16GB eMMC Storage A massive 2GB of fast DDR3 RAM allows for maximum performance whilst the generous 16GB of high performance eMMC internal storage is great for app storage.

Dual-band Wi-Fi(n) + Wired Ethernet For optimum streaming bandwidth the X8 has dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4Ghz/5.8Ghz) with a large high-gain antenna. Alternatively the NEO X8 has a 10/100 LAN port for fast wired networking.

Bluetooth 4.0 Internal Bluetooth 4.0 allows connection of wireless peripherals.

Android 4.4 KitKat with Full Play Store The latest version of Android, 4.4 is pre-installed and full UK Player Store allows simple installation of all your favourite apps.

Massive Expansion Potential 3x USB host, 1x micro-USB OTG, SD-card (SD 3.0, MMC V4.41), HDMI 1.4a video/audio, HDMI-CEC, headphone, and microphone ports.

Wide Format Support Video: DAT, MPEG,MPE, MPG, TS, TP, VOB, ISO, AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP, FLV, MKV, M2TS, MTS, M4V, WMV, ASF, RM, RMVB. Audio: MP2, MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, OGA, FLAC, ALAC, APE, AAC.

Bundled MiniX NEO M1 Airmouse Thew new M1 wireless airmouse offers a great easy way to control the NEO X8-H. It is rechargeable.

Box contents: MiniX NEO X8-H, MiniX NEO M1 Airmouse, IR remote, HDMI cable, USB cable, UK 3A PSU (+Euro adapter if ordered from mainland Europe), User Manual.

Reviews
youtube.com/wat…Zuw

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27th May 2014
£104.99 for a media streamer. Really?

We're well past the PCH/NMT days now and considering you can get a Pi-B for £35 (with card/case) and install raspbmc and have essentially the same device less the remote, this seems a bit insane. The Pi has no issues with 1080p playback or stuttering as someone mentioned earlier. Updates to raspbmc are regular and there is a good level of support.

Or any number of other streamers for £40-£50 that again will do pretty much the same as this. If you really need D/D decoding then fair enough, but most people who have 5.1 have an amp that can do the decoding anyway so there isn't a whole lot of use for it in most cases. It's not like it's a particularly special device either with cheap-as-chips standard am logic + mali Cpu/gpu.

Whats the reason these are so expensive or highly recommended over the cheaper competition?

(edited)
16th Jul 2014
Spud211
£104.99 for a media streamer. Really? We're well past the PCH/NMT days … £104.99 for a media streamer. Really? We're well past the PCH/NMT days now and considering you can get a Pi-B for £35 (with card/case) and install raspbmc and have essentially the same device less the remote, this seems a bit insane. The Pi has no issues with 1080p playback or stuttering as someone mentioned earlier. Updates to raspbmc are regular and there is a good level of support.Or any number of other streamers for £40-£50 that again will do pretty much the same as this. If you really need D/D decoding then fair enough, but most people who have 5.1 have an amp that can do the decoding anyway so there isn't a whole lot of use for it in most cases. It's not like it's a particularly special device either with cheap-as-chips standard am logic + mali Cpu/gpu.Whats the reason these are so expensive or highly recommended over the cheaper competition?

Didn't like this post due to the acronyms which aren't explained to the layperson.

Here's a definition of terms:

PCH/NMT : The PCH is Popcorn Hour and it is the physical device that most people buy to access GB-PVR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GB-PVR). The NMT
is the Syabas package (Networked Media Tank) the runs on the Popcorn Hour that really provides the software mvpmcx2 needs to run.

trustedreviews.com/sya…iew

Pi-B is lazy way of saying Raspberry Pi Model B

raspberrypi.org/

D/D : Dolby Digital Decoding

en.wikipedia.org/wik…tal

Remember when posting not everyone will know what the terms mean. There's little excuse for it. This isn't a technical forum, this is a general deals forum and therefore terms should be explained.

(edited)
16th Jul 2014
lewissymonds
Leave this alone its too expensive for cheap components, voting cold. Do … Leave this alone its too expensive for cheap components, voting cold. Do some more research before buying an android xbmc device
I may return mine after reading your unbiased opinion. Can you recommend a box that uses high quality components. You come across as the type of guy who knows his onions. I take it that you are an electronics engineer?. I am also amazed how you can tell by looking at a box what components are inside,
27th May 2014
amour3k
Thanx for your timely Reply back to me .....Your Android Box looks … Thanx for your timely Reply back to me .....Your Android Box looks verrrrrryyyyyyyy goooooooood! lol. :-)I'm a proper newbie when it comes to these Android Boxes & the like .. just curious .. if I wanted to Install XBMC onto the Android Box 'Link' you sent me, how easy is it to do this?, & how would I go about accomplishing this in the first place? .. any 'Links/Explanations' would be most helpful still ..... thanx. :-)

Sorry about the delay, have been busy with exams atm

I don't even think that you will need to install XBMC yourself onto any of these boxes, every one that I've seen/used already comes with pre-installed one way or another. For getting it set up you just need to install a bunch of add-ons for it. A video like this would help you to get started off and then after that I would just search for the best add-ons for what you want to use (e.g. if it's sports, search for 'best sports add-on XBMC' on Google) and there will be guides/videos/links there to help you install them. XBMC is near enough the same to use on any device be it PC or Android.
28th May 2014
rudy691
that mygica box looks like a rebranded sumvision cyclone - which is £55 … that mygica box looks like a rebranded sumvision cyclone - which is £55 at the moment on 7dayshop. same spec. are they any good ? seeing as its an ARM cpu, should be better with XBMC as it's supported by XBMC without fiddling about.

I've got the Sumvision box. It's actually a rebrand of the Geniatech ATV1200, which is the same as the MyGica box. You may as well forget about support from Sumvision and firmware updates. However, since it's an ATV1200 you can just install Geniatech's firmware on it as the Sumvision firmware is a bit rubbish. You can also install an updated version of XBMC on to it too (just grab the ARM version of XBMC (xbmc.org/dow…ad/). I wouldn't consider the Sumvision unless you're happy update the firmware and the version of XBMC, which isn't difficult to be fair.

There's a whole thread for getting the best out of the ATV1200 here:
forum.xbmc.org/sho…342

There's also a big HotUKDeals thread on the Sumvision (and how to achieve better results) here:
hotukdeals.com/dea…480

My Sumvision (with Geniatech's firmware on it) works great, except I've had a few issues with XBMC but most people haven't had these problems. I've just installed the latest Gotham from the XBMC download site though and applied those advanced settings that I mentioned in an previous post and it seems to be fine now. There are also some good tips for improving your XBMC experience on these boxes from a user called htpcforall on the following site:

forum.xbmc.org/sho…196

I hope that helps. Let me know if you've got any other questions though. (edited)
12th Jun 2014
I've had mine 2 days now, think I almost have it sorted. Streaming through XBMC via istream. Had to install Xunity, a right faff but done now hopefully. All latest releases
16th Jul 2014
evilsmurf99
Why not just hook your pc up to your tv with a £1 hdmi cable and download … Why not just hook your pc up to your tv with a £1 hdmi cable and download the relevant software/apps

Some people like these to run 24/7 so the power saving compared to a PC is quite significant as is the noise reduction in running this.
26th May 2014
Great specs. Too good? Any feedback from users!
27th May 2014
Got a generic Android quad-core box (RK3188 chip, listed as CS918 but actually isn't) and love it for what it is. XBMC is superb on it and when I'm not using that all the apps seem to run perfect too. Mine doesn't have spec as good as this but was less than half of this price but this has an Amlogic CPU which is a lot better suited for XBMC

Would massively recommend these to anyone looking for a device for XBMC (over a Pi, Apple TV 2 etc). As mentioned above, have no problem playing 1080p Blu Rays being streamed from my NAS.
27th May 2014
looks like a great gadget, but not sure I can do any more than my raspberry pi, which is running better all the time (with optimised software updates for the stable platform).
27th May 2014
nublets2k
There's also this - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00K11O9LO/

Minix has much better support and updates. Worths the extra £15, IMO...
27th May 2014
amour3k
Can anyone help me? .. whats a gooooood Cheap Android/XBMC Box .. thats … Can anyone help me? .. whats a gooooood Cheap Android/XBMC Box .. thats also 4K-Ready/Compatable please? .. thanx in advance. :-)

get one that doesn't have xbmc on it already and do it yourself.. takes 5 minutes... that'll cost you about £50-60 for this spec, or £20-30 for earlier standards
27th May 2014
Will this do dts-hd and master audio?
27th May 2014
No HD audio support but yet it supports 4K, very poor.
27th May 2014
Bouncypete
Could you post some links as examples please.

I've been looking at this one; cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/…dll?ViewItem&item=201089017478&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1123

RK3188 quad code chipset which mean you can run the Beyond XBMC which is optimized for the RK3188.

I was also looking at this one; ebay.co.uk/itm…240?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Same chipset running at the same speed, but has 3 usb's rather than just 2 (cos you can't have too many usb's!). But despite saying they're UK supplier they ship from HK and I can't find a real UK seller at anything close to the same price.
I think I'll be ordering the first one today.

(edited)
27th May 2014
MisterMadHatter
I'm not 100% sure but I think you'd be lucky to be honest. Sky are very … I'm not 100% sure but I think you'd be lucky to be honest. Sky are very particular with what devices you can install Sky Go on and if it's got HDMI out or the device is rooted then it spits its dummy. The reason for this is that you can potentially use it to record the media that you're streaming from Sky, which obviously has legal ramifications for them. I've read there are some unofficial Sky Go apps knocking about that might work but that's as much as I know. Perhaps somebody else knows more about the unofficial route. If you're not bothered about watching sport then there are lots of plug-ins for XBMC, such as IceFilms and 1Channel, that allow you to watch pretty much anything.

and don't forget the excellent showbox app
27th May 2014
To those saying get a Raspberry Pi I say the Pi cannot touch even 2 generation old Pivo M1 for playback let alone one of these. The Pi struggles with videos which use MPeg-2 or VC1 encoding unless you purchase a license (cheap enough but not free). Playing files from a media server has more issues so something which will play OK from a memory card may not play over the network and even some xbmc skins cause it to freeze and stutter. I never got any 3D movie to even play locally without stuttering plus you lose all the Android apps. You are going to spend £45 or more for the Pi once you buy the power supply case and a memory card and you still don't have wireless and even the LAN is limited to 100Mbit which is probably why it stutters so much when streaming from a media server.

The Raspberry Pi is great and cheap and fun to mess around with but there are too many compromises when using it as a media player.
(edited)
28th May 2014
rudy691
xbmc, maybe some games for the kids, skype if possible (i know that not … xbmc, maybe some games for the kids, skype if possible (i know that not all of the usb cameras are compatible), woudl like to connect hdd and android version of utorrent, so can download straight to the hdd, instead of downloading to my pc and stream to tv (which i do now, as im on the asus oplay mk1 still...)

What about one of these?
amazon.co.uk/And…APA

It's not quite as powerful as this deal as it only has 1GB RAM and it's not quad core but I think this is overkill anyway, especially if you're not bothered about audio decoding. I've got an even lower spec Android box and it quite happily decodes DTS and AAC. This has also got 4 USB ports. Good reviews too and by the look of it the support is good too, plus you get a 1 year extensive warranty. The box is £10 more on their website. Here's their website:

droidplayer.co.uk

I haven't got one though so I'm only going off the reviews on Amazon. You won't find any reviews on these boxes that are all positive so expect some negative reviews. It's early days for Android TV boxes but they're getting there.

This one is the little sister of the one in the deal. Not as high a spec but it has 3 USB ports and favourable reviews. It's one of the known branded ones so you would expect a good product.

amazon.co.uk/And…EPY

Or the mini version with 2 USB ports:
amazon.co.uk/MIN…E4U

The MyGica ATV1200s aren't bad boxes either and lots of people rave about them. They're about £63 on EBay (similar spec to the ones above, i.e dual core and 1GB RAM):
ebay.co.uk/itm…e2d

Perhaps someone else can chip in with some alternatives
(edited)
28th May 2014
On a side note and if anybody is interested (especially if you're experiencing laggy behaviour in XBMC on your Android box), I've added an advancedsettings.xml as follows and it's made a big impact on the speed of things, especially the user interface.

(edited)
3rd Jun 2014
mickymcd
I currently use a wdtv live connected to my nas drive which holds 4tb of … I currently use a wdtv live connected to my nas drive which holds 4tb of files at the moment its become sluggish prob due to the amount of files and cover art thumbnails etc.Would this unit be more zappier to play files generate covers etc ? thx

I have a similar setup - I turned off the cover feature, and I dont see any lag anymore.
6th Jun 2014
Hey Supesonic - you could try here, it might have what you are looking for. Hope that helps.
11th Jun 2014
youtube.com/wat…Zuw looks well part 2 soon of the review
11th Jun 2014
mickymcd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBq8UvC2Zuw looks well part 2 soon of the … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBq8UvC2Zuw looks well part 2 soon of the review

Thank you for sharing
16th Jul 2014
Futeko are good. Really good support. This is the dogs danglers and way ahead of other android streamers, plus godo support.
16th Jul 2014
chantelle310
Thinking of ordering one of these this afternoon... What are these like … Thinking of ordering one of these this afternoon... What are these like as a company? And what's the difference between this and the x8?

Bare in mind they're awaiting stock that should of arrived today. It's arriving tomorrow but had some issues with DHL. I'd wait until you can see their stock tomorrow, it's up again as a pre order now. I assume that's just because of the issue they had today.

As for the difference? It's just the CPU and storage. I took this off of the XDA forums...

"What's the difference between MINIX NEO X8 AND NEO X8H?

-The difference is the CPU (S802 VS S802-H)and Storage (8GB VS 16GB)

What is the difference between S802 and S802-H ?

-The only difference is the support for Dolby DTS video decoding .

S802 devices use XBMC or MX player S/W.to decoding the dolby and dts.

S802-H support hardware decoding dolby and dts ,which means no matter which video player you use, it will always have sound."

(edited)
16th Jul 2014
`I may return mine after reading your unbiased opinion. Can you recommend a box that uses high quality components. You come across as the type of guy who knows his onions. I take it that you are an electronics engineer?. I am also amazed how you can tell by looking at a box what components are inside`
Love the post `steviecross`. I got 1 of these, well good. (he`s probably got a chromecast)
21st Jul 2014
1616french
Just wish i could understand what these do and how it works too!
If you cant understand what these do then they clearly are not for you. In simple terms they are an android tablet without screen, your tv acts as the screen via an hdmi cable
26th Jul 2014
just ordered, thought I would give it a go...
21st Aug 2014
Spud211
£104.99 for a media streamer. Really? We're well past the PCH/NMT days … £104.99 for a media streamer. Really? We're well past the PCH/NMT days now and considering you can get a Pi-B for £35 (with card/case) and install raspbmc and have essentially the same device less the remote, this seems a bit insane. The Pi has no issues with 1080p playback or stuttering as someone mentioned earlier. Updates to raspbmc are regular and there is a good level of support.Or any number of other streamers for £40-£50 that again will do pretty much the same as this. If you really need D/D decoding then fair enough, but most people who have 5.1 have an amp that can do the decoding anyway so there isn't a whole lot of use for it in most cases. It's not like it's a particularly special device either with cheap-as-chips standard am logic + mali Cpu/gpu.Whats the reason these are so expensive or highly recommended over the cheaper competition?

Because it works out of the box, and runs rings around the PiB. It's an appliance, not a school project.
Author
26th May 2014
26th May 2014
I got the X7 about a month ago. Good bit of kit. Runs blu ray rips on xbmc out of the box
26th May 2014
dmartins13
I got the X7 about a month ago. Good bit of kit. Runs blu ray rips on … I got the X7 about a month ago. Good bit of kit. Runs blu ray rips on xbmc out of the box

Same, wish I had waited, oh well, plays everything I have chucked at mine
(edited)
26th May 2014
hot, probably better than my apple tv 3.
26th May 2014
skykid3
Same, wish I had waited, oh well, plays everything I have chucked at mine

Yeah I was a bit gutted when I saw the x8 as I'd done a bit of research before buying. Ah well, no 4k to throw at it now anyway. Worth getting the x8 though as it's cheaper than the x7! Strange move from futeko, any perks of the 7 over the 8?
26th May 2014
Tempting...
26th May 2014
dmartins13
Yeah I was a bit gutted when I saw the x8 as I'd done a bit of research … Yeah I was a bit gutted when I saw the x8 as I'd done a bit of research before buying. Ah well, no 4k to throw at it now anyway. Worth getting the x8 though as it's cheaper than the x7! Strange move from futeko, any perks of the 7 over the 8?

Not sure of any perks, I have XBMC installed with all the nice extras

Nice little articel here about the 2 new X8 models released
26th May 2014
djtrades
Great specs. Too good? Any feedback from users!

Performance would be the same as this:
youtube.com/wat…Q24

the H series of this chip simply offers hardware decoding DTS/5.1 audio whereas the vanilla Amlogic S802 does it via software:
futeko.com/pro…php

it is certainly a powerful box but doesn't offer H.265 decoding or 4K playback of anything above 24 FPS - so basically the 4K part of the machine is pretty obsolete going forward.
27th May 2014
There's also this - amazon.co.uk/gp/…LO/
27th May 2014
stapsell
looks like a great gadget, but not sure I can do any more than my … looks like a great gadget, but not sure I can do any more than my raspberry pi, which is running better all the time (with optimised software updates for the stable platform).

MINIX release regular updates
27th May 2014
rjpedrosa
Minix has much better support and updates. Worths the extra £15, IMO...

Plus that is being shipped from China - so you would probably pay more in the end ...