[kwlug-disc] Android boxes

[Charles McColm]

While I own a Zoomtak T8H and it's still working okay I'd recommend against purchasing a Zoomtak box. There's a great video of the Zoomtak factory tour that lured me in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rzxaQ7vBJI

It's pretty neat seeing the internal process of them being built, but there are some things worth noting about the Zoomtak boxes. While there is a Canadian web site, and there is a limited warranty on their boxes they don't seem particularly concerned with customer service. I've contacted them a few times without any response. There's also some somewhat misleading statements on their web site (FAQ), things like KODI being developed by Microsoft (it's not), and the fact that Zoomtak engineers release updates once a month. Technically they might release an update once a month, but it's not an Android or KODI update, but an update to the "KODI build" (read collection of add-ons for watching movies/tv). Since buying my box almost two years ago they've only released one update for KODI (which is still sitting at 17.3). 17.6 has been out a long time.

When I contrast that with the MyGica box I bought years ago the support and updates were way better on both accounts, and they seem to also have pretty active forums.

Gary I'm surprised you did well with the Zotac ZBox, did it have a Core iSeries processor? I found their low end (Celeron) boxes to be pretty feeble even running Xubuntu. Adding an SSD improved things, but it was nothing like PC performance.



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