Capt.Kangaroo
05-21-2015, 09:36 PM
http://www.tvaddons.ag/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/androidtv_appletv2.jpg
By TV ADDONS Staff | May 21, 2015
About a month and a half ago I started using this M8 Amlogic S802 that I picked up from DroidPlayer.co.uk and it’s going pretty well. It got me thinking, Android TV support has now far outgrown that of the Jailbroken Apple TV 2 in terms of all around Kodi functionality. In fact, the XBMC Foundation has discontinued compatibility for the Apple TV 2 in future releases, so users of these devices probably only have about a year of quality use left regardless. Many of us were first introduced to XBMC through the Apple TV 2 and find it hard to leave our beloved device, but the truth is, Android TV now surpasses it on every which level.
No jailbreak necessary: Android is all about open source, whereas Apple is not. On the Android TV, you can by default install any Android app, either through the Google Play store, or by sideloading the application; which is still pretty easy to do. It doesn’t come to any surprise that it would probably be a better idea to run Kodi on a device that wants to run third party apps, as opposed to one that doesn’t at all. Jailbreaking has it’s own set of complications, sometimes resulting in hours of annoyances to the user. In terms of development of XBMC for the Apple TV 2, it became harder and harder, and required more and more “quick patches” and what not to get it to work.
Some of you may not have realized, but the Apple TV 2 wasn’t capable of playing high definition content properly through XBMC. It would either crash right off the bat, or crash half way through the movie almost every time. This was because it didn’t have enough device memory, nor enough processing power to handle 1080P streams at all, nor 720P streams most of the time. Android TV features both more processing power for high definition content, and more memory so that it can support high definition buffering with ease. These days all I watch is HD, there are streams available everywhere in high quality.
I’ll repeat it again: less buffering! Android TV devices offer a lot more memory than the Apple TV 2 does, that will help a lot with buffering. I’ve tried watching the same streams on both the Apple TV 2 and an Android TV device and the difference was highly noticeable. Android TV devices will buffer nowhere near as much and will play a lot more smoothly as a result. You’ll also be able to install many more applications on an Android TV, whereas the Apple TV 2 just doesn’t offer enough hard drive space for that.
There are literally thousands of cool Android apps and GAMES that are compatible with any Android TV device, whereas with the Jailbroken Apple TV 2 you’ll basically only have access to Kodi, NetFlix and iTunes. I don’t know about you, but personally I like the idea of freedom and choice, especially to compliment my existing Kodi setup, and provide more television oriented entertainment options. Just look through the Google Play store (most good stuff is free anyway) and see for yourself, the options are endless. Some apps aren’t available through Google Play, and those can easily be sideloaded anyway, even with a more “sandboxed” Android TV based device such as the Amazon Fire TV.
There are all kinds of other reasons why you’d want to choose an Android TV over an Apple TV 2, but the main thing is that future versions of Kodi will no longer be compatible with the Apple TV 2. Usually you can run one version level behind the latest release and still enjoy a pretty good Kodi experience, so that you probably won’t be able to enjoy a quality Kodi experience on the Apple TV 2 for much longer anyway, so it’s probably a good idea to start researching your Android TV device options beforehand.
One last thing we forgot to mention, with an Android TV if you encounter serious issues with Kodi, you can simply factory restore the device to fix everything, and you’ll be left with a ready for Kodi virgin configuration. With the Apple TV 2 you wouldn’t have had to go through the hassles of jailbreaking the device again, and encountering all the potential issues that commonly follow suite. I’ll be doing another post shortly which gives a broader array of Android TV device options, but for now you’ll probably want to look into the M8 Amlogic S802 and the Amazon Fire TV as potential options, and of course visit our Forums to ask any questions you may have.
Source:
http://www.tvaddons.ag/compare-android-atv2/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
By TV ADDONS Staff | May 21, 2015
About a month and a half ago I started using this M8 Amlogic S802 that I picked up from DroidPlayer.co.uk and it’s going pretty well. It got me thinking, Android TV support has now far outgrown that of the Jailbroken Apple TV 2 in terms of all around Kodi functionality. In fact, the XBMC Foundation has discontinued compatibility for the Apple TV 2 in future releases, so users of these devices probably only have about a year of quality use left regardless. Many of us were first introduced to XBMC through the Apple TV 2 and find it hard to leave our beloved device, but the truth is, Android TV now surpasses it on every which level.
No jailbreak necessary: Android is all about open source, whereas Apple is not. On the Android TV, you can by default install any Android app, either through the Google Play store, or by sideloading the application; which is still pretty easy to do. It doesn’t come to any surprise that it would probably be a better idea to run Kodi on a device that wants to run third party apps, as opposed to one that doesn’t at all. Jailbreaking has it’s own set of complications, sometimes resulting in hours of annoyances to the user. In terms of development of XBMC for the Apple TV 2, it became harder and harder, and required more and more “quick patches” and what not to get it to work.
Some of you may not have realized, but the Apple TV 2 wasn’t capable of playing high definition content properly through XBMC. It would either crash right off the bat, or crash half way through the movie almost every time. This was because it didn’t have enough device memory, nor enough processing power to handle 1080P streams at all, nor 720P streams most of the time. Android TV features both more processing power for high definition content, and more memory so that it can support high definition buffering with ease. These days all I watch is HD, there are streams available everywhere in high quality.
I’ll repeat it again: less buffering! Android TV devices offer a lot more memory than the Apple TV 2 does, that will help a lot with buffering. I’ve tried watching the same streams on both the Apple TV 2 and an Android TV device and the difference was highly noticeable. Android TV devices will buffer nowhere near as much and will play a lot more smoothly as a result. You’ll also be able to install many more applications on an Android TV, whereas the Apple TV 2 just doesn’t offer enough hard drive space for that.
There are literally thousands of cool Android apps and GAMES that are compatible with any Android TV device, whereas with the Jailbroken Apple TV 2 you’ll basically only have access to Kodi, NetFlix and iTunes. I don’t know about you, but personally I like the idea of freedom and choice, especially to compliment my existing Kodi setup, and provide more television oriented entertainment options. Just look through the Google Play store (most good stuff is free anyway) and see for yourself, the options are endless. Some apps aren’t available through Google Play, and those can easily be sideloaded anyway, even with a more “sandboxed” Android TV based device such as the Amazon Fire TV.
There are all kinds of other reasons why you’d want to choose an Android TV over an Apple TV 2, but the main thing is that future versions of Kodi will no longer be compatible with the Apple TV 2. Usually you can run one version level behind the latest release and still enjoy a pretty good Kodi experience, so that you probably won’t be able to enjoy a quality Kodi experience on the Apple TV 2 for much longer anyway, so it’s probably a good idea to start researching your Android TV device options beforehand.
One last thing we forgot to mention, with an Android TV if you encounter serious issues with Kodi, you can simply factory restore the device to fix everything, and you’ll be left with a ready for Kodi virgin configuration. With the Apple TV 2 you wouldn’t have had to go through the hassles of jailbreaking the device again, and encountering all the potential issues that commonly follow suite. I’ll be doing another post shortly which gives a broader array of Android TV device options, but for now you’ll probably want to look into the M8 Amlogic S802 and the Amazon Fire TV as potential options, and of course visit our Forums to ask any questions you may have.
Source:
http://www.tvaddons.ag/compare-android-atv2/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
