U4 Quad Hybrid Android TV Box Unboxing and Teardown with DVB-T2, DVB-S2 and ATSC Tune

[cabken]

For anyone about to order on Aliexpress, there is a US$8 coupon available (expires today?) for linking your cc to Alipay. My order worked out to AUD$150.99 with the coupon and DHL.

[ol' boy]

General Update

As an overall update
I will say, the more i have pushed the box, plugged and unplaugged USB drives, Thumb Drives and Added Apps and Side Loaded Apps, the more i have seen the box lock up and freeze.
Needing a full power cycle to get going again.
Today, i had the box freeze twice just booting
This had never happened before

Now, in saying this, i am running a Beta Firmware thats not publicly available
So i might go back a version to a stable version.

Lets also not forget, this is a new product, there will be bugs, but the people behind the unit are continuing to write new firmware, another to be released next week.
I think we all remember what the the DM7000 was like for the first year or so, at least the U4 is no where near that bad.

Linux and OpenElec will be good to see.

To add, LAN file playing was ok
I searched for and played a 6.4Gb file from my Vu+ Ultimo (Recorded MotoGP .ts file)
File played on the U4 default player
It also allowed me to seek at 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x and 32x speeds without failing like some boxes can.
Played the file for 30minutes (half the race), then it stopped unexpectedly

Hard to diagnose why this happened, but i will say my M8 and WDTV can and would do the same thing, so perhaps hard to point the finger.

[JasonC]

if only it had gigabit lan
otherwise seems very versatile

[ol' boy]

I struggle to see where a Gigabit lan is needed?
Please tell us how that is a negative for you?

I ask, as i am yet to see where a 10/100 LAN has let me down
Bulk file transfer is all i can think.

[slippery49]

well my box has arrived so I can have a play,

initial setup pretty simple.

going through menus is interesting, ability of 3G

scanned in channels no issues at all,

will play with the cams and mount the NAS to see how it all runs along.

well nas mounted nothing to hard there,

can the channel list be sorted?

[ol' boy]

can the channel list be sorted?

Yes, there are multiple ways

Have a read here:

I didnt follow the above, i just used Favourites and labelled them "Sports, Movies, News, etc" and used HTS do edit them

[ol' boy]

initial setup pretty simple.

scanned in channels no issues at all,

well nas mounted nothing to hard there,

Yes, the initial set up is SO easy, its almost underwhelming
Nothing like the series of steps you need to go through with an E2 box like the Vu+ or Dreambox

[slippery49]

I will be interested in when openelec is released to suit,
I like to play and break things a few times

[otava5]

Hello .
1.Can this box DVB - T2 HEVC ?
2.You can record to a NAS ?
3.He has a Czech language?
4.How fast is switching to HD channels ?

Thank you

[ol' boy]

Hello .
1.Can this box DVB - T2 HEVC ?
2.You can record to a NAS ?
3.He has a Czech language?
4.How fast is switching to HD channels ?

Thank you

Yes to all

[Bobby Slogger]

I'm hoping to play around with it further over the weekend. I've installed the box at my in-laws but they are not very tech savvy so I need to streamline a few things for them. I left it on the other day so curious to see if it is still running.

BS

[JasonC]

at OB, I'm on 100Mbps (internet)
it does make a difference
the MAX throughput on 10/100 is real world conditions is less than 100Mbps

[jimbo123]

at OB, I'm on 100Mbps (internet)
it does make a difference
the MAX throughput on 10/100 is real world conditions is less than 100Mbps

Sooooo,.. If your Internet constrains you to 100MB, unless you're doing high throughput local file transfers what value would a faster NIC give you? Aside of maybe being able to flood your router quicker?

[ol' boy]

at OB, I'm on 100Mbps (internet)
it does make a difference
the MAX throughput on 10/100 is real world conditions is less than 100Mbps

Watch many 100Mbps TV Streams?
Or as you say, in the real world, that might be screwed down to 12Mbps transfer rate

What streams do you watch that max out a 10/100 wired LAN?
As most hard drives can only serve at 50/60Mbps, i would have thought that was the natural ceiling speed for streaming?

Most of the retail Streaming services will work on a 10/100 network, you must watch a lot of Ultra 4K in raw format Jason?
I agree, a Giga LAN interface would have been better, i'm just wondering where you come unstuck using a media player or IPTV box with a 10/100 connection?

[mkhannah]

Anyone who has got one of these have a wife? Are they compatible?

[Dishtrackted]

Good question my wife wants one

[Mattsat]

Anyone who has got one of these have a wife? Are they compatible?

I usually find that electronic devices that may freeze one of more times are not compatible with wives.

[ol' boy]

Anyone who has got one of these have a wife? Are they compatible?

My Missus can use it and even commented how easy it was, and liked the rocker style volume button.
You can feel it in the dark..... The volume button i mean

Really, it is no harder than any off the shelf HD TV set top box.
It operates just the same.

In fact, it changes channels faster than my Samsung Series 6 and the EPG is almost instant (the samsung takes literally minutes!)

But, thats my view, enough other members have the box by now, lets see what they have to say.

[Bludger]

PVR function

Press the "record" button on remote
Use the arrows to set up your recording destination if it is your first time.
I set it up to record on a NAS over wired LAN.
Recording will then start
To stop recording, just hit the stop buttoneate a folder for each channel you record from, eg: "9HD Melbourne"
With in that folder you will find your recording and subsequent recordings under that channel.

Are you able to record an IPTV stream as well?

Thanks for the great review oceanboy

[ol' boy]

Geez.... thats a good question, i have no idea.
I'll go a check.

The answer is No

And i kind of wonder why you'd want to record an IPTV stream, i'm sure you could find it online to download, even if it were a live sport event.