Every time you think television has hits its lowest ebb, a new program comes along to make you wonder where you thought the ebb was.
Art Buchwald
Television is a mass medium for entertainment, education, news, politics, gossip and advertising. Television is one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century. It is a good and healthy source of both entertainment and education. For more than 50 years, engineers and scientists invented a lot of models of television. TV’s has been very popular in society since it was developed in the 1940s. People have considered it as a gift which engineers and scientists brought for them.
Without a doubt, television has played an important role in our daily life, and it is beneficial to people in several ways. In 21st century android has taken over all the streaming services by connecting people with online streaming services. With the popularity of online shows the mass media shifted to mobile devices. Therefore, TV manufacturers copied the concept of android mobiles and put that into a bigger screen. People were very happy to see that they can now stream on a bigger screen rather than a low resolution small screen. As you know, the bigger screen tends to indulge the viewer more into the content.
Android TVs became popular just like your mobile devices. People buying new TVs focus on Android TVs now but the prices of Android TVs are too high as compared to the prices of a normal LED TV or any TV in the market. Some of us might not be able to afford such expensive TV’s but still want the experience. So rather than going for Android TV, we bring to you a solution on how you can upgrade your existing TV to experience the Android TV with minimal cost.
Solution – Smart Box/Stick
Worry not friends I have a wonderful solution for all of you out there. So here we will introduce to a new gadget that is Smart TV Box/Stick. Some of you might know about this technology but stay tuned to know the advantages.
Smart Box/Stick is especially a portable device just like set-top box of your television provided by your network operator. This device connects to your TV via HDMI port and gives almost lag free connection. Due to connection via HDMI you can use it with your computer screen which supports HDMI. Now there is a difference in stick and box. Here we will explain them by showing two different types of products from the market that are currently available and you can purchase them any time. All these alternatives are very affordable and may become the future of TV streaming services.
Amazon Fire Stick
Amazon Fire TV stick is slowly becoming popular in the television market. This device basically is replica of smart TV’s out there but in a better way. However, unlike other smart TV’s you get much more flexibility with usage and applications.
The stick comes with its own power adapter and remote with Alexa voice control. As shown in the picture it’s a small dongle which connects through HDMI port of your TV. We will not bore you with hardware specifications as most of you don’t need to know instead the experience is what matters here more. So let’s jump into the advantages of this Amazon Stick.
- Easy and portable. It can be mounted on any TV(with HDMI port) you like and can be taken away with you wherever you travel (say friends house).
- Comes with remote for navigation and Alexa assistant support for voice commands.
- Built in Wi-Fi adapter to connect to hotspot of your house/ mobile.
- You can download almost every streaming application out there including Amazon’s prime applications. For example Netflix, Sony Liv, Jio Cinema, YouTube etc can be installed provided you have subscription to watch them.
- Screen-cast your mobile screen via in-built screen-mirroring option provided your phone supports casting. Although it doesn’t have high refresh rate, you can cast games like PUBG too but for video content the connection is lag free.
- East to navigate GUI (User Interface) for smooth experience with built-in help guide in case you need one.
- Two variants with Full HD (Rs. 3999/-) and 4K (Rs. 5999/-) option are available. Choose according your TV screen resolution.
You can purchase it from this link – Amazon Fire TV Stick
Airtel Xstream Box
Airtel has spent many years now in the DTH industry with its own dish services and many people have been using it since it’s launch. Just like any DTH service it has good connection and services compared to its price. They also introduced built-in record option to record your TV shows to watch it later at some point.
After an upgrading demand of smart TVs, Airtel has come up with its own smart set-top box. This box can run on both DTH and internet connection which is a USP for its price. Let’s begin with the advantages.
- Size of the box is similar regular set-top boxes yet it’s light weight and easily portable.
- Comes with remote for navigation and Google Assistant for voice support.
- Built-in Wi-Fi adapter to connect to hotspot of your house/ mobile.
- You will get free DTH services for 1 month and Airtel Xstream subscription for 1 year out of the box.
- It has Android Play Store support. You can download almost every streaming application out there and play like Netflix, Sony Liv, YouTube etc provided you have subscription to watch them.
- Screen-cast your mobile screen via inbuilt screen-mirroring option provided your phone supports casting. Although it doesn’t have high refresh rate, you can cast games like PUBG too but for video content the connection is lag free.
- East to navigate GUI (User Interface) for smooth experience with built in help guide in case you need one.
- Supports 4K out of the box. Screen resolution changes according to video quality or you can change it for any online video in playback settings.
- East to navigate user interface with a price for just only Rs. 3699/-*.
You can purchase it from this link – Airtel Xstream Box
Rampotox MXQ Pro
MX Pro has recently become popular as a powerful android TV Box which can be attached to any TV just Amazon Fire Stick. Unlike Stick, it’s a box like structure like your set-top box from cable/dish providers but in size it’s comparable to a floppy disk.
On the contrary it’s an android box which has an unlimited number of applications to choose from. One of the key highlights of this product is that it’s an Indian brand . With a minimalistic look it can hide in any corner of TV table and yet give you comfortable and smooth experience. So let’s hop into the advantages and see if it’s value for money or not.
- Size is comparable to palm of your hands. It can be mounted on any TV(with HDMI port) you like and can be taken away with you wherever you travel (say friends house).
- Comes with remote for navigation and with no voice commands.
- Built in Wi-Fi adapter to connect to hotspot of your house/ mobile.
- It has built in storage with 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM. It supports external storage devices (like pen drive).
- It has android Nougat-7.1 with Play Store support. You can download almost any app and use it on your TV.
- Supports 4K out of the box. Screen resolution changes according to video quality or you can change it for any online video in playback settings.
- Ports on the box are as follows.
- USB Port: 2 x USB Host.
- LAN OUT: 1 x RJ45 (100M).
- HDMI OUT: 1 x HDMI 2.0. (HDMI cable included in the box)
- Micro SD: 1 x SD card slot
- Power Supply: 1 x DC Jack (Power adapter included in the box)
- Screen-cast your mobile screen via inbuilt screen-mirroring option provided your phone supports casting. Although it doesn’t have high refresh rate, you can cast games like PUBG too but for video content, the connection is lag free.
- East to navigate user interface with a price for just only Rs. 2599/-*.
You can purchase it from this link – Rampotox MXQ Pro 4K Android TV
Systene H96 MAX
Systene H96 max is as similar as MX pro and it is also an Indian product. Although the company address is not clear on internet but it’s an Indian brand according to the address provided. H96 Max is in a way an upgraded version of MX Pro.
Let’s see what this device can do and how it’s better than the MX Pro discussed above. The advantages of this device are :
- Size’s the same but slimmer than MX Pro. It can be connected to any TV(with HDMI port) you like and can be taken away with you wherever you travel (say friends house).
- Looks modern in respective of other devices out there.
- Comes with remote for navigation and sadly no voice commands.
- Built in Wi-Fi adapter to connect to hotspot of your house/ mobile.
- It has built in storage with 2 GB RAm and 32 GB ROM. It supports external storage devices (like pen drive).
- It has android Nougat-7.1 with Play Store support. You can download almost any app and use it on your TV.
- Supports 4K out of the box. Screen resolution changes according to video quality or you can change it for any online video in playback settings.
- Ports on the box are as follows.
- USB Port: 2 x USB Host.
- LAN OUT: 1 x RJ45 (100M)
- HDMI OUT: 1 x HDMI 2.0. (HDMI cable included in the box)
- Micro SD: 1 x SD card slot
- Power Supply: 1 x DC Jack (Power adapter included in the box)
- Screen-cast your mobile screen via inbuilt screen-mirroring option provided your phone supports casting. Although it doesn’t have high refresh rate, you can cast games like PUBG too but for video content the connection is lag free.
- East to navigate user interface with a price for just only Rs. 3599/-*.
Systene has many options available with different android OS and memory support. Some of them are listed below. You can click on the link to buy any of these.
- Systene H96 MAX Android TV Box
- Systene X96Q Allwinner Android TV Box
- Systene X88 Pro 10 Android TV Box
Systene continuously produces new devices with upgraded hardware and Android OS. Choose wisely among the products according to need and affordability.
These smart devices are manufactured with content watching in mind so please don’t try to install any games on these devices and the chipset is not as strong as your mobile devices. You can always use screen-mirroring for playing games but please avoid installing them in these devices. Also, the disadvantage of most smart stick and boxes are that unlike Airtel Xstream Box they cannot support DTH services. For DTH services to be working you need a regular cable subscription.
In this article we included only three devices just to spread the awareness of these awesome products which can save your money giving you a better upgrades to your existing TV. On a note of suggestion those who are in a mood to buy a new television for whatever might be the reason, they can buy a non-Android TV and pair it with any of these devices which will also save them money compared to ready-made Android TVs.
Under our PM Modi Ji’s Make In India vision tech giant Jio has also started working on smart TV experience with their upcoming all in one OTT media platform for streaming with ease and comfort. Jio is bringing up Jio TV+ where all famous streaming apps such as Netflix, Disney+Hotstar etc. will be available at one place including all JIO apps. This service will be provided with their existing Jio TV BOX. We will be updating on the same as soon as the services goes online.
*Prices may vary on the seller end. Buy when prices are low.
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