Live TV in HK, a whole new level
A few weeks ago I had written about looking into buying a TV streaming media box.
I decided against the UKTV box, basically due to ongoing costs.
Through the helpful people on the Hong Kong Geoexpat forum another media box was brought to my attention, basically an Android media box. There are literally hundreds of these types of Android boxes out there, but the one suggested by one of the members of Geoexpat did peek my interest.
Basically I was now debating whether to buy the Maige box or this Android box. The way I saw it the Maigie boxes benefits was that it was purely a live streaming service and would have lots more channels. However the Android box would have the ability to do much more, such as adding additional apps (like for example the Plex app).
Where to buy - SSP Apliu Street
Last weekend I ended up heading to Sham Shui Po to check out both boxes. According to the forums a market stall seller on Apliu Street was selling these boxes. The instructions were to take exit C2 at SSP MTR station and take a right, with the stall being about 50 metres up, on the left hand side. Another helpful Geoexpat member has sent a Google Maps link with the location: http://goo.gl/maps/eRLvS.
I found the stall quite easily, here is a picture of the stall:
There were a bunch of other sellers on Apliu Street selling streaming boxes, but only this seller was selling the Maigie box. Two stalls down, an example of another seller selling Android boxes:
I played around with both the Maige box and the Android box and remained undecided. The seller's English wasn't the best but he was generally a friendly chap. He offered the Maige box for HK$2,200 (I have heard from others that he sometimes starts at a higher price, but with me, he offered it at HK2,200 straight away). He was offering the Android box for HK$1,200.
In a moment of weakness I ended up buying both boxes!! Total price for the two boxes was HK$3,200.
The Boxes
Here are pictures of the boxes side by side (left is the Android and right is the Maige):
Here is a picture of their remotes (left Android, right Maige):
And a photo of the packaging they came in (top Maige, bottom Android):
Maige
The Maige box came with a power cable (China two pin), video cables, HDMI cable, ethernet cable and a remote control. As you can see from the back of the box the inputs include standard video, digital and HDMI. You connect the box to the internet via ethernet, there is an optional USB wifi dongle, which the man at the market stall will sell you for around HK$60.
When turning the Maige box on, everything was in Chinese. I was able to find my way into the settings section and change to English.
Here is the main screen for the Maige:
As you can see, even though I changed the settings to English, the information is partly in Chinese. As you can see there are four basic options, TV, On demand, Player and Settings. The Player option allows you to connect an external hard drive and play content from that drive.
The On demand section refers to video on demand. This contains a bunch of movies and TV shows available on demand. Most of them are Chinese but there is some English content. All the content descriptions are in Chinese, so you have to keep an eye out for the box art to see if its an English language program.
Now onto the main act, the TV section. This is where we can access literally hundreds of live streaming TV channels. The menu and EPG information is all in Chinese, so you have rely on the icons to see if you recognise the TV channels. The sections are broken down in type of channel and also region (like Japanese, HK, etc):
The ent and sport sections are probably of most interest to expats in HK, below is a screenshot of the ent section to give you an idea of some of the channels covered:
Navigation with the remote has been a bit of an adventure as most of the remote is in Chinese. I was able to sync the remote to my Harmony Device, so that has helped, but it hasn't mapped 100% and may need some refinment.
Moving around the TV section was sometimes a bit slow, but overall not too much of an issue. Video quality has been pretty good. I have experienced freezing one time, but the feed was picked up again within about 15 seconds.
The feeds for HBO, Star, etc seem to be the same as Now TV, so I think these would be the feeds coming from Singapore for the English language channels anyway.
Although not indicated anywhere in the UI, the Magie service is free for the first year, then there is a RMB499 yearly charge
Android box
The Android box came with a power cable (Chinese two prong), video cables and a wifi extender (no HDMI cable or ethernet cable included in the box). From the picture you will see it has two USB slots. You connect the device to the internet via either ethernet or wifi.
This box is basically an Android media box running a customised AOSP 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) ROM. I think the box is by Allwinner (a company that is known to make cheap Android tablets) and is running an ARM dual core processor with about 1GB memory:
Like with the Maige box, when you turn the Android box on, everything was in Chinese. I was able to make my way into the Android settings section and change the system language to English.
Here is the front screen of the Android box:
The main options are HD Live TV, Live TV and VOD. Like the Maige box, the VOD section is a range of movies and TV shows, mainly Chinese but some English. Everything is in Chinese so you have to figure out if the actual video is in the English language through the box art. The live TV section seems to be live TV feeds to a bunch of PRC channels. There are also other VOD and TV apps, but most of these are in Chinese. The HD Live app is where you will find the live TV feeds of a range of channels, including about 40 odd English language channels.
The quality is pretty good again, however I am struggling one specific channel, AXN HD. Basically I get no sound and the service always buffers with this channel. Apart from that, all other channels seem fine. The channel choice is not as extensive as the Maige box, but it is still quite solid. Again, as with the Maige, I think the feeds are coming from Singapore. I also, however think this is a subscription service, with the first one odd year free:
As this box is an Android device, it is much more versatile in terms of additional features than the Maige box. It even has its own app store:
You are also able to install apps manually via apks, either by downloading through the included web browser or via a USB stick. Through this I was able to download the Plex app, and was able to play my own content through the device:
Playback wasn't too bad at all, although once in a while it would sometimes stutter, but I think part of the reason is that this box isn't the most powerful.
I should also add the remote control that came with the device has been very good, it works will with the Android box and navigation is very easy with it. I have, as yet, not tried to program this remote with my Harmony remote.
Overall the Android box has been pretty solid, although I am a bit frustrated that the AXN HD channel doesn't work so well. There were other sellers selling Android media boxes from HK$500 all the way up to HK$2,000 and they all seem to be very similar. The top end boxes probably have better processors and they all have different custom ROMs and a variation of installed apps. I did test out other Android boxes, and I think the one I bought had a very solid UI and custom ROM, so I think it was priced about right.
Conclusion
So which device is better? Really hard to say!!! The Maige is a pure watching TV device, and nothing more. It has many channels and the picture quality is pretty solid. The Android box on the other hand is, well, an Android device. This means it is quite versatile and can be more than just a TV device. The TV service provided is pretty good, while not having as many channels as the Maige box. Also the ability to install other apps is very appealing (well for someone like me who enjoys tinkering). Also it is HK$1,000 cheaper than the Maige box.
I think it comes down to this, if you want a device purely to watch TV, then get the Maige box, but if you want a device where you want to watch TV (but with a smaller selection of channels) but also the ability to add other apps, then get the Android box. But regardless of which one you choose, they are both great devices and much much more cheaper than a Now TV subscription.
I decided against the UKTV box, basically due to ongoing costs.
Through the helpful people on the Hong Kong Geoexpat forum another media box was brought to my attention, basically an Android media box. There are literally hundreds of these types of Android boxes out there, but the one suggested by one of the members of Geoexpat did peek my interest.
Basically I was now debating whether to buy the Maige box or this Android box. The way I saw it the Maigie boxes benefits was that it was purely a live streaming service and would have lots more channels. However the Android box would have the ability to do much more, such as adding additional apps (like for example the Plex app).
Where to buy - SSP Apliu Street
Last weekend I ended up heading to Sham Shui Po to check out both boxes. According to the forums a market stall seller on Apliu Street was selling these boxes. The instructions were to take exit C2 at SSP MTR station and take a right, with the stall being about 50 metres up, on the left hand side. Another helpful Geoexpat member has sent a Google Maps link with the location: http://goo.gl/maps/eRLvS.
I found the stall quite easily, here is a picture of the stall:
There were a bunch of other sellers on Apliu Street selling streaming boxes, but only this seller was selling the Maigie box. Two stalls down, an example of another seller selling Android boxes:
In a moment of weakness I ended up buying both boxes!! Total price for the two boxes was HK$3,200.
The Boxes
Here are pictures of the boxes side by side (left is the Android and right is the Maige):
Here is a picture of their remotes (left Android, right Maige):
Maige
The Maige box came with a power cable (China two pin), video cables, HDMI cable, ethernet cable and a remote control. As you can see from the back of the box the inputs include standard video, digital and HDMI. You connect the box to the internet via ethernet, there is an optional USB wifi dongle, which the man at the market stall will sell you for around HK$60.
When turning the Maige box on, everything was in Chinese. I was able to find my way into the settings section and change to English.
Here is the main screen for the Maige:
As you can see, even though I changed the settings to English, the information is partly in Chinese. As you can see there are four basic options, TV, On demand, Player and Settings. The Player option allows you to connect an external hard drive and play content from that drive.
The On demand section refers to video on demand. This contains a bunch of movies and TV shows available on demand. Most of them are Chinese but there is some English content. All the content descriptions are in Chinese, so you have to keep an eye out for the box art to see if its an English language program.
Now onto the main act, the TV section. This is where we can access literally hundreds of live streaming TV channels. The menu and EPG information is all in Chinese, so you have rely on the icons to see if you recognise the TV channels. The sections are broken down in type of channel and also region (like Japanese, HK, etc):
The ent and sport sections are probably of most interest to expats in HK, below is a screenshot of the ent section to give you an idea of some of the channels covered:
Navigation with the remote has been a bit of an adventure as most of the remote is in Chinese. I was able to sync the remote to my Harmony Device, so that has helped, but it hasn't mapped 100% and may need some refinment.
Moving around the TV section was sometimes a bit slow, but overall not too much of an issue. Video quality has been pretty good. I have experienced freezing one time, but the feed was picked up again within about 15 seconds.
The feeds for HBO, Star, etc seem to be the same as Now TV, so I think these would be the feeds coming from Singapore for the English language channels anyway.
Although not indicated anywhere in the UI, the Magie service is free for the first year, then there is a RMB499 yearly charge
Android box
The Android box came with a power cable (Chinese two prong), video cables and a wifi extender (no HDMI cable or ethernet cable included in the box). From the picture you will see it has two USB slots. You connect the device to the internet via either ethernet or wifi.
This box is basically an Android media box running a customised AOSP 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) ROM. I think the box is by Allwinner (a company that is known to make cheap Android tablets) and is running an ARM dual core processor with about 1GB memory:
However, again like with the Maige box, a lot of the navigation around the box is in Chinese. As this is an Android box, basically what the manufacturer of the box has done is created a customised ROM and added their own "skin" on top of the standard AOSP Android ROM. You will see from the below screen shot the apps that the manfactuer has added (apart from Plex, which I added on my own, will explain later):
The main options are HD Live TV, Live TV and VOD. Like the Maige box, the VOD section is a range of movies and TV shows, mainly Chinese but some English. Everything is in Chinese so you have to figure out if the actual video is in the English language through the box art. The live TV section seems to be live TV feeds to a bunch of PRC channels. There are also other VOD and TV apps, but most of these are in Chinese. The HD Live app is where you will find the live TV feeds of a range of channels, including about 40 odd English language channels.
The quality is pretty good again, however I am struggling one specific channel, AXN HD. Basically I get no sound and the service always buffers with this channel. Apart from that, all other channels seem fine. The channel choice is not as extensive as the Maige box, but it is still quite solid. Again, as with the Maige, I think the feeds are coming from Singapore. I also, however think this is a subscription service, with the first one odd year free:
As this box is an Android device, it is much more versatile in terms of additional features than the Maige box. It even has its own app store:
You are also able to install apps manually via apks, either by downloading through the included web browser or via a USB stick. Through this I was able to download the Plex app, and was able to play my own content through the device:
I should also add the remote control that came with the device has been very good, it works will with the Android box and navigation is very easy with it. I have, as yet, not tried to program this remote with my Harmony remote.
Overall the Android box has been pretty solid, although I am a bit frustrated that the AXN HD channel doesn't work so well. There were other sellers selling Android media boxes from HK$500 all the way up to HK$2,000 and they all seem to be very similar. The top end boxes probably have better processors and they all have different custom ROMs and a variation of installed apps. I did test out other Android boxes, and I think the one I bought had a very solid UI and custom ROM, so I think it was priced about right.
Conclusion
So which device is better? Really hard to say!!! The Maige is a pure watching TV device, and nothing more. It has many channels and the picture quality is pretty solid. The Android box on the other hand is, well, an Android device. This means it is quite versatile and can be more than just a TV device. The TV service provided is pretty good, while not having as many channels as the Maige box. Also the ability to install other apps is very appealing (well for someone like me who enjoys tinkering). Also it is HK$1,000 cheaper than the Maige box.
I think it comes down to this, if you want a device purely to watch TV, then get the Maige box, but if you want a device where you want to watch TV (but with a smaller selection of channels) but also the ability to add other apps, then get the Android box. But regardless of which one you choose, they are both great devices and much much more cheaper than a Now TV subscription.
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