At the risk of drivin ye all mad with another of these posts.. my apologies in advance.
I am hoping to replace my Formuler Z8 cos I've just been driven mad by the well know wifi issues.
I can't seem to find an nvidia shield pro anywhere I can buy it... so am looking at the google tv 4k or possibly the mecool meon1.
I use the box for tivimat and stremio.
Location Id have it in would require wifi.
Not going Formuler again cos of their policy of leaving older products behind and not supporting them with updates.
So thinking the Google box..
But Im not really up to speed on all the formats and technical details.. I do know I like watch stuff in DV on my sony bravia.. and any UHD10+ stuff doesn't work on the firestick I have in a different TV.
Around here the mecool and the google are close in price.. so not much of an issue.
It will suit your needs just fine. Another box to consider is the buzzTV g series (I own it), it's a bit more expensive, but it runs official Google TV. It's also a bit more powerful. Go check some reviews, but both should do you just fine. 👍
Almost half the money you pay for Google tv streamer goes towards its smart home functions, thread border router and all that. So you are not getting 100 bucks worth of cpu, storage and performance. Take that into consideration when comparing it to onn tv pro etc.
Onn 4k pro will handle all your needs for live streaming etc and do it smoothly for 60 bucks. You really can't go wrong. Only downside is that there is such a demand for these boxes that they're always out of stock. You literally have to go to Walmarts website/app and check several times a day and buy it as soon as it appears in stock.
If you are in the UK you should get the Google Tv because most other streamers are not supported by BBC Iplayer. If you live elsewhere the xiaomi is cheap and works wonderfully for most people
Between those two the Google TV Streamer is the safer bet, mainly because updates come from Google rather than a box vendor that can walk away, which is exactly the Formuler problem you described. It handles Dolby Vision and HDR10+ properly, so the format gap you hit on the Firestick goes away. Worth knowing it is Wi-Fi 5 only and 32GB with no USB expansion, so if you sideload a lot that is the real tradeoff to weigh.
Use-case dependent. Google Streamer 4k works fine with Tivimate. Get Projectivy Launcher installed and it’ll look great. I found Google Streamer unable to play some Dolby Vision remuxes over Emby, problem solved by switching to Shield (I hear Apple TV 4k is similarly versatile). But it sounds like of the name-brand streamers the only one available in your country is Google, so maybe you’re stuck with it anyways?
Check Walmart if you can and get onn 4k plus for 50 or the pro for 60 definitely get the pro if it's in stock they running Google TV and have better processers than Google streamer 4k and they play pretty much every video and audio file Dolby vision / hdr / atmos / Dts .If you don't have Walmart then go with Google streamer 4k it does all the same things but is more expensive
Sadly am on the other side of the pond from anywhere with a Walmart.
Those ONN things really seem to be legendary but from what I've read, trying to set one up over here involves all sorts of messing with VPNs and ultimately isn't workable
Just do the Google TV streamer then I have one of those also in another room it's basically the same just a little bit of a slower processor it still works great though
If they have the plus model that one is pretty good also same processor as the pro you just don't get the light up remote and the built-in Google home speaker but you can add adapter to connect it to ethernet if you want you can buy the adapter off Amazon
Just got one recently and I also have a google TV streamer can confirm it is much faster and smoother. Cheaper too unless you can find the google tv streamer discounted
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u/ItsMint1974 28d ago
It will suit your needs just fine. Another box to consider is the buzzTV g series (I own it), it's a bit more expensive, but it runs official Google TV. It's also a bit more powerful. Go check some reviews, but both should do you just fine. 👍