Long term Android TV Box?

Y

ymer

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2004
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I have had smart tvs for a few years now, some top of the line when they came out, some mid-high range and some shit-tier range, most of them Samsung and one Hisense.

But there's a big problem with all of them, after a few years the manufacturer stops supporting them and in turn the apps stop getting updates (Plex and Youtube are included). My oldest TV which was top of the line at the time of purchase has stopped supporting Netflix for about 6 months now because the old version that it has installed doesn't work anymore.

So, for the future I want to get an Android TV box that will be supported for a few years and won't give problems when installing stuff and will be useful for more than 4 years. This rules out most chinese no-name boxes because you never get an update for those and will remain in whatever Android version it was shipped originally. Another thing is that it has to be "Netflix approved" meaning that it will receive fullhd and 4k and not be capped at 720p because it doesn't meet the CPU security standards (maybe to avoid piracy).

So, what are my options? So far I think the only one is nvidia shield but I don't know how long they feel like supporting it and how often they get updates. Please advice :)
 
Shield is basically the only option for decent support. Nvidia supported their tablet longer than any other manufacturer, even longer than Google did with the Nexus tabs. But the Shield is a few years old already (they did a refresh a year or so after release, but it's all the same internal hardware), so I'm not sure how much longer they'll support it for or if they'll even release another one at all. So it's hard to recommend anything at the moment if your priority is long term support.
 
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Buy something affordable now that does what you want, then replace it when needed. These devices pretty much all turn disposable after a few years. There hasn’t been a good “long term” device on the market that didn’t end up slow or incapable of implementing new features after a while.
 
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Just get a Roku for $50 refurb and call it a day. In the end even their old models are still getting updates and support the latest streaming apps.
 
Riccochet said:
Just get a Roku for $50 refurb and call it a day. In the end even their old models are still getting updates and support the latest streaming apps.
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If he's looking to do what I'm thinking he's trying to do with it, can't install the software on a Roku. I honestly don't have a recommendation for an Android TV box because I just use laptops/desktop hooked up to all my TVs as media PCs. Been doing it since like 2007, lol.
 
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