Jolga77
Member
It got to Mexico a bit faster than I expected. The usual is 7 days. This came in 5 by FedEx. Bought it from MINIX Technology Limited so direct from the factory, no fakes or refurb B.S. along with Amazon Logistics dependability. The perfect combination!
The setup was like falling off a log easily. You can even migrate your apps, wifi setup and Youtube settings from your phone. Several times easier than the ornery Gt King which I sent back after 2 days of pulling my hair out. Even simpler and better organized than my former 2017 Nvidia Shield TV.
The only setback I suffered was somewhat of my own making. I noticed that the volume on my BlueTooth Plantronics Pro2 headphones was low, so, like the Einstein that I am, I went into the settings and did as so many reviewers on Youtube had. I.E. I disabled the automatic sound settings and activated all the formats individually. But now I had no sound and I couldn't get back into that menu
Reset time!, *sigh* It only took a few minutes because I wasn't far into the setup.
After the post reset boot, the sound came back on, albeit still a bit faint. I then thought about it for a while and decided that the problem was coming from the fact that my headphones were connected to my Panasonic Viera EX750 BlueTooth and not the T5. 5 minutes later the sound was perfect. Actually it became better than perfect. I went into the VLC sound settings, activated the mixer and selected the Headphone profile. Wow! My *cough* *cough* more mature hearing which needed subtitles before can now listen without any subs. It's that clear!
Take that !!!!! Rolling Stones, Beatles and Pink Floyd concerts that blasted my ears!
My wife has a Sony XBR X900E. It's a great TV that will VLC play anything you throw at it. It is, however, laggy and rubber bandy when navigating through its Android TV OS, especially when compared to the first time you boot into the T5 desktop! You will be so pleased with the fluidity and speed of the T5! As fast and buttery smooth as The Shield!
And that little remote is nothing to sneeze at. Yes, it's simple, almost Spartan, but it does the job and is lightning fast and responsive while falling easily to hand. Even slightly more so than my huge, feature-laden, Panasonic remote! The Panny remote, by the way, works perfectly with the T5 because the engineers sweated the details and the ARC CEC compatibility is 100%.
My next task was to plug in my Seagate 4TB USB HDD. It didn't recognize it. I had a Radio Shack, yes they are still in Mexico, POWERED USB hub lying around so I set that up, and voila! Problem solved! I ran a huge monster DVD Remux 4K file for several minutes. No hiccups, jumps or artifacts. As usual, the 4k picture was breathtaking!
Moreover, after my session, the unit was as cool as a cucumber. This was probably thanks to two things. The excellent passive cooling which the engineers designed into this unit. My former Nvidia Shield was a hot little brick that committed heat seppuku, but not after toasting 2… yes 2 Sandisk USB drives. The second reason was due to the notebook cooling pad that I now use after my Nvidia trainwreck!
So that's it, yes, this lame review was too long, but I still hope you will buy and support this Little Box That Can! It is probably the Ultimate Sleeper of 2020! Underhyped and somewhat overlooked, but so competent and well designed!
The setup was like falling off a log easily. You can even migrate your apps, wifi setup and Youtube settings from your phone. Several times easier than the ornery Gt King which I sent back after 2 days of pulling my hair out. Even simpler and better organized than my former 2017 Nvidia Shield TV.
The only setback I suffered was somewhat of my own making. I noticed that the volume on my BlueTooth Plantronics Pro2 headphones was low, so, like the Einstein that I am, I went into the settings and did as so many reviewers on Youtube had. I.E. I disabled the automatic sound settings and activated all the formats individually. But now I had no sound and I couldn't get back into that menu
Reset time!, *sigh* It only took a few minutes because I wasn't far into the setup. After the post reset boot, the sound came back on, albeit still a bit faint. I then thought about it for a while and decided that the problem was coming from the fact that my headphones were connected to my Panasonic Viera EX750 BlueTooth and not the T5. 5 minutes later the sound was perfect. Actually it became better than perfect. I went into the VLC sound settings, activated the mixer and selected the Headphone profile. Wow! My *cough* *cough* more mature hearing which needed subtitles before can now listen without any subs. It's that clear!
Take that !!!!! Rolling Stones, Beatles and Pink Floyd concerts that blasted my ears!
My wife has a Sony XBR X900E. It's a great TV that will VLC play anything you throw at it. It is, however, laggy and rubber bandy when navigating through its Android TV OS, especially when compared to the first time you boot into the T5 desktop! You will be so pleased with the fluidity and speed of the T5! As fast and buttery smooth as The Shield!
And that little remote is nothing to sneeze at. Yes, it's simple, almost Spartan, but it does the job and is lightning fast and responsive while falling easily to hand. Even slightly more so than my huge, feature-laden, Panasonic remote! The Panny remote, by the way, works perfectly with the T5 because the engineers sweated the details and the ARC CEC compatibility is 100%.
My next task was to plug in my Seagate 4TB USB HDD. It didn't recognize it. I had a Radio Shack, yes they are still in Mexico, POWERED USB hub lying around so I set that up, and voila! Problem solved! I ran a huge monster DVD Remux 4K file for several minutes. No hiccups, jumps or artifacts. As usual, the 4k picture was breathtaking!
Moreover, after my session, the unit was as cool as a cucumber. This was probably thanks to two things. The excellent passive cooling which the engineers designed into this unit. My former Nvidia Shield was a hot little brick that committed heat seppuku, but not after toasting 2… yes 2 Sandisk USB drives. The second reason was due to the notebook cooling pad that I now use after my Nvidia trainwreck!
So that's it, yes, this lame review was too long, but I still hope you will buy and support this Little Box That Can! It is probably the Ultimate Sleeper of 2020! Underhyped and somewhat overlooked, but so competent and well designed!
