Android TV Boxes

Hell, my fucking $2000 OLED came with a shit processor and only 8GB of storage; it's laggy as fuck and only had room for one more app. Had to remove a bunch of crap via ADB just for the TV to be usable. It's annoying as fuck that even high-end TVs come with the equivalent of a $50 Chinese phone under the hood.

Does anyone know of a box I can plug into the TV that actually has a decent CPU, at least 12GB of RAM, and usable storage space? It also needs to run on Android, and have a HDMI 2.1 port for 4K 120Hz support with HDR. I watch a lot of HFR content and stream PC games so this is a must. The remote should also be able to control the TV (including entering the menu), and the Dolby Atmos receiver too. Last thing I want is for the wife to complain about having to juggle 2 or 3 remotes just to watch Stremio.

at least 12GB of RAM,

Doesn't exist and frankly not necessary. At present nothing needs this much RAM and I say this as a power user who runs a local media server and is familiar with concepts such as running Plex with remote transcoding on devices such as the Shield. The only things that come close to this much RAM might be recent generation gaming consoles like Xbox or Playstation but they don't run Android and aren't built for streaming, remote controls are third party accessories.

Other problems: I'm unaware of any devices even without the high RAM request that exist that fulfill all of those asks. Particularly 4k 120hz seems to be something no one has any interest in putting in a streaming box despite plenty of them having HDMI 2.1. I checked and even Apple TV 4K's do not support 120hz despite having the right hardware for it.

Fact is commercial streaming services which these devices exist to cater to have no interest in 120fps/hz content, even 60fps with dolby vision is kind of more bandwidth than they like using and they upcharge premiums for it.

Basically your choices are (all these assume giving up the RAM ask):

Run two devices, one for local streaming of things like games and 120fps content, one for watching streaming services that's Android TV certified and will get you 4k content from them (at only 60fps). Cost is probably going to be north of $300. You can with this option get a mini-PC and kind of hack together a game streaming solution and if you want you can put 12GB of RAM in it but you won't need them.

Buy something that ticks most of the boxes but either give up the ability to stream 4K content from commercial services (because no Android TV certification) OR give up the 120fps demand. If you're willing to give up the 120hz you might look into the Dune-HD premier 4k pro which has full Android TV support and certification for 4K streaming from all the major services, does 4k 60fps, has very impressive specs for a streaming device (top of the line) and is $200 and you can add an SSD to increase the storage from acceptable 32GB to well over a TB if desired. Otherwise if you're willing to give up 4K from commercial streaming services and get only 1080p from them they have a few 8K devices that do have support for 120fps but the price doubles and if you want 4k on the major streaming services you'll need another device.

Other options if you're willing to give up the 120hz demand would be the Nvidia Shield Pro. As to a remote that controls everything, I believe the Dune-HD remotes do have that capability but honestly your wants are really specific and high end. Most people would use two boxes if they HAD to have all you've asked for.

You might also consider waiting to see if Valve does release a streaming device like they've teased. If Valve does something like that it might finally be the golden one that has 120hz support though you're still not going to get 12GB of RAM. But you're looking at waiting a year at least I think even if that does materialize and it may not.
You can have cheap or you can have 4k 120Hz with HDR.

If they ran mainline Linux and had gigabit nic's this would be less of an issue as then network filesystems are a legitimate option.

Get a single board computer or a used micro PC and install Linux on it.

In my experience smb support on Linux is even worse than on Android. I can't watch a video from my NAS on a Linux laptop, but I can on my android phone or TV.

I know NFS exists but it's too confusing for me, particularly authentication.

You're supposed to pay for half a dozen streaming services and just consume it, bro! You own nothing and will be happy, bro!

8GB ain't even enough for my Weezer .flacs. The fuck is 8GB usable for in 2025?

For apps that stream their stuff.

I got sick of all the ads on Google TV/ChromeCast and Fire TV. Not to mention the shitty layouts that get worse and worse every year.

I got an Apple TV box and it has been fantastic. I still see some Apple TV ads when turn it on? But they are much less annoying and contained to one play. Not mixed in with the app I’m trying to open.

Why not use a raspberry pi with a media center?
- I’ve been looking into that recently. I want to set up my own homelab server (or at least a NAS).
I wanna add that Apple TV’s are seriously underrated for gaming on. I use mine mostly for Steam link. So nice to be able to comfortably play on the couch, and not have to listen to the pc fans screaming in the basement.

I just wish we could sideload apps. This thing could do so much more, but Apple has it way too locked down.
- Thats a great point. I use the Steam Link app with an Xbox controller all the time.
you can also just move the appleTV App away, so you wont see these ads, just put some other app at the first place
If you ever go back to Google TV just install Projectivity launcher or something like that, much nicer interface and no ads
- I will check it out! Thanks! I hadn’t heard of this before.
- that looks great. thank you

I still use my original xbox that runs xbmc (from when xbmc was still just a linux distro for xbox) as my media server. It works fantasically with plenty of storage.

Seriously still running well? They stopped updating that many years ago. I don’t think I’ve booted mine in over ten years, but even then it struggled with some 1080p content, and was not compatible with newer codecs. I cannot imagine that thing handling 4K.
What about high-res media? Encountered any issues with playback?
- I can't attest to that. I am more than fine with 1080p.

I've been hearing good reviews about the Onn Pro box by Walmart (of all companies, yes) if you're in the US.

Comes with 32 GB storage and a USB 3 port to add storage to it.

That's what I have and it works great for me. Still would have been nice if it was a bit faster. I think it was recently on sale for 40 so I can't complain
- Yeah I'm waiting for it to go back down to $40. I'm in no rush haha.

I really want to upgrade my previous gen shield but last time I looked nothing was that impressive.

Same, there's literally nothing better currently and the shield is starting to show it's age and is lacking HDMI 2.1
- anytime a stellar product is released there’s a glut of shittier alternatives and replacements, sometimes from the same company even. higher ups notice REAL QUICK when they shorten their average upgrade cycle from 1-3 years to something like 5-10.
  
  shit always loops back around to planned obsolescence. if you don’t do it, you will not succeed.
For video, why do you need more? The shield was obviously designed to work with Stadia, which flat out failed.

What are you planning on storing on ur tv

My 2017 black Friday special shitty LG smart TV only has like 8 GB of storage and it's nearly full with just a few streaming apps installed and no media stored locally.
I dont have a dedicated box, I Kodi through my xbox. There are times I'd like to download a copy if the stream sucks.