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Cord has been cut..

KJVBlueXJ

signaling the Mothership
VIP
Tell me about Droidtv. Is it a device or an app? Subscription? I've seen it mentioned on here a few times. I've just never looked into it.
 

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
Tell me about Droidtv. Is it a device or an app? Subscription? I've seen it mentioned on here a few times. I've just never looked into it.
It's an app. There is a free trial but it isn't available from the Google Play store- you need to get it from the Amazon App store which means you need to install the Amazon App store app first- which isn't that hard you can download it from Amazon.

Amazon.com DroidTV - Free Trial Appstore for Android

After the trial ends the cost of the app is a few dollars every few months, something incredibly reasonable for the content it provides. Far less than Netflix or Hulu charge.

It doesn't let you watch a show immediately though. You find an episode of a show you want to watch and mark to download it. It will then schedule a download- it may start quickly, it may take a few hours, but eventually it will be downloaded- this will take up a few hundred megabytes on your phone btw.

Once it is downloaded you can watch it anytime you want- you can also copy it off your phone and change it to an .mp4 file and play it on your computer- but be warned if you do that the filename is just seemingly random numbers- you won't immediately know which files are which shows if you have more than one downloaded.

You can of course subscribe to shows so new episodes are downloaded automatically- seem to be a day or so delay on new episodes being available.
 

Brock

VIP
Ultra-Premium
You know what's funny, I was watching stuff on droidTV last night thinking "wow, this looks much better that the first few I watched." I thought maybe I just had a few bad videos at first, or that going from the free trial to the paid version gets a bump in quality. Didn't know they officially upped the bitrate, but it's a very welcome change.
Link

Join the facebook group for it. They have an update in June that will allow casting directy to a chromecast from the app. I currently just use an HD dock I recently bought for $5 off amazon for my wifi xoom. I only use the xoom now just for droidtv :bunnydance:
 
Link

Join the facebook group for it. They have an update in June that will allow casting directy to a chromecast from the app. I currently just use an HD dock I recently bought for $5 off amazon for my wifi xoom. I only use the xoom now just for droidtv :bunnydance:
I just side-loaded it on my FireTV, runs perfect from there.
 

KJVBlueXJ

signaling the Mothership
VIP
It's an app. There is a free trial but it isn't available from the Google Play store- you need to get it from the Amazon App store which means you need to install the Amazon App store app first- which isn't that hard you can download it from Amazon.

Amazon.com DroidTV - Free Trial Appstore for Android

After the trial ends the cost of the app is a few dollars every few months, something incredibly reasonable for the content it provides. Far less than Netflix or Hulu charge.

It doesn't let you watch a show immediately though. You find an episode of a show you want to watch and mark to download it. It will then schedule a download- it may start quickly, it may take a few hours, but eventually it will be downloaded- this will take up a few hundred megabytes on your phone btw.

Once it is downloaded you can watch it anytime you want- you can also copy it off your phone and change it to an .mp4 file and play it on your computer- but be warned if you do that the filename is just seemingly random numbers- you won't immediately know which files are which shows if you have more than one downloaded.

You can of course subscribe to shows so new episodes are downloaded automatically- seem to be a day or so delay on new episodes being available.
Are all major network shows available? Or is it like Hulu, where some networks don't have their stuff on it? If they can run through chromecast, I might grab one and use it for that.
 
Are all major network shows available? Or is it like Hulu, where some networks don't have their stuff on it? If they can run through chromecast, I might grab one and use it for that.
Do you have Android? Install it and use the free trial to check it out. Don't have Android? Then it doesn't matter.

To answer you question, there doesn't seem to be a correlation between what's available and the networks, including stuff on HBO/Showtime/etc. Do some googling, I've seen a list online somewhere...
 

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
Are all major network shows available? Or is it like Hulu, where some networks don't have their stuff on it? If they can run through chromecast, I might grab one and use it for that.
There are shows from all networks- the contracts networks may have with Hulu don't matter- they guy is basing it on a DVR business model, he does not need permission of the networks.
 
Gonna try to sideload that on the Ouya.
You actually bought an Ouya? I wouldn't say I followed the Ouya, but I did check into it and "catch up" on what they are doing once in a while. It always seemed like a neat idea, but whenever I'd dig through the forums it seemed like there were enough open issues that I'd always hold off. I wanted it to be a success, but now it's essentially dead.
 

Brock

VIP
Ultra-Premium
I have an Ouya I bought on a whim. Not a bad setup with tons of potential. i dont really play it though, although the emulators with SNES games was fun for a little while. :thup2:
 
I have an Ouya I bought on a whim. Not a bad setup with tons of potential. i dont really play it though, although the emulators with SNES games was fun for a little while. :thup2:
I ALMOST bought one a few times. Even went to Target to buy one once, but they were sold out. No native Netflix (if you side-load it does it require a touch device??), complaints about the controller, no official remote (others that can be made to work). A great idea that was ALMOST there, I really wanted them to sort out the last few issues and be a long term success.

I view the Amazon Fire TV as a similar concept - Android based gaming and streaming media box. Clearly some big differences, FTV is streaming media first, gaming second. I also really liked Ouya's "every game is free to try" policy which is not the case with FTV. On the plus side (with some negatives tossed in), the Fire TV is an Amazon product so it's going to get far more support.

FWIW, I think the FTV can really hurt Roku. Overall I like Roku better, just bought my wife a Roku Streaming Stick for Mom's day. However, the FTV is Android based which opens up the potential for a gazillion apps (like DroidTV), and Amazon has deep pockets.
 

frank_c

lost in the jet stream
VIP
You actually bought an Ouya?
Yup. Mostly using XBMC to stream stuff from the PC, and now I take it out to the garage and run the sideloaded Sirius app. I put my old 32" Vizio out there a few weeks ago.

I have a bunch of emulators loaded up as well. Only game I've purchased is one of the pinball sets. The Ouya's been pretty useful for the $100 I spent.
 

Brock

VIP
Ultra-Premium
Droidtv is back on the play store with a lot more content. I bought the lifetime subscription for less tham half of one months cable bill ftw
 
Droidtv is back on the play store with a lot more content. I bought the lifetime subscription for less tham half of one months cable bill ftw
Do you need to update DroidTV to get the new shows, or does it pick up new shows automatically?
 

miwico

Stalker of Brock
VIP
Got one of my laptops hooked up to my 60". I usually find that obscure movie by just googling the title with "full movie".
 
Uninstall old version and install play version.
Right, I get that, but the question is if the list of shows is dependent on the version of DroidTV or if it's pulling the list from a server.

FireTV does not have full Amazon store or Google store at all, it has the FireTV subset of Amazon only (which currently doesn't include DroidTV). Side loading isn't terribly difficult after downloading the apk, I think there is even a gui out there, but it is a manual process. Basically I'm lazy. If upgrading gets me more shows I'll do it, otherwise I'll eventually get around to it but no rush.
 
Got one of my laptops hooked up to my 60". I usually find that obscure movie by just googling the title with "full movie".
If you are going that route, may as well install XBMC and some of the many many many add-ons. You can browse movies or go straight to something specific and let the apps do the internet searching.
 
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