STOP Buying ANDROID TV Boxes!

These Android TV boxes have been around just about as long as Android has. Odds are, you or someone you know has had one over the years. But beneath their crunchy Android exterior lies a deep, dark secret. What evils will befall you should you choose to bring such a device into your house? And what alternatives are there?

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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:56 Setup and initial danger
2:45 CoreJava
3:58 Weird Android
5:03 Can we make them useful?
6:55 At least they can do 4K, right?
7:22 Redeeming qualities?
8:21 Closing thoughts
9:16 Outro

[EnaBBQ]

Here in Brazil the government is cracking down hard in these. A school work on received a literal pallet of these boxes provided by the police to be repurposed for educational purposes.

[CheeseDoodle]

I work at a Internet Provider and we get contacted by server protection companies all the time from abuse reports in our network from home users. When we inspect what has happened, it is almost always one of these boxes that attempt to bruteforce or attack servers online. These boxes are part of toxic botnets and also use your IP address and network to perform illegal actions online and DDoS without the users knowledge

[TheCobruhAlienatr]

Fun fact, when you showed the screen grab from Walmart you were actually looking at Amazon's store still. Unless you select the filter to only show stuff sold by Walmart then it will mix in things sold on Amazon.

I work at Amazon and we have a few dedicated pack stations for Walmart items to make sure we only use generic packaging material and don't accidentally send a Walmart order out in an Amazon box and confuse the customer.

[Athy_P]

I've been using my old i5-5200U laptop as as repurposed media player for the past couple of years and it has served me brilliantly. I Am not aware of the 4K capabilities but I do not use a 4K display either, it is technically free and I know what I am running. Running Debian with a cheap wireless remote mouse+keyboard (plentiful on amazon) and if i ever wish to dabble on the dark side, I can run that risk without much of a hassle. I think for a lot of people, re-purposing an old computer or in some cases, even a mobile phone can be a great alternative to purchasing a device, and especially when you talk of 'manufactured e-waste', this can be a smack in the face if such too.

[Mr_Soleo]

I like that after getting hacked LTT said, "let's buy as much malware as we can find!'

[kllrnohj]

The "legitimate 4k" Android TV's (so Google TV & Nvidida Shield) still also run the UI at 1920x1080. It's only videos that are passed through at 4k. The ADB command used in the video is just reporting the UI size & not the actual display resolution being sent out, so it doesn't actually mean much.

[AAEmohawk]

The T9's can be turned into a Octoprint/Klipper host as a cheap replacement for a Raspberry Pi. Chris's Basement did a video on this a few weeks ago.
So they turn it into a full desktop experience Linux system

[chargex]

That is the kind of reviews the public needs.

[nunoaguiar]

It's not just TV boxes, some smartphones with random brands also contain malware. But if you are lucky, you can find a clean ROM somewhere. Also for the TV boxes, some can boot up libreELEC so you can avoid the tampered Android altogether.
I had a TV box that would only started snooping my home network when it was turned off! If you turn them off with the remote, they are still on! You need to unplug them from the power.

[tophattracksuit]

The worrying part of all this, is that a bunch of common devices that appear to be the same devices or slightly rebranded as this are used as streaming legal audio, media board controllers and even lighting control boards.

[maegamisama]

I remember buying a few of these back when and getting frustrated with how slow and incapable they were (despite the specs they promised) I'm not surprised to hear that they lied about their capabilities and that some were probably loaded with malware. Glad I spent the extra money to get a nVidia shield, although I wish more proper companies would step up to make more affordable/powerful tv boxes.

[lindastone]

I made the mistake of buying a T95, and after using it twice, felt uneasy about what I had bought. I went back to Amazon, to check out reviews, and all the T95's like the one I bought have disappeared.

[VRockerk]

Something scary is some of these units end up running in digital signage and on business networks.
I used to work for one such company who would send these out to customers. I was highly against it due to many of the things mentioned in this video. I was overruled of course as they were 'a cheap way to get an internet connected media player'. I did try to custom image one of the units to get a clean unit once but was stopped as 'there was no point'. I stopped working for them shortly after.
So yeah, some of these ended up in places they really should not have done, and have internet connectivity. The only place these belong is in the bin.

[graceschramka]

a few months back my (very not tech savvy) parents were pushing to 'cut the cable' and replace with a bunch of these boxes... what sparse information i could find on them easily didn't look promising & i managed to convince them out of it mostly based on gut feelings. thank you so much for this video, this is the kind of accessible information average consumers need before making what could be a grave mistake. my parents are now especially relieved to have been persuaded out of picking these up 😅

[action]

Linus is completely right here...I used to love these boxes until my isp blocked the ports...the android boxes don't update time and date anymore, apparently my boxes were used in a ddos attack.

[deathbossom]

This is why I watch this channel so often. Videos like this are an absolute godsend and are fantastic for increasing peoples awareness of dubious products out there which can really screw them over.

[billmilligan]

They actually make a very usable Linux PC with armbian. In fact there is a TV box version of armbian specific to set top boxes like these. Should be interesting to see Linus get armbian working on one

[mordechai]

You ignored the most common Chinese TV setup box : the Xiaomi Mi box S series. vanilla AndroidTV OS. range at 60-70$ on Chinese markets . Certified by Google and still gets frequent OS security updates. The spec is not great but it will do the work (Netflix 4K HDR). These are so common they surpass Google's own device in sales. Unlike some Chinese boxes the Xiaomi boot loader is locked. Hard to root and mess it's base android security. Unlike some Chinese boxes, Xiaomi does not include alternative google play stores that also expose you... . A rooted device from the box is red alert to any user.

[mephistovonfaust]

I have my Shield TV in active service since 2017. Bought it on sale for 120-130€ back then. The Nvidia price hike is unacceptable imo but back when I bought mine it was a great value and still works like a charm.

[LittleDraco]

Using T95Q for 5 years now and no issues. Sadly this thing isnt cheap in Europe. Around 80$. To additionally. 4K was played by your own Downloaded Videos. And I could easily run Fhd YouTube and Pirated streaming websites.
I am not saying what he said isnt true. But also. Many of these offer good quality if you use them wirelessly.