I hope it works out for you. My experience with a big name S905 Android box and vanilla Android TV was only slightly more painful than a double root canal and almost as cost effective as burning a $100 bill. Even worse, admitting that I blew $100 on a total piece of crap lacks the cache of actually burning $100 bills while costing just as much. At the urging of people (elsewhere) that I mistakenly thought had a clue I bought the much praised DroidBOX T8 SE for a little used TV with no cable box to see what the attraction was. Boy did I screw up in listening to that bad advice.
In Android mode (it boots to vanilla Android TV w/Kodi or LibreELEC/Kodi) the DroidBOX opens to an attractive menu page that is easily navigated via the included infrared remote. For navigating much beyond that, including setting up apps like Kodi you need a $15-20 RF remote/air-mouse with a built-in mini keyboard or a wireless HTPC keyboard like Logitech’s K400+. Not a big deal but it adds another $15-30 to the final cost of the product. I'm even less impressed with the included applications because DroidBOX seems to have put almost no effort into obtaining TV optimized applications for their device. Versions of popular apps that can easily be used without a mouse or touchpad. In fact, their version of Netflix will not even display videos on my 1080P TV (black screen) and the Google Play Store version is not compatible. Basically, this vanilla Android TV box lacks even the most basic level of functionality that you’d expect from a phone or a $50 Amazon Fire 7 Android tablet or even a low-end Amazon Fire Stick. The one video application that did work sort of okay with the supplied remote was YouTube, but only with Android’s notification and navigation bars taking up part of the screen. In other words, unless your sole focus is on Kodi this thing is, in my opinion, junk and it has since been replaced by another NVIDIA Shield TV. Perhaps the DroidBOX is a decent Kodi box, but I’m not even a little bit into watching pirated video feeds and didn’t get that far simply because I found that vanilla Android TV failed to meet even my most basic minimum expectations - Netflix and Amazon Prime at 1080P (really 4K at the $100 price point) without a mouse, and YouTube in 100% full screen mode. In my opinion Kodi is icing on a cake and not a device’s minimum functionality. If you’re feeling wonky and are looking for a thoroughly crippled HTPC like experience or just something to play with Kodi on then the DroidBOX is a cheap way to get there. On the other hand, if you prefer a no muss no fuss TV appliance experience like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, built-in TV apps, or a cable box then vanilla Android TV is probably not for you. Google search reveals that I'm not alone in these problems and that DroidBOX isn't the only culprit. These seem to be common problems with vanilla Android TV boxes.
In contrast NVIDIA’s Shield TV runs the real Android TV OS and interface and the whole experience was designed from the get-go for use with the simple Bluetooth remote that they include in the box – no mouse needed. NVIDIA includes a number of remote control optimized applications, including an Android TV only version of the Google App Store, and while you'll find fewer applications than the phone/tablet version, all of the apps are optimized for a TV/remote control experience. Versions of YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go and most of the other popular video and music services, all of which play 100% full screen and none of which requires a mouse or touch screen or hours of troubleshooting. The exception is Kodi, which runs fine but is just easier to set up using a mouse and keyboard, but once setup it works fine with the remote. For those that do not need full blown Kodi, NVIDIA includes a full version of Plex/Plex Server which I use to access my very large digitized music collection and my collection of classic cartoons. There are also a ton of video games available and it has access to NVIDIA's subscription game service. In my opinion, on a 1 to 10 scale it’s a 10, limited only by the number of optimized apps. It’s every bit as as easy to use as a Roku or cable box but much-much more.
Bottom line BSA my very respected friend, in my opinion, unless your sole focus is Kodi, the next time that someone suggests “investing” in a vanilla Android TV device, including the DroidBOX or the Mi Box, do yourself a HUGE favor and ignore them and buy a Shield TV instead – you’ll be glad that you did.
