Lets start with the negatives. The WIFI sucks. It is really bad. If you are thinking of getting this box and running it over WIFI I would forget that now.
I got the 16GB version because of the dual wifi. In my house I can easily get 50+ MBs on 5Ghz. With this box I am lucky if it hits 10Mbs. Actually the 2.4GHz runs slightly better on this box over the 5GHz band.
So straight away don't bother with the 16GB version. It is a waste of money. If space is an issue Android 6.0 can use external memory as internal. So all you need to do is get yourself a 16GB class 10 SD and place it into the box to expand its memory.
No Root.
This is a pretty big one for me. I got the box so I could do a bit of Android gaming. Some Android Boxes have PS3 Dualshock 3 Controller support out of the box. This one doesn't, and because it hasn't got root I can't get Sixaxis Controller app to work.
HDMI-CEC sucks.
There are two types of ROMs for this box. Ones that enable CEC and ones that don't.
The ones that do enable it don't have an app to manage the CEC connection. This means that Power and Language is decided by the TV. At least with my TV I have the option to disable the power option, but I don't have the option to disable the language. So every time I power up the box and the CEC kicks in it changes the language to Japanese.
Now that I got the negatives out of the way here is my setup.
The ROM I am running is this: http://www.tvboxnews.com/android-6-0...x-a5-download/
To flash it you will need a male-to-male USB.
Flashing the box is a bit touch and go. I found that loading the image in the burning tool then hitting "start" before connecting the box was the most reliable way to flash the box.
Once it has been flashed and booted theses are the changes I make.
When first booting the device it will have root. It seems you loose root once you sign into your Google account. Either way don't reboot until you have replaced these files, or try logging into your Google account.
Array
The files are in the correct location to place onto the system. Make sure you set permissions of "0644" on each of files otherwise the box won't boot and will get stuck into a boot loop.
Most people won't need to copy the etc/audio_policy.conf file. I need it because I use a Mele F10-PRO remote that has a built in mic and speaker. If I don't use that edited audio_policy.conf I only get sound coming out of the remote.
I normally do this right after flashing the ROM, but you can do it at any time. This is the TWRP recovery for are box. To install rename the file recovery.img and place it onto a sd card then put it into the box. Hold the reset button while powering on the device and it will boot into TWRP. You can install TWRP to the Nexbox A5's recovery by going to install, selecting "image" instead of zip, and flashing it to "recovery".
Once that is all done it is time to setup the box.
First thing I do is remove Kodi. I find SPMC runs far better.
Once that is done I install:
Ace Stream Media. No need to make a account. Just opening the app makes it work.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...cestream.media
AutoStart - No root.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...=com.autostart
I add SPMC and Ace Stream so they auto start on boot.
XBMC Launcher
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...n.xbmclauncher
There is options to pick SPMC 16 instead of Kodi.
Then I use the Eminence 2.0 skin for Kodi/SPMC and setup a menu for the Android apps.
Overall I am pretty happy with the setup. Its like my Raspberry Pi 3 running LibreELEC but with the added bonus of being able to run Android apps, 4K content and HEVC hardware playback.
I got the 16GB version because of the dual wifi. In my house I can easily get 50+ MBs on 5Ghz. With this box I am lucky if it hits 10Mbs. Actually the 2.4GHz runs slightly better on this box over the 5GHz band.
So straight away don't bother with the 16GB version. It is a waste of money. If space is an issue Android 6.0 can use external memory as internal. So all you need to do is get yourself a 16GB class 10 SD and place it into the box to expand its memory.
No Root.
This is a pretty big one for me. I got the box so I could do a bit of Android gaming. Some Android Boxes have PS3 Dualshock 3 Controller support out of the box. This one doesn't, and because it hasn't got root I can't get Sixaxis Controller app to work.
HDMI-CEC sucks.
There are two types of ROMs for this box. Ones that enable CEC and ones that don't.
The ones that do enable it don't have an app to manage the CEC connection. This means that Power and Language is decided by the TV. At least with my TV I have the option to disable the power option, but I don't have the option to disable the language. So every time I power up the box and the CEC kicks in it changes the language to Japanese.
Now that I got the negatives out of the way here is my setup.
The ROM I am running is this: http://www.tvboxnews.com/android-6-0...x-a5-download/
To flash it you will need a male-to-male USB.
Flashing the box is a bit touch and go. I found that loading the image in the burning tool then hitting "start" before connecting the box was the most reliable way to flash the box.
Once it has been flashed and booted theses are the changes I make.
When first booting the device it will have root. It seems you loose root once you sign into your Google account. Either way don't reboot until you have replaced these files, or try logging into your Google account.
Array
The files are in the correct location to place onto the system. Make sure you set permissions of "0644" on each of files otherwise the box won't boot and will get stuck into a boot loop.
Most people won't need to copy the etc/audio_policy.conf file. I need it because I use a Mele F10-PRO remote that has a built in mic and speaker. If I don't use that edited audio_policy.conf I only get sound coming out of the remote.
I normally do this right after flashing the ROM, but you can do it at any time. This is the TWRP recovery for are box. To install rename the file recovery.img and place it onto a sd card then put it into the box. Hold the reset button while powering on the device and it will boot into TWRP. You can install TWRP to the Nexbox A5's recovery by going to install, selecting "image" instead of zip, and flashing it to "recovery".
Once that is all done it is time to setup the box.
First thing I do is remove Kodi. I find SPMC runs far better.
Once that is done I install:
Ace Stream Media. No need to make a account. Just opening the app makes it work.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...cestream.media
AutoStart - No root.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...=com.autostart
I add SPMC and Ace Stream so they auto start on boot.
XBMC Launcher
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...n.xbmclauncher
There is options to pick SPMC 16 instead of Kodi.
Then I use the Eminence 2.0 skin for Kodi/SPMC and setup a menu for the Android apps.
Overall I am pretty happy with the setup. Its like my Raspberry Pi 3 running LibreELEC but with the added bonus of being able to run Android apps, 4K content and HEVC hardware playback.