Android on Echo

[staknhalo]

Luckily I only had to do 2 - the first I bought wasn't a Samsung panel and had horrible 'blue ghosting'. I found out what panel I needed, went to Best Buy and said "I need this TV, but it needs to have this code on the box" - and that was it (they were all kept in the back storage)

[acraigl]

Well, Ceton said they were looking at Android on the Echo as a "Christmas present". Yet we still wait...
I guess they did fail to mention the year. Android on Echo coming Christmas 2016?

^^ This

[Cryofax]

My wife asked me the other day "Didn't you say these new boxes will be able to do Netflix?". Okay when I set these up I told her an android update was coming and then it would do Netflix and Hulu, so we held off on upgrading our Bluray player (an old one with unprotected component! lol) or getting a Roku. Seriously though I'd like an update on an ETA. I don't care if you tell us it's rough going and will take 6 months or whatever. Just something would be nice. A lot of us weighed getting an Echo based on this promised feature. I have been very happy with it as a replacement for my cable boxes to this point though. I know you guys are working hard we're just feeling a bit in the dark about it. Thanks!

[Bill]

I'd have to assume their working on a large update for the Echos & the My Media Center App. Haven't seen updates in so long, i'm thinking they just don't want to release a really bugged firmware. Here's to hoping....

[staknhalo]

Even I, a labeled 'fanboi' think it's a bit overdue for something/anything in regards to a blog post. Whether it be the Echo or the My Media Center app; anything really.

[milli260876]

I haven't even got an echo and I'm fed up of waiting for an update on things!!!!!

[volfan6415]

I think Ceton got burned so bad on the infiniTV4 release fiasco that they will never give out release dates on anything again

[barnabas1969]

My wife asked me the other day "Didn't you say these new boxes will be able to do Netflix?". Okay when I set these up I told her an android update was coming and then it would do Netflix and Hulu, so we held off on upgrading our Bluray player (and old one with unprotected component! lol) or getting a Roku.

Just go get a new BD player with them built-in. It'll allow you to play BD's, DVD's, NetFlix, and whatever else is built-in to the BD player.

That's what I finally did. I put a BD player in every room where there is an extender. It's simple to switch inputs and use the BD player for everything that the extender won't do.

You can pick them up for $80 or less. The newest one I have is a 2011 Samsung model that came free with my living room TV. I put it in my bedroom because I already have a BD-ROM drive in my HTPC (used with Total Media Theatre 5) and the TV has all the online features that the BD player has and more. I like that Samsung BD player best of all of the BD players that I own. It has the best menu layout, and loads BD movies faster than the others that I own. The others are used ones or new-in-box older models that I picked up on e-bay for $50 or less each.

My son was using his PS3 in his bedroom until we sold it last month on e-bay so he could buy more stuff for the gaming PC that I built for him last Christmas. The PS3 made a great BD player with Netflix and a bunch of other stuff built in (and no subscription needed to use those features unlike the XBox). The only thing lacking was IR control, but I think you can buy an IR dongle for the PS3. I never bothered to look into an IR dongle much, because he had no problem using the game controller to watch movies and stuff. It also works with plain old USB keyboards (and wireless keyboards with a USB dongle), if you so desire.

[optikhog]

We've used WMC with a pair of Echos to transition from DVR-style TV to more on-demand content (e.g. Hulu, Amazon) and are pretty much done with that transitional period (and WMC for now). I'm currenty toying with Google TV, but it's clunky - I will patiently hold onto my Echo boxes to see what Android can bring to them.

[werds]

Well, Ceton said they were looking at Android on the Echo as a "Christmas present". Yet we still wait...
I guess they did fail to mention the year. Android on Echo coming Christmas 2016?

Christmas in July???

/Ducks4cover

[Motz]

If you read through the posts on the blog we did have hopes of a christmas release, but re-evaluated just throwing base android on the Echo. In the last update we gave some insight into what we were doing. We are hard at work each and every day on Android integration and if I do say so myself I think everyone will really like what it has turned into

[Cryofax]

My wife asked me the other day "Didn't you say these new boxes will be able to do Netflix?". Okay when I set these up I told her an android update was coming and then it would do Netflix and Hulu, so we held off on upgrading our Bluray player (and old one with unprotected component! lol) or getting a Roku.

Just go get a new BD player with them built-in. It'll allow you to play BD's, DVD's, NetFlix, and whatever else is built-in to the BD player.

Yeah I know all that. That's why I wrote I'm "holding off" on getting a new BluRay player. If the echo handles it as well or better, I'd save $80. I already use a PS3 in another room for Netflix/Hulu with my second echo next to it. Though PS3 doesn't do HBO Go! yet... I have an XBox 360 as my extender in the 3rd room (HTPC) with a PC hooked up too (not paying Xbox Live fees just for Netflix/Hulu etc).

Besides if I wanted a new box just to do streaming services I'd probably go with the latest Roku anyhow. Plus on top of those options (BluRay/Roku) I'd also need another network switch so the echo and new item could be on the network (or run another long cable) since now a 50 foot ethernet cable runs to it from my main switch.

Motz, you've got us all salivating lol...

[cncb]

After all this time it better be pretty special...

[lithium630]

If you read through the posts on the blog we did have hopes of a christmas release, but re-evaluated just throwing base android on the Echo. In the last update we gave some insight into what we were doing. We are hard at work each and every day on Android integration and if I do say so myself I think everyone will really like what it has turned into

I don't think it was clear that there was a change in how android was going to be implemented. I did not know the original plan was just for plain android. (Of course I could have missed something). It helps to explain the long delay. A new estimate on time would be great

[barnabas1969]

Yeah I know all that. That's why I wrote I'm "holding off" on getting a new BluRay player. If the echo handles it as well or better, I'd save $80. I already use a PS3 in another room for Netflix/Hulu with my second echo next to it. Though PS3 doesn't do HBO Go! yet... I have an XBox 360 as my extender in the 3rd room (HTPC) with a PC hooked up too (not paying Xbox Live fees just for Netflix/Hulu etc).

Besides if I wanted a new box just to do streaming services I'd probably go with the latest Roku anyhow. Plus on top of those options (BluRay/Roku) I'd also need another network switch so the echo and new item could be on the network (or run another long cable) since now a 50 foot ethernet cable runs to it from my main switch.

Motz, you've got us all salivating lol...

Instead of putting another switch at the end of that long cable, you could buy the two products linked below. They effectively split the four pairs of wire in your existing Ethernet cable so that you have two (100Mbps) connections sharing one cable (using 2 pairs each, obviously).

Plug this one into your existing switch.

Plug this one into the wall jack in the room where you need an extra Ethernet port.

I've done this in all of my bedrooms. When I wired the house (quite a long while ago), I didn't anticipate needing two Ethernet jacks in the bedrooms near the TV's.

[staknhalo]

My wife asked me the other day "Didn't you say these new boxes will be able to do Netflix?". Okay when I set these up I told her an android update was coming and then it would do Netflix and Hulu, so we held off on upgrading our Bluray player (and old one with unprotected component! lol) or getting a Roku.

Just go get a new BD player with them built-in. It'll allow you to play BD's, DVD's, NetFlix, and whatever else is built-in to the BD player.

That's what I finally did. I put a BD player in every room where there is an extender. It's simple to switch inputs and use the BD player for everything that the extender won't do.

You can pick them up for $80 or less. The newest one I have is a 2011 Samsung model that came free with my living room TV. I put it in my bedroom because I already have a BD-ROM drive in my HTPC (used with Total Media Theatre 5) and the TV has all the online features that the BD player has and more. I like that Samsung BD player best of all of the BD players that I own. It has the best menu layout, and loads BD movies faster than the others that I own. The others are used ones or new-in-box older models that I picked up on e-bay for $50 or less each.

My son was using his PS3 in his bedroom until we sold it last month on e-bay so he could buy more stuff for the gaming PC that I built for him last Christmas. The PS3 made a great BD player with Netflix and a bunch of other stuff built in (and no subscription needed to use those features unlike the XBox). The only thing lacking was IR control, but I think you can buy an IR dongle for the PS3. I never bothered to look into an IR dongle much, because he had no problem using the game controller to watch movies and stuff. It also works with plain old USB keyboards (and wireless keyboards with a USB dongle), if you so desire.

The problem with any Blu-ray player is playing any rips that contain a Cinavia flag will trigger Cinavia detection through w/e app on the Blu-ray player. Even Plex and the like.

[cncb]

The problem with any Blu-ray player is playing any rips that contain a Cinavia flag will trigger Cinavia detection through w/e app on the Blu-ray player. Even Plex and the like.

This is not true with the Sony players but the interface is nothing to write home about.

[staknhalo]

The problem with any Blu-ray player is playing any rips that contain a Cinavia flag will trigger Cinavia detection through w/e app on the Blu-ray player. Even Plex and the like.

This is not true with the Sony players but the interface is nothing to write home about.

I can't speak for other models; but I know it happens on the PS3 from experience.

[Sammy2]

If you read through the posts on the blog we did have hopes of a christmas release, but re-evaluated just throwing base android on the Echo. In the last update we gave some insight into what we were doing. We are hard at work each and every day on Android integration and if I do say so myself I think everyone will really like what it has turned into

Now if we can just get a peak at it..

BTW, I was wondering why android was chosen. Could you not do about the same thing with Linux?

[makryger]

Android ecosystem gives you well supported apps like Netflix, hbo, hulu, watch espn, etc which Linus doesn't really offer. Probably a better long term solution.