I wonder how coreELEC could run on this cheap (around $15 at this moment for the 1G/8G version, around $18 for 2G/16G) Amlogic 905W Android TV Box named Mecool M8S Plus W
The thing is that it doesn’t has a microSD slot. So question is mainly how a installation could work. I didn’t saw any internal pictures yet from the device.
For more Information: https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/01/22/mecool-m8s-plus-w-tv-box-sells-for-less-than-15-promo/
Should run from USB … how it copes with whatever hardware is involved is anyone’s guess presently.
Connectivity – 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4, No Bluetooth, No Ethernet
Who Knows what WiFi chip the’ve used in this thing…
$15.00 HEADACHE is what you’ll buy.
I had a look at the price
$14.96 for device
$5.24 for shipping
$20.20 Total.
There are much better deals out there IMO … better devices with free shipping for around $25 to $30 such as H96 S905x2 for $26
It all depends on how you are going to use it.
For local playback from a USB flash drive or even HDD then for many things up to 1080p and even some 4K it will work adequately.
But with S912 and S905X2/X3 boxes that can be had for not much more, even if today,$15-$20 is all you have, I would save up for just a little longer and get a far better and faster box.
If using your network to stream, then dual band WiFi and/or Gigabit ethernet will be of great benefit.
And in even the short/medium term, you will likely regret buying such a box unless the outlay is such that you can consider it throw away money in order to try something out for the first time.
I guess the only other potential practical use could be as a headless host for a TV tuner but even then, it’s not that desirable.
In terms of getting advice and guidance on the latest TV boxes, apart from this forum of course, Freaktab is generally considered the best source of guidance where there is great discussion and testing carried out.
Or if you like to see Youtube reviews, I would recommend the excellent ETA Prime channel,where there are always a great range of boxes and boards reviewed.
Personally I would avoid it as despite what may be seen as great value, is more a case of getting rid old stock of what has been a largely failed attempt at a cheap AMLogic SOC that has now been superceded (price wise) by better and cheaper older SOC’s and (technologically speaking) a couple of new ones.
Great to hear!
That’s true©® In the worst case If WiFi doesn’t work at all with Linux I need to add a USB WiFi/ethernet.
Which Version? I Ordered mine (2G/16G) for $17.80 including shipping…
I think this heavily depends where you live. Some counties have a maximum what you can import for free/without taxes. If you get over this limit (in my case around $22) it will increase (almost double!) the price heavily™!
I remember some one saying who calls a S905x (2g/16g) and a S905w (1g/8g) tv box their own and can call no difference between them while using some *elec…
That’s the thing. It’s going to replace my raspberry 3 with 1gb of ram running from SD card. I have the hope to get a little boost from it. =)
This could also be a plan later. Using it with armbian for example and run hass.io on or another thing…
The S905X2/3 are different beasts than the S905X.
Faster, better GPU, and boxes have both USB 3.0 and Gigabit ethernet support, which were missing on S905X and or course S905W too.
Not to mention that pretty pretty much all of the newer boxes with have bluetooth and a micro sd card as standard, with many also having dual band wifi,
That’s big improvements indeed! But I guess it will take another year (or two?) that the price of this ones drops down the $20 line.
But for my planned location (no gigabit ethernet available) and no advantage for usb 3 storage because only reading hd material which works perfectly on a usb 2 host that’s just a thing for the future anyways…
Let’s see what I get and how it compares to my rusty raspberry 3 which did the kodi job (successful) now for 3 years 
I also have this here … a limit of some €22.40 or so before some extra has to be paid
Generally when the value is close to the limit it is not pulled but you can be unlucky.
Same version but different carriage cost apparently.
How does this technically work? I never owned a arm box which was able to boot from USB. Any modifications needed or could I just try to run a coreelec image which shares the same soc and see what happenings… Without destroying the internal android os?
Some devices are picky about which USB connector to use … and possibly some won’t do it … but essentially it is the same as set up for running from SD card.
I concurred with you.
You checked the 1g/8g version? Try the bigger 2g/16g one. I found it for less than $18 with free shipping: Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com
SSV6051P… means no mainline support at all (and for 99% also not in the future)
A cheap (but mainline supported) usb dongle should do the trick
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