1. The most basic and important rules !!!

1.1. The topic is discussed only "hardware", ie Consoles themselves! Firmware and other software are often discussed in other topics.
1.2. If the discussion of prefixes is very important to specify what kind of firmware, enter its name, but without further discussion, and so forth.
1.3. Allowed to discuss only those devices that have been or are in the sale, ie, there are users of these devices.
1.4. If you share your experience or provide information, this data must be either from the experience or from reputable sources. Information "I heard somewhere" or "I then said ..." and the like are considered to be misinformation.
1.5. If you specify the criteria for selecting the value of the device, then it is desirable to specify in dollars or euros, rubles according to the exchange. And not in marks, MNT, tanga, Som, UAH, etc. We are not nationalists, just use a known currency for the convenience of members of the forum.
1.6. The friendliness and respect for each other !!!

2. What categorically can not be done! and what is fraught with
2.1. All discussions, arguments and references(Exception, see para. 1.2)about firmware in the future will apply to offtopic!
2.2. Give answers without comment or explanation, such as "Super", "take it ...". Those. any response must be supported by at least some or commentary, like "Take just that ... and not ... because ..."
2.3. Holivar, Flooding, offtopic, misinform, to hold public squabble whose unit is better or worse, etc.(20% of warnings + RO - depending on the severity of the offense)
2.4. Dismissive, rude, rude, insulting refers to other forum members, including the use of MATa as manifestly and beyond veiled (hidden mat). Or simply the use of such words in the text.(20% of warnings - without talking)
2.5. "Shkolota", "rogue" and other insults, equated to the mat(20% of warnings + RO - without talking)
2.6. Post referral materials or promotional materials (links, coupons and code words) in any form is prohibited and is equated with commercial activities. For this purpose there is a corresponding profile topics on the purchase of certain devices.(20% of warnings + PO from 2 days - without talking).
2.7. PR, advertising other resources (without the consent of the administration)(20% of warnings - without talking).
2.8. Ignore warning Teammatesavagemessiahzine.com(curators, moderators, moderators, etc.)(20% of warnings + PO from 2 days - without talking)

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AFR (Auto Frame Rate) - adjust the display frequency to the video frame rate.
ARM(architecture) - (from the English. Advanced RISC Machine - an advanced RISC machine; sometimes Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of licensed 32-bit and 64-bit microprocessor cores developed by ARM Limited.
x86- (eng. Intel 80x86) - processor architecture with the same instruction set, first implemented in Intel processors.
Openwrt- Built-in operating system based on the Linux kernel, and intended primarily for home routers. Core components include the Linux kernel, util-linux, uClibc or musl, and BusyBox. The size of all components is optimized due to the fact that in most home routers the amount of memory is severely limited.
Samba- a package of programs that allow access to network drives and printers on various operating systems via SMB / CIFS protocol. It has client and server parts. It is free software, released under the GPL license.
HDMI- High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) - an interface for high-definition multimedia that allows you to transfer high-resolution digital video data and multi-channel digital audio signals with copy protection (English High Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection, HDCP).
CEC- Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) is a bi-directional serial bus using the industry standard AV.Link protocol for remote control of electronic devices.
HDCP- (English High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection - "Protection of Broadband Digital Content") - Media Protection Technology developed by Intel and intended to prevent illegally copying a high-quality video signal transmitted via DVI interfaces (for this HDCP interface is optional option), DisplayPort (For this HDCP interface is an optional option), HDMI, GVIF or UDI. The protected video signal can only be played on equipment that supports HDCP.
S / PDIF- S / PDIF or S / P-DIF - stands for Sony / Philips Digital Interface (or Interconnect) Format (also described as IEC 958 type II in the international standard IEC-60958). It is a set of low-level protocol and hardware implementation specifications describing the transfer of digital audio between various components of audio equipment.
Dolby digital- (English Dolby Digital, AC-3, ATSC A / 52) is a digital multichannel sound system developed by Dolby Laboratories, Inc. in 1991 to create high-quality optical phonograms of combined films.
DTS- Digital Theater System (Russian Digital Theater System) is a family of digital multichannel sound recording systems created by Digital Theater System (Digital Sea System) to demonstrate digital phonograms in cinemas in sync with film production.
HDR- High Dynamic Range Imaging, HDRI or just HDR - technologies for working with images and video, the brightness range of which exceeds the capabilities of standard technologies.
H.264- H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC (Advanced Video Coding) is a licensed video compression standard designed to achieve a high degree of compression of the video stream while maintaining high quality.
H.265- H.265 or HEVC (English High Efficiency Video Coding - highly efficient video coding) - video compression format using more efficient algorithms compared to H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC.
VP9- open and free for the consumer video compression standard, developed by Google. Previously developed as Next Generation Open Video (NGOV) and VP-Next. It is an evolutionary development and successor of the VP8 standard. Both standards are used with the WebM container.
Wi-Fi- Wi-Fi Alliance trademark for wireless networks based on IEEE 802.11 standard. Under the acronym Wi-Fi (from the English phrase Wireless Fidelity, which can be literally translated as "wireless quality" or "wireless accuracy"), a whole family of standards for transmitting digital data streams over radio channels is being developed.
Bluetooth- (from the words of English. Blue - blue and tooth - tooth; pronounced / blutu /) - Production Specification of Wireless Personal Networks (Wireless Personal Area Network, WPAN). Bluetooth provides information exchange between such devices as personal computers (desktop, pocket, laptops), mobile phones, printers, digital cameras, mice, keyboards, joysticks, headphones, headsets on reliable, free, universally accessible radio frequency for neighboring communication. Bluetooth allows these devices to communicate when they are within a radius up to 10 m from each other (the range strongly depends on the obstacles and interference), even in different rooms.

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Dear friends, if you are planning to buy a new box from Chinese manufacturers for yourself, be sure to read this:
Comparison of tv-boxes for the most common use cases

And you must take into account:
1. If you want to purchase an inexpensive TV box for up to $ 50, in most cases:
a) You should at least be aware of what a device is flashing, have basic knowledge of flashing at least mobile devices.
b) Imagine what Root Access is.
c) Be able to install Recovery / TWRP yourself, as well as be able to use its settings.
d) To have "straight arms" and not be afraid to attach your knowledge of the "lead designer" to him, namely to be able to disassemble the console and modify (improve) the cooling - not all devices in this price category are required ..
If you are not ready for these steps, go to step 2.

2. You simply purchase a box from one of the leading brands at a price of 70 (100) dollars and enjoy the operation of the device out of the box and also receive hardware support for DTS / Dolby Digital audio output, with the exception of devices purchased at the start of sales. In this case, you just need to wait a bit until the leading programmers of the manufacturers of these TV boxes fix all the bugs found in the firmware.

The future owner of the tv box, who asks for advice on buying a console and wants to get the most accurate answer, should indicate in his question:
1 - How the prefix will be used:
(a) without special requirements, for the kitchen, cottage, business trips
(b) mainly as a media player for watching IPTV and any video from various sources
(c) mainly as a game console for heavy dynamic games
(d) universally, as a media player and game console for heavy games

2 - ready to pay for the console
(a) up to $ 50
(b) up to $ 90
(c) up to $ 140
(g) up to $ 200 and up

3 - after the purchase of the console its owner
(a) will use the prefix out of the box "as is" on native firmware, using official updates
(b) is ready, if necessary, to track the profile forum of the set-top box, to "modify" it in hardware (eg cooling replacement) and software (eg manual flashing, editing system files, etc.) plan.