This Android TV box is called the Tanggula X5 and it is the latest improved version of itself.
It has an upgraded TangTV user interface and provides a more reliable streaming experience than the previous version.
You can use this device to turn your normal TV into an Android smart TV.
This means any of your non-smart TV with HDMI input can become an interactive Android media center.
This video is presented in these sections so that you can quickly access the information you need. Continue watching this video to find out more about this IPTV smart media box.
This is the box for the new Tanggula X5 series. It looks the same as the previous edition but with the current year printed here.
At the back, the Tanggula X5 specifications are printed. This smart media box comes with either 64GB or 128GB of storage space. This box itself does not indicate which storage size the device comes with.
Now, let’s open this box and see its contents.
These are all the items from the box.
This is the Tanggula X5 IPTV smart media device, remote control, power adaptor, HDMI cable, X5 Series user guide and Android TV user manual.
X5 Series user guide has information about starting the device and connecting to the internet.
Android TV user manual has information on how to use the functions and settings in the Android TV operating system. Some of the functions include Miracast, DLNA and AirPlayer.
Information in these manuals are quite limited, so a video like this that you’re watching now is useful to learn more details about the Tanggula X5 Android TV box.
The Tanggula X5 is quite small and light. The box does not have any external extended antenna. This makes it easy to keep it hidden behind a TV or a monitor.
The brand logo is at the top and there are heat ventilation holes at the top corners.
As hot air moves upwards, having heat ventilation holes at the top means the device heat moves upwards to escape. This naturally cools this Android TV box.
At the front is the LCD display. At the side is the memory card reader slot, one USB 3.0 slot, one USB 2.0 slot, an RJ-45 network ethernet port, an AV Out port, a HDMI port, optical audio port and the power connector port.
At the bottom, there are ventilation holes and this sticker mentions the main specifications of this smart TV box.
It has 4GB DDR3 memory and 128GB eMMC storage capacity.
The remote control is a standard looking one similar to other Android smart TV box remotes.
It has the mouse button to activate the cursor on screen and move the cursor with the navigation buttons.
This Android TV remote control feels very light and has a curvy shape for a comfortable hold.
At the back, usage instructions are printed and hopefully the print copes with the wear and tear of usage. This remote requires two AAA batteries to operate.
This device is very simple to connect.
Plug in the HDMI cable to this box and the other end to a TV, monitor or projector.
Connect the power adaptor and turn on power.
The Android TV box operating system will boot. In my testing, it took 32 seconds from turning on power to loading the Android home screen. This part has been sped up just to show you quickly.
This is the home screen interface of the new Tanggula X5 Android TV box.
There are large tiles icons at the top and smaller icons at the bottom.
The plus sign allows you to add more app shortcuts to the home screen.
The first thing to do is to connect to the internet.
Click on ‘Settings’.
Select ‘Network & Internet’.
Connect to a wifi here or you can connect a network cable to the TV box from your modem or router.
Now that you have internet access, sign-in to a Google account if you want to install apps from the Google Play Store.
If you want to connect any Bluetooth devices such as headphones, keyboard or mouse, select ‘Remotes & accessories’ and let the pairing mode discover your devices and connect.
This X5 Series TV box runs on Android 11 and the security patch level is a little old.
You can also connect to Bluetooth devices here.
Under Date and Time, you can select your correct timezone.
There is a long list of languages here, so you can change your device language to your preference.
The screen resolution is set to 4K at 60Hz and there are many other options available here.
HDMI CEC allows you to control HDMI connected devices, in this case the TV and this Android TV box by using only one remote control. You can turn on and off the settings here.
S/PDIF audio support allows you to enjoy high quality digital audio.
There are developer options and debugging settings here. If you scroll down, there are quite a number of options and settings here.
For those who need accessibility options, here are some settings that you can turn on and use.
Under ‘More Settings’, remove selection for ‘System Bar Hide’ to show the status bar and the navigation bar on the screen. The navigation bar at the bottom and the status bar at the top now appears.
Under ‘Hardware Monitor’, there are various data options that you can display on the status bar. As the options are being selected, the information display appears on the status bar. This is useful if you want to continuously track some information.
This Tanggula X5 TV box comes preinstalled with movies and TV series apps like Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video where you can login using your account.
This app called Tubi is like a free Netflix, just don’t expect the latest movies and shows. It has a huge collection of movies and TV shows that you can watch for free and is ad supported.
This Android box also comes preinstalled with TA Store, open this app store and you’ll find these apps for watching movies and live channels.
TangTV and TarsTV apps connect to different servers to ensure you get minimal downtime when watching movies or TV shows.
These apps are not activated by default and it is purely the users choice if they want to activate and use these apps.
If you click on ‘Activation’, the app will be downloaded and you will be asked to confirm the installation.
If the TangTV and TarsTV apps need to be updated or reinstalled, it can be done from the TA Store itself.
Unfortunately, I had problems installing TangTV and TarsTV, as they were taking way too long and then failed at the end. I contacted Tanggula and was asked to do a Factory Reset option and that solved the problem. The app installation went on smoothly.
Both TangTV and TarsTV offer a huge list of TV channels, TV shows and movies.
Although the apps are available through the app store, you decide if you want to install or not to install the apps.
Once you launch the app, initially you will need to click Download on these categories to get the latest list of TV, movies and series. The app allows the users to decide if they want to download the list to the media box.
Clicking on Live TV will show you an interface with categories on the left and the contents of a category on the right. TV channels are grouped into categories and the tiled icon interface makes it easy to find channels.
Movies have a similar interface with categories on the left and movie selection on the right. If you look at the total count, it is a huge number of movies that are available here.
Series also comes with a similar consistent interface and a large selection of shows grouped into categories.
Other than the Tanggula media apps, you can also install other TV and media apps from Google Play. In Australia, I can install apps like 7plus, 10 play and 9Now to watch live TV channels and on-demand shows and movies.
Now let’s look at the Android TV box hardware and system specifications. I am using an app called DevCheck to show you the details.
The CPU hardware is Amlogic S905X3 64-bit with Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A55 processor.
The graphics or GPU is ARM Mali G31 MP2 with Vulkan support and OpenGL.
Vulkan is used for high-performance real-time 3D-graphics applications, such as video games and interactive media. It offers higher performance and more efficient CPU and GPU usage compared to the older OpenGL and Direct3D 11 APIs.
The display resolution shown here is what my connected monitor is.
This TV box has 4GB RAM or memory size and here it shows that close to half is being used.
Storage type is eMMC and size is 128GB and around 10GB is used by Android and the preinstalled apps.
This device supports Bluetooth 4 connection.
There is built-in audio sound card and other supported features are listed here.
This Amlogic X5 Series uses device board ah216.
Operating system is Android 11 with API 30.
It mentions here that this device is not rooted.
DRM or Digital Rights Management is a way of protecting contents from piracy. To stream and play HD quality videos from services like Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video, the device needs to have DRM Security level L1.
This Android TV box is only certified for L3, so you can’t stream HD or 4K videos from those protected services.
I’m going to play a few 4K quality video streams on YouTube. Let’s see how this Tanggula X5 Android box with WiFi internet connection performs in the video playback.
As mentioned earlier, due to Digital Rights Management security level of this Android box is only L3, it does not support playback of HD or 4K quality on protected streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video.
If you want to know how to get huge discounts for Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, HBO Max and more, I have provided a link in the video description for you.
In this test, I’m going to use the Miracast function to connect and cast my phone screen to the Android TV box which is going to be displayed on the connected TV.
Wait for the Android TV box to detect the phone, and the phone to detect the Android box, then select the name to connect.
Once the phone is connected, the phone screen should be replicated on the TV.
You can now launch any app on the phone and the display is duplicated on the TV. This is great for playing games or watching movies on TV.
I’m going to try playing this game just to show you how the graphic performs on this Tanggula X5 Android TV box.
There are a lot of positive points for this Android TV box.
The device is easy to connect and use.
The system has a simple looking and responsive interface and navigation.
Applications load quickly and provide a good experience.
4K video files play without any problem and Youtube 4K video streams play without any problem too.
Playing games was responsive and did not have any issues.
There are 3 concerns that I have for this TV box.
The first is that it does not have the DRM security level support to play Netflix in HD or 4K.
The second is that some apps are not available in Google Play. However, you can still overcome this by installing APK files.
The third is that the TV channels and movies apps are not installed by default. You will need to activate and download them from TAStore, which is quite easy to do.
Overall, Tanggula X5 Android TV box is a great device to turn your normal TV into a fast media and entertainment center.
A day before I was supposed to post this video, I got a surprise when TangTV updated its live TV and movies database.
The TV channels are grouped into categories as usual but Tanggula has added a lot of TV channels from various countries. Let’s have a look at the categories.
USA TV channels,
USA Latin TV channels,
France TV channels,
Belgium TV channels,
Germany TV channels,
Netherland TV channels,
Austria TV channels,
Italy TV channels,
Malta TV channels,
Switzerland TV channels,
Denmark TV channels,
Finland TV channels,
Sweden TV channels,
Norway TV channels,
Hungary TV channels,
Ukraine TV channels,
Poland TV channels,
Russia TV channels,
Czech TV channels,
Croatia TV channels,
Romania TV channels,
Bulgaria TV channels,
Slovakia TV channels,
Albania TV channels,
Armenia TV channels,
Azerbaijan TV channels,
Bosnia TV channels,
Macedonia TV channels,
Greece TV channels,
Turkey TV channels,
Serbia TV channels,
Montenegro TV channels,
Belarus TV channels,
Georgia TV channels,
Cyprus TV channels,
Portugal TV channels,
Spain TV channels,
Dominican TV channels,
Suriname TV channels,
Australia TV channels,
New Zealand TV channels,
Indian TV channels,
Pakistan TV channels,
Bangladesh TV channels,
Africa TV channels,
South Africa TV channels,
Caribbean TV channels,
Arab TV channels,
Israel TV channels,
Iran TV channels,
Kurdistan TV channels,
Kazakhistan TV channels,
Afganistan TV channels,
China TV channels,
Taiwan TV channels,
Mongolia TV channels,
Thailand TV channels,
Japan TV channels,
Korea TV channels,
Malaysia TV channels,
Indonesia TV channels,
Cambodia TV channels,
Philippines TV channels and Vietnam TV channels.
That practically covers most of the world.
Many channels in the categories are local to each country, so now you can watch different countries’ local TV channels from other locations.
I hope this video has been useful for you.
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