The quick lowdown on Android TV boxes or "Whats an Android TV Box?"

So your sitting in front of your 47" LCD tv screen and got 500 channels available, yet nothing really to watch right? Well....lets just go browse the internet with your TV. Whats that? Your TV isn't internet ready? You have to go on your phone or laptop to browse Hulu or Netflix? Well....we can fix that with a small little device called an Android TV box.

Whats an Android TV box?
Simply put it's a box which makes your 19", 32" or even your 40" LCD TV into a huge android tablet, capable of accessing internet sites, playing movies off of Hulu or Netflix, or even playing your videos from Youtube. There's not real hard definition of what an Android box contains concerning the hardware components, however most boxes contain dual or quad core ARM processors and have 1-2GB of RAM and 6-8GB of storage memory and usually have 4.3 Jelly Bean or 4.4 Kit Kat as the operating system. Some don't even come in the form of a box but a USB stick with the minimum connections.

The connections:
Standard USB (some boxes have two), HDMI,
Ethernet, some boxes have expandable memory card slots.

Wifi, bluetooth, DLNA and Miracast (to play media from your android phone or tablet to the box) is available on most boxes.

Get ready to invest in a BT keyboard and mouse as many customers have issues navigating the on screen menus with the remotes which come with the devices.

As it is an Android device expect the standard apps and utilities that come with Android. Apps such as a browser, photo, email and Google Play come standard on most devices. XBMC which is a well organized media center may be installed as well.

The cost of these Android TV boxes can range anywhere from $50 for a low end dual core to $120 for a top of the line quad core with 8GB of RAM and XBMC pre installed.

XBMC Media organizer

My recommendation? Try a low end dual core Android box first which you can experiment with. If you have fun with it buy all means you can always upgrade and maybe sooner or later say goodbye to your cable TV bill!