Digital entertainment company NanoTech plans to launch an Android-powered device that you can use to stream 4K Ultra HD movies to your TV. It’s called the Nuvola NP-1, and it’s expected to ship in August.

NanoTech is taking pre-orders for $299, but your card won’t be charged until the box ships.

Nuvola NP-1

The Nuvola NP-1 is much more expensive than most Android TV boxes released to date. But it’s also the first model I’m aware of that will ship with NVIDA’s ARM Cortex-A15 quad-core processor and one of the few to offer support for display resolutions up to 3840 x 2160 pixels.

That said, basically what you’re looking at is an NVIDA Shield device in a TV box form factor. It doesn’t have a game controller or a display, but it does have a few more ports than you’d get with the Shield. I’ll let you decide if that’s enough to justify asking the same price NVIDIA is charging for its portable gaming system.

Under the hood, the Nuvola NP-1 has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, Bluetooth 4.0, and dual-band 802.11n 2×2 MIMO WiFi. It also features a Gigabit Ethernet jack, 1 USB 2.0 port, 1 USB 3.0 port, a microSD card slot, and an HDMI port.

The box measures 3.9″ x 3.5″ x 1.2″ and comes with an infared remote control. NanoTech also plans to offer an optional RF remote control with a built-in keyboard and a wirelss game controller.

The Nuvola NP-1 runs Google Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and comes with a number of media apps preloaded, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Pandora, XBMC, Skype, and Angry Birds. It also supports the Google Play Store, so you can install third party apps.

You also get access to the NanoFlix channel for Ultra HD videos.

While some set top box makers, like Ouya, are positioning their devices as hacker-friendly, Nanotech seems to be taking a different approach. The company explicitly states that rooting the Nuvola NP-1 or installing a custom ROM will void your warranty.

via AndroidPC.es

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17 replies on “Nuvola NP-1 is a $299 Android media player with a Tegra 4 chip”

  1. Here’s what I can tell you after owning the machine for 4 days. I am VERY disappointed, I wrote to the company to try to return it and have been told they only do exchanges for broken units.
    Pro’s
    Does video very well

    Cons
    1 4 K content that they keep bragging about, has nothing anyone would want to watch
    2 Not compatible with a lot of popular paid apps. So say you’ve paid for PowerAmp, Solid Explorer, Printer Share, Beautiful widgets (to name a few) etc, you get a message saying that your device is not compatible. Say you side load them the unless you have the unlocker apks to side load as well, your’s stuck with the trial version. Excuse given by the company – they force touch support. I have a minix neo x8h and it can install all of the above so I calll BS.
    3 Not compatible with a lot of good free apps…like Dolphin Browser
    4 Does NOT sync Gmail contacts, be prepared to expert from gmail and import (VCARD)
    5 Some of the fucntionality they’ve shown off in video actually doesnt work – like they show it hooked up to an external hard drive, and that in fact doesn’t work (formatted for both NTFS and FAT 32).
    6 The hardware decoding for sound is average at best. The minix noe x8h I have does dolby sound, this unit does stereo…at average quality.
    7 When unit goes to sleep it can be a pain to wake up
    8 The overscan/underscan display controls arent as acurate as they could be be prepared to loos some screen real estate
    9 No root method (yet) which means you’ll be stuck with that “no writing to external sd cards BS that Google enforces not.
    10 Bit torrents seem slow

    I could go on but I think I have vented enough

  2. There seems to be some misinforma6tion floating around here. listen to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WF-axUyvtlc

    And you can get package deals here, nuvola4k.com

    If you check out the 4k issues sony fans have, you will see why this will do well. Look at amazon and the reviews section for their box, that you have to download content too, the nuvola is a streamer, I do believe there is a you tube video of the box working at 6mb.

    4k isnt just for the rich and famous anymore, this box can do a lot!

  3. Perfect for my 4K TV, exactly what I needed. It’s a bit pricey, but nothing cheaper I can find for 4K.

  4. NVIDIA sheild and other similar devices offer no where near what this device does. If you take the time to read this device is literally 100% customizable and also perfectly usable right off the shelf with pre-installed apps. I already pre-ordered mine as I think this device is the future of streaming TV content

  5. Crazy strategy to overprice a TVBox having UHD resoluction, a feature almost no one can use now and few are likely to buy in the future. UHD displays will go the same way as 3D.

    1. You are right..the UHD is a gimmick since most of us middle-class people won’t be able to afford a 4K TV as of yet. By the time we can afford a 4K TV there will me many other UHD Media Players (from China) so the price will obviously go down to the $100-150 price. So yeah at $300..no thanks.

      1. Seiki Digital just launched an extremely affordable 4K HD TV starting at $699. Go to the Nuvola website for details.

  6. This one checks all the boxes I’m looking for to replace my Boxee Box, with the exception of root/custom ROMs. I was burned once by the Boxee’s closed system and I’m not going to spend $300 to get burned again. I could care less about voiding the warranty, but I bet there will be a lack of community support for these in the form of custom roms due to the company’s approach. Too bad. If this was an open platform I’d be saying, “Shut up and take my money!” instead of “I’ll wait and see…”

  7. I prefer nvidia shield for $300 mobile device with touch screen, hdmi and others connectors you can connected to a big screen and use a Bluetooth remote control for other experience

  8. Anyone with the bandwidth and screens and desire for 4K won’t blink at the price. Of course since that’s a tiny market it’s hard to see this product doing particularly well. As soon as real demand for 4K comes along a Roku or Apple TV will swoop in.
    But I have to give them kudos for making something like this available.

  9. I’d rather go with a bigger x86 device and install a desktop OS like Arch or Windows. I could build a 7.7″ x 7.5″ x 2.5″ Haswell mITX device for $300-$400 or just get an Intel NUC if size really is that big of a concern.

    1. what say would make sense if android x86 was %100 working on intel chips but mind you intel is working very hard on it

      1. Android is just too limited. Arch or some other desktop OS is many times better than using a limited mobile OS like Android. It’s fine for a phone but not for everything else.

        1. arch and x86 based os’s are not designed for mobile ui unlike pc people do not sit right on front of their tv’s where android is designed with a ui that has big icons and when u double click on a web page the writing gets bigger like on a tablet so for media box’s i think android is the way to go and when x86 gets a good 100% working android installation then people can build their own mini htpc with a choice of their own gpu and hardware

  10. Well then no-sale. If I have root it is my box, if somebody else has it then I’m only using someone else’s property. Won’t pay for something I won’t own if I can help it and for now I can help it when it comes to buying a computer.

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