Xtreamer SideWinder4 review: your next Android set-top box

Xtreamer’s latest set-top-box - Xtreamer SideWinder4 which is a small Android-powered device designed to turn your TV into a media center. It is may be the next Android set-top box for your family. 

With many DVDs and Blu-rays now coming with the option of high definition digital downloads in the box, and our media libraries showing no sign of shrinking, the market for media playing set-top boxes is rapidly expanding. And there are many set-top boxes on the market. 

The Xstreamer SideWinder4, along with a host of competitors including the superb WDTV Live is such a device, claiming it is an affordable entertainment system that delivers your TV direct access to live digital TV boradcast over DVBT and the Internet of the biggest names in movies and TV in up to 1080p HD. Contrast to other competitors, Xstreamer SideWinder4 also has some features that set it apart from the competition. Let’s find out. 

The first one, the SideWinder 4 can run XBMC so you can play the movie the way you cannot to play them, it can also use Airplay via the app called Airpin so any iOS device running iOS 6 or greater can use it. From YouTube HD and Spotify, Netflix and HuluPlus to HBO Go and more like Twitch. 

And this device has HDMI 1.4, S/PDIF, 3 USB 2.0 ports, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, Miracast and DLNA support, 5 channel and 7 channel audio passthrough and also works as a DVB-T2 television receiver. 

And in terms of the format, the Xstreamer SideWinder4 is very impressive, which can support for almost every imaginable video or audio formats and container once you’ve updated the device to its latest firmware, like AVI, MKV, MOV and VOB (DVD format), which also can support Multilingual by Google JellyBean. So you can backup your DVD movies or convert your Blu-ray movies to it for Playing with original or multi-track video, audio and subtitles. 

If Xtreamer sounds familiar, that’s because this is the same company that introduced two devices in three months, the other one is Multi-Console device designed to work as a media center and gaming console in January. Compared to the Xtreamer Multi-Console, the SideWinder4's hardware is just a notch lower. It runs on a 1.5 GHz dual-core AMLOGIC CPU, has 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. In contrast, the Multi-Core is powered by a 1.6 GHz quad-core chip with twice the RAM and storage. Both devices run a custom Android 4.2.2 ROM but also has access to Google Play and all that it has to offer. Perhaps this is the reason why the new SideWinder4 has a much lower price. While those specs aren’t exactly spectacular, you don’t need any more than that to handle HD video playback and other basic tasks such as web browsing or Android gaming.