Wetek Air

1st Official Post

    I just saw this - so I guess not.

    IIRC the Wetek Air has a locked bootloader so you can’t install anything but their original Android. No idea why they went this way cause Wetek already sponsors LibreELEC and codesnake was always the one supporting WeTek Devices.

    Greetings,

    If you don't have the ELEC System but it will only be Android, no one will take it, especially if it is AndroidTV, nobody will take it.

    In short: WeTek company breaks its leg.

    Best regards...

    saw this on Wetek Forum

    And I guess there won't be a Linux image, because it has AndroidTV OS certiefied by Google, which doesn't allow to boot another OS, so there sadly won't be a way to use LibreELEC on Wetek Air. (asked today as well)

    Quote from ozkaradag

    If you don't have the ELEC System but it will only be Android, no one will take it, especially if it is AndroidTV, nobody will take it.

    Do you really think that all such devices runs any ELEC system? ;( There are lot of users who are using Android on it. Why? Because there are apps for different TV providers which are not possible to watch by ELEC :(

    Quote from vpeter

    Do you really think that all such devices runs any ELEC system? ;( There are lot of users who are using Android on it. Why? Because there are apps for different TV providers which are not possible to watch by ELEC :(

    Greetings,

    I've never seen another system as cumbersome and useless as the Android System in my life. This is 1.

    Latter. Does a user use all of Android? I do not think at all, IPTV, VOD, DVB, and Web.

    No more.

    Best regards...

    Quote from vpeter

    Do you really think that all such devices runs any ELEC system? ;( There are lot of users who are using Android on it. Why? Because there are apps for different TV providers which are not possible to watch by ELEC :(

    There is also the problem with some new "Certified Android" tv boxes coming with blocked bootloaders, again that's another problem! The good and wait to see if it will maintain LibreELEC support.

    I was in the wetek forum in search of some information but what I see are members disappointed with the brand.

    From what wetek say promised Netflix HD, did not fulfill the promise.

    NEW WEOS for WP2 - WeTek Community Forum

    I see more of a risk than a certainty!;(

    • Official Post

    WeTek's business is focussed on the OTT middleware market and they (and most similar manufacturers in that market) are making a strategic shift towards AndroidTV as that's the direction Google is pushing everything now. As such the latest generation of their devices are not using AOSP and the boot process is locked down per AndroidTV spec. I swapped email with the CEO on this topic a few months ago when the next generation of 'Hub' sized box was announced and WeTek have no plans to release 'Linux' versions of these products.

    It's also a market trend that will continue. Over time more manufacturers will become AndroidTV only and the number of manufacturers with AOSP products will concentrate on the low end of the market with cheaper manufacturers who source lower-grade components and take more design short-cuts to increase their profit. This long-term reality is one of the reasons why LibreELEC started to focus more on SBC "board" devices where the manufacturers are invested in Linux support than Android "box" devices where manufacturers are not, and where we see significantly more end-user support issues. Boards aren't as cheap as boxes, but at some point users will realise the experience is much better.

    NB: WeTek delivered Netflix 4k support on Android. It was never promised on Linux. One of the "lessons learned the hard way" with dual OS support is that users read the spec for one OS and blindly assume the other OS works the same. It was never the case and WeTek burned a lot of support man-hours dealing with people that can't read. It's definitely a factor in their decision to not release more Linux devices.

    Don't remember having read something similar, but it just came to mind:
    If booting another OS (LibreElec) is not possible, wouldn't it be an option to run it from an virtual machine, which runs on AndroidTV OS? Did a quick search and apparently there are virtualization solutions for android.