Starting today, DIRECTV STREAM has begun to contact a small group of customers to test out a brand new Android TV powered streaming player. This new dongle-like streaming player runs the same OS as the old DIRECTV STREAM streaming player and will be called the Gemini Air.
According to details posted on Reddit, by customers who got the invite only 1,000 DIRECTV STREAM customers will be accepted to test out this new streaming player.
This new dongle will be a 4K streaming player with HDMI 2.0 support. It will run the same OS as the old Gemini streaming player.
The big selling point with the new Gemini Air player will be improved WIFI over the older box to offer a better streaming experience. The device will also come with a quad-core 2.6 GHz processor, 4GB of Ram, 15GB of storage, and a Broadcom VideoCore 6 GPU.
The Gemini Air offers a very similar experience to DIRECTV satellite service. With this device, you can change channels by using the channel numbers replicating a cable TV like experience many enjoy.
The only way to get the new Gemini Air streaming player right now is to be invited. So if you are a DIRECTV STREAM customer, check your email. The first 1,000 who sign up for this invite-only beta test will see their devices ship the week of April 10th.
Sadly it looks like if you didn’t get in on the list, you are out of luck, as all 1,000 units have been claimed.
Cord Cutters News has reached out to DIRECTV for comment and will update this story once we learn more.