Which android box to get for XBMC

Drake5 · 24 Aug 2015 at 16:32

I'm wondering which android box I should get for use with XBMC - Budget of around £50 any suggestions

Atari · 24 Aug 2015 at 16:54

Drake5 said:
I'm wondering which android box I should get for use with XBMC - Budget of around £50 any suggestions

I went with an Amazon Fire TV box - does the trick perfectly and is rather quick. I've also got an MXQ (I think) box which is slower and more clunky.

b|gf|sh · 24 Aug 2015 at 17:03

Raspberry Pi 2 is a great solution for Kodi, takes a bit of setting up to get perfect but runs great with the correct setup :cool:

Drake5 · 24 Aug 2015 at 17:10

Would prefer android really just as it's easier and you can get more apps

The amazon fire tv box is out of budget at £70 - Their are quite a lot of android boxes online but not really sure which ones are good - Most seem to be quad core / 1gb for around £50

StevieP · 24 Aug 2015 at 17:22

It may have changed recently but from what I've seen in the past the Android OS doesn't "do" Kodi overly well (codec issues, 24fps bug etc??)

Personally I'd go for a Pi 2 with OpenElec OS running - fantastic setup imo and well within budget!

Mariusz · 24 Aug 2015 at 17:44

I'm using a M8S Android box with Kodi and all the usual android apps and it works fine, no issues that I've noticed, not that I go looking for them

Can be bought for £40

Columbo · 25 Aug 2015 at 21:05

I've got a Google Nexus Player and its absolutely brilliant if you don't need all of the bells and whistles. Runs Kodi with no hassle, has Google Play store, OS is Lollipop, receives updates direct from Google and more importantly for me it runs Netflix in HD which virtually no Android boxes do.

Slightly above your budget though.

insane200 · 25 Aug 2015 at 21:24

Loaded up a Fire stick today for a mate with Kodi, took a little work thanks to works Wifi, but runs really well, and it's cheap, you can also sideload apps your phone has with an app called agk fire.

bledd · 26 Aug 2015 at 09:08

Columbo said:
I've got a Google Nexus Player and its absolutely brilliant if you don't need all of the bells and whistles. Runs Kodi with no hassle, has Google Play store, OS is Lollipop, receives updates direct from Google and more importantly for me it runs Netflix in HD which virtually no Android boxes do.

Slightly above your budget though.

This is the sensible option.

Cyclone · 26 Aug 2015 at 11:21

I recently bought a Beelink i68 Android box. I've put a few apps and kodi on it and it plays very well. Can be had for just over £50.

Drake5 · 26 Aug 2015 at 12:00

What are the Amazon fire sticks like - They can be had for cheap but it seems like they are low spec

Can you install kodi on them easily

JAMAL · 26 Aug 2015 at 13:13

fire tv stick is brilliant, kodi isn't hard to install at all, also i think 24p is available in the OS 5 update

Atari · 26 Aug 2015 at 13:14

Drake5 said:
What are the Amazon fire sticks like - They can be had for cheap but it seems like they are low spec

Can you install kodi on them easily

Very easy. I used an app on my Android phone that sent the APK over to the stick over WiFi.

Mine wasn't that great though, I rip my Blu-Rays down to sort of 13-16GB MKV's, the Fire Stick couldn't stream them well enough without constantly buffering.

I may have had a faulty one as it was happening more often after about 20 minutes of playback and the stick was getting quite hot, but I've had no problems since getting the Fire TV Box.

Dazstoke · 26 Aug 2015 at 15:19

I assume those of you with android boxes can and do use a browser like chrome or firefox.
So I assume again that sites that require flash player don't load properly and any streaming site that uses flash doesn't work .Am I correct ?

insane200 · 26 Aug 2015 at 15:47

Firestick is £25 in Argos today.

Punt · 26 Aug 2015 at 15:58

I tried a Fire TV and an Android MX box thingy. I ended up using a pi2 with openelec and have never looked back. Looking to get another for the living room.

It's awesome so long as it's setup well. Plenty of help on the openelec forums.

Cyclone · 26 Aug 2015 at 21:29

Dazstoke said:
I assume those of you with android boxes can and do use a browser like chrome or firefox.
So I assume again that sites that require flash player don't load properly and any streaming site that uses flash doesn't work .Am I correct ?

I don't use a browser on mine as I have a tablet for that. I use mine mainly for streaming films and sport.