Amazon Fire TV vs Nexus Player vs HTPC

Furton

Furton

Furton

Soldato
Joined
9 Aug 2003
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Liverpool
I'm currently in the process of gutting a house I've purchased and doing it up completely. I'm taking advantage of this to fit a Cat5e network throughout with a some sort of file server located under the stairs.

I currently have a HTPC using an Antec Fusion which stores all of my movies and TV series locally and playback is via Kodi (XBMC).

As I'll be eventually moving to a central file server I want to switch to something much smaller, quieter and hassle free.

All I want the box to do is

  • Play 1080p movies from file server
  • View Photos from file server
  • Play music from server
  • Play Netflix, iPlayer etc

From what I gather I can side load Kodi onto Fire TV and Nexus player, but how easy is this and does it boot straight into it without having to open it separately?

HTPC wise I was looking at the Antec ISK110 with (AMD or Intel, whichever is cheapest), I already have a spare copy of Win 7 I could transfer over.

Which option is going to satisfy the above requirements?
 
Ive had a htpc and Amazon fire tv and the Amazon tv was fine it played everything from my server using plex. I went back to using a htpc as ive started to using it for gaming as well. In my opinion the flexability of a htpc is unbeatable
 
In regards to running Plex etc, can Amazon Fire boot straight into it or does it launch as a separate app?

Any other benefits to a HTPC?
 
You no longer need to side load Kodi on the Fire TV, they have put it on the Amazon App Store so you can install it properly. You can also use Llama to make it appear that Kodi is the main program on the Fire TV or Nexus player.

Having had a HTPC for ages and now moved to a Fire TV after seriously considering a Nexus Player my view is:

Fire TV is Amazon which means a lot of redundant features if you don't have a Prime subscription, and the OS and App Store are locked down/limited. But if your using Kodi or Plex this doesn't really matter. It has an Ethernet port and optical out. It's also the cheapest when on sale.

Nexus Player is less powerful than the Fire TV has WiFi only, no USB or optical out, and is more expensive than the Fire TV. The only thing it has going for it is that it's a stock android and Google supported OS.

HTPC can be made to be whatever you want it to be, and do whatever you want it to. There's endless possibilities out there. However it will be larger, louder and more expensive than the other 2 options.

If you can repurposed existing kit and build a HTPC for free then do that, otherwise out of your options I'd recommend a Fire TV loaded with all the apps you want. Wait for it to go on sale to about £60.
 
I have a question. Now you can download Kodi from the App Store, can you use an external hard drive plugged into the usb, and will all the artwork and info show as it does on a HTPC?
 
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