New XBMC/Kodi box needed

Ayahuasca · 1 Jan 2016 at 13:53

Can't go wrong with the Amazon Fire TV box, certainly isn't slow.

Raymond Lin · 1 Jan 2016 at 13:59

TripleT said:
Good point, I'd do this over any of these Kodi Boxes personally.

I've got a small media pc in my lounge and a fire stick upstairs. The fire stick is great and I can only imagine the tv box to be even better.

And also silent, no blinking lights, the remote works in Bluetooth so you can hide it away since it has Wifi only need power on it and can even just double side tape to the back of the TV. I put in a 32G SD card in mine so it shouldn't ever run out of space.

Cost me £70.

londonbairn · 4 Jan 2016 at 12:54

Fire TV runs Kodi perfectly for us. I just got a Shield TV for one of our TVs and it's pretty cool, a lot faster.

Game streaming from main PC is amazing, zero lag, although I have it gigabit wired.

Choimaloy75 · 5 Jan 2016 at 20:03

So would a nuc be the best way forward for kodi compared to Amazon Fire box or shield?

sven256 · 5 Jan 2016 at 20:49

Choimaloy75 said:
So would a nuc be the best way forward for kodi compared to Amazon Fire box or shield?

I would just go with a mini cherry trail pc. You can pick them up for about £60 off many Chinese sites, far more versatile than just a standard android box.

Choimaloy75 · 5 Jan 2016 at 20:54

Yeah, the android boxes I've seen running seem to be very laggy.

Choimaloy75 · 5 Jan 2016 at 20:55

So windows based would be better then android?

nicknack35 · 5 Jan 2016 at 22:05

Im changing my Android box i love it if you want an android box id recommend the T8 from Droidsticks. First class support and a great box. But you cannot beat windows for the software i want to be able to use PLEX home theatre and cannot on the Android boxes and don't like the PLEX app its plain. Not like the home theatre under the aeon nox skin im changing for the minix z64 windows based. Cheap over just £100 on windows 10

Domi · 5 Jan 2016 at 22:06

Choimaloy75 said:
So windows based would be better then android?

the OS barely even matters at this point.

Kodi works extremely well on Windows / Linux / Android etc it is only the hardware that really matters.

the high end android boxes are absolutely powerful enough to run kodi with bells and whistles.

for me the £65 Fire TV is excellent and if willing to pay more the Nvidia shield TV is better again.

For 99% of Kodi users you need nothing more.

Metallifux · 6 Jan 2016 at 08:25

Domi said:
the OS barely even matters at this point.

Kodi works extremely well on Windows / Linux / Android etc it is only the hardware that really matters.

the high end android boxes are absolutely powerful enough to run kodi with bells and whistles.

for me the £65 Fire TV is excellent and if willing to pay more the Nvidia shield TV is better again.

For 99% of Kodi users you need nothing more.

If you are even remotely interested in 4k then no windows box currently will do 4k@60hz. The Shield does.

FerretBoy · 6 Jan 2016 at 08:32

Ofc windows can do 4k@60hz. But who would care anyhow as that's only for 4k 3D and gaming.

Windows is a poor OS for a HTPC. Useful for gaming and a few other bits and bobs. Personally I run nucs with openelec, they are overkill but I run kodi with the best skins (aeon mq6) etc..

Heisenberg · 6 Jan 2016 at 08:35

Pi2 running Openelec is all you need. HDMI CEC to control it with your main TV remote. Snappy in the menus and playback doesn't have the strange stutter I was getting with my fire stick.

bledd · 6 Jan 2016 at 10:46

Osmc Vero2 is out soon.

h265 hardware decoding.
This will be a must have feature real soon.

Metallifux · 6 Jan 2016 at 13:22

FerretBoy said:
Ofc windows can do 4k@60hz. But who would care anyhow as that's only for 4k 3D and gaming.

Windows is a poor OS for a HTPC. Useful for gaming and a few other bits and bobs. Personally I run nucs with openelec, they are overkill but I run kodi with the best skins (aeon mq6) etc..

Of course what I meant was 4k video hardware decoding at 60Hz.

joelk2 · 6 Jan 2016 at 13:30

im using an m8s which seems to be running great so far. been running for a few months without any issues.

the remote is shockingly awful but i tend to just use the app on m phone instead.

nicknack35 · 6 Jan 2016 at 16:51

Heard some of these android boxes can have Openelec on them i want PLEX home theatre with KODI but you can only do 1 or the other and not both

Domi · 6 Jan 2016 at 17:01

nicknack35 said:
Heard some of these android boxes can have Openelec on them i want PLEX home theatre with KODI but you can only do 1 or the other and not both

I do not understand what you mean by that ?

Kodi and Plex are 2 completely separate applications of course you can have both.

nicknack35 · 6 Jan 2016 at 21:01

Domi said:
I do not understand what you mean by that ?

Kodi and Plex are 2 completely separate applications of course you can have both.

What on openelec i was told that you couldn't. I know you can have PLEX home theatre on openelec. But someone told me if you have that you cannot have kodi also. I don't know how true that is i have never used openelec

jellybeard999 · 6 Jan 2016 at 22:00

nicknack35 said:
What on openelec i was told that you couldn't. I know you can have PLEX home theatre on openelec. But someone told me if you have that you cannot have kodi also. I don't know how true that is i have never used openelec

Openelec is a linux distro that only boots straight into Kodi. To all intents and purposes, it is a kodi install.

I'm not sure how plex fits in.

If it's an android box, i imagine people install the kodi android app and the plex android app?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plexapp.android&hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.xbmc.kodi&hl=en

nicknack35 · 6 Jan 2016 at 22:42

PLEX home theatre and PLEX media player are completly different to the Android App. You can have PLEX home theatre on openelec They call it openPHT. PLEX is a media server. But they have 2 client players which is the latest PLEX media player and the old one which is home theatre . But there not available on Android

More info here

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/193529/release-openpht-1-5-0