Spec me a Media Stream/Player

NeilF · 10 Dec 2015 at 19:14

Looking to replace my Boxee Box.

Must search/show local media (films/TV series) on a NAS in a very nice interface.

Must allow Amazon Prime etc.

Must have Optical audio out.

Roku 4?

Avalon · 11 Dec 2015 at 14:10

The previous gen FireTV box will do this with Kodi or Plex or TVMC etc. but i'd suggest you're better off moving away from optical out and making use of HDMI. If you can do that then you'd be better off buying the 4k version (as low as £54.99 delivered via Prime Now using the discount on your first Prime Now order).

NeilF · 11 Dec 2015 at 14:31

Avalon said:
The previous gen FireTV box will do this with Kodi or Plex or TVMC etc. but i'd suggest you're better off moving away from optical out and making use of HDMI. If you can do that then you'd be better off buying the 4k version (as low as £54.99 delivered via Prime Now using the discount on your first Prime Now order).

Well, ideally I'd like to just swap the Boxee out, hence (continue to) use optical.

If I wanted to use HDMI for audio I'd need to replace my amp too, which is another wad of £!

I might try and hold off for a while to see if any new units come out and until this HDR question of support is solved?

Avalon · 11 Dec 2015 at 14:34

It's only £20-35 for an HDMI to optical converter and save an amp upgrade assuming you're happy with what you have.

Azza · 11 Dec 2015 at 19:40

Roku 4 doesn't look like it'll be here for Christmas.

wellibob · 11 Dec 2015 at 21:20

I grabbed a hdmi to optical/coaxial converter very cheaply. Enables the use of many streaming boxes (I use a roku3 and nowtv v2 box) and happily use my older optical 5.1 systems. Also like above you can then use Fire TV 4k box a d like the rokus use Plex.

Avalon · 12 Dec 2015 at 11:28

As well as Plex you can use Kodi with a load of add ons that make it significantly better.