What android box for bedroom?

Randall8686

Randall8686

Randall8686

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Hi All

So i just cancelled my skyQ (was a little underwelmed for the money) so now we need a source of entertainment for that TV. I will be honest i have no idea about these android boxes and dont know anything about them. A quick google has turned up lots of conflicting reviews. So i would like to see all the films on my nas, have access to netflix and also if its possible access live tv over the ethernet. There is a freeview point in the bedroom so if any boxes can use that that is also possible.

Just after the best box for the job really. No idea what features i should have but any advice welcome. Budget £100 is fine no need for 4k either.

Thanks in advance :)
 
If you have a PC that is left on, then can I recommend:-
1) Install Plex (for free) on that PC (to become a Plex server).
2) Get a Roku 3 box or a Fire TV to act as a Plex client. Even better, most modern smart TVs can run Plex too. ie: Our LG TV runs Plex, although the interface isn't as slick as a Roku 3.

Done...
 
PLEX client no better then the Pi 3. Play everything you throw at it apart from 4k. The plex client on smart TV's ain't the best be ok if you have the Audio system that supports HD audio that is if you play 1080p files. If its just basic use then it be fine. I had it on my samsung TV and never really got on with it direct played my DTS files and Dolby digital. But it didn't sound as good as it did on KODI. HD audio transcoded to Dolby Digital. And wanted to keep the sound PCM. For my audio is Canton dm-55
 
nicknack35 said:
PLEX client no better then the Pi 3. Play everything you throw at it apart from 4k. The plex client on smart TV's ain't the best be ok if you have the Audio system that supports HD audio that is if you play 1080p files. If its just basic use then it be fine. I had it on my samsung TV and never really got on with it direct played my DTS files and Dolby digital. But it didn't sound as good as it did on KODI. HD audio transcoded to Dolby Digital. And wanted to keep the sound PCM. For my audio is Canton dm-55
Click to expand...

Can't comment on Plex & sound... Works fine for me.

Of course Plex is fundamentally different in a household set up of course. ie: I watch part of an episode upstairs... Come downstaris, press a button and carry on watching where I left off... Go into the garage for a workout... and pickup where I left off again.
 
PLEX is great. Only if you use the right clients for your set up. I liked kodi but the interface just didn't do it for me so i was after a client. PLEX via samsung app didn't do it for me and neither did the plex android app on my android box. So after research decided to go with Pi 3 for Rasplex cheap and cheerful
 
nicknack35 said:
PLEX is great. Only if you use the right clients for your set up. I liked kodi but the interface just didn't do it for me so i was after a client. PLEX via samsung app didn't do it for me and neither did the plex android app on my android box. So after research decided to go with Pi 3 for Rasplex cheap and cheerful
Click to expand...

So you find the Plex client on the Pi3 good?
 
NeilFawcett said:
So you find the Plex client on the Pi3 good?
Click to expand...

Yes only just got it set up really. But its great Rasplex has been taken over by the Devs to provide the old plex home theatre. Which plex use to support but no longer support it due to the new plex media player. Which ive heard which you can also have on the Pi 3. But i prefer the home theatre. On the Pi 3 its very smooth. I never had the original Pi or the Pi 2 so can't comment on them. But im very happy with it on the Pi 3
 
I use a WD TV Live in my front room at the minute but need a media player for my bedroom, could i move the WD to my bedroom and install a plex server on my pc then stream to the Xbox One in my front room?
Im clueless on Plex
 
I use my Mac mini as the plex server with the movies stored on my synology and my Apple TV 4 as the main client. Does a good job for me, the idea of a pi 3 as the client is interesting for sure. Used to use rasplex on a pi 2 which was good but a 3 must be even better.

Does a pi 3 need to transcode mkv files though? That's the main downside to the Apple TV but my Mac has plenty of grunt to transcode so it's not a deal breaker
 
I have used plex client on a nowtv box (which also provides iplayer) and although the additional versatility of the pi3 is interesting (usb media plugin, and it is a full blown PC ... so browsing), it does come with the hassle of getting the case and power supply which is not very aesthetic for the bedroom ? (cost will be a lot more than a £10 nowtv box too)

like others I have had problems with the audio on plex (nowtv driving a panasonic tv that is not really supporting advertised codecs) so have typically had to recode audio using the codec that the freeview tv genuinely uses eg
ffmpeg-hi10-heaac.exe -i input.avi -threads 4 -map 0:0 -c:v copy -map 0:1 -c:a libfdk_aac -profile:a aac_he -cutoff 15000 newtp.mkv
I have not managed to override the plex client config files on the server so that it might transcode on the fly codecs that are not supported correctly.
[The plex client available directly on the tv has very limited/clunky control capability]

Part of my requirement for something to replace the now tv box is that media box should have an app that can be run on a (low end) tablet remotely (from bed) to control/select the media, since have experienced this with a humax freeview FOX t2 box, this is much easier than having to use a traditional remote control.
 
for my audio transcoding problem what I mean is that (panasonic) tv is connected/hdmi to the plex client (nowtv box in my case). The tv is delivering the audio (as opposed to any audio pass through to a separate decoder) The plex client sends the tv 'aac lc' audio and the sound it delivers is very lispy (higher frequencies emphasised) and I found I needed to transcode the audio of the file beforehand to aac_he which I chose because it is the codec used in freeview.
I was unable to configure the plex client so that it might tell the server to transcode the audio on the fly to aac_he
[ I would think a similar problem might be encountered with other tv brands. this is an et60 Panasonic]

If you were using the pi3 as a plex server, just streaming the media directly from a shared network drive, as you might, would the pi3 be up to transcoding if it were needed for the target tv ? (I have found that even with a i7 four core as the server transcoding is a heavy task, although sometimes have to set plex client to directplay and video is played fine without transcoding )
 
Id never use the Pi 3 as a server to transcode even tho it is possible id just use it as a client. If your having issues transcoding with an i7 Then there is something seriously wrong. I have an i5 4690 and that can transcode 4 1080p mkv files no problem.
 
One of the problems with plex for me is finding and then interpreting the logs to find out why it thinks the client needs to have the media transcoded (if the transcode is more than just the audio or changing container and is say mpeg2(dvd) -> mp4 that is reasonably intensive )
OK I probably over-stated the stress on the i7 - it causes the fan to turn on and some of the fluency of browsing at the same time is lost
 
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