[IggyLites]

I had a blast "hacking" the ATV, but this thing is so hot that I have to isolate it from everything else and will eventually reach a hardware limit. But seriously...SO HOT.

So, as I am most definitely a design-conscious person and would much rather purchase something someone has already designed and thought out, I'm looking for recommendations for pre-existing XBMC boxes. That VidOn box looks great but I have no experience with them or XBMC on Android (or Android by itself) whatsoever.

Who would be so kind as to throw out some good models to check out?

Thanks!

[calev]

Asus Chromebox + hp mce remote = bad ass and totally better than apple tv.

[IggyLites]

Cool, I had read some posts knocking the Chromebox as not as good in certain things as a FireTV. I should clarify I will only use this to view movies off a hard drive collection, I don't need great streaming capabilities per se.

[Matt Devo]

purely in terms of XBMC, there's nothing the FTV does better than the ChromeBox - quite the opposite in fact. It's advantages lie solely in it being part of the Android ecosystem, and having other apps available (eg, Netflix/Hulu)

[IggyLites]

Well good, I'm sold!

[darksiderising]

I'll add that while there are no advantages with using the Fire TV over a Chromebox for XBMC alone, the Fire TV is a better choice if you plan on using Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Streaming, etc at all. It's also great for other apps in the Android ecosystem, as the other user said. Android/Fire TV apps launch perfectly from within XBMC and return to it when you exit them. I had the GF playing Goat Simulator yesterday on it and we were cracking up.

[User 231261]

Can't attach a USB drive with movies to a Fire TV... firmware won't allow it.... can't load some modules to xbmc cause root access is needed check the FireTV xbmc WiKi..
FireTV is a android fork anything that works on FireTV works on Android but you can get android players that are totally open and unrestricted.
Best thing would be a Linux based player but that requires some skills on your part and more/better driver support from the hardware manufacturers.
.

[Topken]

You need to root to allow for a USB attached Storage option Willem55 on the Fire TV becuase it does work look here

http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/...a-t2889319

[Ned Scott]

Don't humor him. He's got some beef about the FireTV being an awesome XBMC/Kodi box. The only XBMC-related thing you need root for is local USB drives. Most people use these boxes to access a file server over the network, so no issue there. There are no other "modules" in relation to XBMC/Kodi that require root access. Root access isn't required to install XBMC/Kodi itself.

That being said, the big thing about the FireTV is the remote-friendly Netflix and Amazon Prime clients. If you don't use those services, or you are fine with using a mouse to access them (XBMC/Kodi can always use the remote, just to be clear), then I would go with the Chromebox. It's a better bang for your buck power wise, and the builds will be more stable.

[User 231261]

Good info.... as the OP had a "blast" with hacking the AppleTV he might even dare to try it..

quote from your link at xda I DO NOT RECOMMEND ATTEMPTING THIS UNLESS YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE COMMAND LINE AND HAVE rbox's CWM RECOVERY AND A BACKUP

Did the rbox module also require root to install? http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Fir...es_root.29

[Ned Scott]

That's if you want to replace the Fire TV Launcher with XBMC/Kodi. That doesn't enable any functionality in XBMC itself.