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noggin
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I wouldn't say that the Chromebox is worth spending 3x the cost of the Pi 2 for in your use case. However the Chromebox IS a better box (apart from for 3D). However the things that make it better (integrated Bluetooth and WiFi, GigE, better de-interlacing, internal SSD) are probably not hugely significant in your use case. The Pi 2 also has CEC which may mean you don't need a FLIRC if your TV is CEC-friendly.
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Pepsi
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Ok... maybe my question shouldnt be added here because im not looking for the best box in the market, but i still want the best for my money.
I currently own a mx andriod box that bricked, i think i made it worse my trying to fix it... i did that toothpick thing and i added new firmware to it... the wrong firmware i think and now the light just stays red... as u can see im new at this, i recently discovered kodi and im not too good with electronics.
To my question, i want a solid device for a good price... im only going to run kodi on it... was looking to spend under 70 dollars.
thank u in advance.
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Fire TV if you want to spend around a $100 or Nvidia Shield if you want to splurge.
Shield is good because now they have Kodi available in the app store so you can just download it from there and you dont have to worry about putting hardware together or sideloading Kodi. With FireTV you will have to side load it. It is still fairly simple and easy.
Shield is $200, comes with a game controller and no remote. If you want the shield remote, its $50 but if you have a Harmony universal remote, you can program it for Shield.
Looking at your requirements, I think those would be the best options for you.
Others are R Pi 2, Chromebox and NUCs but they all require initial set up. You may be able to find some that are already ready out of the box on ebay or Craigs list but they wont be cheaper than $100.
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Pepsi.. like I said on fire tv you have to sideload kodi. You can find enough help on the web to do it.
If you want a one or two click direct install shield would be the way to go.
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noggin
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2015-06-19, 12:22
(This post was last modified: 2015-06-19, 12:23 by noggin.)
If you are still after a Chromebox-level device then the HP 260 G1 is available at the moment with 2GB RAM, 32GB SSD, Windows 8.1 with Bing, Haswell Celeron 2957U CPU/GPU (same quality as Celeron 2955U in Chromebox) for around £99-£120 from eBuyer and Dabs.
It has Displayport not HDMI - so will require a cheap DP to HDMI conversion cable or dongle - but should be a very good Chromebox or Zotac BI320 equivalent. It doesn't have WiFi or Bluetooth built in, but does have 2 more USB ports (2xUSB2 and 4xUSB3) and it can take a SATA 2.5" drive and a Wifi/Bluetooth MiniPCE-E card if you buy the right cables or antennae.
I've got one out for delivery - will update people when I receive it. I suspect I'll try both Kodi for Windows and OpenElec on it.
Assuming it doesn't have a hobbled UEFI/BIOS and the DP to HDMI converters carry HD Audio (they should do no problem) - it could be a very good value box for us Brits.
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I got an S802 mx3 box off ebay a couple months ago for $50...delivered. It came with a free Minix A2 air mouse. It's played everything I've thrown at it flawlessly, including 4K.
It came with 1G/8G and I see now that it's best to have at least double that. I added a cheap 32G SD card, but I can't get it to take 2 partitions.
After I finish getting it configured I'm gonna sell it and keep the air mouse.
I use a mid tower for my HTPC, but I'm going to switch to an S812 box for the H265.
