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Hello all, been reading a bunch on here and have to decided that I would like to get into using Kodi for my media streaming. I currently have several Wdtv boxes around the house. I stream all my content that is on external and internal hard drives on my gaming rig. Most of my files are mkv files , they vary in audio (dts,aac,ac3). I am looking for a new toy for my main living room. I am looking for something that can handle the file types I have stated with some ease. 3d is not important to me and neither is 4k although it would be nice to have the headroom. I use an old Onkyo tx-sr502 as my surround receiver in there. I would like something that i can boot straight to Kodi with. My wdtv's work great but for this I would loke something new that can be fun to customize. I currently have about $295 in Amazon (Us) gift cards and would like to stay in that area but I could add some if need be. I appreciate any help anyone can offer in this new and hopefully exciting journey. Thanks so much.
Dennis
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Dennis
You have a surfeit of choices here, and probably need to think about what is most important to you to narrow this down.
There are a lot of system-on-a-chip type tv boxes which can deliver a good xbmc experience if 3D/4K/7 channel audio is not that important to you. Many of these run android, but you can install android apps that will start XBMC as soon as Android has loaded, so you get much of the effect of booting direct to XBMC. You may find having android available to run others apps is actually useful (I have to admit I did, and didn't expect to). Alternatively, some boxes have a custom roms available which will get rid of Android completely and mean the box is dedicated to XBMC. There is quite a lot of variation here - some offer the ability to host an internal hard drive, the quality of the stock interface and remote varies, and the ability of the box deliver good quality video/network performance can vary. Your $295 budget is way overkill if you are going down this route. Just as one recommendation, the Mini-X boxes have quite a good reputation for the quality of the user interface and software support (although opinions about all of these products vary widely).
Since you mention Amazon vouchers, I should mention that, with a little patience, you can install XBMC/SPMC on an Amazon fire TV (you can find the instruction for this in the wiki). I have done this recently myself and have found the performance very good, and I quite like the rest of the Amazon service being there. This option is not expensive, if maybe a bit exposed to Amazon changing the box to make it harder to run XBMC.
Another option is to purchase a unit like an Asus Chromebox or Intel NUC, which is basically an Intel system in a small box, and install the ubuntu or Openelec version of XBMC. As you can see reading threads here, many believe this is a great solution in terms of hardware that makes XBMC work well but that can usefully be used for other things in the future too.
And if you want pretty much the top of the tree, you can take a standard windows desktop pc with a hdmi output, install XBMC and set it to autorun on boot,buy a remote control for it (or use an app on a tablet), and you are done. Doing that may strain your $295 budget if you get fancy with the components, but not necessarily.
I actually have three of the four above approaches in my home (a couple of android based boxes, an Amazon fire tv, several PCs in nifty HTPC style cases I have built myself which run XBMC/Openelec, and XBMC on a couple of windows based PCs). They all have their strengths and weaknesses.
I am sure others will have different views. But if I were giving you advice, I would probably advise looking at an something like a Mini-X Neo 8-H or an Amazon fire TV as options to think about to start with. I expect others will shoot me down in flames for that recommendation, so take it only as a guide......
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Thanks. I really like what I see in the Nuc and Chromebox selections, there's just so many options on them that I'm not sure which will be the best fit. Thanks for your help and I will research some more the options you have offered. Thanks
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2014-11-22, 19:43
(This post was last modified: 2014-11-22, 20:12 by wrxtasy.)
1. If its tinker time, with perfect video playback (perfectly capable when Overclocked) = Raspberry Pi B+
2. Cheap with a great remote plus Android and extras on the side = Amazon Fire TV Stick
3. Will play anything you throw at it perfectly apart from H265 video & can do Netflix etc - if you dual boot with a keyboard = Chromebox.
- Beware, No Android box with give you perfect video playback. They cannot do 24p video whereby XBMC switches your TV to a matching refresh rate for perfectly synced video playback. De-Interlacing Live TV may also be a problem.
- The Cubox-i does not De-interlace Live TV.
- Intel Haswell (with integrated Graphics) based boxes provide the best bang for the buck if video quality is your priority.
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Been reading the Chromebox wiki, sounds alot like what I need. Although the Haswell boxes seem interesting as video quality is important to me... I prefer to have the best video possible over the best audio. Both would be nice though. Also, like it to be as smooth playing as possible. Gonna keep reading.
