[zincoxide]

I have been using xbmc for many many years. Actually, my first install goes back to a modded XBOX v1.1. That said, I've never really used all of the features, but I'm in the process of re-configuring my setup.

Currently my setup consists of:

1 - Quad Core PC with 2GB ram (full desktop) connected via RGB.

1 - Foxconn 525 (I think that was the model) which is an Atom processor and has 2 GB of ram.

I did have 2 Foxconn's but one of them died from over heating. The processor was overheating to the point where the box was really hot and then it just died. I had 4GB of ram in that one but installed a bunch of addons. I think the addons are what killed it because the other Foxconn is older but the addons never worked because the ram was too low (at least that is my suspicion).

Anyway... My other Foxconn is showing signs of dying. I was going to replace it with a full desktop because there doesn't seem to be any issues with the one I'm running now, but I have been looking at the Android TV sticks. I like the idea of completely hiding the box. Oh, everything is ethernet connected, not wireless for streaming my video.

I'm wondering if anyone has any real experience with small form factor XBMC/Kodi boxes that also uses addons? There is also the cubox-i that I was looking, but I would like to hear from the community on their experiences.

My preferences:
- VERY fast and responsive between menus and booting
- small in size to be hidden behind the tv preferrably.
- lowest cost possible.

Are the $50-$60 Android TV Sticks any good? Are the slightly more expensive Cubox-iPro's the best? Is it better to go with a desktop because you can't compare the performance?

I would appreciate any advice here.

[Tinwarble]

Start here: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=94268

[zincoxide]

Thanks for that link, it was awesome!

I guess I'm going to go with the Chromebox. My only question is which one is good enough for my purposes?

- I don't care about HD. Infact, I usually use Handbrake to downgrade my movies to about 1GB or less. I try to keep it 700MB to 900MB but won't typically go above 1.3GB.

- Same with HD audio. I usually use 160bit AAC when I transcode.

- I want to be able to run ANY plugin or skin

[katsup]

The Celeron Chromebox is plenty powerful. The Raspberry Pi 2 would probably work for you as well.

[learningit]

I have a mix of things running in the house from pretty high-end Intel NUCs, Rasp PI2, laptops and lately Amazon Fire Sticks. With the latest builds for Android and some very slight tweaking, the experience with the Fire Sticks is pretty hard to beat for the price (I got mine for $29.95). I haven't found anything that won't play on them and I do a fair bit of live stream and VOD addon development. I use a cheap USB 3.0 drive (3TB $69.95) attached to a decent Netgear router (AC1900 Nighthawk $189.99) that supports 3.0 and it works perfectly fine as a cheap NAS. Personally I've found that the router is where you want to spend a bit more money to get better throughput and proper USB 3.0 support for a NAS drive when you're running multiple devices in the house. I've moved all the media and thumbnail storage onto the NAS to save space on the stick and the performance is fine. I also now run a couple of firesticks in a summer home which run remotely off my main home system through the VPN on the routers. If you're thinking about 3D or 4K this is probably not the way to go.

I'm not a high-end A/V person so I'm not the best judge of quality so I may be missing something. I got involved with XBMC/Kodi because I was looking for a solution to running media and cable streams around the house without ripping the house up to do cabling and it's been far cheaper and more fun with the Kodi setup I have.

[zincoxide]

I'm with you on the HD A/V. Personally I don't see the benefit. It looks nice but not worth the extra storage costs to me. I have all my media on my server so I don't need a router to support USB 3.0.

I'll give the Fire Stick a try. BUT... Can you setup the Fire Stick to automatically load into Kodi? That is a must because my wife is non-tech-friendly and if it isn't automatically I'm going to be called every 2 seconds to come do it for her.

[learningit]

Automatically - not that I know of. But if she can click on the Kodi icon with the remote control she's good to go.
The Fire Stick is fine with 1080 video quite a number of my addons have 1080 video.

[katsup]

I have a non techie dad which I gave him a Fire TV. Even with Kodi on the home screen,instructions and llama configured to auto start it, I constantly saw him trying to play things from the Amazon menu. I replaced it with a pi 2 running openelec.

I have a Fire TV stick as well (got for $20) that is on a rarely used TV. If you can get it for that cheap, I'd say go for it. However, at the $40 price tag, I'd pick the pi 2 assuming no android apps are needed.

Remember that the Fire TV stick has to be wireless.

[jarod71]

I have a non techie dad which I gave him a Fire TV. Even with Kodi on the home screen,instructions and llama configured to auto start it, I constantly saw him trying to play things from the Amazon menu. I replaced it with a pi 2 running openelec.

I have a Fire TV stick as well (got for $20) that is on a rarely used TV. If you can get it for that cheap, I'd say go for it. However, at the $40 price tag, I'd pick the pi 2 assuming no android apps are needed.

Remember that the Fire TV stick has to be wireless.

I personally find the FireTV awesome. I returned the stick for the FireTV box.With the new HDHomerun addon, I finally have a box with all the apps I use (amazon, netflix), Kodi, Live TV, and it is fast, very small, and powerful to boot. I really like it and recommend it.

[hovnarr]

Read that Fire Stick lacked power, but testing it today and its much better than the apple tv. Incredible impressed by its snappy interface in Kodi 14.2. Bluetooth remote, very nice. I regreat buying the fire tv since the stick is more than enough for me. However I do have a good AC router as its on wireless only. 5 ghz is a must in my experience. Hiding it behind the tv is a plus too. Netflix works as a dream. Cant price the fire stick enough!