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I am looking to get my brother a kodi box and I am puzzled with which one I should get. I am looking at the new Amazon Fire TV and the Matricom G Box Q. I actually have a Matricom G Box Q from about a year ago and I currently run openelec on it. Runs pretty good but sometimes I get a few seconds of freezing when watching shows streaming from my unraid server. I have it connected via hard wired network cable but I know that my brother will be using wireless. I have not had any experience with Amazon Fire TV so I am looking for some opinions. Thanks!
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Depends on what he would like. The usual questions are:
1. Watch full BD rips? Or, just re-encoded MKV's?
2. Use AV receiver w/DTS-HD MA & TrueHD?
3. Need full 3D playback, or just half side-by-side or top/bottom?
4. Need premium apps like Netflix and HBOGo? Is Amazon video a must?
5. Budget?
As you mention wireless, I guess it rules out #1, unless he'll be playing files off attached storage.
[H]i-[d]eft [M]edia [K]een [V]ideosaurus
My HT
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He might play files off attached storage so he may play BD rip quality. He has a surround sound system. No to 3D play. My guess is that he would probably like to have premium apps as I am trying to get him to "cut the cord". My budget is $100 US there abouts.
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00b5
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Some android boxes (like the nexus) are good if you want to have preimum apps on the same device.
A pi2 is great, though if you know he will only use wireless, you could also get a pi zero (but you'll need a usb hub, extra items, extra bulk)
I'd also ask if you need it to look pretty, have a remote, etc?
The surround question is also specific to HD audio formats. Getting DD5.1 and DTS5.1 is easy, getting DTS-HD/etc requires more preplanning. If the sources he will watch (say files from your unraid server) don't have HD audio anyway, then its not really needed right now.
You have to mess with an AFTV, like rooting it to get kodi on there, etc (or you used to), and it only has the amazon app store, not the full google play store. I'm actually running kodi on an amazon fire tablet (2015 7" version) and it seems to run fine. This isn't helpful though, since it doesn't have hdmi/etc out (you can do wireless streaming to another amazon device, didn't try that yet). But it does work.
TL;DR
Get a pi2 and various bits, or a little more than $100 and get a chromebox and some sort of remote (flirc + remote, BT ps3 remote, etc) You can also do CEC with a pi if the tv supports it.
