[thesuffering]

Ive been using XBMC/KODI for close to 10 years. Over that time, the most of it has been on a Windows based pc. With Netflix/Amazon Instant Video becoming so popular, the need for those in addition to Kodi have become releavant to my family. Sure I can bounce between inputs off of htpc to another device, but im prefering to find one device to rule them all. I have a windows based server that does the mysql server as well as sonarr duties. I switched to Fire TV sticks for the tvs for the ease of adding Kodi and using Netflix/Amazon video with that all on one device, but the limitations are starting to show in the Android forum.

I want to control everything with a remote only. No mouse/keyboard should ever come out. It has to be wife/kid friendly.

So Im looking at this-

Windows/Linux based HTPC-
Pros-
Power
Upgradability
Gaming
Integration with Emulationstation is super nice

Cons-
Netflix/Amazon have no 10 ft UI/remote support
While work arounds pop up, they get broken often, or just plain dont look good.

Raspberry PI
Falls in the Linux HTPC category with futher limitations as far as power/upgradability

Apple TV
I used to have an Apple TV 2, it worked but would crash randomly and required jailbreak. AFAIK Apple TV3 is unjailbreakable.
Kodi can be sideloaded to Apple TV4, but then im either doing it once every 7 days or paying for a developer account yearly. On top of this, no Amazon video on apple TV.

Fire TV/Android Sticks-
From what I understand, issues with audio with Kodi 17 forward and no real fix as there are a million different vendors with different parts and supported codecs.


Is there anything out there to fufill my one device fantasy, or is that a pipe dream? I tried Plex with my Xbox One/Fire TV, but the Plex interface downright sucks. Maybe if they had skinning support itd be better, but Im pretty set in my Kodi ways. Guess Im just looking for others that have been looking for the same and solutions you have come up with. My dream would be to resurrect HTPC at least in my living room just for everything it can do, but it seems netflix/amazon still treat them as computers only with no remote support, which is unfortunate. Nobody wants to want netflix with a mouse.

[tredman]

My requirements are pretty much the same as yours (with live TV via tvheadend thrown in). I've been round the same circle as you and tried loads of boxes - the only which comes close to doing everything well is the nvidia shield.

The audio issues are solved, for me, in v17 and video playback is great. There was only one remaining issue with live TV, but fritsch solves that last night. Plus if you do have playback issues you can just use SPMC which works very well too.

I've tried lots of boxes and really would prefer a lower cost box than the shield, but it really is the only box I've found which does everything I need (caveat - if you don't want live TV and deinterlacing it would be worth trying the fire TV box 2, though I think it lacks proper 24p playback)

[thesuffering]

I guess $200 isnt that bad all things considered, I was looking at the Fire TV box for ethernet and additional horsepower, so an extra $100 and get much more with it doesnt seem so bad. I could get away with replacing the living room stick without too much grief, but i think ill still need the fire tv sticks for the other tvs. Hopefully audio issues can be resolved for the sticks and V17, as sticking with V16 really isnt a long term solution and just a bandaid for now.

The Shield looks like it can do emulation pretty decently, has netflix. From what I can tell, Amazon has to be sideloaded?

[tredman]

I guess $200 isnt that bad all things considered, I was looking at the Fire TV box for ethernet and additional horsepower, so an extra $100 and get much more with it doesnt seem so bad. I could get away with replacing the living room stick without too much grief, but i think ill still need the fire tv sticks for the other tvs. Hopefully audio issues can be resolved for the sticks and V17, as sticking with V16 really isnt a long term solution and just a bandaid for now.

The Shield looks like it can do emulation pretty decently, has netflix. From what I can tell, Amazon has to be sideloaded?

Yes Amazon has to be sideload, but you get 1080p and 5.1 with it. There was also a screen grab of an update to nvidia's website showing Amazon coming officially soon.

I've only tried the fire stick v1, but that was dreadfully slow. I couldn't be doing with it.

[thesuffering]

i have the fire tv stick 1 right now. Using confluence Kodi is decent enough, and V16 works well enough for everything ive thrown at it (1080p DTS audio is the most ive done). Navigating around is a bit clunky at times in FireOS, but for a relatively cheap, fairly well supported option it has done the job. If the shield is much peppier I should be pretty happy. Looks like Amazon has it refurbed for only $150 too. Decisions decisions.

[tredman]

i have the fire tv stick 1 right now. Using confluence Kodi is decent enough, and V16 works well enough for everything ive thrown at it (1080p DTS audio is the most ive done). Navigating around is a bit clunky at times in FireOS, but for a relatively cheap, fairly well supported option it has done the job. If the shield is much peppier I should be pretty happy. Looks like Amazon has it refurbed for only $150 too. Decisions decisions.

It's much much better than the fire stick, they are not even comparable. $150 sounds a steal, wish they were that price over here.