[da.schizzle]

Hi,
Yesterday i tried to mod the firetv stick (2nd gen) of my in laws to allow custom ROMS with NTFS/EXT4 support for connecting large local storage over USB and get rid of all the amazon stuff they are no using anyway.

Well i fu**ed it up and killed the stick, very annoying but at least the device was a bit old anyway and not that expensive.

Now i want to find a new device for them that ticks the following boxes:
- Easy to maintain ! (VERY Important)
- Streaming Apps: Youtube, Netflix and DAZN, Disney+, german public broadcast apps (VERY Important!)
- Playback from local usb storage (NTFS/EXT4) (VERY Important!)
- Should support most common codecs with KODI
- No or very few bloat (or easily modable )
- Price: < 100€
- available in Europe/Germany

They only have a 1080p TV with no surround sound, but the player should support 4K/HDR to be future proof as well as being able to playback all those files without any reencoding.
I thought about putting together a "cheap" NAS using a pi so USB storage support isn't required but that is just another point of possible failure and also they currently only have "bad" 2,4Ghz Wifi in their livingroom, so larger media files would cause issues.
I even thought about installing a transcoding streaming server on my homeserver so they can just stream content from my library but prices for even cheap GPUs (for transcoding) are high right now and then they need to rely on their internet as well as my internet and server.

So my plan is to just use the kodi app with locally attached usb storage for now, no library require (at this time).

If it wasn't for Streaming APPS i would just put together a cheap CoreELEC System as those are very reliably imo but then they would need another device for streaming.
I would like to have a single solution that works for everything.

Thanks in advance!

[noggin]

What platforms are the German PSB apps you need available on? 

What quality of Netflix is acceptable?

I suspect the requirement for USB storage, DRM and specific apps at <€100 may be tricky to hit.

[da.schizzle]

thanks for the reply.
Well android would be the easiest solution for the apps i guess, resolution should be 1080p if possible at least.

Yeah it seems something like the nvidia shield boxes be a good fit but they are a bit more expensive and their additional capabilities (gaming) would be needed at all.

If it would be a device for myself i would be fine with linux/kodi os as i dont mind messing around with it a bit to get the best results. but i also can still use my 5 year old lg tv
for netflix if stuff breaks.
Sadly their tv even tho same age doesnt have any support for modern streaming apps. So commercial streaming must be rock solid for them and installing some bleeding edge kodi addons manually to get for example netlfix working again would not be viable.

[noggin]

You may need to split your requirements.

A cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or Google Chromecast with Google TV (which is Android TV really) will do all the DRM stuff - but won't allow for external USB storage simply (though you can do the external USB adaptor thing with the Fire TV stick) and then something like a Raspberry Pi 4B or ODroid C4 running LibreElec or Kodi for local storage replay?  Even then that will be tight on your €100 budget.  I realise this adds complications which may not be great for your in-laws. (That's why I wouldn't suggest using a Google Chromecast with Google TV and a Pi running just as a file server)

The Shield TV is the only device that really does what you want I think - some of the Mii boxes might have done at some point but they seem to have dropped off the radar.

Some localised Android TV boxes do pop up from time to time though - so it's worth keeping your eyes out.

[da.schizzle]

yeah multiple boxes might in the end be even a cheaper solution which is a bit stupid (Fire Stick + CoreELEC box).
Don't want to try to mod another firestick external adapter wouldnt be a big issue but modding those things doesnt seem that easy or stable.

Might think about the fileserver solution again as well but i would need to invest some time to check if this is viable with their network situation. 
would also have to script something up that would auto share attached storage without any manual input tho (eg allow easy connection and disconnection of usb drive)

Bummer but thanks for the replies tho! Atleast got confirmation that there is "relative" cheaper oob solution that fits my needs.

[crawfish]

Hi,
Yesterday i tried to mod the firetv stick (2nd gen) of my in laws to allow custom ROMS with NTFS/EXT4 support for connecting large local storage over USB and get rid of all the amazon stuff they are no using anyway.

Well i fu**ed it up and killed the stick, very annoying but at least the device was a bit old anyway and not that expensive.

Now i want to find a new device for them that ticks the following boxes:
- Easy to maintain ! (VERY Important)
- Streaming Apps: Youtube, Netflix and DAZN, Disney+, german public broadcast apps (VERY Important!)
- Playback from local usb storage (NTFS/EXT4) (VERY Important!)

ChromeCast with Google TV maxes out at FAT32 like the Fire Stick. They both have around a 1.4 TB partition size limit, which I determined through trial and error after finding that formatting to full 2 TB size put the devices into an infinite reboot loop. They do work if you can live within those limits and buy an appropriate hub.

Perhaps surprisingly, my new Sony A80J TV supports exFAT and NTFS and runs Kodi very well. It's also like a dream for automation. I only wish its Bluetooth didn't suck.

[da.schizzle]

Yeah i could in theory live with 1TB max support as the current USB HDD isnt even bigger than this but the 4GB file limit is the bigger issue. So EXT4/exFat/NTFS is a must have as FAT32 would mean i would have to split videos files if i would copy files from my library.

Funny thing is their tv supports USB NTFS drives just fine but doesn't support anything above AC3 audiotracks (DTS, DTS-HD ), it also doesn't support HEVC or some more exotic H264 bitrate combinations as well as an resolution above 1080p.

[crawfish]

Yeah i could in theory live with 1TB max support as the current USB HDD isnt even bigger than this but the 4GB file limit is the bigger issue. So EXT4/exFat/NTFS is a must have as FAT32 would mean i would have to split videos files if i would copy files from my library.

Funny thing is their tv supports USB NTFS drives just fine but doesn't support anything above AC3 audiotracks (DTS, DTS-HD ), it also doesn't support HEVC or some more exotic H264 bitrate combinations as well as an resolution above 1080p.

If you don't mind transcoding to HEVC, you can generally get very good results for 1080p under 4 GB, even for 3 hour movies. Encoding to 720p may be very acceptable, and it'll go quicker and be a lot smaller. It might be workable if you don't have a lot to do at once, and it's not a regular thing going forward. The Fire Stick 4K and CCwGTV can definitely handle it.