[dannyslag]

Hello. So i've browsed through these forums because I am looking at getting myself a device to play my media. I had a WD HD live for years and that thing worked like a beast. Unlike the things like roku/amazon fire/chrome ect. It could play any and all video types including those with optional subs. No other device I looked at at the time could do that. Reading the forums I see that the generic android kodi boxes on amazon are widely despised here, so maybe i'll catch heat for asking this but why wouldn't I buy one?

My current needs / uses are that I have a very large collection of tv shows and movies i've ripped from dvd into digitial and created a massive library on an external hard drive. This is what I am needing the device for. I do watch netflix and hulu every once in a while, but honestly they suck compared to my personal library. So my needs are playing many file types, including those with subs so i'm looking for essentially the VLC of media boxes, which the big brand names are not. They're meant almost exclusively for streaming with watching your own files being what seems a poorly implemented after-thought. I would like the option of either connecting the external drive directly to the box, or having it connected to my pc and streaming from there to the box.

The only reason I can find here not to buy one of those cheap generic boxes (mxiii, m8s ect) are because 'they can't do amazon prime' I don't have prime and have no desire to have prime. So in my thinking why buy a fire tv, to sideload kodi that it won't directly boot into making an extra step every time i want to watch my own media? But having rooted and thrown roms on dozens of phones over the years I value flexability and open sourceness (is that a word?) I am also not afraid of a little tweaking.

second to prime is 'poor remote intigration' yet I've read that kodi works fine with remotes it's just the android side itself that doesn't. If i understand properly, running kodi and watching my own files this shouldn't be an issue as I won't be screwing around in the android OS itself much if any.

So considering the massive bias toward the amazon fire here, and you all knowing far more about the current techonlogy than me, what am I missing here? If I couldn't care less about amazon prime, and i don't want to use a pi, what's up?


*I also realize there will be no calling support, for a $50 device i wasn't really expecting or needing a tech support or return policy.

[wrxtasy]

Three words and best bang for the buck going around at the moment for personal Kodi Jarvis media playback:

AMLogic, S905, LibreELEC (v7.x.x)

There are a multitude of AML S905 devices to choose from, see the Sticky START HERE thread at the top of the forums for copious amount of info
Some even dual boot Android / LibreELEC Kodi with 1080p Netflix, Hulu in Android etc...

[dannyslag]

thank you. I was going to go with the overwhelming suggestion of getting an amazon fire tv and sideloading, but just seems to be a little silly if i don't care about amazon prime. the others seem to have the same hardware minus the big name brand markup.

From the start here thread it sounds like the way to go is wetek, minix, or odroid.

[bobrooney]

You can also check THIS thread.

Some AMLogic S905 device is for sure way to go...

[dannyslag]

You can also check THIS thread.

Some AMLogic S905 device is for sure way to go...

oh that's super handy, and exactly what i was looking for. Thank you.

so these will run just as well if not better than the amazon fire? The reason i ask is because I just found a fire v2 on clearance near me for $60, they only have 2. Originally (3 hours ago) I was completely against getting one because i don't need prime, but $60 isn't too shabby. So now i'm waffling.

[Tinwarble]

oh that's super handy, and exactly what i was looking for. Thank you.

so these will run just as well if not better than the amazon fire? The reason i ask is because I just found a fire v2 on clearance near me for $60, they only have 2. Originally (3 hours ago) I was completely against getting one because i don't need prime, but $60 isn't too shabby. So now i'm waffling.

You're putting too much weight on Prime.

Prime is not the only reason for a Fire TV, and many people that use the Fire TV don't even have Prime accounts.

That being said, what you need to get depends on what you want to do. If you don't need Android, then there's other options to run a stand-alone Kodi box.

If you do want/need a Android box (and aren't in a hurry to get something), then I would also suggest waiting to see what the Xiaomi Mi box brings to the table when it's released.

[dannyslag]

oh that's super handy, and exactly what i was looking for. Thank you.

so these will run just as well if not better than the amazon fire? The reason i ask is because I just found a fire v2 on clearance near me for $60, they only have 2. Originally (3 hours ago) I was completely against getting one because i don't need prime, but $60 isn't too shabby. So now i'm waffling.

You're putting too much weight on Prime.

Prime is not the only reason for a Fire TV, and many people that use the Fire TV don't even have Prime accounts.

That being said, what you need to get depends on what you want to do. If you don't need Android, then there's other options to run a stand-alone Kodi box.

If you do want/need a Android box (and aren't in a hurry to get something), then I would also suggest waiting to see what the Xiaomi Mi box brings to the table when it's released.

I am probably pretty confused for sure. I used to constantly play with roms on my android phones back when they first landed and things were changing daily. But it's been a while, i think that's why i lean android because i still at least understand the basics of rooting, customer recovery and whatnot.
For this project though honestly i don't care or want live tv. I'm going to be using it for two things, playing local files off my home network/external usb HD and possibly for streaming videos from a kodi server a friend down the street has that we're going to combine rip our dvd collections onto to share with each other. So i'm looking for the most reliable device for that that isn't much because it's really just to slap behind my tv.

*I feel like you guys probably get these questions about 100 times a day around here, i have just barely enough knowledge to get myself confused instead of just buying a roku and calling life good.

[Tinwarble]

Well, if you go with something that will run OpenELEC (OE) or LibreELEC (LE) then there's really nothing to worry about. It's easy to setup, no worrying about rooting & no ROMS to worry about. Anything that you run OE/LE on makes it a Kodi only box, so that when you boot the device all you have is Kodi.

Again, though, it depends on what you want to do.

Personally though, I would stay away from the cheap Chinese boxes. Mainly because the majority of them come with piracy add-ons and violate Kodi's trademark policy. And even if you plan on wiping the pre-installed Kodi version off and installing the official version or tuning it into a OE/LE box you are still rewarding these boxes sellers that are doing things to hurt Kodi by buying one of those boxes.

https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-a...ling-kodi/

[dannyslag]

Well, if you go with something that will run OpenELEC (OE) or LibreELEC (LE) then there's really nothing to worry about. It's easy to setup, no worrying about rooting & no ROMS to worry about. Anything that you run OE/LE on makes it a Kodi only box, so that when you boot the device all you have is Kodi.

Again, though, it depends on what you want to do.

Personally though, I would stay away from the cheap Chinese boxes. Mainly because the majority of them come with piracy add-ons and violate Kodi's trademark policy. And even if you plan on wiping the pre-installed Kodi version off and installing the official version or tuning it into a OE/LE box you are still rewarding these boxes sellers that are doing things to hurt Kodi by buying one of those boxes.

https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-a...ling-kodi/

That there is a very good point. I was looking at them and wondering why wouldn't i buy one, i didn't care about a warranty or not being able to access certain online services, and everything is made in china so that doesn't scare me off, which seemed to be the big reasons not to. But screwing over software devs is a good reason to avoid. That answered a huge question i had.

You also mentioned there are other advantages of the fire, is that because it's high quality hardware?

now i'm looking at the oddroid c2 based on another thread in these forums, i really didn't want to have to buy a bunch of usb attachments, but boy does it look like it's big bang for buck.
so many option.

[nickr]

Probably the best supported kodi machine is the raspberry pi, but for future proofing in terms of hevc the odroid c2 is very good.

[Tinwarble]

You also mentioned there are other advantages of the fire, is that because it's high quality hardware?

now i'm looking at the oddroid c2 based on another thread in these forums, i really didn't want to have to buy a bunch of usb attachments, but boy does it look like it's big bang for buck.
so many option.

The "advantages" of the Fire TV is has less to do with hardware and more the ability to use apps, Netflix, Hulu, Sling TV, Playstation Vue, etc., if you're looking at cord cutting or want to do more than just play your local media. Android devices that can stream Netflix @1080p or above is limited to only a few devices.

But again, it really depends on what you want the device you get to be capable of. You really need to decide if you need something Android based, that can do more than just play your local media and/or live TV (the recommended boxes in this forum can do that, with some limitations which are device dependent), or if all you want is a Kodi only box.

If you just want something cheap that will play your videos, then an RPi3 or C2 will be your best bet.

[noggin]

Wetek Hub is also worth a look - Netflix at 1080p within Android, and can be dual-booted with LibreElec with all the same benefits of the C2 (plus integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, and a nice small form factor case and PSU)

[wrxtasy]

Personally though, I would stay away from the cheap Chinese boxes. Mainly because the majority of them come with piracy add-ons and violate Kodi's trademark policy. And even if you plan on wiping the pre-installed Kodi version off and installing the official version or tuning it into a OE/LE box you are still rewarding these boxes sellers that are doing things to hurt Kodi by buying one of those boxes.

https://kodi.tv/the-piracy-box-sellers-a...ling-kodi/

I could not agree with you more Tinwarble. Users of the likes of @gsmtech, only care about price when it comes to these Chinese AMLogic boxes. These piracy promotion boxes do absolutely nothing for the Kodi project and are actually a liability to the health of the project long term.

Yes buying one of these Pirate boxes supports the seller, who in turn supports Kodi piracy. There is no grey area here. Frankly it does not matter what OS you throw on one of these devices after purchase. You have bought a Pirate box from an illegal Pirate seller. You are supporting their illegal practices.

It's the exact reason most Android AMLogic problem threads go unresolved when it comes to these boxes too.
Kodi Developers simply don't care if Android Kodi runs like crap on a Pirate Android Kodi box.

[Koying]

Kodi Developers simply don't care if Android Kodi runs like crap on a Pirate Android Kodi box.

You got it wrong. We *want* Kodi to run like crap on those devices, so that, by word of mouth, they go out of business