[antman68]

I don't see a scenario in the first post that exactly addresses my needs. If the answer is somewhere else, it's buried in nearly 90 pages of posts.

I'm looking for something to feed a 36" TV in the bedroom viewed from about 4-5m (13-17') away:

• 1080p output (could probably get away with 720p in reality; if we want to watch something in decent quality, we'll watch it in the living room on a bigger screen and from a shorter distance);
  
• Sound - over HDMI, nothing special as it will play through the cheap TV speakers;
  
• streaming ripped DVDs, family videos, and recorded TV (probably from a Win 7 box running WMC, so in .wtv format) - mainly SD, some 720p, even less 1080p - over wireless N (preferably 5 GHz);
  
• controlling a PVR back-end on the Win 7 box;
  
• occasional internet browsing and streaming YouTube and similar, maybe Netflix;
  
• able to be hidden/mounted behind the wall-mounted TV which is a couple of inches out from the wall to allow access to the integrated DVD player and tilted downwards slightly (so there is probably 3 inches of clearance if I mount it on the back of the TV nearer the top or on the TV wall mount's upper cross-bar);
  
• good BT performance for use with a BT air mouse/remote/keyboard (although a 2.4GHz dongle would be an okay fall back, just don't want to lose a USB port if I don't have to - the main thing is that it will be hidden so IR is not a good option);
  
• non-proprietary and not tied to content channels that are geoblocked or irrelevant outside the US;
  
• access to apps, other than perhaps YouTube, Netflix or similar apps (rather than using a browser) is probably a low priority but nice to have nonetheless;
  
• quiet, especially when not in use (naturally, as it's in the bedroom), and quick start up from power off/standby;
  
• less than US$120
  

It seems to me that a relatively modest Android box or stick would do the trick (albeit one with dual-band wifi, so maybe not so modest). Is there any point in going with windows or a Chromebox? Is there anything specific that meets these specs?

To allow for easy switching between Kodi, browser and other apps using the remote, would it be best to run Kodi in the main OS or dual boot OpenELEC from a USB or microSD?