[Prizm4]

If you buy a unit without a remote, you're already making things difficult. You have to then get an IR receiver, buy a third party remote control, and program its buttons to do XBMC stuff. You'll likely have to assign buttons on the remote that don't match the actual XBMC function (eg, using a makeshift Info button), so you'll also be confusing anyone else that uses it.
All-in-one remotes like the Harmony are fully programmable, but in my experience they have a sluggish delay every time you press a button.

I'm currently using a Minix Neo X8 which comes with a remote. It's probably the easiest XBMC box I've used, but it's not perfect. The M1 airmouse remote it came with is a bit dodgy and has to be charged every couple days since it doesn't have a removable battery. The X8 did come with a second basic IR remote as well though.

[Ned Scott]

All the air mice pretty much work on x86 boxes out-of-the-box. So the steps are more like

1. Buy a remote
2. Plug it in

There ya go.

There's also FLIRC, which is drop-dead easy to program.

I've used a lot of units, and it's very rare to come across an included remote that was worth its salt. I wouldn't discount a box just because it didn't come with a remote, when you often want to buy a different remove to replace the crappy one it came with.

[ahmed.]

Really generic question, because it depends on your xbmc use. Some people want a device that has a bunch of hard drives to play digital media and some people want to connect their live tv service to the box.

The ultimate best option is to build a computer, like an actual desktop with your own choice of hardware. The option I am telling you about is considered a full on htpc, which if done right, will destroy any other piece of hardware out there designed to run only xbmc.

Some of the best htpc builds utilize the bitfenix prodigy cases since they have different colors available so they can match your living room setup. If you don't care much for creating a living room htpc setup, then they can also be used as a personal computer for your bedroom as well, since they have great specs.

I mean you can build a great gaming system (that will run xbmc like nothing) computer for around $550 to $750 that will last you quite a while and you always have the option of swapping and upgrades parts as you see fit.

If you don't want to completely build from scratch, the next best thing is to pick up a bare bones kit. Now with a bare bones kit, you will be building a computer yourself, but the beauty of these kits are that some have all of the parts you need to assemble a PC and just start using it after you install the OS.

If you go on tigerdirect, newegg or ncix, you can find a kit for around $550 that will have an intel i5 cpu + z97 mobo + gaming ram (hyperx; and these sticks I am talking incredibly FAST) and a case with power supply and maybe even 2-3 cpu fans so it keeps the system completely cool when you're doing your xbmc.

The beauty of these kits is that since they're using the latest parts, like I said before, they are easily upgrade able as you see fit. Besides that, the intel i5 and i7s have very good integrated gpu's (built right into the CPU) that are able to do your video decoding easily, no matter what you throw at it.

Of course if you want to, you can install your own GPU in the pci slots and get even better performance.

Point: Get a bare bones kit! I guarantee you will NOT regret it. The performance will be better than any pre-built system out there. No Ouya/Android/Chromebox can match a full fledged PC!

[wrxtasy]

There's also FLIRC, which is drop-dead easy to program.

I cannot recommend FLIRC highly enough, its dead simple.
All you do is plug the dongle into the USB on a computer, run the downloaded app.
Select full keyboard and program the XBMC keyboard shortcuts to the buttons on your remote. You can use any spare remote lying around.

Unplug the dongle, plug it into your box and all those loverly XBMC keyboard shortcuts work straight away.

Excellent range and sensitivity as well !

---

All-in-one remotes like the Harmony are fully programmable, but in my experience they have a sluggish delay every time you press a button.

Thats because people cannot be bothered to program the key press millisecond delays properly, once programmed properly they are just like any other remote but with far far more flexibility.

[krom12]

Hi, i use my NAS (hp microserver + 4 disks) and Amazon FireTV with xbmc/spmc/kodi rc1, its almost flawless, selling my jailbroken ATV2 and buying another one, its best value for money android based XBMC box i have used,

regards

[GabrielMM]

I'm also interested on buying a box and install Kodi but I'm pretty new on this field and I never had a R pi.
(I was thinking about an android box maybe the K-R42 until I read in this thread that Android has problems syncing videos. Also, Android offers a lot of other options to install bunch of apps in which I'm not in interested,)

I want something that hasonly XBMC to watch iptv, I read Raspberry Pi is a good option.

My main goal is:
-Simplicity and easy set up (I only want XBMC on my tv for now).
-Cheap.
-No additional IR remotes (control over CEC would be enough).
-Capable of streaming up to 1080p (at least for now)
-Over Wifi (external adapter needed)
-Capable of streaming content from external drives

My question is should I go for the Raspberry Pi 2? are all these functions available?

Is there anything extra, speed, performance that chromebox for example that is worth it to consider?

Thanks!

[soniCron]

My question is should I go for the Raspberry Pi 2? are all these functions available?

Is there anything extra, speed, performance that chromebox for example that is worth it to consider?

I just spent the last couple weeks messing with a ton of different options (RPi2, FireTV/Stick, Chromebox, old laptop) and without question, the best way to go for Kodi is:

FireTV Stick

Don't get me wrong, it's not the fastest of all the options, but it's also... well, not slow, either. It's by far the cheapest, most pain-free way to get Kodi on a TV. Period.

You don't need to get extra stuff. You don't need to futz with installing an OS or reconfiguring to work best or whatever. You don't need to worry about finding space for it. And now you don't even need to worry about having a separate NAS, because you can pop on an external drive. (A NAS solution is better, mind you, especially with Emby, but if you're looking for simple and easy, one FireTV stick can be used as the "host" to any additional FireTV Sticks you add on in your house.)

So my vote, after messing with all these, is unquestionably the FireTV Stick.

It's cheap. It's easy. It's definitely more than good enough. And you can set up your whole house with them for less than the cost of one home-grown HTPC. Long as you don't need to record live TV, then you're pretty much set! And of all the cheap options, it gets my vote for being smallest, fuss-free, and it just works!

Do yourself a favor and save yourself a headache and do the FireTV Stick with Kodi. (And preferably an Emby back-end somewhere else.) You will not regret it! I promise!

[Ned Scott]

If he only needs Kodi then I would say get a Pi 2 over a stick. And I say that as someone who has 9 Raspberry Pis and 4 Amazon Fire TV sticks and one Fire TV box. If you don't need the remote or other apps like Netflix or Hulu, then it's better to get a Pi 2 which has much better picture quality.

[katsup]

I also prefer the Pi 2 over the Fire TV stick since you don't need the android apps. I currently have a Chromebox, 2 Pi 2s and a Fire TV stick. I have had 2 Fire TV boxes, but I replaced them with Pi 2s.

[wrxtasy]

Kodi only then get a ...
RPi2 = perfectly synced 23.976fps video as opposed to the 3:2 pulldown judder you get with Android based devices.

Also for the best results get:

1) Samsung 16GB PLUS Micro SDHC with Adapter - up to 48MB/s - UHS-1 Class 10 Memory Card

2) A proper 2.0A/5V power supply. Don't much about with anything less for stable results.

3) Dual Band usb WiFi or at the very least a MIMO one such as....
Netis WF2123 Wireless N300 Nano USB Adapter

4) Overclock with the settings found in the following thread:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1991415

[rs1800]

Would the Chromebox give much additional benefit over the pi2? CB's are quite expensive in the UK although I would pay if they are much better?

It will be mainly used to play from NAS with a little streaming and I may experiment with tvheadend on my synology.

Thanks

[noggin]

If you are using TV Headend then the Chromebox will deinterlace HD Live TV significantly better than the Raspberry Pi 2, and SD stuff looks a bit better too.

The Chromebox will also bitstream HD Audio (though the Pi 2 has enough CPU to decode to PCM multichannel) and the Chromebox is a bit snappier with a more fluid UI.

The Pi 2 IS very good though - and unbeatable value. The Pi 2 also has CEC - both for remote control OF Kodi from the TV, and remote control FROM Kodi of a connected amp (for volume control). The latter is brilliantly useful even if you don't use the former.

[wrxtasy]

You will be pretty happy with a RPi2 if you get a fast Samsung micro SDHC card and then Turbo Overclock it.
Kodi Helix is pretty quick and fluid, and then the Isengard testbuilds are quicker again.

The TVheadend backend server runs well on it too.
Its a wee little ripper !

[smitbret]

I have Chromebox, RasPi Model B (overclocked to 900MHz) and a RasPi2. I am not sure why everyone is saying to overclock the RaspPi2. The biggest problem with the slow SOC on the original RasPi was that it made basic browsing and GUI navigation slow and choppy. Overclocking to 900MHz and turning the GUI to 720p/10fps made it nice and smooth for me. Since video playback was hardware decoded (I bought the MPEG-2 & VC-1 licenses) it didn't make any difference. The limitation of the Model B was that BD rips with a sustained bitrate over 30Mbps ended up going choppy after about 5-8 seconds. The limitation was at the network adapter level and no amount of overclocking could make it work. The Quad-Core in the Pi 2 does not have that limitation. I have run through 50Mbps test files with no problem. The GUI is nearly as responsive and smooth as the Chromebox, even without overclocking it.

For my main TV, I would probably still get a Chromebox. If for no other reason, I like to know that I can turn off the Hardware Decoding and let the CPU take care of playback if necessary. Otherwise, I would just get a Pi 2 for any other location in the house. Like someone else said, the 23.976fps is a big seller for me over the FireTV or other Android boxes.

RaspPi 2 - $35
FLIRC - $16 http://www.amazon.com/FLIRC-Universal-Co...ords=FLIRC
FLIRC Case - $16 http://www.amazon.com/FLIRC-Flirc-Raspbe...ords=FLIRC
WiFi adapter - $11 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I604...UTF8&psc=1
PSU - $9 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HMCP...UTF8&psc=1
DirecTV Remote Control - $8.75 http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-RC66RX-RF-...directv+rc
Total 95.75 + MicroSD card that you have lying around.

I have messed around with cheaper options for cases, IR, WiFi and PSU that just didn't work quite as well. The few extra $$$ are well worth it. The case is awesome because it has a metal post that contacts the SOC, making the whole case a heat sink. I first ran the Pi 2 with the old 1.1a PSU that I was using on the Model B and consistently got the low voltage warning when I did. The FLIRC IR receiver is awesome and is sensitive enough that I don't need LOS from 12-15 feet away. I can just velcro it to the back of the TV, hidden from view and just use a foot long HDMI cable. The DirecTV remotes are well-built and have enough buttons that you can program it to do just about anything with the FLIRC.

I realize it is starting to tread into the dedicated media player, but I had a WDTV Live hub for a couple of years and there is no way I would pick that over a RaspPi 2 running OpenELEC unless I needed optical audio out. Otherwise, it is no contest.

[wrxtasy]

I am not sure why everyone is saying to overclock the RaspPi2.

Because:
a) Its easy to do by modifying the config.txt settings
b) If you Turbo Overclock and use force_turbo=1, ie Overclock all the time. The RPi2 gets a nice speed bump.
c) I don't care if it shortens the lifespan of the device as another Cheap version will be just around the corner !
d) Its free and results in smoother Kodi GUI performance.