[winterfell44]

Settled on the Intel compute stick cherry trail model. Will do me fine for 1080p and below H264 and HEVC. No it doesn't appear to currently do bitstreaming of fancy audio and 4K might be iffy (hardware decode of the chip is 8 bit only) but looks like the perfect basic offline playback solution without fiddling with Android. Including a tiny keyboard and mouse comes to just under $250 local, compared to $360 for importing a shield. Decided to avoid the flood of sub $100 Android boxes as they seem like nightmares in disguise. Its amazing that no one has made the equivalent of an updated WD Media player 2016 edition (which is what I originally wanted). $100 more than I wanted to spend but eh. More info:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9939/the-i...l-review/4

The Wetek Core and the ODroid C2 both do what you want for less money and neither require you to use Android. (LibreElec builds are running great on them) There are a couple of other S905 boxes that come with cases and WiFi/Bluetooth (MiniMX is one) that also run OpenElec builds and are looking like good solutions. (The C2 and MiniMX handle 10 bit HEVC and UHD too - though this isn't an issue for you)

The Core will also do Netflix in HD if you reboot into Android.

The Stick is on order. Meanwhile, I'll pick up a MiniMX. Yes there is lack of support but I've always wanted to poke around one and see if they are really that bad. $63 with free local delivery is amazingly cheap. And 1080p and below playback shouldn't be an issue.