My wife has been at the daughters house today, and come home wanting an Android TV Box, as apparently, they can now get live football, latest films and tons of extra channels. She isn't sure how they work, but they sound like the best thing since sliced gateau. I've looked on Flea-bay, and there are loads going for around £70. Thing is, anyone got one, do they work ok, any drawbacks, and (most important) are they simple to operate? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XBMC-Andr...ctronics_VideoSwitches_SM&hash=item2c7f1cf60e
Ron, a mate is always banging on about on about synology and has tried explaining it to me several times, some of it I think I've got the jist of but some of it, definitely not. He streams stuff all round his house and I have to say on some levels I'm impressed, but, it can be a right pita to get it right in my limited experience. Personally I think there has to be easier ways than this but it can serve as a multiple platform for all sorts of stuff, undecided as yet. http://www.synology.com/en-uk
You can run the same software on your PC or Mac for free. Then you have to connect it to your TV somehow, I tried it but my internet speed isn't the best, so the live streams freeze a bit. So my advice would be to load it on your computer and try it out 1st.
A Roku box is another alternative. I have two and they are well worth the money for what I watch. I can also stream media from my PC to it using Plex software.
And no possibility to use for example live sports app as Apple TV is even more restricted then iPhone or iPad (no app store for Apple tv). Only content you can stream for fresher items is paid content. Roku box is good. Google TV is alternative to Apple TV. Some restrictions (more then Roku much much less then apple tv and 33 GBP new).
If you can find an apple tv 2 box then get it but theyre like rocking horse shite now as the appletv 3 boxes are currently unhackable.... My advice would is to buy a small form factor pc, A dell OptiPlex 7010 or 790 "USFF" - which means in lamens terms "bloody small" put a decent sized SSD in for speed and hook it up to the tv.....depending on how far you want to take it you can use it as a streamer, media player and also vcr. That's what I use, plays anything you throw at it...plus its no bigger than a tin of biscuits and a small tin at that... Id just like to say that putting my money where my mouth is if anyone wants to do this ill happily talk them through it.
It is but I did set up a media centre box for my mother in law - a mid sized OptiPlex so I could get a freeview hd card in there and a big 4tb hard disc.....told her to try to use it....that was about a year ago....she wouldn't be without it now....she's in her seventies and she can use it.... Transferred all her dvd's to it and Music Magpie'd the lot of em which gave her a load of shelf space back as well...so im in the good books...!
Well, maybe but ive always from a techhie point of view come from the angle that "if its easy to use and its nice and fast then youll use it" which seems to be working for the mother in law.! The main thing to remember is don't try to cheapskate it....get decent stuff and itll last. There no reason with the above stuff itll be good for another 5 years at least or, unless you get a 4k telly. But, even then it would be gfx card update only....
Roku box (Roku 2 and up if you want 1080 high definition) - though it really needs a server behind it to serve up media to get the best out of it, easiest method is a piece of software called Plex. I get the same "dodgy" channels through Plex as available on XBMC. Android box - running XBMC and a variety of plugins on it that can get things like Icefilms, Sports Devil etc - they work well but the quality of the machine varies massively - some can cope with full HD video, some just don't do it at all, WIFI signal can be hit and miss on some too. XBMC is completely wife friendly - if my missus can use it with a remote control anyone can
I have Apple TV and also XBMC on my Mac. It's like comparing apples (no pun intended) with oranges in all honesty.
I have just bought one of these boxes. Done plenty of research and the main problem with xbmc is that you have to find and loads whatever add ons are needed. I then found two who had good reviews and had the best add ons already loaded, one seller was 'xbmcdoctors' the other 'streambox'. After seeing the excellent menus system on the Streambox I decided to go for that, even better when I found out they were 2 minutes from where I live so I went and picked one up. I got the Linux version as I was not bothered about all of the Android stuff, more to go wrong, the box boots directly into xbmc and the menu system is brilliant. Watched the motogp on Bt sport, most matches are on as well, even with fibre sometimes the football buffers a bit but just seems to be on certain channels, movies are fine which is what I mainly got it for. £85.
