HawthorneVillager.com

Hawthorne Village (Milton) Discussion Board
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:29 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 53 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: School me on media boxes
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 9:11 am 
Offline

Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:03 am
Posts: 934
I know there is a few people on here who are all into this stuff, so I thought someone could shed some light on this topic with recommendations. We just moved into a new place and finally convince my wife to ditch traditional cable/fibe TV. Not interested in installing an antenna on my roof at this point.

I would like to look into some options for a streaming media box. I am a pretty tech savvy person but totally out of touch with the options available today and its a bit overwhelming. We currently have an Apple TV2 which I understand I can jailbreak and run Kodi/XBMC. I don’t know if that is more trouble than its worth, and maybe I look into something a little more out of the box like one of the Android options.

Would like to be able to:
- Steam content online (TV/Movies)
- Access Netflix
- Access media from local network

Any guidance or recommendations is appreciated!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 9:31 am 
Offline

Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:25 pm
Posts: 3641
I have yet to find a media box that can replace my 7 year old POS Dell slim case PC that I have hooked up to my tv, and a wireless keyboard with a track pad built in.

So if you have an old PC, who's case isn't too fugly to have laying around, I'd say use that. A clean install of Windows 7 (upgradable to 10 for free!) and aforementioned wireless keyboard addition (you can grab them for <$40) and you should be golden.

What do I know though?


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 9:38 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:39 pm
Posts: 3309
Location: phase 11
I have a couple of Roku 3's.

Granted I'm a simpleton and don't care to jail break and mod stuff - I'm not thaaat desperate to watch tv. If we for some reason can't find something on Netflix, Crackle, YouTube or whatever - I'll just pay the $5 to rent something off Google Play.

Now a bunch of people will post the million step "easy" process to mod your whole house and then you'll come back to my post and say: "Damnit... Martin was right again!!!"

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 9:43 am 
Offline

Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:03 am
Posts: 934
No old PC's here. Just a couple of iMacs and an ATV2.

MP: That is sort of where my head is at. I have other stuff I want to focus on so I don't know how much tinkering and modding I want to do to get up and running. Something a little closer to being out of the box would fit the bill.

The Roku 3 looks good, but I don't think the XBMC/Kodi is an option on those.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:13 am 
Offline

Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:11 am
Posts: 685
I've got a Mac Mini under the main TV in the house running Plex and I've got a Roku 3 in the bedroom. There is a Plex client for the Roku and everything works fairly well together.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:17 am 
Offline

Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 9:58 pm
Posts: 4286
I've got a local friend in Milton that programs these media boxes and sells them himself. Reliable trustworthy guy.

If you are interested in talking to him, he'll give you the straight goods on whatever questions you have.

PM me if you do.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:28 am 
Offline

Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2010 11:11 am
Posts: 335
hey nspace, I have one of the original Apple TV's and have been doing regular jailbreaks a number of times over the last 4 years. Not sure what happened but I haven't found one that works since the last system change earlier this year. Do you have a current version that works? Can you PM me if you have it. Thanks in advance!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:59 am 
Offline

Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:03 am
Posts: 934
Thanks Deep: I would definitely be interested! Will send you a PM.

AB: I've never actually done it, only read that ATV2 is jailbreak-able. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 11:29 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:42 pm
Posts: 2151
Location: Milton
I have two suggestions....

Personally I went an expensive route... but It might be an option for you.

I purchased a Qnap NAS, 670-pro. Really cool thing about the Qnap NAS is it comes with an HDMI out. With Kodi built right into standard HD Station app you don't need to download and configure much. Qnap also has a few cheaper option if you don't want to drop $1500 on a fully loaded 12TB NAS like I did. A few reasons to get a NAS vs. a media box...

-If you are not going to invest in a seedbox, the NAS can manage all your downloads.
-It can also record/PVR Live TV from an AD antenna setup. You just need to purchase a USB dongle from Qnap, and the software is already built in to record and watch TV.
-It's a great backup tool to not only back everything on a redundant hard drive system, you can back the entire thing up to the cloud. I am currently using Crashplan and they offer unlimited cloud storage.


Second suggestion is a little out of the box.

Purchase a decent Smart TV. With all the media options you are looking for. Then you can stream Netflix all you want on one TV with one remote which might be very important to you. Then purchase a cheap NAS, WD Live for example; something that has a built in download manager. Then you can download and store all your media on the NAS and then use the Smart TV to access the content via UPnP.
OR purchase a new Asus router and a 4tb usb 3.0 drive and then use the Asus download manager to organize your content.


With both my suggestions you don't need to run your Laptop into the ground seeding and streaming content


Other than the above suggestions... I still use my 6 year old Boxee Box occasionally. Still an awesome product.

_________________
Pain is Temporary Pride is forever


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 11:37 am 
Offline

Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:17 pm
Posts: 244
I have 4 different devices around the house; all can do the tasks required by OP.

1. 2 Rokus - one connected via Ethernet cable, one via Wi-Fi. No noticeable difference in quality of streamed video. Don't need hacking, just install Plex to watch the content from the shared drive, Netflix etc is already on it.
2. WD media player - best for playing large mkv files over the home network from shared drives, also has Netflix app and can stream stuff over the Net. No hacking involved.
3. Amazon Fire TV stick: best for streaming over Wi-Fi, needs a few minutes of work to sideload Kodi, very good instructions available online.
4. Dedicated media PC (Zotac XBOX: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FN5ZIOK): runs Win 7, Kodi installed, connected via Ethernet; mostly built for watching live TV when the streaming is not easily found on other devices.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:41 pm 
Offline

Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 8:20 am
Posts: 175
Wow sounds like people sink a lot of money into this.

I have a dedicated old computer I turned into a NAS server with freeNAS and use sonarr + sabnzbd to automatically download shows for me. Then I just bought a cheap raspberry pi and stream everything to my TV through it.

Couple drawbacks are that I can't stream from the internet (although tons of addons in Kodi that allow basically the same thing) and no Netflix (but this just saves me a monthly fee!).

I found htpcbeginner.com was a helpful resource, there's another one that I'll try to find and post.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:53 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:39 pm
Posts: 3309
Location: phase 11
Now nspace knows what its like when someone posts on here about wanting a basket for their 3 speed bike and they get a science report on track aerodynamics back from him. LOL

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 1:17 pm 
Offline

Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:03 am
Posts: 934
LOL! Well played.

I'm trying to follow along!

Right now I have a WD Cloud 3TB drive on the network, and it is great for streaming movies and love the idea of connecting to it from the SmartTV and streaming that way and just scheduling downloads to it. But I find the access times over wifi to be not so great for some uses (ex: storing a photo library on it). I guess you get what you pay for versus a proper NAS product, but it might be not a bad option for this type of usage. I like the idea of just streaming it without having to schedule anything beforehand like via Kodi.

$1500 would definitely be out of the budget. I was hoping to find some unit in the $100-$200 range, maybe something like the G-Box Q Android box.

Thanks for that link craiggerz!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 2:33 pm 
Offline

Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 8:20 am
Posts: 175
No problem, here's the other: http://mymediaexperience.com/

Good luck!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 3:20 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:46 pm
Posts: 3429
Wow I've fallen behind the times. I don't know what half of this is. :(


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 53 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
[ Time : 0.013s | 15 Queries | GZIP : Off ]