The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

I'm sure we've all heard of these boxes by now. £30 to £80 to buy online from Amazon or Ebay with hundreds of sports channels, movie streams TV on demand etc....

I first became aware of these about a year ago. Don't have one myself but demand for them seems to have rocketed in recent months. I'd say about 60% of my friends, family and colleagues from work have them. Others who don't have them know about them or plan to get one. These are in the main people who can afford either SKY or Virgin but choose the free route. Not all have cancelled their TV subscription but some have and others have reduced their package.

Thought I'd start a poll to get peoples thoughts on this subject.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

As I doubt the majority of channels available are obtained legally I have no intention of getting one and no doubt the long arm of the law won't let them work much longer, once something gets popular then it gets blocked

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Well at the moment, bizarrely, it isn't illegal to stream copyright content. The problem only comes if you either make a copy of it, download, or share it, Torrents.

I pay for prime and the full Sky package, at a good price, and when my contract runs out in June i'll either get 50% off or cancel it.

I also have AFTV box with Kodi sideloaded, i use it as a Netflix/Boxset kind of thing.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Why can we only select one option?

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

I installed kodi on my pc. I wouldnt buy a box. The picture is poor and it's not reliable

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Depends what addons you use, I'm currently watching the 2nd ep of iZombie in 1080.
Watched part of the Royal Rumble in HD through DexterPro as well.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

:tu::tu::tu:

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Recommend a good Kodi streaming box please and can this be tested out on a tablet or PC before purchase?

Is there any cost involved for streaming channels?

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Loads of help and answers on here... It's a closed group, but well worth joining.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/kodiuktv/

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Download KODI here: https://www.tvaddons.ag/install-kodi/

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Loads of info and helpful tips on this site

https://seo-michael.co.uk/

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Well the way things are going with some of the content we might have to spend a few pennies on a Now TV box as its bloody irritating that after 5 years plus Virgin still have not got Sky Atlantic and given Sky's new outlay now't is going to change it seems with regards to the future.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

cost is relevant for quality, what is your budget?

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

That's why we need more streaming services like Now TV on our Tivo boxes, Den.

I find that about one third of my viewing is through Now TV these days.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Sadly Sky Atlantic is not coming so we don't really have a choice so we will wait until they have a special offer and then we are likely to get it.

Sadly Now TV will never be on the TiVo box in my opinion OB.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

I used to admin on one of the 25k+ members closed fb sites on the streaming side, here are some recommendations on hardware.

Dedicated Android Box

You'll need an Android box for this setup (I know you can put Kodi on your phone or tablet, but you'll drive yourself mad trying to work the UI on that size of screen)
I'm also going to dismiss the various sticks too (they have their place, but not in this guide)
Ok so it's a box you need, but which one?

This is entirely determined by your budget, but for me I'll showcase these ones at two different price points as good examples of what you should be looking for.

· Pricepoint 1 £40-50 Box: M8S http://tinyurl.com/q74hfxc

· Pricepoint 2 £100 Box: MINIX Neo X8-H Plus http://tinyurl.com/q3slnmm


Don't worry too much about the Amazon reviews on those, the important thing to remember is the actual models as they've been proven on various technical web sites in reviews etc.


Obviously you can choose your own box, but you won't go far wrong with either of those two models suggested. (I have the Minix Neo X8-H Plus)

***You're looking for a minimum of Quad Core & 2 GB of RAM***

Please just try and avoid anything that is advertised as 'fully loaded' you'll invariably finish up paying double for what you'll end up doing yourself here. I also chose to go with using Amazon as the supplier purely because if there is any difficulties, their resolution service is second to none, if you go with EBay/AliExpress/bloke down the pub there's a high chance you won't be getting the real deal /may run into problems or be waiting for six weeks for it to arrive.

Keyboard/Mouse
-
Again there's a dizzying array of choices out there, I can only tell you what I've used & how I've found it to use.
You may well find that the box you get will come with a basic Air-mouse, mine came with two! But neither were much good.

I'll recommend this Air-mouse/Keyboard remote:
Measy RC11 - http://tinyurl.com/pph6p4b
You work it in a way that's similar to using a Wii controller, but it also has a full QWERTY keyboard too (you'll need this more than you realise)

Keys to remember for future use include:-

· Page Up/Down (going through TV Guide screen by screen)
· C (for Context, keyboard equivalent of a Menu button)
· I (information) Used in things like TV Guide for program details
· Esc (equivalent of the Android 'Back' button)
· Double clicking the 'green android' button locks the mouse mode on

Android remote apps (yes you can control your box via your phone too)
-
To my mind there are two contenders here:-
· Yatse (I use this) http://tinyurl.com/c7obfmz

· Kore It's made by Kodi http://tinyurl.com/kk7ptop

Look at this video to show you how to set up Kodi for remote access:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cYcc1rNk90

Placement/Connection
-
You'll need a power outlet & be able to site it close to your TV as it'll be connected by HDMI cable. Most boxes offer both Wireless & Wired connections to the Internet. If you can, always choose wired. Invariably the Wi-Fi capability of the box is far inferior to the wired and your performance will be much reduced if you choose Wi-Fi.
Powerline adaptors to get you Ethernet connectivity closer to the box are more preferable than using Wi-Fi.
If you have no choice but to use Wi-Fi, don't be terribly surprised if your experience is less than pleasant.

Internet Speed
-
Remember that you're ideally streaming Full HD information to your TV over your Internet connection, plus using whatever other connected devices are in your household too (PC's/Tablets/Phones etc)
I don't like to put a hard number on things but you may need to increase your Internet package to cope. The only way you'll know for sure is to see how you fare with buffering/viewability & your other household user's experiences when the box is running.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

I have Kodi on my Amazon firestick, does that count as yes or no in your poll ;)

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Basically, you're asking what people think about viewing pirated content free of charge.

These boxes depend on Kodi for viewing such materiel. But don't forget, Kodi (previously known as XBMC) was not designed for viewing pirated content; it's conceived purpose was to view ripped copies of DVDs that you have personally purchased. It's open source nature opened the door to people designing add-ons to view pirated content.

Many people use Kodi as originally intended, just for viewing personally purchased DVD/Bluray discs. I use it for that purpose myself on both PC and Amazon Fire TV.

Maybe there needs to be another option in your poll?

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

XBMC stood for X Box Media Centre and was originally for the x-box strangely enough.

It's far from a pirates paradise, like torrents really. sure you *can* use it for nefarious purposes. BUT for every add-on that's *dodgy* shall we say. Notwithstanding the fact that streaming within the EU is entirely legal at the moment.

There's add-ons that are perfectly ok in every sense of the word. For example I regularly use a Google Music add-on.

I'll also point out that the android boxes (and even the more limited devices like fire sticks & Fire TV boxes) are essentially screen-less tablets, so they do all that a tablet would.

you know legal stuff like, playing games, browsing, Facebook etc.

There's no such thing as a *Kodi Box*
If I wanted to view pirated content on any device of mine, i wouldn't actually need any more than a web browser... or a non google play app, the boxes certainly don't depend on Kodi for anything, at the end of the day Kodi is simply another application running in the android OS.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Don't forget, you don't need to pay the full monthly subscription fee; three month passes are readily available from places such as Amazon for £15. Occasionally, you can find them cheaper than that.

Christmas seems to be the best time for box + pass deals, but that's nearly a year away.

Amazon currently have the second gen (black box) plus 3 month entertainment pass for around £19.

---------- Post added at 13:58 ---------- Previous post was at 13:42 ----------


That's true, which is why I said 'depends on Kodi'. But the boxes Chad is referring to do depend on Kodi being loaded onto the box to access the content he is referring to.

But you are right, there is no reason why legitimate services that a person subscribes to shouldn't be viewed via Kodi if possible.

It is interesting that Amazon will sell these boxes, loaded with add-ons obviously intended for pirated content, but refuse to put Kodi in the app store because it can be used for viewing pirated materiel.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

I was just enquiring after seeing this thread, but my budget would be cheap if i did buy something.

Will try it on Windows first to see what i can watch and what quality is available.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Amazon want you to watch their own services which is why they make it very difficult now to load any other content besides Amazon's own, this is why I'd never advise getting an amazon device unless you're only ever going to want to view Amazon stuff on it, additionally fire sticks are getting a bit long in the tooth and have very limited technical specs in relation to other things around. (see my previous post of streaming hardware)

My own personal box I use is this:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00YCIK90W

Airmouse:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009FQYLLE

at £99 + another £12 or so for the airmouse it's hard to beat. Obviously for some people that is a bit too expensive, but some of the things you see out there for £30 -£50 can be really dodgy, cloned chinese knock offs etc.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Just been playing with Kodi on the PC, impressed so far, installed an add on called Pheonix and the quality is great.

Is it easy to add a list of live TV channels to so all i need to do is click and watch?

I think this has been asked, are we saying it is currently not illegal to stream all this stuff?

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

It's easy to add a live TV epg, getting the channels though can be a bit of a nightmare. Dependent upon which TV channels you wanted, and at what definition.

For typical TV viewing you'll be better off with a freeview or sky/virgin subscription, you can of course search the various Kodi video add-ons for any particular content you may want, like particular TV Series etc.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Shame i was hoping to get a live TV HD TV channel streamer plug in for it that i can find Sky/Virgin channels on it.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

I've lurked here for quite a while and gleaned a lot of useful information (thank you to all the CF members/contributors) but have never had anything to contribute until reading this thread.
I've been using Kodi in most of its guises since soldering an xecuter chip in my original xbox and installing XBMP.

Firstly when it comes to hardware you get what you pay for, with the possible exception of the Amazon devices which bring their own problems (low memory and storage for a start) be prepared to have buggy firmware, a lack of support and having to throw out your device in 6-12 months time when the manufacturer brings out another device if you buy a cheap Android box.

Next I'd say despite what many people tell you Kodi is not a cord cutters paradise, at best if you want to go down the copyright infringement route it can complement your legitimate services but as I've posted on other forums do not believe you can cancel your cable/satellite and use Kodi exclusively, the addons you are using are made by people making them in their spare time, all will break, quite often the addon author will mend it but at some point they will give up.
A good example of this is the recent most popular addon Genesis, the author has decided to give up on it because its too popular and the fixes he applies last a matter of hours until the streaming sites change things again because their servers are flooded.

You also should know the quality of most streams is not a patch on broadcast or legitimate streaming sites HD, they may say 720P or 1080P which would technically correct because of the resolution used but the bitrates are extremely low with a 720P movie probably coming in with a file size or around 800MB.

I would also urge people not to buy "fully loaded" boxes, an hour or two's reading would glean most people the information to do things for themselves without paying some shysters exhorbitant mark up for spending 10 minutes installing things for you.

And please please do not pay anyone for any Kodi service or addon, even if they start with a legitimate payment service like Paypal sooner or later that payment method will get closed down and you will end up giving criminals access to your card details in the clear without encryption if you continue using the service (do not ever give any card details to these people without a well known 3rd party payment processor).

Now having said all of that my whole home is for want of a better word Kodified, imho there isn't a better piece of software to display and play my local media and to play the legitimate services that I pay for which are compatible.
My TiVo box pretty much only gets switched on for live sports on BT or Sky but my Kodi devices are on all the time, BBC Iplayer is far better through Kodi than Tivo, the radio I want to listen to comes via the TuneIn addon, using Kodi for NBC Sports is like chalk and cheese compared to the browser or app versions, ESPN College Players video is markedly better via Kodi, YouTube doesn't have the best interface but again the video playback is much better, and I get to listen to the ITunes podcasts I want with that addon without sullying my devices with ITunes :)

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Welcome to the forum buckeye.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Welcome and thanks for the insight. :)

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Thank you for the welcome, I've enjoyed your informative posts during my lurking days.

With regard to your sig I think I have to confess after the umm....excrement I've had to clear up for friends and family who wouldn't listen to my advice I'm quite prejudiced against many aspects of the "free tv" side of Kodi.

What I forgot to mention in my first post is the damage that can be done to your system by installing iffy repos, luckily so far the script kiddies doing malicious things have kept their activities (as far as I know) to deleting their rivals addons and repositories but it wouldn't take much skill to wreak havoc on a Kodi install with a few lines of Python, I would really urge anyone not fully au fait with Kodi to only install addons from the official Kodi repo.
For full disclosure there is one site mentioned in this thread that I personally would trust on the basis that they have enough old school OSS devs to keep them honest but I'm pretty sure as most of their addons are non legitimate with regard to copyright to say who would most likely get me banned here as soon as I've joined.

To sum up my feelings on this subject and to use a cliché if something is too good to be true it probably is and also do not think you can cut the cord with Kodi, you will be disappointed at some point.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Raspberry Pi + OpenElec + el cheapo wireless remote/keyboard here. Took about half an hour to setup and works a treat.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

If you are Android based try the uk tv now app. Google for it.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Thanks for the heads up on Genesis. I have rarely used it and I don't recall the last time I used it. It has been problematic every time I used it. the last time I tried there were no streams for Star Wars.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Quite, however you can get by on freeview + Kodi quite happily. I do, it costs me 50p/month

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

I think most people who cut the cord, shift over to a range of streaming services; most popular being Netflix, Amazon Prime, Now TV and combine these services with a Freeview PVR. They are still paying for content but prefer the content from these services than that offered by a pay TV subscription.

Chad has highlighted a specific sub section of cord cutters, and I do wonder what proportion of ex pay TV people do depend solely on Kodi for there content rather than subscribe to the services listed above.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

For me, the Roku streaming stick is a fantastic supplement to Virgin Media TV. It is simple to use and has on it a huge range of streaming services/channels.

These include all the terrestrial on demand services, Netflix, Amazon, Now TV, Cinema Now, You Tube, Sky Store, Vevo, RT, plus so much more that it is really not possible to list.

As long as you have WiFi and HDMI sockets at the rear of your TV, you can be receiving all this in three easy steps that will take only minutes to set up.

Although a lot of content is free, the best stuff is subscription based or pay per view.

If you are a little apprehensive or completely bamboozled by all the technical information in this thread, I would highly recommend the Roku stick. I wouldn't be without it now.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Roku /Now tv gets about 5% of the content that Kodi can.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Don't you think that Kodi is for more technical minded people, though? I thought the Kodi was best for the pirated stuff that we are not supposed to have access to. Most people would not wish to do that.

If you want to view stuff legitimately, what advantages does the Kodi provide? The Roku has so much content that, combined with VM's offerings, there should be more than enough for everybody. How easy is the Kodi to set up for non techies?

PS - Just had a quick look at the supporting information and it appears that the Kodi is more of a video player than a streaming service. I don't think this is for me at all.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Kodi isn't especially non techie friendly & does require a degree of housekeeping, that said it's not terribly complicated either, but it's not like a freeview box or similar plug n play device.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Yes, I can see how some would find this a pretty good device for their purposes, but I think the average punter looking for additional content would not go down this route.

A simple plug and play streaming stick is uncomplicated and no housekeeping is required - it's all there as soon as you are connected.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Most have already been mentioned (better versions of iplayer, youtube, spotify, news apps, sports apps etc). But it is also so customizable that you can have whatever you want on your front page. So with all your movie collection readily available in whatever awesome visual interface you want it, it really is a zillion times better than roku.

That's just the legal stuff too.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

For the content sources that you view, and considering the equipment you already have, Kodi would be of no advantage to yourself IMHO.

It is the same situation for me, except that I rip the DVD's that I buy, to make it easier to view them in both the lounge or the bedroom. Kodi is a very good 'front end' for viewing these on my Amazon Fire TV or PC.

If you use your DVD/Bluray player to watch discs, then I can't see any advantage for you adding Kodi to your setup.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

I think for many people who wish to have a wide range of legitimate content a box like the Roku you suggested would be the way to go.
Kodi is unlikely to have services like Netflix supported natively within it in the foreseeable future if ever.
Without wishing to get too technical it cannot handle streams containing DRM so unless the media companies work with the team at Kodi and create binary addons for it (which seems unlikely) many legitimate services will not be on the platform.

As I said previously those legitimateservices that are on it provide in my opinion a much greater visual experience over their browser or app based counterparts but are reliant on someone developing and maintaining the addon in their spare time,
a good example of this is Amazon Prime, this worked very well on Kodi until a couple of months ago when Amazon changed things on their website, the person who wrote this addon seems to have given up on it so now there's no Amazon Prime on Kodi.

Re: The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"
 

Yes, I couldn't be doing with that, I'm afraid. Kodi is clearly designed for the enthusiast!