General : The rise and rise of "streaming boxes"

[techguyone]

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

This doc goes into a little detail on some of the choices open to you on using various devices for your media usage.

Chromecast
Description:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromecast

Chromecast review:- http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gad...1171126/review
Using your Chromecast effectively
Your Chromecast acts like the middleman between your source device (Phone/Tablet/PC) and your destination device (Projector/TV)
You will need a casting app from Google to stream to your TV, here are links to some of the more popular ones.

· Allcast (my favourite) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...shikdutta.cast (This is definitely worth spending £3 on for the Unlocked version)
· LocalCast - https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ledl.localcast
· AnyCast - https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...com.fs.anycast
· BubbleUPnP - https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...oid.bubbleupnp

Sometimes some apps won't show the casting icon in-app unless you have the Google Chromecast app installed on your phone/tablet, it's quite useful anyway, especially if you have multiple Chromecasts like I do, link is here: (it's free) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...chromecast.app


Useful hint - if you can't always get a reliable signal because your TV isn't quite in the right spot for the signal from the router, get a 3m HDMI lead, I've found that gives you somewhat more flexibility in placing the Chromecast and in two cases personally for me, I've been able to get a good Wi-Fi signal due to being able to place the Chromecast in a better position


If you have a PC/Mac & use Chrome web browser, you can get an extension from the Chrome Web Store called: Google Cast
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...hrome-ntp-icon
This will show a small cast icon in your browser toolbar that will allow you to stream your browser page to your TV through your Chromecast device (if you have one)
Simply start casting, make the movie full screen if you can and watch on your TV.

Amazon Fire TV stick
Fire Stick Review:- http://tinyurl.com/plmjmkd
On November 19, 2014, Amazon released a smaller version of the Fire TV called the Fire TV Stick. It is a HDMI port plug-in device that replicates much of the functionality of the larger Fire TV. Its hardware is slightly different, it has 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, weighs 0.9 oz. (25.1g) and the CPU is slower. The Fire TV Stick is bundled with a TV remote, which does not support voice search.

To make your experience with the Firestick a little better, you can get the Wukong remote app (use your phone as a remote control) here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...mote.client.en
Additionally, although the bluetooth on the stick is rather limited, this device will work with it.
Amazon link:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
video showing it working

Settings for the 1byeone remote:- http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/1/v...k/settings.apk
(sideload via dropbox to stick install then scan for remote)

Amazon Kindle+Fire
Description:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle
You can sideload Android apps to some of these devices (good as you can't access Google play from them)
How to do it:- http://tinyurl.com/nquufow
You are also able to cast from Chromecast too:- http://tinyurl.com/onrv6qo
The HDX also allows mirroring:- http://tinyurl.com/ozvbthv


Dedicated Android Set Top Boxes or Sticks
There are a lot of these available now, ranging from really cheap plug-in sticks, to rather expensive, fully featured set top boxes, these devices are used as a one stop solution for the users Multimedia/Android general usage needs,normally using a TV and a Bluetooth Keyboard.
The best way to imagine an android box is to think of it as a tablet, without a screen, but with added ports to connect directly to the TV. Don't even think of purchasing one with less than 2GB RAM, Quad Core and Ethernet connectivity (as box Wi-Fi is normally subpar compared to Ethernet)

But which is best - Chromecast or Set Top Box?
This is a question that gets bandied around a lot in group,the simple answer is, there is no best.
General consensus would indicate this as a guide though.

If you use your phone/tablet/pc as the device with your Apps/media on, Chromecast is best suited
If you want your apps/Kodi etc on a separate device, then a set top box is better for your needs
Note too that Kodi really doesn't cast well at all onto Chromecast, if Kodi is your thing, you do require a Android box/stick

Independent Comparison:- http://tinyurl.com/nsfwevf

Chromecast plus points: +
· Scalability, no matter how many chromecast devices you have, you only need one set of apps on your phone/tablet
· Simplicity, no need to configure your chromecast,your phone/tablet has all the controls

Negatives: -
· Doesn't run on 5Ghz networks
· No Windows phone or Blackberry support

Set Top Box/stick plus points: +
· Good if you want your phone/tablet to be kept clear of media apps
· Supports 5 Ghz network

Negatives: -
· Poor scalability, If you have more than one device you have to set up each the same
· Need for a mouse/keyboard to control device

Software available
The general consensus is that anything Kodi based (XMBC) won't go far wrong, there are various Kodi builds available ranging from Barebones Kodi (you add on what you want to customise it to your needs) to others pre-built with apps/features already added.


XBOX/PLAYSTATION/SMART TV
These use a variety of DNLA/uPNP/Miracast (types of wireless transmission of content)
Sometimes these devices are picked up by your apps and you can stream to them, sometimes not. Your mileage will vary. Generally speaking you will get more reliable results with a Chromecast or dedicated Android box.


HDMI/MHL Lead
Direct connection!
Some devices will have a full size or mini HDMI port, which you can attach directly to your TV and you can play whatever is on your screen, devices that don't have a HDMI port may still be able to use the MicroUSB port with something called a MHL adaptor (not all devices can do this, so check if yours can)
*Note, this generally needs to be powered too, so make sure you have a spare micro USB charger.

MHL Description:-http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/what-is-mhl-and-why-do-you-need-it--1209802

Mi-Fi
What is it? The clue is in the name 'Mobile Wi-fi', what do you need it for? Well *I* use it in my SUV when I take the kids on long trips etc, then we have 2 phones+ 2 tablets all doing their own thing which wouldn't have been possible before, as the tablets only have Wi-Fi.

Mi-Fi Description:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiFi

Sure you *could* possibly set up a hot-spot on your phone, but I find the Mi-Fi solution simpler. Here in the UK EE is the biggest and most complete coverage provider. I can get a 4G signal most places I travel to. I use the Osprey 2 mini (unlocked for pennies on Ebay so I can use it with any provider) it fits in nicely in my console and the range is a bit bigger than my vehicle. I can connect up to 15 devices on my one.

Other uses?
You don't actually need to be in a car, it has it's own battery (or you can plug in a micro USB charger and use it anywhere you get a mobile signal... On the beach/in a caravan/up a mountain and so on.

Drawbacks?
Well you can get monthly data contracts, but they work out incredibly expensive compare to home broadband prices. I use PAYG (but not EE's as they rip you off) instead I get this.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...dp_o_pC_nS_ttl

This gives me 6GB for £15 which has a 3 month expiry from activation, this means it stops either when you use your allowance OR when the 3 months is up. (whichever comes first) You wouldn't want to use this for streaming or d/loading Movies... But browsing, email checking, catching up on Facebook/Twitter, even using YouTube (within reason) is certainly possible.
I do expect the data limits/prices to drop once the tech becomes more established/commonplace.
Perhaps something to consider if you ever wanted Mobile Internet in places/or on devices that weren't possible before.

Dedicated Android Box

At this point it might be worth mentioning that an Android Box is basically an Android tablet minus a touch screen, and with added I/O ports (Like HDMI, USB), typically boxes come with their own custom launcher. For example this is what mine looks like:- http://tinyurl.com/nf9u52t

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.

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

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by Chad

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....


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

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?

[techguyone]

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.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by denphone

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.

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 ----------

Originally Posted by techguyone

There's no such thing as a *Kodi Box*
.

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.

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by techguyone

cost is relevant for quality, what is your budget?

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.

[techguyone]

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.

[SnoopZ]

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?

[techguyone]

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.

[SnoopZ]

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.

[buckeye]

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

[denphone]

Welcome to the forum buckeye.

[gba93]

Welcome and thanks for the insight.

[buckeye]

Originally Posted by denphone

Welcome to the forum buckeye.

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.

[Uncle Peter]

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