WD Live TV, Roku, Android, or XBMC???

[jessic4]

Hi everyone. Here is my dilema and welcome any thoughts and recommendations.

I want a device to stream downloaded content/play HD content from a memory stick, and also offer me Netflix on my home TV. I don't want to spend more than £50 or so but if a device is really that good I will pay more.

I have access to top end nettops and have tried XBMC but find Mashup is too frustrating to navigate and there is no netflix addon (Silverlight restrictions) although you wouldn't want Netflix when you have Mashup anyway!!! plus it buffers from time to time, and most annoyingly the windows remote is never fully functional and you can't navgiate as easily as a dedicated remote for something like for example a Roku.

So I've given up with XBMC and turned my hand to a NowTV. Streaming was fantastic in full HD with Plex but Netflix doesn't work. Wasted £10 there but I will probably sell it on eBay or something!

So the dilemma is deciding which device to go for. I have looked at the WD TV Live for £59 from Amazon, the WD TV Play for £32, the Roku 2, or an Android media player such as the Minix Neo X7 or the Sumvision Cyclone Nano Slim etc.

Remember I mainly want it to stream HD content from the network OR just play straight off my 64GB USB Stick but importantly I want Netflix. Does anyone have a Minix in the UK and does it work fully with Netflix for example? Same for the Sumvision? Or can anyone recomend the WD TV play for £32 or worth the extra to go for the WD TV Live?

Any guidance, opinions, thoughts, or recommendations including alternatives would be very welcome.

Thanks all!

[Modcoms]

I have two of the WDLIVE boxes
Its been great and will play everything I throw at it
its got a built in lan port and wireless so that's sorted Netflix is great on it as well
I would recommend this to anyone

[jessic4]

I have two of the WDLIVE boxes
Its been great and will play everything I throw at it
its got a built in lan port and wireless so that's sorted Netflix is great on it as well
I would recommend this to anyone

Thanks Modcoms. Price wise, I am almost certainly going to go with WD but I am still seriously toying on the idea of a Minix X7 for the sole reason I just found out you CAN install XBMC onto it!!! Nice review here for anyone interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2t5YfNfIC0

I have never seen a Minix product before, but owed a few Sumvision products. Price around £70 on eBay but If I spot a bargain I might just go for it.

[Fergie73]

the mygica atv1200 is a brilliant android box, will do all that you stated, XBMC runs like a dream on it

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MyGica-ATV...item20da4a82bf

[chizh]

Ordered This Android MX on Sunday. Got the dispatch email today so should be here end of next week with a following wind.

Will go with my WD Live Hub 1Tb(used daily), ATV2(used occasionally for Netflix/XBMC), Roku LT(less occasionally for Netflix), NowTV(still unused) and US Chromecast(rooted, but a pointless device).

Not sure how Netflix will perform on the Android box but no reason to assume it to be a problem. Should also have ability to run as a network media player and has USB support. Seems to tick the right boxes for £42 delivered.

[jessic4]

URGENT UPDATE - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321300352262

£24 for the Minix X7 on eBay. I've ordered one now and just praying it arrives within the month suggested time frame and isn't some dodgey fake!!!

[beerman]

Up to 35 days delivery! Are they walking it over here? That also looks very cheap compared to other minix neo x7s listed on ebay.

[DejaVu]

Even if it is a knock off/clone. I'm interested in a Quad Core Android box for less than £25! That'd be far better value than the NowTV box IMO.

Sold a fair few of them. They'll go like hot cakes.
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI...m=221355534021

It is a punt and he's sold loads in a short space of time.
If it arrives. Let us know.

[beerman]

What would make me wary is a lot of his feedback comes a day (or even the same day) as the item was listed despite suggesting up to 35 days delivery. There are a lot of accounts with 0 or 1 feedback too. What is the limit you can request money back from Paypal, is it under 35 days by any chance?

Sorry, don't want to make you paranoid but I live by the rule, if it looks too good to be true it probably is.

[kuspert]

Worse case, you've lost £24, best case you've got a bargain

[Over Carl]

Or wait till the deadline then report non delivery if it doesn't arrive in time. If he actually did send it, it's his fault for not complying with eBay regs.

[chizh]

My MX Android box arrived yesterday and it's not too bad. These are only the first 2 hours thoughts playing with it tho'.

Navigate using the remote's custom keys, the arrow and OK keys most of the time but there's a need to press a button that brings up a mouse-like cursor that you then move around and press again to start the on-screen keyboard - Very clunky and cumbersome entry method but to be expected TBH given that it's a highly customised phone-in-a-box. Must buy myself a Rii keyboard or similar to increase usability.

Play Store works and the default XBMC was 12.2 but required all the plugins etc to be installed.
Netflix worked immediately once details were entered, as did the media suite that came pre-loaded, pulling content off the WDTV. Youtube app also OK.

Wifi connection was fairly good once connected but a power cycle resulted in not being able to reconnect. Read somewhere about performing a factory reset to clear settings etc to regain a stable Android system. Did that and wifi rock solid since resetting up however, when restarted, XBMC was nowhere to be found so I had to start again, this time installing 12.3 thru' the built in browser. If anything else was missing I didn't notice it.

Only things not tried are playing off USB or memory card - not priorities for me but the media player did look for attached devices and reported nothing to play so I'd expect that would work OK too.

One of the guys at work has got one off ebay(£60) and I think he'll struggle with it as they're not idiot-proof and do require a little working knowledge and the frustrations of not doing what he wants and then not knowing how to fix it might be a deal breaker for him.

All in all, not bad for £42. Not as slick as it could be but does the job as advertised.

[satzzz]

Do a search for J1nx. Linux based and boots straight into xbmc. Remote a lot more responsive after you flash it

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

[DejaVu]

Do a search for J1nx. Linux based and boots straight into xbmc. Remote a lot more responsive after you flash it

Will that work for any Android box?

not bad for £42.

MX box... £42? Where was that from?

[chizh]

See link in post #5

[chizh]

Do a search for J1nx. Linux based and boots straight into xbmc. Remote a lot more responsive after you flash it

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

Hmmm. Had a look. Not sure tho'. Obviously there's no magic button-press sequence on these boxes to boot into recovery etc and setting up a memory card for flashing etc seems a PITA for the return.
Will have to do some reading on how to grab the existing image first so I'll have a fall-back if things either go tits up or I don't like the new image.

[Adit18]

Hello folks.

A very old Digial Forums member here who has returned after a long hiatus, with a wealth of xbmc usage / setup knowledge. I'm not a developer though, let me just make that clear!

I have been using xbmc for over a year and have in running on the below devices:

Win 7 HTPC
ATV2 (jailbroken)
Pivos Xios (Linux)
Pivos Xios (Andriod)
OUYA

Now the reason for the myriad of devices is simply becuase I've been looking for the best xbmc platform for myself and each has its advantages and disadvantages.

Persoanlly, I'd highly recommend xbmc or WD TV live, Plex or anything else. Some reasons given below:

-play all file types, mp4, avi, mkv, flv, the list is endless
-5.1 dts support
-AirPlay receiver
-Add one! now this is the best part - stream all sorts of content and once you're proficent with how to use xbmc, there is very little content that doesn't work reliably

Also, most of the devices given above also have NetFlix support outside of xbmc within the naitve operating system, with the exception of the Pivos XIOS (but the Andriod version does have NetFlix).
Now the most interesting part of this is that if you're interested in Andriod devices, xbmc v13 will be released in the coming weeks, and this version will be the best Andriod port to date. Previously, all xbmc version have had issues with Andriod platform, in particular due to lack hardware decoding support. However for most of the common Andriod devices (such as devices with ARM / Tegra) CPU hardware decoding has been fully achieved and so xbmc v13 will run almost flawlessly on such devices.

[rookie]

Why do you want net.flix surely cant you download everything you want. I have been using plex and have managed to find somone that uploads all the latest films etc to there server amd just pay them £3 a month. Obviously wont.discuss anymore on here as its against the rules

[chizh]

@rookie
Be prepared for a shitload of PMs mate.

[rookie]

I will gladly help any member but i wont spoonfeed. The info can be found with a google search