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Old 02-09-2018, 09:14 PM   #1
White Out 403
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Default Looking for: Device that streams windows network

I used to use WD LIve but its so friggin inconsistent and useless now. I want a basic device that will plug into my TV and stream windows shared media in mp4, mkv, etc. Price under 200 under 100 is best
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Old 02-09-2018, 11:31 PM   #2
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I used to use WD LIve but its so friggin inconsistent and useless now. I want a basic device that will plug into my TV and stream windows shared media in mp4, mkv, etc. Price under 200 under 100 is best
An Android box from a site like gearbest with Kodi installed and you can get it under 100 and will be far more powerful than the WD Live.

If you want to get more complex you can also install something like a Plex/Emby server and integrate that with your Kodi box.
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Old 02-10-2018, 02:29 AM   #3
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i didnt know kodi can stream windows files from another computer
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Old 02-10-2018, 02:41 AM   #4
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edit: well.. kodi does do that. im buying a kodi box.
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Old 02-10-2018, 03:21 AM   #5
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So many choices on Amazon... Any suggestions on an an android box?
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Old 02-10-2018, 11:58 AM   #6
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I consider myself a pretty techy guy and am ashamed to say, I don't understand what these are. I'm pretty sure I want one but what do they do, what's the appeal?
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Old 02-10-2018, 01:59 PM   #7
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If you are techie, then instead of an Android box, I went with building a cheap PC. I started with this motherboard and CPU combo from Newegg.

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...-448-_-Product

From there 4GB of memory, power supply, etc. Spent about $250 about 1.5 years ago, so it could well be cheaper now. Install Ubuntu and then Kodi using instructions from any of thousands of sites telling you how to do it. Use Kore on your phone to remote control it. Works great and gives a bit more power and flexibility than an Android box or Raspberry Pi.

A simplified parts list:

Motherboard/CPU - $80 (as above)
Thermaltake Core V1 case - $60 (very quiet)
4GB memory (DDR3 1333) - $35
Power Supply - $35 (this doesn't have to have much power output, due to a very low power requirement on CPU)
Hard drive - up to you but a small HD is about $35

That's about $245 but I'm betting you can do better on the pricing if you look for sales. Also, for another TV I picked up something similar to this:
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...3CVF-_-Product

I bought it because it went on sale for about $200 with everything included. It works very well and also takes OTA TV and sends it out my home network so that I can watch TV on any computer, phone or tablet. It will also record shows if I want.

ers
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Old 02-11-2018, 07:46 AM   #8
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A Raspberry Pi 3 will run kodi as well, but will require some setup. Lots of guides on how to set one up if you search for it.
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Old 02-11-2018, 12:47 PM   #9
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+1 on the RPi3. If you want to replace the WD Live, it'll do fine.

However, I found it struggled on h.265 encoded video @ 1080p. It also couldn't run tvheadend with my USB TV tuner; it either worked but missed frames or just gave a black screen. No amount of google-fu or re-installation from scratch seemed to resolve the issues. Netflix and Amazon Prime don't (didn't?) work with it either. That's when I switched to a x86 compatible system for 3x more money. Also the x86 system allows me to have storage right on the system as well.

ers
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Old 02-11-2018, 01:38 PM   #10
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guh. i got the android box today and it sucks. just awful. i was trying to stream the jets game online and its thru a browser.. and my god. my god damn phone did a better job streaming the game. wtf?

so.. back to the drawing board. maybe a tiny computer?

on top of that, this thing wouldnt recognize my windows shares network in kodi like my laptop was able to read. ugh.

Last edited by White Out 403; 02-11-2018 at 01:42 PM.
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Old 02-11-2018, 01:55 PM   #11
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It might be out of your price range, but the best media streamer you can buy is the Nvidia Shield TV. It's powerful and can run a Plex server to play your videos anywhere. It runs Kodi too and has all of the streaming services. Plays games too.
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Old 02-11-2018, 01:58 PM   #12
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It might be out of your price range, but the best media streamer you can buy is the Nvidia Shield TV. It's powerful and can run a Plex server to play your videos anywhere. It runs Kodi too and has all of the streaming services. Plays games too.
I was looking at that too, but my concern is that it wont work either with kodi and windows shares.

If I had to guess it would seem like windows 10 is only allowing other windows devices to read my network. Maybe I can fix that.

How would I setup a plex? I know thats probably a huge pain in the ass question to ask sorry
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Old 02-11-2018, 02:17 PM   #13
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wow. plex is incredible.

i had it setup and working in minutes, and its.. well, incredible.
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Old 02-11-2018, 03:00 PM   #14
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I used a more $$ Intel NUC for a small Win 10 based Kodi system.
It is powerful and works really well. (there are much better options than the Intel NUC).
The official Kodi phone based remote control also works very well.
You can easily find a SFF PC (Small Form Factor) that is quite low cost and powerful.
The pre-built Kodi "boxes" tend to be low quality / low performance and have a lot of kodi-bloatware.
Kodi is very easy to clean install and with approx 5 Add-ons you can get everything you want/need.
Adding Plex and Foobar 2000 and you have a very useful entertainment system.
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Old 02-11-2018, 03:16 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CETokyo View Post
I used a more $$ Intel NUC for a small Win 10 based Kodi system.
It is powerful and works really well. (there are much better options than the Intel NUC).
The official Kodi phone based remote control also works very well.
You can easily find a SFF PC (Small Form Factor) that is quite low cost and powerful.
The pre-built Kodi "boxes" tend to be low quality / low performance and have a lot of kodi-bloatware.
Kodi is very easy to clean install and with approx 5 Add-ons you can get everything you want/need.
Adding Plex and Foobar 2000 and you have a very useful entertainment system.
Can you recommend a small form factor Android or intel based computer under 300?
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Old 02-12-2018, 03:36 AM   #16
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Can you recommend a small form factor Android or intel based computer under 300?
I posted a reply in the other thread.
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Old 02-12-2018, 03:00 PM   #17
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I used to rock a slim HTPC with a little wireless mouse, a fanless HDMI video card, and leave the machine set to 1080p@24hz.

I'd open whatever video I wanted in Media Player Classic (shared off of my desktop in my office), and if the source video wasn't in 24p, I'd change the HDMI output back to 60hz. It would also bitstream DTS HD-MA, Dolby TrueHD, etc. Not elegant in the slightest but it did the job perfectly. Also had Butter Project on it as well. Great set-up if you didn't want to wow anyone with how slick the integration was.

If the video card can do 4k@60p and 4k@24p, then I would keep using it, but I'm not sure it can handle it. I know it can't do HDR.
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Old 02-12-2018, 03:50 PM   #18
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What a frustrating afternoon at BestBuy.

The Chromecast I got doesn't work with plex, and, the nvidia shield doesnt natrually support browsers. You have to like... sneak one on.

I think I may just buy a 2nd cheap xbox one lol.
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Old 02-13-2018, 09:56 AM   #19
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What a frustrating afternoon at BestBuy.

The Chromecast I got doesn't work with plex, and, the nvidia shield doesnt natrually support browsers. You have to like... sneak one on.

I think I may just buy a 2nd cheap xbox one lol.
Is your TV a smart TV? If so, check and see if it has a Plex app, or supports DLNA -- which can work via Plex server, or requires hitting enable in Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change advanced sharing settings > Choose media streaming options... on the PC with the media you wish to share for a native implementation.

Otherwise yeah, a cheap Xbox One with the Plex app will do what you need, and the browser on it is good, too. We've been using it to look at Realtor.ca on the big screen lately.
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Old 02-13-2018, 12:16 PM   #20
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Why do you need browser support?
When it comes to Android nothing really competes with the shield for an all in one option. I am not a fan of Android Kodi boxes because most are #### and have next to zero updates or support.

I use Apple TVs as our streamers and I’m more then happy but it isn’t a route for everyone especially if you are not in the Apple ecosystem.
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