Best streaming box (Now a Blogish post)

[boomhower]

I just called and cancelled my DirecTV. I loved the service but it had just gotten to expensive. What I need is Hulu, Netflix and ability to stream from a NAS. I would really like Amazon compatibly as well but if I have to give up one that would be it. I don't have a desktop I can leave on for plex but I am buying a Synology NAS of some type which my understanding has plex capabilities which is fine as long as I get really good quality and surround sound. (I will be wired to the main TV, wireless to the rest)

edit
ESPN is a must have as well.

 

[Kaido]

Sounds like a Roku would be right up your alley for $99:

https://www.roku.com/products/roku-3

They have the channels you want:

Netflix
Hulu Plus
ESPN
Plex

The Plex server for Synology NAS devices works on Intel, ARM, and PowerPC:

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201373823

Basic setup guide for Plex here:

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200264746-Quick-Start-Step-by-Step

 

[DesiPower]

One more vote for Roku 3... agree with everything Kaido said above.

One thing to keep in mind, Hulu is free only on PCs and LTs, on all other devices its $8 a month iirc

 

[ponyo]

1) $400-500 NUC
2) $169 Asus Chromebox
3) $99 Amazon Fire TV

Number 1 is the best choice but the most expensive. Number 2 is great compromise and will get you 99% of the capability of 1 minus gaming. Number 3 is great cheap option especially for the bedroom.

You're not going to get ESPN other than ESPN3 on any platform without paid cable TV or satellite TV programming. There are ways but it's illegal and can't be discussed here.

 

[boomhower]

Plex will run on the Synology without a PC correct? Looks like I only need one box to get ESPN in the bedroom. The kids have xbox which gets everything the needs. Have a PS3 in the bedroom but no espn. Living room is covered with an appletv and WD live
Edit
Have to look at the chrome box, never seen it before. I already have hulu plus and have espn covered as well.

 

[ponyo]

How are you getting ESPN if you canceled DirectTV? Like I said, WatchESPN app only works if you already have paid cable TV or satellite programming package.

As for the Chromebox, it blows away any Roku or even Amazon Fire TV. But it does require some hacking and install of XBMC. You can check out http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=ASUS_Chromebox

Couple Youtube videos showing Chromebox XBMC performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-M1x8lUyUA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gKnTf_Akaw

 

[boomhower]

How are you getting ESPN if you canceled DirectTV? Like I said, WatchESPN app only works if you already have paid cable TV or satellite programming package.

As for the Chromebox, it blows away any Roku or even Amazon Fire TV. But it does require some hacking and install of XBMC. You can check out http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=ASUS_Chromebox

Couple Youtube videos showing Chromebox XBMC performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-M1x8lUyUA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gKnTf_Akaw

My father in-law has TWC and we use his login. I know it's not what they want but even with my DTV subscription I couldn't get it. If they offer it as a pay web service I'll be first in line to get it. Call it stealing if you want but they don't leave much of an alternative, I'm not getting substandard cable service just for web espn access.

I'll look into the Chromebox. I'm fine with tinkering, both my router and router turned wireless bridge are running DD-WRT. As long as it supports DTS sound it'll be a viable option. I'm working nights tonight so should have plenty of browsing time.

 

[zerocool84]

Roku or Apple TV if you're an Apple person. Those are the best. I'm fine with my Chromecast though as all I really watch is Netflix.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I have an Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku 3.

Of those, by far the Roku 3 is my favorite. I L-O-V-E this thing!

Apple TV and Chromecast are both pretty nice, and the Chromecast just down right amazing for it's price tag. However both really require a phone or tablet to make them shine. Apple TV has stand alone apps and remote, but the apps are pretty terrible on the Apple TV and it's missing some important stuff.

Fire TV. Just disappointing really. It's kinda fine for watching Amazon content, but the other apps are pretty bad.

 

[cronos]

I'm addicted to my FireTV now. There's always something to do with it. If not watching something on Netflix, Prime Video, my own library through XBMC or Plex, then I can play games. And the interface is really fast and smooth, and everything works perfectly. It's just so much fun.

I do have a Roku but it's 1st gen so clearly not a fair comparison. The Chromecast gets minimal use nowadays, because most of the time I want to browse around on the TV instead of browse on my device, decide, and then cast it to the TV.

 

[boomhower]

I'll certainly be keeping an Apple TV in the living room, I love airplay. I'm really liking the idea of XMBC. Since going all Apple I haven't been able to really tinker with anything. As long as it's stable once set-up I'm very interested. Are there any issues with surround sound with it? That's something very very important to me. I'll be looking heavily into Fire TV vs. Chromebox for it.

 

[Eug]

Re: Roku 3. What about DTS?

I currently use a jailbroken Apple TV and two WD TV Live SMP boxes.

 

[squarecut1]

The apps on Fire TV suck big time. YouTube is just awful. Netflix isn't that good either

 

[Eug]

I don't use YouTube on any streaming box or "smart" TV. I'm curious, how many people actually do that? (Honest question.)

 

[stlc8tr]

I have an Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku 3.

Of those, by far the Roku 3 is my favorite. I L-O-V-E this thing!

I'm curious. What's so great about the Roku?

A friend asked me about a Roku but I didn't have an opinion since all I watch are offline videos and the WDTV is fine for that.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I don't use YouTube on any streaming box or "smart" TV. I'm curious, how many people actually do that? (Honest question.)

I use YouTube very often on my Roku 3, most every day.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I'm curious. What's so great about the Roku?

A friend asked me about a Roku but I didn't have an opinion since all I watch are offline videos and the WDTV is fine for that.

First, I think it might be the only device that has Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, YouTube, and Hulu all on the same device. Most of the others seem to be missing at least one of those (Apple TV missing Amazon Prime, FireTV missing HBO Go).

The apps on the Roku 3 seems to be far superior to the Apple TV and Fire TV and seem to be updated more frequently. So I find the Roku 3 much easier to use because the apps have much better UIs.

Roku 3 doesn't have as powerful hardware as the Fire TV. Yet I find my Roku 3 is just as fast as the Fire TV most of the time.

The only good thing I find about my Fire TV is it's good for playing some Android games on the TV. So it can be an Android gaming console in the living room. I was able to plugin my USB Xbox 360 controller and play games quite nicely (and this is where it's more powerful processor shows it muscle). But other than the first day, I haven't really played any games on my Fire TV, I have an Xbox 360 for gaming.

Also the Roku 3 has a ton of channels you can add, far far more than the Apple or Fire TV. Granted a lot of these channels don't have much content. Syfy channel for example seems to just play clips from shows. But there are a lot of other nice ones like Crunchyroll, Revision3, CollegeHumur, Vevo, Plex, Flixster, Cnet, IGN, TechCrunch, Watch ESPN, Asian Crush (Korean TV), Smithsonian Channel... that's just a few of the good ones I've added to my list.

 

[Eug]

So it sounds like Roku is best in the US esp. if you like TV channels. For me I just watch Netflix and videos off my NAS. And I don't live in the US so the US channel support is useless for me anyway.

I'll ask again, what about DTS. My WDTV Live SMP handles DTS fine.

 

[boomhower]

What kills Roku for me is lack of NAS support, unless that is changed. DTS is also a deal breaker for me as well, still looking into an answer for that. I swear I read at some point it wasn't good for surround.

 

[boomhower]

Just watched a youtube video that said the Chromebox does not support DTS, only PCM. So that's out, looked promising too.

 

[stlc8tr]

First, I think it might be the only device that has Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, YouTube, and Hulu all on the same device. Most of the others seem to be missing at least one of those (Apple TV missing Amazon Prime, FireTV missing HBO Go).
...

Awesome. Thanks for the detailed response!

 

[boomhower]

Ok, looks like the Chromebox can pass DTS it just can't decode it itself which is fine. The AVR will decode it. Would a NUC N2820 be any better or about the same? I have an old SSD laying around and RAM can't be to expensive.

 

[ponyo]

Ok, looks like the Chromebox can pass DTS it just can't decode it itself which is fine. The AVR will decode it. Would a NUC N2820 be any better or about the same? I have an old SSD laying around and RAM can't be to expensive.

I'm pretty sure Chromebox can do DTS. Check this thread or ask in there. As for NUC N2820, it's very popular choice for XBMC. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=187433

I decided to go with Chromebox instead of N2820 because the Chromebox has the faster Haswell vs Baytrail in N2820. And Chromebox was cheaper for me. Plus I really like the ChromeOS and I rather have dual boot Chromebox running ChromeOS and OpenELEC than Windows or OpenELEC only.http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2380742

poofyhairguy is the resident hardware XBMC guru. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=94268 If you have question about anything XBMC related, he's your man. I know he really likes the Chromebox as well as cheap XBMC option. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386433

Amazon FireTV is great option too and it's cheap. I would have gotten that except I use XBMC on Android tablets and phones. I know its limitations and comparability problems. And I already have three jailbroken Apple TV2 all running XBMC as well plus two Google Chromecast. I wanted a device with no or very few limitations and the Chromebox is the cheapest and the best option for that.

 

[ponyo]

First, I think it might be the only device that has Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, YouTube, and Hulu all on the same device. Most of the others seem to be missing at least one of those (Apple TV missing Amazon Prime, FireTV missing HBO Go).

The apps on the Roku 3 seems to be far superior to the Apple TV and Fire TV and seem to be updated more frequently. So I find the Roku 3 much easier to use because the apps have much better UIs.

Roku 3 doesn't have as powerful hardware as the Fire TV. Yet I find my Roku 3 is just as fast as the Fire TV most of the time.

The only good thing I find about my Fire TV is it's good for playing some Android games on the TV. So it can be an Android gaming console in the living room. I was able to plugin my USB Xbox 360 controller and play games quite nicely (and this is where it's more powerful processor shows it muscle). But other than the first day, I haven't really played any games on my Fire TV, I have an Xbox 360 for gaming.

Also the Roku 3 has a ton of channels you can add, far far more than the Apple or Fire TV. Granted a lot of these channels don't have much content. Syfy channel for example seems to just play clips from shows. But there are a lot of other nice ones like Crunchyroll, Revision3, CollegeHumur, Vevo, Plex, Flixster, Cnet, IGN, TechCrunch, Watch ESPN, Asian Crush (Korean TV), Smithsonian Channel... that's just a few of the good ones I've added to my list.

If you're not using the FireTV for XBMC, you're really limiting its capability. All those apps are all available on XBMC. Plus whole lot more you won't find on Roku or AppleTV. FireTV has Plex, XBMC, Amazon Prime Streaming, and Android gaming. If my budget was $100, I wouldn't look at anything other than FireTV.

 

[shortylickens]

I like my Roku 2 XS.

Whatever you get, make sure it has Amazon video. Some of them dont.

My Logitech Revue did not because it was an Android device.
My last two "smart" blu-ray players didnt.
I dont think the Wii U has it.