directv started offering NFL sunday ticket packages for people without direct, like where you can watch on your pc or tablet. then i could just stream it from my nexus 7 to my tv.
hopefully Roku can do it, if not 35 bucks for chromecast is justifiable.
You can only get Sunday Ticket streaming only if you can't get DirecTV. You need to live in an apartment complex where you can't have a dish, in an area without the needed line of site, etc. You can't just call and get it. Believe me I wish they did.
when i get home i'll write the app i use, can't remember the name of it now, but i stream video from my pc seamlessly with this program and the Roku 3. HD video and it's fast and super smooth.
i need to find out if there is an app that can take content live-streaming on my pc or tablet and push it to my tv. if i can't i'll get a chromecast. directv started offering NFL sunday ticket packages for people without direct, like where you can watch on your pc or tablet. then i could just stream it from my nexus 7 to my tv.
hopefully Roku can do it, if not 35 bucks for chromecast is justifiable.
When I say everything it may be a bit of an exaggeration but certainly most it will be. What are the issues with the Fire and XBMC? I'm considering getting 1-3 of them for the bedrooms if they run it OK. Willing to spend more for the main unit in the living room. It seems like a good one box for close to everything for secondary usage.
10 Known issues
VC-1 and MPEG2 are not hardware decoded in XBMC on the Fire TV.
The fast forward and rewind buttons on the Fire TV remote must be manually configured (see Alternative keymaps for Fire TV remote).
A static click or pop may be heard when opening a Dolby Digital file in Gotham. One workaround is to turn off NAVIGATION SOUNDS (Settings > Appearance > Skin) and KEEP AUDIO DEVICE ALIVE (Settings > System > Audio Output). NOTE: This may cause playback issues with DTS-HD or TrueHD files.
After perusing the darn near 300 page at xbmc there seems to be a lot of issues with HD playback on the Fire. With the hardware decoding problem with the Chromebox it seems the NUC is the best choice. I know there's bound to be a negative to it so what's bad about it other than a better one is coming out shortly? I'd love the new one but it seems when they will actually showing up on the shelves is a mystery.
Settled on a Synology DS214 for the NAS so that's settled.
I'll pick up the HP IR if I go Chromebox
I wouldn't, I'd use the xbox one. I've realized that one box isn't going to work. Pretty much it's looking like the NUC/Chromebox for NAS related material plus various community sources and the xbox/Apple TV for Netflix/Hulu/Amazon. Not ideal but until that magic box comes along it's what I've got to work with.
You can shut off the hardware encoding so it takes care of everything at the CPU level and the box handles it just fine but CPU usage goes from 10-15% to almost 80% depending on the source material. As a result, the box consumes more electricity, runs warmer and the fan may become more audible, although I haven't noticed mine at all.
My videos are going to be encoded to mpeg4 for xbox compatibly, not sure the details of the exact encoding. I just use handbrake, select the xbox and hit go. Will this type be an issue?
When I say everything it may be a bit of an exaggeration but certainly most it will be. What are the issues with the Fire and XBMC? I'm considering getting 1-3 of them for the bedrooms if they run it OK. Willing to spend more for the main unit in the living room. It seems like a good one box for close to everything for secondary usage.
With the hardware decoding problem with the Chromebox it seems the NUC is the best choice.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Yup. Closest thing to shoving it together is a Roku plus Plex.
Honestly in my opinion that is why a Chromebox is better than ANY ARM XBMC box- nothing beats the compatibility of x86 CPU decoding for video.
There is a step you won't have to do anymore!!
Issues with Fire TV compared to say a Chromebox:
1. Not enough power to decode every possible 1080p file.
2. Not compatible with all the many streaming plugins
3. Doesn't have ability to use best XBMC skins at 60fps
4. Remote is non-harmonizable
The issue that the Chromebox has will affect almost every NUC since they all use Intel GPUs. The issue isn't really anything in hardware, its a combination of the fact that Intel's drivers are kinda crap and a lot of the linux media center stuff is first developed for Nvidia (Nvidia for Linux is what iOS is for mobile).
If you want THE BEST bar none experience for your main system you are doing what I did for my two main systems- a Micro ITX Haswell i3 build with a Nvidia GPU. Then you get enough CPU power to decode ANY file or run ANY skin, and NVidia's VDPAU will give you the best decoding, color correction, post-processing, and de-interlacing possible. If you want all that I can link you some parts, get ready to spend $250+.
But to be honest I wouldn't ask me, even I think my Nvidia boxes are overkill for anyone that isn't a nutcase about this like me. My Chromebox systems give 99% of the experience my Nvidia ones do.
Simply put, a Chromebox has enough CPU to play almost any 1080p file, run every plugin and run every skin. That is pretty much everything you need in a XBMC appliance.
Ok, Chromebox it is. Done. Finished. Decision made.
Now what do I need to get live TV on it. Obviously an HD antenna but I'm sure I need something to go between. I'm not talking cable card, just over the air stuff. If it's to involved or to immature not a big deal, I'll just run it into my receiver and call it a day. We only get five or six channels.
You made the right choice. Like I said, I don't hear the fan kick on my Chromebox if it even does at all and using the software decoding doesn't actually affect performance. I thought about an NUC for awhile, but by the time I bought the NUC and paid for memory, an HDD and the FLIRC (remote control receiver), it was more expensive for no difference in the experience with XBMC (I boot directly into XBMC via OpenELEC). The SSD that comes with it is small, but fast. Boots in about 3-5 seconds and runs all skins smoothly. It absolutely runs away from my old WDTV Live Hub when it comes to HD playback.
Ok, Chromebox it is. Done. Finished. Decision made.
Now what do I need to get live TV on it. Obviously an HD antenna but I'm sure I need something to go between. I'm not talking cable card, just over the air stuff. If it's to involved or to immature not a big deal, I'll just run it into my receiver and call it a day. We only get five or six channels.
I use HD Homerun Dual tuner connected to HD antenna and plugged into my network. But I use it mainly for my Yoga 13 laptop with Windows 8, HP Chromebook 14, and all my Android tablets and phones like the HP Touchpad and the Nexus 7 all running XBMC. On my desktops with Window 7, I use WMC to watch live TV instead of XBMC.
I don't use it on my TV because all my TVs are connected to HD antenna up in the attic. I get over 70 channels. I don't need to complicate it or stream it since all my TVs are connected to the antenna. But on my mobile devices, XBMC and HD Homerun Dual works great and I can watch live TV on the HP Touchpad while my wife is watching something else on the living room TV. She likes me to sit with her while she watches TV. Sometimes I don't care for what she's watching so I watch what I want on the tablet or laptop while sitting next to her.
I'll just run the antenna to my receiver, I only need it on my main TV. Here's my order, anything I'm missing. I'l move the WD Live Hub to my daughters room as the xbox is just to loud. My son will use his PS3 and we'll use the PS3 in our bedroom. Will also have the Apple TV and Xbox One in the living room to go along with the Chromebox. It will all be paid for in about six months of not having satellite. Again a Harmony Smart Hub will be used to control everything. Any need to for a keyboard, I'm really hoping not. The WAF would not be high on that one.
I'm hoping Google or another online streamer buys the next round of Sunday Ticket for next year and gets it away from DirecTV.
Say 20 channels from 7 stations. But needs a large preamp antenna to get Fox which is the most needed one. I could mount it in the attic but I dread running more wires through the walls. After setting up my cameras I swore I'd never do it again.
I don't use YouTube on any streaming box or "smart" TV. I'm curious, how many people actually do that? (Honest question.)
That looks fine to me. But that Amazon indoor antenna probably won't work that great unless you get strong OTA signal. Amped antenna works so much better than non-amp. But it might not matter if you can only pickup 5-6 channels. Have you checked http://antennaweb.org/default.aspx to see how many OTA channels you can actually pickup in your area and the type of antenna you would need? I have $50 RCA indoor/outdoor antenna up in my attic that picks up everything. The antenna is hooked up to the cables left after disconnecting the Dish Network satellite. That saved me the trouble of having to rerun wires to all my TVs. Once you cancel the DirectTV, you can simply use reuse the wires that connected DirectTV to all your TVs.
I haven't used it a ton, but it is useful for music videos (my daughter loves those) and some documentaries that aren't available on Netflix/Amazon. There are a lot of BBC programs on YouTube.