Newb wants to buy a box ?
#1
I recently bought the http://www.droidsticks.co.uk/shop/ultra-...e-updates/ and am going to be sending it back as it is very pixelated even after buffering playing 4g video , and xbmc constantly crashes. New to all this but don't just want to be wasting money to have to buy something else down the line , whats the best way to go about movie/ tv streaming , android , Linux , windows etc Huh
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#2
A raspberry pi with openelec... Cheap, simple, reliable, you can't go wrong. The GUI is a bit sluggish, but video playback is nice and smooth. To me, that's what counts.
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#3
I wouldn´t recommend to buy a raspberry pi. Even less if you want to be prepared for future verions of XBMC and movie playback!

If you want to be save for the future, I would recommend to buy a NUC and possibly install OpenElec or XBMCbuntu (both are easy to install). A NUC is more expensive, much more expensive than the RPi, but it´s the more powerfull hardware and you can install every system you like...no need to take care of OpenElec, XBMCbuntu, Linux with and XBMC or Windows with XBMC.

For explanation..the differences between XBMCbuntu, Linux with XBMC and OpenElec are:

- XBMCbuntu: Ubuntu with preinstalled XBMC, as flexible as "Linux with XBMC", but XBMC is already installed
- Linux with XBMC: You can take any Linux you want (if you are able to...i would recommend Ubuntu) and install any XBMC you like (even nightlies). Given that you have Linux knowledge
- OpenElec: OpenElec is it´s own distro on which XBMC is also preinstalled, but not that flexible as the others.

So if you don´t want to do some exotic things, I would prefere OpenElec. If you want to be a bit more flexible, then I would recommend XBMCbuntu. If you have Linux knowledge...I suppose, you don´ t need to ask for the version Wink

Windows can be taken, too...if you don´t want to fiddle around with Linux.

Greetings
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#4
The best imo is to put a box together yourself I've put four together for no more than 200 that is with a 1tb hdd 4gigr ram. And it does everything I've thrown at it.

Openelec is good if you just want xbmc but if say you want netflix it may be better to go with xbmcubuntu.
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#5
I'll vote another for the NUC. I have a Pivos XIOS, and it's OK, but I'm always left waiting in the UI, which frustrates me.

I have an i5 NUC, which is a little overkill, but it's been running perfectly. I'm on Win 8.1 currently, but it's on a trial license. As soon as that expires I'll go the Kubuntu route with XBMC. I'm no linux man at all, but I found it really simple to use and understand and most importantly it's a doddle to install XBMC.

BTW - Kubuntu is very similar to Ubuntu (based on same base as I understand), I just find the default UI a little more familiar to my Windows experience.
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#6
You could try the Amazon fire tv. Very small, very fast, way to setup and it supports things like Netflix using it's official app so no launching a web browser.

I've recently installed 4 of these at a client's house with a shared database and they couldn't be happier. Their 3 year old is even using it.
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