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You'll get better advice if you tell us what your requirements are (HD Audio passthrough, CEC control from TV/AVR, Live TV, etc) and what your budget is.
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I would like to get something for $200 or under.
First requirement is for it to play my backed up movies off of an external hard drive, but I imagine just about any of them can do that.
Second would be for it to have apps and streaming video such as Netflix, YouTube, etc.
No audio pass-through needed, just standard audio over HDMI. I don't need a any sort of central controlling option either.
I've also looked at the Minix brand.
Thanks
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averylinden is right - you need to be a bit more specific about the features you want.
I notice that the boxes you are linking to are of the "fully loaded" or "custom xbmc add-ons" variety. You should be aware that those add-ons are typically not dependent on the specific hardware they are being run on, and you could add them to XBMC yourself.
Some time spent reading the threads in this forum will allow you to ask a more informed question.
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Yeah, after doing some reading I would definitely probably just buy the player then do any addons myself. I guess at this point I just want to make sure I'm getting a good brand.
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I am not sure that anyone here would say that there is a brand of media player manufacturer that they would describe as "good"! There is a clear pattern for manufacturers to release products making claims about what the product can do, but these claims not being substantiated by users in practise, who then have to wait for firmware/software fixes that sometimes never come. It is often very hit and miss as to whether the specific functionality you may want is actually being delivered. Perhaps some brands are "less bad" than others at delivering a more complete product on first attempt and subsequent fixes for it quickly....
The good news in your case is that your requirements are not very demanding on the hardware side.Hence you really shouldn't need to spend all your $200 budget if you wanted, for exmaple, an android based player.
The Mini-X series of players have been around for a while and at least some of the bugs have been ironed out. You can find videos on youtube of their various models and what the UI looks like.
Another option to consider would be a chromebox. Many here believe that hardware gives the smoothest xbmc experience for least money. I am not sure on the status of streaming apps like Netflix for that option.
You can also consider installing xbmc on an Amazon fire TV. I tried that recently and have been surprised at how well it works.
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I looked into the Amazon Fire TV and it looks like a great option for streaming media and running XBMC but apparently it lacks support for playing media from a external hard drive.
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I had pretty much made of my mind on the Chromebox then saw this! LOL
Thanks!
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Hi,
just got the Amazon fireTV with xbmc , its almost flawless , DD/DTS passthrough 1080p playback , check it out on this site £69 /$99
have fun
