[The Fozz]

Hello, I am new here and hope soomeone can give me some advice. I cut the cord long ago and have been using Netflix, Hulu, Etc on Rokus for years. About a week ago I got a NUC I am using for HTPC. I love it when it works but I have had issues every single day. Things such as resolution changing and not showing full screen, System menue missing from home screen, rebooting constantly due to "working loop", Kore remote working then not working, etc, etc. I don't mind ironing out kinks and tinkering so I am not necessarily asking for advice about these things.

Here is my question. I have other people in my house who rely on the Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, Sling, and Amazon subscrptions I am currently paying for and hoping to discontinue. I plan to replace their Rokus with Android boxes, possible just Nexus Players or Fire TVs, not sure yet but leaning towards the Nexus. They do not have the patience or the know how to deal with any of these issues and I don't feel like dealing with the problems they might have. Just wondering if any of these issues are likely to occur with an Android Box. Is my HTPC experience typical?



Thanks in advance for any advice.

[couto27]

The Android box was the reason i return to Kodi..
Netflix and others apps are bonus..

Ive said before the Nvidia shield tick all the boxes in my house.
Bluray/kodi for me
Netflix for my wife
Gaming for kids

[menell]

i have HTPC with AMD +APU and do not have a problem since I build it.

[Roby77]

edit:you have a faulty nuc, with my chromebox never see this problem

[Soulbind]

Hello, I am new here and hope soomeone can give me some advice. I cut the cord long ago and have been using Netflix, Hulu, Etc on Rokus for years. About a week ago I got a NUC I am using for HTPC. I love it when it works but I have had issues every single day. Things such as resolution changing and not showing full screen, System menue missing from home screen, rebooting constantly due to "working loop", Kore remote working then not working, etc, etc. I don't mind ironing out kinks and tinkering so I am not necessarily asking for advice about these things.

Here is my question. I have other people in my house who rely on the Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, Sling, and Amazon subscrptions I am currently paying for and hoping to discontinue. I plan to replace their Rokus with Android boxes, possible just Nexus Players or Fire TVs, not sure yet but leaning towards the Nexus. They do not have the patience or the know how to deal with any of these issues and I don't feel like dealing with the problems they might have. Just wondering if any of these issues are likely to occur with an Android Box. Is my HTPC experience typical?



Thanks in advance for any advice.

What operating system are you running on your NUC?

[The Fozz]

Thanks for the replies.

Windows 10, Kodi 5.2. Nvidia Shield I considered but I spent a fair amount on the NUC with i5 so the boxes for the rest of the house I plan on starting cheap, hoping for < $100 each. I know there are tons of options right around that price.

[Soulbind]

Thanks for the replies.

Windows 10, Kodi 5.2. Nvidia Shield I considered but I spent a fair amount on the NUC with i5 so the boxes for the rest of the house I plan on starting cheap, hoping for < $100 each. I know there are tons of options right around that price.

That`s probably your issue. If you want a set-to-box experience, you need an OS designed for it, not a general purpose OS like Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X etc. This is what you need : http://openelec.tv/

An OS designed to make your x86 hardware an "appliance" , rather than a general purpose PC. Designed specifically for kodi, in a light-weight footprint. This is what most people running Kodi HTPCs use when they want their machine to behave like a minimal fuss set-top box. I should know since i had the same issues with my (now quite old) HTPC, hdmi handshake issues , Kodi loosing focus etc on Windows 7/8 and Ubuntu, switched to OpenELEC and most of my issues are gone, except one, which is not related to the OS, it`s a booting issue from my BIOS ( i think). Aside from that, works as advertised.

[The Fozz]

Thanks, I guess I'll either set up the NUC for dual boot and try openelec or use an older nettop for open elec. I'll search around for set top boxes and try to make a smarter choice than jumping in blind like I did with the NUC. Could have bought 2 Nvidia Shields for what the NUC costs.

[Soulbind]

Yeah, the NUC is too expensive and too powerful for an XBMC machine. Better of buying a cheaper Chromebox than a NUC, more than enough for Kodi usage and much cheaper than a NUC. We have NUCs at work, high-end models running i7s and 16GB of RAM, excellent buggers but overkill for media consumption needs.
You`re best choices for an XBMC machines are

Chromebox (Asus) (running OpenELEC)
Google Nexus Player (Android TV)
NVIDIA Shield (Android TV)
One of the Wetek boxes, these are supported by Open ELEC and also run Android.

Look and read around these 4 boxes and see which one fills your needs. For me , if i were to buy a new machine tomorrow, i`d choose the Nvidia Shield. 4K , 24p playback, HD audio bitstreaming, access to Netflix (whenever they decide to actually open shop here in my country), Spotify, G Play Music

EDIT : Spotify needs to be installed manually, it`s not available via the Store on Android TV, but the normal APK can be sideloaded.

[The Fozz]

Thanks for all of the replies, the Nvidia Shield looks like my next step and maybe a couple cheaper boxes for the other tvs. Should have come here first.

[shabuboy]

Also look at the wetek.

But yes, HTPCs are a thing of the past and no need to spend more than $200 if it is just for media. It all comes down to what your requirements are, from apps needed to type of files, etc. I would recommend you also select a popular device, as there would be more support in case it is needed as well as updates.

After watching this forum for a while, these seem to be really popular, all have their own thread out there.
Wetek, Asrock beebox, Nvidia Shield, Chromebox, Ri2, Zotac BI320, HP Stream Mini

[Kodroid]

I use a Celeron NUC running Ubuntu for a server and a Nexus Player for a client. Both cost me much less than building an HTPC and do more than enough for playback.

[gguerra333]

I use a Sony Vaio laptop (Win 7) as my HTPC and have experienced no issues as mentioned above. I use Kodi almost exclusively except I use a browser for Netflix and Amazon. As for playing back BD's I use Total Media Theater. I know I can use Kodi for that but I prefer it this way. The laptop was a gift BTW so I just bought a good USB sound card (Creative Labs) and run sound to my Yamaha AVR.

[Atreyu]

I really like the mx2 (although it's running an unsupported but brilliantly ported OE version) for the stb-experience. Also wetek (currently looking@CoRe version) is a perfect fit for this. I use the NUC for back-and frontend box in the main room. Without major issues, btw :-)

Choose this setup because i don't want to spend my time making things work anymore. Hasn't let me down.