My current tv is so old that the netlfix app isn’t supported anymore. From an usb stick it can only play h.264 videos so I always have to run them through hand brake first. That is why I want to buy an streaming box. Preferably under 50€
Alternatively if someone knows about a blu ray player under 100€ which can do all of the above plus play blu ray dvds please recommend me one :)
Pick up a Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 on ebay. Connect an external hard drive through one of the two USB ports and run Kodi as your library manager. That should be all you need. Supports HDR, 4k, upscaling.
If you go that route, run a launcher for a more streamlined home screen. I’m running Projectivy Launcher because it was easy to install and does what I need it to, but there are other options out there.
Why is a 5 year old device still the best bet? It’s frustrating that nothing better exists on the market.
The Android market sort of split into cheap streaming sticks vs more expensive but niche boxes (like the Zidoo or Dune players). The former are meant for streaming but lack power. The latter are more capable players but often can’t stream from legit services due to DRM.
The Shield sits in this weird middle ground where it’s actually good for a variety of use cases….but unlikely to get an update due to small market demand.
Although I’d argue that unless you need atmos audio passthrough for Bluray rips…the AppleTV 4K is the best option these days. Super fast processor, no ads or bullshit in the OS, reliable frame rate matching, good track record of software updates and vendor support, and apps like Infuse which is a superb Plex and Jellyfin client. It’ll do 4K REMUX playback with lossless 7.1 audio, and the UI never lags…ever. Just a shame about no audio passthrough which prevents it from being an enthusiast player.
Hey hey, check your facts, the Shield did get an update recently. They did in fact add ads to the home screen./s But I assume you mean a hardware upgrade.
But on a serious note I don’t see a reason why I need anything else than the Shield. It has flaws and bugs but generally plays everything. Combined with my Plex home server the experience is great. Can take the shield anywhere I go and stream content from my home server.
I play everything in 4k blueray remux without any problems (except for a memory leak every few weeks).
Most of what these devices do is fairly light compute-wise. There’s no real need to have the most powerful hardware when all it will really do is add to cost. Are there use cases for more powerful hardware, of course but for most people what we have is good enough. That said, I would love an updated Shield or competitor.
Even my Shield TV Pro 2019 lags a lot when using Kodi (With Umbrella, TMDBHelper and a nice skin with not too many widgets) I can only imagine how thrash it would be to attempt to do that setup with worse hardware.
i’m still running a hardware steam link for our in home streaming (and have another one as backup should it die). the shield and the SL were the best options back then, and everything afterwards kinda sucked
Wait, hardware steam link? Please tell me more. Mine is collecting dust. Can I throw Kodi on it?
At that price point shopping used and local might be the best move. I see these devices come up pretty cheap as people switch to “jailbroken” firesticks, smart tvs, or other smart device ecosystems (ex. Google to Amazon).
If you haven’t seen it already you might want to check out the LTT video on Android boxes. It basically talks about cheap Android boxes containing malicious materials and advising people not to connect them to their home networks.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I’ve owned four different android TV boxes from AliExpress over the years, from different manufacturers, different sellers, and different versions of Android. None of them ever came with malware. I’m a member of the CoreElec community forums where thousands of people own android TV boxes, hundreds of different models and hundreds of different firmware versions, and nobody ever once talked about having malware on their device. That LTT video is ill-informed and out of proportion. Anyway, nobody ever buys the Android TV box to use whatever crappy old version of Android they include, they immediately wipe the partition and install CoreElec on it, with kodi and all the plugins you’d ever want.
I have two of them running CoreElec for my media centres, and one with Armbian OS with HomeAssistant installed, running my home automation. They’re the best bang-for-buck ARM powered Linux hardware you can get, miles better than a raspberry PI.
I do agree it’s out of proportion. Most people are just them to stream content after all not do their taxes and send corporate emails. I mentioned it because the possibility is there for something malicious and some people consider that due to security or privacy concerns.
Anyway, nobody ever buys the Android TV box to use whatever crappy old version of Android they include, they immediately wipe the partition and install CoreElec on it, with kodi and all the plugins you’d ever want.
I feel like the average consumer uses their Android TV boxes the way that they come. This is the first time I’ve even heard of CoreELEC despite using LibreELEC. Thanks for mentioning it. I have doubts every obscure cheap Android box is supported though.
This is the first time I’ve even heard of CoreELEC despite using LibreELEC. Thanks for mentioning it. I have doubts every obscure cheap Android box is supported though.
LibreElec reduced official support for SBCs with Amlogic Cpus (like the Odroid C2, Odroid C4, and Odroid N2) in 2018, that spawned the fork called CoreElec. Then LibreElec removed Amlogic support entirely in 2019 (they wanted to just focus on Raspberry Pi SBCs). That caused a mass exodus of users and most moved to CoreElec. That was around the same time cheap TV boxes started appearing on AliExpress, and a lot of them happened to have Amlogc CPUs like the s905X, s905X2, s905X3, and s922X, these are the same CPUs in Odroid C2 and Odroid C4 and Odroid N2, so CoreElec was able to add support for most of them.
CoreElec remains tied to LibreElec upstream, receiving the same updates.
They have a comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date hardware compatibility list. They don’t support all Chinese TV boxes, but if it has an Amlogic CPU, there’s a high chance it is supported. If you’re unsure, just look at any one of the hundreds of “will this cheap TV box work?” threads on their forum.
I feel like the average consumer uses their Android TV boxes the way that they come.
The average consumer doesn’t buy android TV boxes from AliExpress. They use a Google Chromecast or a NVidia shield, or Amazon Fire TV.
The people who buy these devices from China are those deliberately looking for specific hardware to use for a specific application.
Where do you currently store the video? You could get a cheap Chromecast with Google TV (the one with a remote) and use Jellyfin on your computer to make the video files available over the network.
I store them on my pc but I think my internet connection is too bad for that
It doesn’t depend on your Internet, it all works through your local network.
You don’t need the one with the remote. Jellyfin will cast to google devices from the client.
Can I chime in for another question? What is the cheapest way to watch physical 4K UHD blueray?
If you already have a PC the cheapest way would be to get one of the 4k drives that can be flashed (https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19634)
You can then either rip your blu-rays via MakeMKV directly or play them in VLC/Kodi via libmmbd.
Go Av1, much better support: all recent amazon fire sticks support it, I am am using one and loving it.
Jellyfin ofc
H264 is great, but h265 is basically feels like a dead end. Av1 instead is picking up lots of steam. I am betting on it instead of h265.
Thank you for your comment. This made me reconsider. I already bit on ebay for an nokia stream box 8010. If I loose I might then go with the orbsmart s 87 plus since it has av1 :) Edit:
Nvm 8010 has av1 too. I previously bit on the 8000 which doesn’t but I thankfully lost.
