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TV boxes, android tv box, HTPC

crowndroyal

I am wondering about all these companies or people making these boxes that hook up to your TV and internet , and basically lets you watch what ever is loaded on them. 

 

 

I am in Canada and wonder what the best one is to get, I like watching UFC PPV's  and my normal cable TV shows like,

 

the flash 

blindspot

river monsters

the history channel 

the military channel 

 

basically looking for one that has the most things with the best quality and easiest software to use.

 

or would it be better if I built my own HTPC and used that, and what would I use as software.

 

any help in shedding some light on these things is greatly appreciated.

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Build your own!

 

as for software, that easy too! 

 

http://www.kodi.tv with the add-ons from http://www.tvaddons.ag

 

install the app on your normal pc to get to grips with it and then build a pc using the kodibuntu os to save on the cost of windows. It also supports tv tuners with add-ons

 

check http://kodi.wiki for more details

 

Hope this helps!

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I am wondering about all these companies or people making these boxes that hook up to your TV and internet , and basically lets you watch what ever is loaded on them. 

 

 

I am in Canada and wonder what the best one is to get, I like watching UFC PPV's  and my normal cable TV shows like,

 

the flash 

blindspot

river monsters

the history channel 

the military channel 

 

basically looking for one that has the most things with the best quality and easiest software to use.

 

or would it be better if I built my own HTPC and used that, and what would I use as software.

 

any help in shedding some light on these things is greatly appreciated.

It would all depend on your budget and what you would like to do with the HTPC/TV box.

An Android Box is pretty fine and dandy, lets you run all those things, but don't count on it for horsepower (either running games, or heavy-duty videos, or even resolving streams...). I have one with Kodi installed (that's the media centre aplication you install on it to be able to run it as, well, a media centre for all the streaming and library management goodness) and it runs pretty smoothly, although there are some android boxes out there which have some pretty unstable software. Android boxes are a budget-friendly solution if you want streaming and some gaming (Android games, obviously), but count on some tinkering being necessary, depending what your supplier is...

 

I also have Kodi installed on my laptop, which is a 4-years old i5, not that powerful, but you definitely notice the difference towards the Android box. It runs much more smoothly, the videos load much faster (i'm kinda splitting hairs here: about 5 secs on Android and 2 secs on PC...)...

 

Now comes the choice you have to make: you either go for the all-included android box and content yourself with what is given to you, or you build your one PC, spend much more money but at the same time get LOADS more horsepower, which would maybe even allow you to use the PC as a gaming PC (maybe for some old games...)

 

I had no budget to build my own HTPC, having already blown everything on my gaming desktop PC, so I went with the Android box and I'm actually happy. I even play some old emulated games on it, using a Bluetooth controller...

 

Tl;dr: Android is good but if you want horsepower and something more future-proof and versatile, go for the PC if you have the budget.

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