Trying to make my TV smart

[Strayan_Hades]

Hi,

 

Just been checking out making my old Tv into to a smart one.

 

So far I've found two products that meet my price range. Under $100 AUD

1. Amazon Fire stick.

2. xiaomi mi box

 

The apps I will be constantly using are Moonlight game stream, Netflicks and Plex.

 

I would like to hear your thoughts on this regarding these products or better alternatives in the same price range.

 

Cheers

[Enderman]

Just plug it into your PC...?

[vanished]

Really there's nothing better than just plugging it into a PC.  Nothing else will be as "useful".  Perhaps slightly more convenient, but that's no consolation when they inevitably don't work or lose a feature, etc.

[Ginger_]

Raspberry pi loaded with kodi

[Ryujin2003]

 

I'd go with the Amazon Firestick. They are more powerful than most of their competitors. Definitely better than Roku. I am not familiar with xaiomi, so I cannot compare that for you.

 

3 minutes ago, Ginger_ said:

Raspberry pi loaded with kodi

A Firestick would be cheaper and easier, and if someone wanted Kodi for reasons, firestick is still cheaper and easier.

[Ginger_]

10 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

.

 

A Firestick would be cheaper and easier, and if someone wanted Kodi for reasons, firestick is still cheaper and easier.

Plex doesn't run well at all on a fire stick, or maybe just the one I had. For the smallish price bump a Pi opens up a ton more options too. 

 

But of streaming is all you plan on doing, a fire stick is a good choice too

[Ryujin2003]

1 hour ago, Ginger_ said:

Plex doesn't run well at all on a fire stick, or maybe just the one I had. For the smallish price bump a Pi opens up a ton more options too. 

 

But of streaming is all you plan on doing, a fire stick is a good choice too

Didn't know about the Plex thing. That's good to know.

 

Otherwise, I agree, the Pi has more functionality, but some people don't want a mouse and keyboard at the couch. I'm sure there is a way to hook a remote up to it. But that might be beyond most people.

[Donut417]

On 4/26/2018 at 8:46 PM, Strayan_Bass said:

Hi,

 

Just been checking out making my old Tv into to a smart one.

 

So far I've found two products that meet my price range. Under $100 AUD

1. Amazon Fire stick.

2. xiaomi mi box

 

The apps I will be constantly using are Moonlight game stream, Netflicks and Plex.

 

I would like to hear your thoughts on this regarding these products or better alternatives in the same price range.

 

Cheers

The fire stick is cool, but Amazon and Google are having a fight right now. So there are no Google Apps for Amazon fire sticks. There is a way around to get access to youtube but if your like me and have movies on your Google Account, your not watching them on your fire stick. 

 

23 hours ago, Ginger_ said:

Plex doesn't run well at all on a fire stick, or maybe just the one I had.

There has been a few generations of Fire sticks. You might have had a early one. My sister gave my mom a first gen and installed kodi on it, it ran like shit. I have one of the latest ones stock with no kodi and it runs fine. I even have used Plex on it. 

[Razor Blade]

I have a fire stick and a chromecast. I do use both. Neither is a replacement for the other for sure as they do different things. I do tend to use my chromecast more though because I stream YouTube and Plex mostly. I only use the firestick for Amazon Prime video.

 

I have been contemplating the idea of getting a small PC to use as a media center running Linux. I would just set it up with a Chrome browser and it could pretty much do it all... 

[Guest]

You should get an Apple TV. Best out of all i've tried. 

[Donut417]

I think the question you need to ask yourself is what do you want from your TV? Because each device has its pluses and minuses. Id make a list of services you want to use and find the device that works with those services. 

[skywake]

On 4/27/2018 at 8:46 AM, Strayan_Bass said:

Under $100 AUD. The apps I will be constantly using are Moonlight game stream, Netflicks and Plex.

At around that price point I'd look at getting two devices for those uses. A chromecast will do a good enough job for most of your media stuff and you can get them for ~$50AU. Then for streaming your games I'd go with a Steam Link. If you can find a good deal on both you should be able to get them at ~$100AU in total. Because to be honest those little Android TV boxes are more trouble than they're worth.

 

And the other suggestions in the thread about going for an Apple TV or Raspberry Pi aren't very good IMO. A Raspberry Pi isn't really a good option for streaming games over your network so that's half of your use cases dead. And an Apple TV costs quite a bit more than $100AU. Really if you were happy to spend as much as you would to get an Apple TV I'd recommend getting an XBOne S for about the same.

[Strayan_Hades]

On 4/29/2018 at 7:37 PM, skywake said:

At around that price point I'd look at getting two devices for those uses. A chromecast will do a good enough job for most of your media stuff and you can get them for ~$50AU. Then for streaming your games I'd go with a Steam Link. If you can find a good deal on both you should be able to get them at ~$100AU in total. Because to be honest those little Android TV boxes are more trouble than they're worth.

 

And the other suggestions in the thread about going for an Apple TV or Raspberry Pi aren't very good IMO. A Raspberry Pi isn't really a good option for streaming games over your network so that's half of your use cases dead. And an Apple TV costs quite a bit more than $100AU. Really if you were happy to spend as much as you would to get an Apple TV I'd recommend getting an XBOne S for about the same.

It seems Vodafone Australia has brought in a new contender. 

 

The Vodafone TV box which runs Android TV os whilst including a Ethernet port and a TV tuner with a overall price of $120 AUD.

 

SPECS:

https://sites.google.com/view/droid-tv/pay-tv-provider/vodafone-tv-australia

 

[zbeegniev]

I know it's out of your budget but here's my recipe for a smart TV:

- Logitech Ultimate/Elite remote (must have the Logitech Hub)

- Intel NUC with native Plex media player

- LEDs with light sensor

- Amazon Echo Dot