Best products from r/xbmc

Damn, This got a bit long and didn't really scratch the surface. Sorry.

Here's my setup:

Router: Linksys E3000 running dd-wrt firmware

Media Server/Nas: Re-purposed Dell Vostro 200, Celeron 420 1.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram, Win7 Pro, 6TB Storage (2TB+4TB), Shares are served with Windows SMB & haneWIN NFS Server.

House Has 3 TVs: Living Room, Bedroom, and Basement Office

Living Room: XBMC Running on a Foxconn nt-A3700, Win7, 4gb RAM, 500gb HDD. Connected via Wireless N. Bose Cinemate II Sound System (1080p HDMI, S/PDIF Coaxial)

Bedroom: Raspberry Pi running RASPBMC, Connected with Edimax EW-7811un Wireless Adapter. using NFS shares. (1080p HDMI, TV Speakers)

Basement/Home Office: An old self assembled gaming rig re-purposed as a dedicated HTPC. GeForce 9800GTx+, Sony STR-DH520 7.1 Audio System. (1080p HDMI, S/PDIF-TOSLINK)

Other Devices: WDTV Media Player non-XBMC. Would not reliably see windows SMB shares, but NFS worked well. Not in use.

Thoughts: If you're serious. At some point get a dedicated server PC of some sort. It doesn't need to be much in terms of hardware if all you intend to do is serve media files on your LAN. If you plan on converting the files as you serve them (Plex? not necessary with XBMC), then you'll need some processing power behind your server setup. Mine sits in a locked room with our surveillance DVR. No monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Ethernet plugged directly into the router for the full 1000 mbp/s.

The Foxconn nt-A3700 connected in the living room is a great little box. We bought it back in 2012, and I haven't regretted it yet. I guess a contemporary alternative would be the Intel NUC. We use a MCE IR remote to control XBMC. IR reciever connected with a usb dongle.

The best of them is the basement office HTPC. I have a PS3 Remote control connected via bluetooth for XBMC. It works seamlessly between the Sony TV and Sony Reciever. I play video games on it (Steam Big Picture with an Xbox 360 controller), surf the web, browse Reddit. ect I use a Lenovo N5902 when I need it to act like a PC.

The Raspberry Pi: It's not perfect, but I like it. It runs RASPBMC. The interface (Confluence Skin) can be a little laggy at times, but I kind of expected that from a 700mhz processor (I'm currently overclocked to 900 with heatsinks). You'll have to buy the MPEG-2 license for your board if you plan on playing files using that codec. Ours uses a MCE Remote similar to the Living room htpc but the IR reciever is connected to the GPIO Pins. It was a bit of a pain to find a good wireless adapter. I went through 3 different models before I found the Edimax. That seems to be the theme of the Pi. Yeah it works but only with certain peripherals. Mine still struggles with 3gb+ 1080p movies over wireless (Stuttering/Buffering), but it handles 2gb 720p movies with ease. This feels like more of a wifi/usb power limitation of the Pi. Hard-wired it will play those same 1080p files just fine. If you like to tinker then get it. If you don't want to fuss with it then get a bookshelf htpc like the NUC (or Foxconn nt-A3700) But you're looking at apples and oranges between a 35$ media player(100~ with accessories) and a 300$ PC

The media library is housed on two internal hard drives. 2TB and 4TB. I have windows set to email if there are any issues with the disks as I have had to replace the 4TB once in the last 4 years and nearly lost a metric fuck-ton of data. I use four folders as my shares. 'Television' on the root of that 4TB drive because it needs nearly all of it. Movies and Music on the root of the 2TB system drive. They are shared via windows built-in SMB and hanewin NFS Server. The reason I use hanewinNFS over windows SMB is that the Pi seems to perform better using NFS shares over wireless. Could be lower the overhead or just voodoo. Who Knows?
I use theRenamer to rename all media before I add it to the XBMC library. Then I scrape it using Media Companion and have it store the info on the server with the media. The reasoning behind this is that when I need to repair, rebuild, or add another XBMC client (It happens from time to time) It doesn't have to scrape 1000's of episodes and movies from the web. It's all there next to the file for XBMC to find quickly. You're welcome imdb/theTVDB.com

Hope that gives you a general idea.

Hi, fellow Canadian here. I can only give you the opinion on the only Android Box I have experience with: my own.

I bought a Minix Neo X8-H Plus (X8H Plus) Smart TV Box Mini PC and Media Streaming Player from Amazon back in March and I am really really happy with it. I bought one that was capable of playing 4K content and this Christmas I got a 4K TV. I think I'll copy the review I did back in April on Amazon and at the end I'll add a few more comments:

>>"I have had this device for almost a week now so I have tinkered with it a bit and I think I have a pretty good feel for its capabilities.
The only drawbacks I find with this device isn't really device specific, it's more due to the OS. Unrooted Android devices won't let you run samba servers so you can share the content of the attached hard drives with the rest of your network (I don't have any macs btw, I think they are an exception).

>>It's a minor gripe really. It still allows me to transfer files from the hard drives to my other network devices with ES File Explorer.

>>I prefer to use my minix via ethernet connection rather than wifi but some apps assume I am not connected to the internet when no wifi connection is established. A minor inconvenience.

>>Overall this is a HUGE improvement over my last device, a WDTV Live. The Minix Neo X8-H Plus is a beast of a machine, I really really like it and it has been totally worth every penny."

Ok, so since my early review I have rooted it (quite simple really) and I have shared the contents of my connected HDDs to my network. I ditched the minix specific kodi version that came with the device and I installed kodi from google play. I also have played plenty of games with my PS3 wireless controller which is fun. Having Nova Launcher installed makes a big difference, the native UI/UX sucks but you can change it without rooting. For some reason the device is still on Kitkat but I don't really care, it's fine with me.

Any questions you care to ask and I'll be more than happy to answer.

I bought a boxee box for about $40 (shipping included in the price) only problem is you need to buy a usb remote. I would also recommend a USB 3.0 32 GB flash drive. All you have to do is root it and put the xbmc files on the USB flash drive.

Boxee Box on eBay

USB Flash Drive I bought

USB Remote

It comes out to be about $80. YOu can definitely find a cheaper remoe but I strongly recommend this one because it best resembles the boxee remote.

If you choose the boxee here is the rooting guide. It is really easy execute.

Tutorial for Root

XBMC Tutorial I recommend you run it off of the USB if you like the Boxee OS and/or have netflix.

EDIT: Forgot to add that it has been running perfectly smooth for me. And the design of the boxee is a bit different and I like the way it sits on the tv stand.

I tried a couple of alternatives - like this Rii tiny keyboard but it sucked.

The hand held remote that came with my mini PC was IR and required line of sight.

The best remote to get around that is one of the remote apps you can download on your smart phone. Those work off your wifi and don't require line of sight.

Overall, the 400 is still my preferred choice - it's very responsive and despite its larger size compared to a hand held, having a good keyboard for searches is great. The mousepad is very responsive.

You want DVI to HDMI, you can get an adapter or just a straight DVI/HDMI cable.

For audio the audio jacks are both combined digital optical and phono. For digital audio you need a Toslink to 3.5mm adapter or cable (and obviously a digital optical input on your sound system). If you have a digital optical cable around just get an adapter for super cheap. If you don't have digital audio you can just get a headphone to RCA adapter or cable for stereo.

A more optimized distribution for Kodi than just running it on Mac OS might be nice, but I don't think it would be critical, it's not horrifically slow, but you'll have to test and see. Easiest thing to do since you got it for free is just make a new user (so you've got a good clean user account without years of someone else crap in the way) and try running Kodi from there, if it's good then you can clear out the old account or whatever at your leisure. If it's not up to snuff then consider installing openelec or something along those lines.

I am extremely happy with my Intel NUC, I think I paid close to $350 for the 4GB stick and the 32GB SSD, I like that it has gigabit, dual HMDI outputs and 3 USB ports. They have USB 3.0 Variants, my exact one is here.
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Computing-Gigabit-i3-3217U-DC3217IYE/dp/B0093LINVK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1396551721&sr=8-5&keywords=intel+nuc

I have OpenELEC (intel build) on it and it screams. I love the size, the low power usage and essentially noiseless operation. If you need a wireless card, they have cheap N ones for about $20-25 that are easy to install and they already have the antennae wired throughout the shell. I use the logitech solar keyboard to control it, nice and thin and dont have to worry about batteries or wires.

I am using a Synology NAS with 4x4TB drives with NFS for media access. Its also nice because it can run their video station software which can be downloaded on a Roku and iPad/iPhone (not sure about android). Nice for me because I have multiple TV's but dont necessarily want a HTPC at everyone of them.

I used a raspberry pi for a little and it was just too slow, I used a mac mini but that seemed like overkill considering the cost of the hardware. I am ultimately extremely happy with the NUC and likely could have built an even cheaper one but was hoping to have internals that would last a while.

I use a URC-WR7 (http://www.universalremote.com/product_details.php?id=63&s=diy&c=remotes&p=URC-WR7), basically a very nice programmable IR remote. It's a bit bulky, but very versatile.

I also have a Logitech K400 keyboard, but it's a bit annoying. My PC is a bit further and in a cabinet, so the keyboard has issues connecting.

I recently got an air mouse (MX3/generic, http://www.amazon.com/Aerb-Multifunction-Wireless-Keyboard-3-Gsensor/dp/B00K768DHY). I like it the most so far; the keys are very clicky, it's a very good size, it has a few programmable R buttons, it has a keyboard, the air mouse is very good. The only thing I don't like is that you switch from remote-mode to air-mouse-mode, and the switching button doesn't "take" unless you hold it down for a few seconds to lock it in. This is my favorite so far. Highly recommended, and very cheap to boot.

Oh yeah, I also have a Rii. It hasn't been very reliable for me, although when it works it's good. It's cumbersome as a "remote" though.

I just got this yesterday to pair with my fireTV. Not bluetooth, but IR (with learning) and wireless keyboard/air mouse (via tiny usb dongle). I haven't really had a chance to use it much, but it seems to work decently. I'm having issues with some buttons not doing anything (home, FF, rev) but I think I can remap them via a file on the Android system.

However, I also have a flirc for my main HTPC (custom-built Windows rig) and that's been awesome, since I can use my universal remote to control the PC as well, making it a true all-in-one. If you need to map a keyboard combination, you can do that, and with a program like Auto Hotkey or the linux equivalent you can create custom macros to do basically anything you need.

I installed the Netflix Windows 8 application and XBMC.

I then installed OblyTile and created a custom large button at the Start menu/tile interface for XBMC (needed to customize the tile with the XBMC logo, but wasn't tough). I also added the Netflix tile right next to it, large as well.

I installed Chrome (browser of choice) and created two smaller tiles that were links to bookmarks in Chrome, YouTube and Google Music.

Change the background of the Start/tile interface to something dark with a little bit of a pattern. Looks very clean and crisp.

I use a Logitech K400 right now. I have a Logitech 650 and Flirc I want to finish setting up, but I haven't had the chance to tinker with that aspect yet.

Overall, Windows 8.1 and XBMC + Netflix works really well. The Netflix app is stellar and XBMC keeping XBMC full screen (hitting "\") and just hitting the Windows button to get out of it/go to Netflix is very smooth and user friendly. I prefer it over the Apple TV and my Ouya by far.

And I built it with the very affordable Intel NUC DN2820FYK, which accepts 2.5" HDs.

I bought it and returned it. The air mouse function turns off every time you press a button. Fine if you only use xbmc but I wanted to browse the internet with it. I ended up getting this one and it works great: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K768DHY

Takes some time to set up but once it's working it's good. I have the number keys set to shortcuts like full screen/tab.

The Logitech k400 is still my go-to. I use the remote if I feel lazy and want to use one hand.

I use yatse when I stream media to my tablet and when I have my tablet in my hand already.
For guests and pstvl I use This


It controls my android device running xbmc, my lg sound bar for volume, and turns my vizio tv on and off. Has a few quirks but I love it. And it looks and acts like a typical remote so conversion to a htpc has been easier.

Well I'm on the same boat on you, but ASUS just released this pretty awesome device, I'd recommend waiting it out and seeing if it's possible to run Openelec on it.

I used to love my MCE remotes, but nowThe Sony RMVLZ620 mixed with a Flirc is the best solution i've found. The Sony has IR learning and macros, while the flirc lets you easily program all the buttons to any keyboard shortcut imaginable.

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-RMVLZ620-Universal-Remote-Control/dp/B00385XUG0

Intel NUC with 64GB SSD and 16GB RAM mounted to the back of the VESA hole of my TV, running XBMC by default, this ubuntu machine also couples as my steambox.

I run a FreeNAS 4TB ( ZFS ) array on the backend, I have a dedicated sabnzbd, sickbeard, couchpotato, subsonic server hosted on an i7 mac mini running Linux + KVM hypervisor. Each host has their respective mounts on the NAS mounted locally VIA NFS, everything is thrown in a 'download' directory before its picked up by post-processing scripts in order to organize the library and I only keep 1 copy.

Oh, and this Keyboard // Mouse Combo ROCKS

The coolest thing about my setups is the Reverse Proxy in my DMZ, I'm able to serve up my Sickbeard, CouchPotato, Subsonic and Sab web interfaces to the internet so I can access them anywhere with a pretty tight level of security.

Does anyone else use CouchPotato's IMDB automatic RSS scanning // download feature? That's cool too.

Both of those are horrible deals. They're not bad boxes, but you can get MUCH better hardware for $150 USD.

Get an Intel NUC and add some RAM and a USB boot drive: http://amzn.com/B00HVKLSVC

That will be the best bang for your buck.

For cheaper, I would recommend ODROID-U3 or an OUYA.

So I thought it over and it dawned one me that I could just get a wireless keyboard and mouse. I guess I could have spent less and got the remote but I figured if my keyboard or mouse ever craps out for some reason I can use the wireless ones. I also chose this because I am impatient and and if it doesn't work for some reason I can bring it back to the store and not have to deal with the hassle of shipping. I looked around at a few places and I came across this. It was on sale for $29.99. I liked that I could have a decent sized keyboard and it had the mouse option all in one. It works quite well. I do want to thank you though for giving me the idea!

I've been quite happy with the FAVI Entertainment Smartstick. It's a remote control sized keyboard and touchpad mouse. It's RF so line of sight is not an issue. It works with most devices that support an external USB keyboard/mouse.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0090BTY8Y/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7I8HZ4/

throw 2gb ram in that, buy a power cord, msata ssd or USB flash drive, and an IR USB device (like FLIRC) and you've got a pretty nice setup for under $250. I recommend installing OpenELEC, which is basically XBMC wrapped up in a barebones linux distro.

Agreed, absolutely love mine.

You may also consider looking at the Chromebox -

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX-M004U-ASUS-Desktop/dp/B00IT1WJZQ

A little bit more processing power, less money for an out the door setup. I don't have personal experience with them, but wiping the stock system and installing XBMC seems to be pretty trivial -

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=ASUS_Chromebox

This is the HTPC build that I put together about 6 months ago which comes in pretty close to the $300 mark at current prices; though I'm confident some of these were on sale when I bought. I have all my media on a separate unraid box which streams to this one.

• M350 Case $43
  
• Celeron G1610 $41
  
• ECS H61H2-TI Thin ITX $75
  
• CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 $46
  
• MyDigitalSSD 60GB MSATA SSD $60
  
  = $265
  
  These are items that I already had but it's only fair to account for them too
  
  
• laptop power supply $8
  
• Logitech k400 keyboard/mouse $24
  
• Media Center remote < $20

I bought this remote/dongle combo several years ago. I got it because it was the cheapest I could find, but it works surprisingly well. It works well enough that I don't see why anyone would buy the more expensive remotes. You can even control your mouse with it.

I've used openelec and XBIAN. So far XBIAN has been the best for me. I bought this remote some time ago when it was a bit cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0090BTY8Y/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I think you might be able to find something better.

I've got both. FireTV ran XBMC really well out of the box and it still does. I got the Nexus Player a couple weeks ago and it's currently running version 13.2. It navigates the menus just as well as the FireTV, but playback of media is where I have issues.

I get random crashes to the home screen during playback regardless of file type. My enterprise grade wireless N AP is one foot away from the Nexus Player and higher bit rate 1080p media stuttered constantly. So I bought a usb to ethernet adapter, which now works much better.

I plan on upgrading to the 14.2 beta on both devices when I get the time which some people are saying fix some of the playback issues for the Nexus, but right now, just for XBMC, I'd recommend the FireTV.

Logitech K400, very handy compact keyboard with touchpad.

I think there is a newer version of this though - I recommended this to a friend and when I saw it I noticed the F# keys are switched:

Instead of mine, which has F1-F12 normal and you have to hold [Fn]+[F#] to access the media features, the newer versions have the F1-F12 keys as the[Fn] alternative and the top row is by default the media keys.

This is very handy since the kids keep hitting wrong buttons, and I can't remember what it is but I think it's F8 and XBMC gets muted, and there is another button that toggles fullscreen and that keeps getting hit after I get it back to fullscreen.

On the newer version you don't have to worry about that because you would have to hit [Fn]+[F8] to actually get F8. So it's a perfect HTPC keyboard now if you buy one.

Yes, exactly that. Just about everything renders as expected and looks great on the big tv screen. Getting around in some apps can be kind of a pain with just the remote, though. I got a Logitech K400 to remedy that and can run pretty much anything I sideload.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Built-In-Multi-Touch/dp/B005DKZTMG

A very quick search I found this. I'm sure you could find a better deal if you took a little more time.

DN2820FYKH runs XBMC (I've been using XBMCBuntu on this one) just fine. This is the celeron NUC. I put 8gb of ram in it and a standard sata hard drive. No built in Bluetooth on this one though, so I use a little USB Bluetooth dongle and a replacement Amazon FireTV remote. Works awesome.

Logitech k400 us what I use its awesome it has a touch mouse and keyboard and its a nice size mini

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005DKZTMG?cache=31091e2d8cf8f4b61df481f545f8ea00&pi=SX200_QL40&qid=1409911189&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

Also the remote on gbox mx2 works flawless on xbmc Linux. I'm no pro at all this but I hope this help s

I prefer the Asus Chromebox. It is 69$ more than the Amazon Fire TV but it has much better specs:


-Intel Haswell architecture instead of ARM CPU (good difference in term of performance)

-16 GB SSD internal storage instead of 8 GB

-Ethernet 10/100/1000 instead of 10/100

-Intel HD 4000 instead of Qualcomm Adreno 320

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX-M004U-ASUS-Desktop/dp/B00IT1WJZQ

Well I have the cinema experience addon, and would need something that could handle all that as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-DN2820FYKH-Celeron-N2820-support/dp/B00HVKLSVC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412438368&sr=8-1&keywords=intel+nuc+celeron

That's the one?

You wish you had a remote for your computer? Why not just get a remote and IR receiver?

$7 USB IR Remote on Amazon

Can you find one in stock at that price? Amazon has them sold out for a month an half and any other vendor has them jacked up the price.

Also, there are more than one older model that doesn't come with ethernet, the next two cheapest don't. After that you're looking at over $250 for just the NUC not including ram etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Next-Computing-Black-BOXDCCP847DYE/dp/B00B7I8HZ4/ref=pd_sim_sbs_pc_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1NVP58ED253BMYQ45ASD

and

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Next-Computing-Thunderbolt-i3-3217UDC3217BY/dp/B0093LINT2/ref=pd_sim_sbs_pc_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1NVP58ED253BMYQ45ASD

Let me be the first to suggest an intel nuc celeron running openelec. That guy is rock solid, works with the xbox 360 remote out of the box, and was partly developed with XBMC in mind. It's my main non-gaming box. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVKLSVC/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_7vI0tb0M0Q5N0

Android TV Box with its rudimentary remote:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JDCO22I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Remotes:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B9996LA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UE52ME/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have this one. Only suggestion I can give you is get a wireless keyboard Http://www.amazon.com/MINIX-Streaming-Processor-Airmouse-included/dp/B00Q4NEUS0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1422153049&sr=8-2&keywords=minix&pebp=1422153077229&peasin=B00Q4NEUS0