Can EF's awesome techies enlighten me?
I just discovered the existence of these gadgets today. I'm getting tired of using pirate bay proxies that give me stupid messages from "Microsoft" that my computer will be closed down if I do not ring this number, bla,bla... every time I use them. Seems like a Kodi box is a good way of not having to bother with this any more, but I'm still vague about the details. They do lots of other stuff too...
It's a mini PC running on Android, Kodi is software allowing it to stream whatever legal and illegal streaming services offer. Once set up proper it's more convenient than torrenting.
And since it's an Android box you can install other app's on it if you wish and for example play games on the telly (not high-end since the specs are very limited), and use it as a mediacenter in your household.
As for torrenting, try to get into proper private trackers and in general torrents are downloading much faster, content descriptions are more reliable, and the add's are less irritating (if even existing)
The NVIDIA Shield is the best set top box in my opinion, hands down. Every code under the sun with hardware acceleration, Kodi uses shield as a dev platform so it works perfectly, mounting USB or network shares are built into the os (as well as Kodi), 4K 60fps, HDR support, nothing missing from the box.
It's in my opinion the best if you want 4K and choice of games, if that's of no interest every cheap 20,- box will be good enough.
For peanuts you can get a raspberry Pi and install OSMC (an OS with Kodi preinstalled) .. connect to router (wouldn't recommend wifi).. connect to TV...bob's your uncle (mine even works off my Sony TV remote)...
it's a bit slow in the menus but once the video starts streaming it is perfect and if you don't like it there's loads of other things to do with the Pi
We have a little Android box with Kodi and several addons installed. Never use Kodi as we alsonhave Acestream, Showbox, Popcorn Time, Plex and others installed which are all better options. The device itself cost 29 bucks delivered from AliBaba.
Thanks! That's useful. I only know Popcorn time of the programs that you mentioned. Will now rush off and check them out. I'm happy if I can avoid having to master (cough) another dongle with loads of buttons.
You are quite wrong. You should let people inform themselves so they can do whatever with their money .
A Kodi box is not necessarily running on Android.
Kodi is an open source media center, absolutely unrelated to illegal streaming.
It's a sort of entertainment center where you can see your pictures, videos, audio, etc...
So let's back it up a little, you most likely heard about "kodi box", or fully loaded kodi box, from the UK news. It was small device(s), like running on "mini computers" , most likely using ARM CPU.
They were pre-loaded with a suitable OS, kodi, and a set of extensions which are referencing plenty of links to streaming video.
So it was convenience for selling and preparing, as it was possible to actually pre-install them, "fully load" (installed lot of extensions) and the end user only had to use them to access lot of contents. Of course, they had extensions offering links to protected contents like football games, which is why they attracted the attention of the majors who triggered the law enforcement operations.
Now, for you, you can benefit from "kodi" + any type of extensions, even on your mobile device, tablet, computer, etc... The only "convenience" in using a "box" (or a mini computer like the raspberry pi), is that you can isolate it, connect it to your screen, and leave it on often, due to low power consumption. A reminder again, kodi is legal, and could, for exemple, let you access your pictures stored somewhere in your network (micro SD, NAS, etc...) and display them nicely, on demand.
If it is using a cheap mini computer like "raspberry pi 3", it comes with limitations: stream to content requiring specific decoding or high processing, like most H265 content, you will be limited by the hardware and codecs installed. If you are after streaming contents up to 1080p, then that HW is suitable enough.
So, a perfectly legal scenario>
1 Raspberry pi 3: 35CHF
1 power supply providing 3A: 5chf from Chinese websites
1 decent micro SD, 16GB/32GB: 10chf
1 "case" for your Pi3: 3CHF (chinese website)
1 HDMI cable: 2.50chf (Chinese website)
Low power consumption, using wifi to access internet. It outputs on your screen using HDMI. You install an dedicated OS for Kodi, like librelec, (it comes with KODI preinstalled).
You install a kodi remote on your smartphone as a remote control.
For the content, either you have your own, or you can choose among thousands of legal extensions for kodi, like "youtube", and numerous other.
All perfectly legal. Where you will digress, will be if you install third party unofficial extensions, outside of Kodi repository, which could or could not give you access to numerous streams of dubious origins.
Knowing that the above option, allow you to simply use the Raspberry pi 3 excellent hardware for anything else, if you use another microSD and when not using it for Kodi, of course.
But as, I said earlier, nothing prevents you to get the very same kodi, on windows, for example https://kodi.tv/download . Your HW will be more powerful, but you will need to have HDMI to your screen, it uses more power, it implies your computer to be on when using kodi.
Well, I'd better stop here, free consulting is never any fun
Have fun! Plex is actually a fork from XBMC which later morphed into KODI so there isn't too much to see there if you are familiar with either of the latter. Our 'box' has IR and works happily with the Harmony remotes we have. The kids use a Shield which has mostly the same functionality for 10x the price.
I use to run kodi on Nvidia Shield, it's a powerful device and all work well except remote (it lags alot) but if you won't playing games you should go with some cheaper box or raspberry pi if you don't mind to play a bit. Last two years I run kodi on my Sony android tv like any app on any android phone, using my sony remote for tv and all work perfect. Boxes you can buy already preinstalled with kodi and addons, but I'll rather go with empty one and then install only what you need (e.g exodus, 1channel... for movies, radio, music or any other addon that you want-youtube this) Hope you'll have fun, I know I do
controlling a kodi box though the TV remote control (HDMI CEC) is a nice convenience, but they are slow.
a wifi remote control, or a control direct to the box is typically much more responsive.
Good morning, first post in main forum(feel like im making speech in packed meeting room)
Anyway, I played with all the Android, Kodi and streaming type boxes when first here over two years ago. If you like to play and experiment some good results can indeed be obtained IMHO. However I got fed up with coming home and no instant TV etc so I looked at alternatives.The best I found was this set up:
Mag 254 box from Amazon, then I pay a small amount each year about 125.00 (Swiss CHF) PA to a chap in the UK via Paypal.
With this i get all the UK, French; German; USA etc TV stations along with catch up TV on many of the channels. Also get some Film and TV box sets etc. If its purely for films then I would totally just go with an Android or similar Kodi installed boy then put a good add on in place and off you go.
Im not affiliated with any of these people but If anyone needs any help let me know, or you tube Kodi installs its very simple to do
I set up Kodi this year and I looked at similar options. As I was short of time to take the Raspberry pi route (delivery from China take a few weeks), I bought a htpc like this one from ricardo for about CHF 60.
At first I tried to install openelec, but its installer did not want to work. So I shifted to libreelec and was a breeze to install. Everything worked like a charm out of box and I could update it just using the remote.
Recently, I installed another distribution of linux and then Kodi on it to have a pc in the living room just in case something does not stream via kodi.
you need to be careful with kodi android box's now, kodi have stopped supporting older versions of android, and most of these no make fully loaded kodi box's are on old versions, so you'll find your add-ons no longer work (like movie scrappers, sky f1 etc ) and its a bit of a pita, and you don't know what your actually installing, with some of the 'ports' of kodi to run on old versions.
Check out the kodi site to see what they support, and buy accordingly
Thanks to CorsebouTheReturn's fine post, I'm busy installing Kodi on one of our PC's, which already has Netflix on it. Since we don't watch much TV, shuttling it back and forth into the TV room isn't much of a bother. So no need for a Kodi box. I must admit that I haven't actually got to watch anything with it yet... Wish me luck .
Had a kodi dedicated box for a while. Way to limited in what i needed it for so eventually switched to an Amazon Fire TV. Amazing little device, cheap, has everything I need and apparently you can also side-load kodi on it. For EUR80 its the best bang for your buck