SNACR Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Had a look at various reviews all a bit conflcting. Veering towards Chromecast. Anyone got any thoughts on the best? Could see me mainly wanting cast youtube videos and a bit of online telly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StainlessSteelCat Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Amazon fire stick. Especially, if you are considering exploring some of the alternatives that KODI offers (not all dodge btw). It has all of the major TV apps too. There are cheaper/more powerful Chinese android boxes - but variable in their support/reliabilty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeDavola Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 I've got a Chromecast first gen that has been great, but I also picked up an Amazon fire TV box when it was on offer - the hardware you were getting for the money was incredible and I'm able to run all sorts of stuff on it - e.g. old games emulators and stuff - runs Goldeneye N64 beautifully! So if you had once choice I'd snap up the Fire TV box as you'll be able to do all sorts with it in the future. If you're in no rush wait a few weeks and Amazon are bound to knock the price of the Fire TV box down for a few days in the march to Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Stop watching TV. It makes your brain small! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 4 minutes ago, hotairmail said: Another vote for Chromecast - but only from ignorance of Fire. Basically, whatever you access on your phone/tablet you can beam to your telly. Youtube, iplayer, spotify etc etc They are so cheap and you usually have multiple slots so I would be tempted to have both. I got a couple on Black Friday November 2014 for £18 each. Yes, I'm mainly wanting to just displace whatever video is playing on my laptop to the telly so I can carry on opening another dozen tangentially related browser tabs on my laptop. I'm not too keen on the online streaming services as I can't be bothered with the faff of subscribing to half a dozen that each have one show I watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Most newish tellies have a screen mirroring option, if you have an Android device. I've got the Roku stick, Amazon fire stick and the Chromecast....they all do slightly different things. The Roku stick has the most apps on it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 I haven't got an Android phone or tablet. Is it worth getting one to stream TV from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
This time Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 If you want it mostly for YouTube then get a Chromecast. I've got a Chromecast and a Firestick - the Chromecast doesn't play nicely with Amazon video and the Firestick doesn't play nicely with YouTube (the audio and video end up being out by several seconds). No need for an android device to use it but you will need to cast from the Chrome browser. The Chromecast has apps built in for stuff like YouTube, Twitch, Netflix, iPlayer, Plex - they all run really well. It also makes a decent attempt at screen casting for stuff that it doesn't have apps for (you do generally end up with audio and video a bit out of sync which is why it doesn't do a great job at Amazon Video) which works well for casting just audio or video (or something where the audio and video being a bit out doesn't matter too much). This is all based on the first gen chromecast, second gen might be better or worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Save me from the madness! Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 I got a Roku stick which has all the catchup apps on it and the major on demand streaming sites (google, sky, netflix, amazon) lots of other weird channels on their too if you really have too much time on your hands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turned Out Nice Again Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Kodi @ £27 shipped for 4K resolution -- all you'll ever need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bossybabe Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Amazon Fire stick without doubt. You can use it in app form on your phone and tablet, too. They have 4K films too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgul Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 I've got a chromecast... okay but a faff to play local files. I've since coupled it with a kodi box -- interface is a bit hit-and-miss but it is very flexible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 This thread hasn't pinned it down as I'd hoped. Think I'll maybe start with a chromecast and go from there as most stuff I'm watching is probably in chrome browser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 5 hours ago, JoeDavola said: I've got a Chromecast first gen that has been great, but I also picked up an Amazon fire TV box when it was on offer - the hardware you were getting for the money was incredible and I'm able to run all sorts of stuff on it - e.g. old games emulators and stuff - runs Goldeneye N64 beautifully! So if you had once choice I'd snap up the Fire TV box as you'll be able to do all sorts with it in the future. If you're in no rush wait a few weeks and Amazon are bound to knock the price of the Fire TV box down for a few days in the march to Christmas. Yep - all this. The Amazon fire box is more bang for buck than the fire stick or the chromecast. It is often down £60 and I have seen it for £50 for students or prime members. Prrobably will have to wait until black friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 Ok, fark it, I'II get both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
This time Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 39 minutes ago, SNACR said: Ok, fark it, I'II get both. Good choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 7 hours ago, SNACR said: I haven't got an Android phone or tablet. Is it worth getting one to stream TV from? Most TVs have Miracast built into them, so you can get a cheapo Android tablet, and connect from that. Or, the Apple TV has Airplay, so you can wirelessly stream your i device to your TV. I use the Chromecast to broadcast BT Sport, and the Fire Stick for Kodi & UK TV Play. The Kodi stick has a useful app (TV Player) which allows you to stream Freeview to a TV without an aerial, and for Chromecast, there's a great little Chrome browser addon called videostream, where you can broadcast film files from the brower to the TV. VLC has a similiar feature, but its a bit too finnicky..The Roku stick does everything else, such as Now TV...although the Chromecast now does that & Netflix.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The XYY Man Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Best for legitimate streaming = ROKU Best for dodgy streaming = Amazon FireStick / FireBox Best for seeing whatever is on your tablet/computer/phone duplicated on your telly = Chromecast Simple as that... XYY The dog's kennel is not the place to keep a sausage - Danish proverb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 No remote with a Cromecast? How does that work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Just now, Alonso Quijano said: No remote with a Cromecast? How does that work? You go to the app (Netflix, iplayer, etc) on your device, and as long as the device & Chromecast are on the same wifi network, there's a square "cast" box that appears in the app. You open that, and that'll cast it on to the TV... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
This time Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Plex is really good for streaming videos that are on your computer and is supported by both Chromecast and Firestick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Got a HDMI fire stick Thursday. Ran straight out of the box preregistered with my prime account. Sync issues sorted by turning off all dolby and reverting to stereo as my TV has no inbuilt sync feature. Works really well out of the box with YouTube, TV channels, apps and films. Now to cancel the sky subs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bossybabe Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 10 hours ago, MrPin said: Stop watching TV. It makes your brain small! When your brain's the size of mine, you can afford to watch television!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePiltdownMan Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Nexus Player is better than chromecast because you can use Google's media services + the app store apps without having to have your mobile or tablet on and streaming to it with all the battery usage that entails. You can still cast from mobile devices if you need though. It can be a pain if you want to stream some media file to it, say a multi gigabyte video you downloaded. I copy it to a USB stick plugged into my router which acts as a shared drive and VLC for Android has built in network browsing features. Not mega technical by any stretch but a lot of people might struggle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 2017 Model Fxexblin T95X Android 6.0 Marshmallow TV Box Amlogic S905X Quad Core 64bit 2G/8G Ultra HD 4K Kodi 16.1 Wifi Lan Google Streaming Media Player £29.99 - Sold by Fxexblin UK and Fulfilled by Amazon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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