Hi All, My TV is long in the tooth (~10years old), and is not smart in any way. Although i'd love to replace it, even the suggestion gets pooh-poohed by SWMBO, so... We have been using an ol' Xbox 360 for media streaming, but it doenst support BBC iPlayer, Disneyt+, etc. (and i suspect the list it does support will continue to dwindle). What is my best bet for a streaming box that will cover me off with support for the main contenders (Amazon, Netflix, Disney, NowTV and iPlayer), second string sources (BritBox), and if it will support local sources such as Plex or Kodi that'd be awesome too. Oh, and if I can get Zoom on it and plug a webcam in that would be an awesome bonus! Suggestions? Should I go Roku? Should I look for an Nvidia Shield? Do i attempt to persuade SWMBO that an Xbox Series X is the best "value"?! Help me O-Bit-One Tech-nobi; you're my only hope!
I've always thought of chromecast as something that lets you stream from your phone? Have i missed something? Also, i would prefer to be able to hardwire it to ethernet rather than rely on wifi....
I'd be tempted to use a PC unless you are really power obsessed, it will work with all those things whereas there are various frustrations using and android or apple box due to content locks and compatibilities etc, it doesn't need to be powerful, most iGPUs can decode most things
I've got a couple older Rokus (Roku 2?) and have been very happy with them. They can work as a stand-alone device (no phone/tablet require unlike the Chromecasts hence the Chromecast Ulta sitting on my shelf unused). They can be augmented with smart devices, for example I'll use my phone as keyboard when entering searches rather than using the Roku remote you you can stream content from the device. FYI, has Roku has one of the nicer Plex interfaces (IMHO), as it is one of the few that allows access to chapter stops (even the browser UI doesn't offer that feature or I have failed to find it). I liked the Rokus enough that I have set up my mother-in-law with one, knowing that I'd be technical support if they didn't work. I have only had to help her a couple of time, and she's used them enough now that if they stop working she's asking for help right away.
Fire Stick, or Fire Stick 4K if you want to splurge a little. At £30 and £50 nothing else will come close in terms of value, IMO. Those old PC parts you might have lying round will certainly work, and as @sandys says they will almost certainly work with 1080p video, but the user experience is... pretty poor. Not many streaming services offer a '10-foot-UI' application for the PC, so the vast majority of the time you'll be using a web browser with a keyboard and mouse. That gets old fast. There may be hacks, and plugins, and god knows what else, to get them working with Kodi, but it won't be a simple 'out of the box' setup process. Plus there's always the risk that any given solution will simply stop working as streaming platforms change something on their back-end. If you don't want to spend a lot of money then go for a Fire Stick - just be prepared to replace it in a couple of years when newer software & updates make it start to creak. If you want to splurge a little then go a little higher-end and get something like the Apple TV 4K or the Nvidia Shield. I had a bad experience with the Roku 3, I found the software & app support to be just awful (the spotify app was absolutely atrocious) - but that was more than 4 years ago, doubtless things have improved. As for support for Zoom... honestly I've never tried. It looks like there's no 'out of the box' solution for either Android TV (and by extension the Shield) or Apple TV, you'd have to use some kind of screensharing in order to get your phone's display on the big screen. I would have thought it's a similar situation with Roku, but can't say for certain.
Works better than you think with a display scale and windows apps even without going to the effort of customising a media centre specific software solution. when I used to have a media centre PC I would just use an IR remote never needed K/B and mouse, but it did take a lot of frigging about to get plugins etc to work. But I did it recently just using my windows 10 atom PC with a bluetooth touchpad when I was inbetween houses just using apps and browsers, it was a doddle, actually better than some smart tvs Obviously it is something you can try now to see how it fits prior to any investment, it is the only solution that will cover every point requested and will never lack app support.
I would go with a PC since sounds like you want to do a decent range of things with it. Have been using a media PC for years with a wireless keyboard without issues, OH isn't into PCs etc but hasn't complained, and it's way nicer to browse and search for something when you have a proper keyboard in my opinion
Honestly I would say the only thing that an HTPC can do over a £30 Fire Stick is Zoom video calling. I'd say if you have the parts then by all means give it a go, but don't go out of your way to spend money on it. If it sounds like I'm shilling for Amazon here then I'm really not . I just think it's incredible value that you can spend £30 and get a media streaming box that can do flawless 1080p decoding, has access to quite a wide range of services, and consumes about 15W or power at most.
Android TV boxes are getting pretty good as of 9.0, but the trick is finding one likely to get updates.
I don't think you'll get Zoom on it, but the Fire TV is the best value. We've a couple on ancilliary TVs, and a Shield Pro (and an Apple TV 4K) on the main TV. FWIW, I'd suggest trying a Fire TV to start with, see how you get on.
Just dug out my fire TV as I thought I would use it to give smarts to an old TV and yup its pretty decent still despite being old but tried sideloading skygo and it was having none of it, there's some routes I could take via Kodi but a little on the sketchy side even if I do pay for the full Sky thing. So the fire thing it's still not perfect, not all apps, but Netflix, prime, Disney and YouTube are good, it has plex etc.
If you're in their ecosystem, I can recommend the Apple TV 4k box. It ticks the boxes to almost all your requirements! However, the concerns around the remote are founded... it really is a shitty remote that, if you have it nearby, the touch sensitivity can be a little overenthusiastic plus you have to think about which way to hold it as it's not very clear. Plus I'm really ginger around it - I wouldn't ever want to drop it as it feels like it will break in two or three! Luckily, the Sony remote controls it so I end up using that - plus there's an app, obvs! The new TV box due out this year has apparently addressed the remote so that's a good thing but I recently bought a basic Amazon TV stick (non-4k) for the bedroom and that has most of the regular streaming apps that I use including AppleTV app (it only lets you watch the film though... no extras) - It's pretty good. I've heard nothing but good things re NVidia Shield and I think I read that's being updated too so maybe some decent deals to be had somewhere!
Just to come back around to this; thanks for all the input so far. I've borrowed a firestick in the past and although i dont hate the UI, I cant say I'm a fan... especially the way it mixes apps with content and then free and paid for content... I'm not in the Apple ecosystem at all, but would consider... Although a PC would "do it all", it would require a greater level of management/maintenance and there are few native apps available (yes there are workarounds, but they are workarounds...) What I think i want, i suppose, is something akin to my android phone, so i can just have the "apps" i want on the initial screen and go from there... i dont want to have to fish around to find the apps (unless the device offers significantly more, i.e. an Xbox/PS) I assume the Shield works in this way being that its an android box? How does the Roku UI work?
