Streaming Devices

[Woods]

Curious if anyone has any of the streaming devices that are out there and your feeling's on them?The goods, bad's etc. I'm looking to purchase one soon.

My brother has the Roku stick and loves it. I have several friends with Apple TV and they love it as well. I do have apple products but don't really use iTunes or the cloud all that much.

The consensus seems to be that if youre not in bed with Apple, then youre looking at either Roku or Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast a distant 4th.

Gun to my head and forced to buy one this second, I'd lean towards the Roku 3.

 

[nvanprooyen]

You could do a cheap build and go the XBMC route as another alternative.

 

[policeman]

I cut the cord a year ago and bought a Roku 3 with a Hulu Plus membership. I watch way less tv than before- which I regard as a good thing. I like the Roku. The number of apps is increasing all the time. But- make sure you've got a sizable enough data package from your ISP. And invest in a good HD antenna for your TV (assuming you are going to cut the cord- if not- disregard the need for an antenna).

 

[Woods]

You could do a cheap build and go the XBMC route as another alternative.

Interesting. Never heard of it before. Do you use that? Apparently it's called Kodi now.

 

[Woods]

I cut the cord a year ago and bought a Roku 3 with a Hulu Plus membership. I watch way less tv than before- which I regard as a good thing. I like the Roku. The number of apps is increasing all the time. But- make sure you've got a sizable enough data package from your ISP. And invest in a good HD antenna for your TV (assuming you are going to cut the cord- if not- disregard the need for an antenna).

My data is unlimited from my ISP, so that wont be an issue.

Ultimately I would like to cut the cord, but until I can get Sunday Ticket on something like a Roku, Directv will have me. Right now it would be used most with Netflix, Amazon Instant and WWE Network.

 

[nvanprooyen]

I use it a bit. Getting ready to do a good build though soon for my main HTPC and probably a few more devices on the network using Raspberry Pi's (bedrooms, music outside etc).

 

[Woods]

I use it a bit. Getting ready to do a good build though soon for my main HTPC and probably a few more devices on the network using Raspberry Pi's (bedrooms, music outside etc).

Here's my problem with this. Being the tech nerd of the house, this sounds like something that would result in a lot of phone calls from my wife and daughters trying to get it working when there's a hiccup. Do you have that happen?

 

[nvanprooyen]

Not yet The XBMC interface is pretty simple though. Once you get everything setup the first time it should be pretty minimal. You can download a copy of it for free and play around with it on your PC / Mac to get a sense of the interface and how it works. I'm not sure if you are into torrents or not, but this is a project that has some major promise. I think it's launching soon:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=200957

Pretty similar to Popcorn Time if you've seen that, but runs on XBMC.

 

[SERE Bear]

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=200957

Pretty similar to Popcorn Time if you've seen that, but runs on XBMC.

I'm a snob when it comes to Torrents. If its not at least in 5.1 sound and 4.5 gb then I don’t download it. YIFY is the most popular torrent source these days and is probably a good choice if you are watching on a laptop or smaller tv without surround.

I imagine most of those Pulsar sources would come from YIFY.


X2 for XBMC though. My son and wife use it without my help all the time.

 

[nvanprooyen]

Have you seen Popcorn Time? Many streams are 1080p and pretty much all are 720p. From casual observation most seem to be 5.1 as well.

 

[SERE Bear]

Have you seen Popcorn Time? Many streams are 1080p and pretty much all are 720p. From casual observation most seem to be 5.1 as well.

I never did POPCORN TIME, I saw it but never did try it out.

5.1 or better is the most important thing to me. YIFY does a great job compressing movies to about 1gb but at the cost of frames per second and I would challenge that his uploads are not 1080p even though he labels them as such. Because of the size he compresses his uploads to and tags them with 1080p he is by far the most downloaded movie source right now.

Like I said, I’m a snob with regards to this stuff. I spent a lot of time building my theater and even built my own subwoofer. I want the source video to show the clarity and make the subwoofer shake the house when an explosion happens on the screen. I’m picky about what video I steal hahaha

 

[ShiftyDevil]

I have a Chromcast and it's great for what I use it for (primarily for Netflix to TV and some other web streaming stuff). However, my requirements are likely smaller than yours based on your question.

 

[Warrior Spirit]

What you do is just get yourself a media player for your TV, stick a bunch of download movies or TV seasons on your passport and watch them at your leisure.

 

[Unannounced Fart]

I only have experience with Chromecast, so I can't compare it with other devices. We have 3 of them in the house and everyone uses it except me. They use it mainly for Youtube and Netflix, and it works perfectly for that. Using it is a snap. They just start playing a video on their phone or iPad, press a button, and it starts streaming immediately on the TV. I know the applications for Chromecast were limited when we first bought it, but I'm sure it has been growing. And it's only $40.

 

[botfly10]

You dont need a mac for apple TV. You can just use AirParrot.

I have a PC and use appleTV every day at work with no problems.

I like appleTV cause you stream your entire desktop. So you can play anything thats on your computer. Not just shit that there are apps for.

It works just like a wireless projector.

 

[Mr. Cub]

I've got a Roku stick and it's perfect for Netflix and shit. My brother has the Apple TV, and he seems to love it. I am not familiar with any of the other devices, though.

 

[94SupraTT]

My data is unlimited from my ISP, so that wont be an issue.

Ultimately I would like to cut the cord, but until I can get Sunday Ticket on something like a Roku, Directv will have me. Right now it would be used most with Netflix, Amazon Instant and WWE Network.

You can't get Sunday Ticket but if you take a virtual trip to a country outside of Mexico or the U.S. you can get NFL Gamepass which is actually better than Sunday Ticket. Shouldn't cost you more than $140 for the season. You can't get it through Roku, but you can use Chromecast to watch it on your TV or if you have a laptop with an HDMI port you can use that.

I cut the cord completely 2 years ago. I have a Ouya box that runs XBMC, Plex, and Universal Media Server to stream stuff locally to my Ouya and PS3.

My girl cut the cord 2 months ago and she has a HD antenna so she can watch TV live (she likes to watch Big Bang Theory live) but if she isn't home to watch something live she generally watches it on Hulu Plus. I've heard that Playon for Roku has channels that stream a TON of live content. You have to sideload it but I've heard nothing but great things about it.