# TV box / media hub - which one do you have?



## Chicane (Mar 31, 2011)

Been looking at media hubs, Apple tv 2nd gen seem to be commanding a huge price at the minute, jailbroken or not. Anyone have experience of a 2nd gen? Not sure what to go for.


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

ATV 2nd gen only has value if you're jailbreaking it.

I sold my 2nd gen ATV, banked the money and bought 3rd gen ATV which is HD. I use plex iProduct app to put the media from Mac Mini onto the ATV. Also have airport express in rooms for music.


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## empsburna (Apr 5, 2006)

Used to use a jailbroken Apple TV2 with XBMC installed - sold that and went for a raspberryPi running XBMC instread.


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## fretfret (Jul 31, 2009)

Just ordered a Minix Neo 7, and will install XBMC with Fusion, hopefully.


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## empsburna (Apr 5, 2006)

fretfret said:


> Just ordered a Minix Neo 7, and will install XBMC with Fusion, hopefully.


Just had a google, never seen them before. They look like a neat solution.


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## Maniac (May 20, 2012)

I use a boxee box in the lounge to stream all content from a NAS, its very good. I also have a Roku LT in each room to watch Netflix, on demand TV etc.


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## Chicane (Mar 31, 2011)

fretfret said:


> Just ordered a Minix Neo 7, and will install XBMC with Fusion, hopefully.





empsburna said:


> Just had a google, never seen them before. They look like a neat solution.


ill have a look too. Im brand new to all this media hub market, didnt have a clue what xbmc was til around 24 hours ago and only got interested as my mate bought a cyclone nano slim+ preloaded with all the add ons & channels but i soon figured that you can buy the box cheaper and do it yourself. I just fancy the ATV because of the simple layout of the remote. I hate loads of buttons!


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## Hoopsbhoy (Feb 7, 2014)

Using a mini solo 2 ;-)


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## zdravo (Oct 12, 2011)

Have Mede8er MED500X still 5-6 years with 2TB HDD inside.
Great device, has NAS function.
There are new models which have a lot of new and useful functions.


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## NMH (Apr 25, 2012)

I stream my movies from my synology NAS using a WD live tv media player.


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## ivor (Sep 24, 2008)

I've got ATV non jail broken and I've got the google tv with xmbc and the fusion add on its great for watching the latest tv and films


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## CLS500Benz (Jul 28, 2013)

NowTV and Roku 2 here, Plus a PS3/PS4 and a SmartTV if they count.


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## R14CKE (Aug 10, 2012)

Apple TV 2 jail broken


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## justinio (Jun 24, 2013)

Smart TV running Plex with a HP micro server connected via homeplugs. 300+ movies available to watch whenever I want.


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## Chicane (Mar 31, 2011)

Went to my mates tonight to have a looksy at his sumvision nano 2, its a dual core model but seemed quite laggy and i found i had to point the remote quite close to the box to respond.

Is the atv2 laggy at all with it having 512mb ram?


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## gatecrasher3 (Jul 21, 2006)

Media PC running Plex Server/Media Centre connected directly to the TV downstairs and a jailbroken ATV2 using Plex upstairs.


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## silverblack (Jan 23, 2011)

Im using a Revo L80 with openelec XBMC along with an HP microserver.
Cant beat XBMC nowadays does it all.


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## kartman (Aug 2, 2012)

Raspberry Pi running RaspBMC connected to external HDD here. Use the XBMC software to broadcast the library to my network so can watch it on the smart tv downstairs if I want. No need for anything else really. Can also use cron and transmission to schedule downloads if you so wish.


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## jomo (Jul 31, 2010)

Just read this thread and i download my tv on my lappy which i connect to a tv via HDMI, but could do with some sort of media box to play off my usb flash drive to tv via HDMI, not bothered about netflix, streaming or xmbc but would like a web browser and thats about it.


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## paralla (Dec 7, 2011)

Mac Mini, bluetooth keyboard and mouse


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## empsburna (Apr 5, 2006)

jomo said:


> Just read this thread and i download my tv on my lappy which i connect to a tv via HDMI, but could do with some sort of media box to play off my usb flash drive to tv via HDMI, not bothered about netflix, streaming or xmbc but would like a web browser and thats about it.


You can plug the USB drive into a raspberrypi and then get to that to put files on it (and leave it connected to your TV)

I think the newer versions have a browser of some sort.


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## jomo (Jul 31, 2010)

paralla said:


> Mac Mini, bluetooth keyboard and mouse


Very nice, but was trying to keep the price under £50 lol...

Will look into those pi's tho...


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

I've been using a MediaPC with Windows that I built myself which was alright but a faff to do anything but everything worked (just a few too many clicks to get where you wanted to get to). Had MediaBrowser in Windows Media Centre but that became annoying, so I just ended up using Explorer to locate the files on my fileserver to play through Windows Media Player.

Bought a Raspberry Pi but that didn't cut it with performance.

Recently I bought a Google Chromecast. Been a revelation. I installed Plex Media Server on my file server, have the Plex app on my phone, browse through files on my phone and play on TV. It's around £30 and you can also play YouTube, BBC, Vimeo through the Chromecast app on your phone.


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## NickP (Nov 20, 2005)

I use a Acer Revo 3700, running Openelec XBMC linked to an 8TB NAS run in Raid2 for storage


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## djgregory (Apr 2, 2013)

I use a TV, non of the above mean anything to me. 

What are they?


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## ardandy (Aug 18, 2006)

jamest said:


> Had MediaBrowser in Windows Media Centre but that became annoying, so I just ended up using Explorer to locate the files on my fileserver to play through Windows Media Player.


Highly recommend Mediportal.

Lot more support than browser, lots of options, TV recording is faultless and it doesn't integrate with Mediacentre as it's its own. It's what Xbox mediacentre needs to run in background for Live TV support. Loads of plugins too. I have Spotify, Live TV, Tv Eps, Films, Local Music, Pictures and weather all in Mediaportal.

Never looked back since. Oh and it's free, no freemium stuff.

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/


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## stuartr (Mar 11, 2014)

Roku are great and have a chromecast for netflix and youtube upstairs (£30)


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

ardandy said:


> Highly recommend Mediportal.
> 
> Lot more support than browser, lots of options, TV recording is faultless and it doesn't integrate with Mediacentre as it's its own. It's what Xbox mediacentre needs to run in background for Live TV support. Loads of plugins too. I have Spotify, Live TV, Tv Eps, Films, Local Music, Pictures and weather all in Mediaportal.
> 
> ...


Used it around 3 years or so ago and was a bit slow.

Like my current set up at the moment. Just need to refine a few bash scripts to automate some tasks but it's the first time everything has run swimmingly.


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## WhenIwake (Nov 10, 2012)

After using RaspPi's for 6 months and before that numerous android boxes I finally moved to building an HTPC and I really wished I'd done it sooner. build is a loose word, I bought an Intel Nuc (overpriced blah blah blah) and added the needed components (should be included at that price blah blah blah) and it is amazing. Mounted to the back of the TV with a VESA mount and coupled with a wireless keyboard it is amazing. Totally hidden and outputs 1080 and can actually handle the stream and other simultaneous operations. HTPC is definitely the way to go. You get your XMBC hub with full PC capabilities (with a windows install) even just playing YouTube through the TV while browsing the net or even browsing xmbc looking for the next film you want to watch. I really wish I'd got one sooner rather than messing around with android or other media boxes.


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