barcelonaman Posted November 1, 2015 Report Share Posted November 1, 2015 i am thinking about buying an amazon fire stick to use for kodi streaming. however i have been advised that the box is more reliable for streaming/ buffering issues. can anyone give advice or recommend another make.looking at quadcor and 2gb ram minimum. tia, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLU Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 I have several different "boxes" The amazon fire is one of the best, but has limits no prime without VPN and no storage or downloading but my fire is one of the originals the stick itself works fine but is even more limited you sound like you wouldn't have a problem with the downloading of KODI but many have you might consider a mini-computer i have one with windows and read the newspaper on-line on a 60" screen i also just bought and awaiting a Ockel Sirius B: the powerful Windows 10 pocket PC from Indiegogo if you wish to see my set-up send me a PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerGuy Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 I would be very interested to hear your thoughts after you've had a chance to use it for a while. I'm glad there's always someone like you willing to try new things. That being said, NLU: Normally, I'm a huge fan of evolution/revolution in tech. But this is a product that the Shark Tank would have sent packing. Apart from taking far too long in their marketing video to get to the point, they offer no reason for its purchase other than reduced size. And that makes no difference when you still need a monitor, and mouse, and keyboard, and modem, and Internet, and... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barcelonaman Posted November 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 that sirius b looks great but think there is a lot of similar mini pcs available out there. .i have been using kodi on android and pc with mixed results.slowly i am getting to know the best addons/ streamers to use for different things. some for uk tv. others for european sports. everything is available and many american and canadian links although not tried them. buffering is main problem and of course most streamers and not connected 24/7 and need to try various before you get a connection.find dexter tv is good at the moment, and uk turks and phoenix has links to american channels. .. however i have used acestream/ plexus to better advantage and works 99.9per cent of the time in hq def. however most of my links are for european football matches but there could well be links for american football games as well. considering its free cant complain. as a backup i still use ilive and stream hd but of course got the adverts and possible malware.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skurvish Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 I use a Matricom G-Box Q. Since Matricom is US based their return policy is very good. I bricked 3 of them loading the wrong firmware and they replaced them with new ones no charge. There is a fairly large community of people who provide peer support and another that provides Openelec support. If you are unfamiliar with Openelec it is a version of Linux ported to many hardware platforms. The sole purpose of this port is to run Kodi so it is very small and lightweight. Boots up in about half the time Android takes. So if you don't need the Android apps go with Openelec. Most of the buffering issues with Kodi can be narrowed down to a few problems; poor source, insufficient bandwidth (5mbps dsl is not going to cut it, you need about 30Mbps for 1080p), or insufficient buffer allocation (which is an easy fix). I have set up at leats 30 people (friends and relatives) with these boxes and they run very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barcelonaman Posted November 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 thanks skurvish , again its another possibility for me. think the big buffering problem is a poor source, but of course my 5 mbps doesnt help. i might try changing the buffering allocation do i do this in kodi itself ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLU Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 skurvish one of my gadgets is a Matricom G-Box Q it works fine never a problem with it but ... the remote is a pain first of all, it takes a direct aim and when i say "direct" i mean "direct" second, it doesn't always respond worse, sometimes it responds after more than several seconds if you were unfortunate enough not to wait those lonnnnnnng several seconds and press the remote again it will do one of two things one is to react twice which ain't too bad compared to the other thing it might do which is to freeze when that happens there is not any alternative that i can see except to unplug it and start it again the problem with that is that the settings revert back to factory set and the time and date which goes to 1970 have to be reset any thoughts on the matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barcelonaman Posted November 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 so basically you guys suggest a box is more robust and better than one of the sticks ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TelsZ4 Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 There are lots of mini keyboards available for under 20 bucks.. They work well on androided box's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerGuy Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 so basically you guys suggest a box is more robust and better than one of the sticks ? Android boxes are better than brand-name sticks, because they can be manipulated in many ways with many pieces of software, but there are lots of made-in-Taiwan Android sticks that rival the boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLU Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 I know I can replace the remote and I probably will in the not to distant future. That was not the point. The point is that the remote came with the box. It should work. In a review of my purchase, that would be an important point to mention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLU Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 The best of the sticks may well be better than the worse of the boxes. But overall, go with a box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barcelonaman Posted November 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 thanks for all the advice. will probably go for a box, or a good stick.but i do like the boys toys sirius as well but am not really an early adopter. prefer to let them have the problems, like windows 10. it is nice though..how about a rikomagic v5 ?? too many choices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LakeViews Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Personally, the new Apple TV looks good to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLU Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 A major problem with the Apple TV (and less so, but still, for the Amazon Fire) is that they are so proprietary that it is difficult to do anything except what they want you to do. According to some, the Apple has been "jail-broken). The Amazon Fire was long ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TelsZ4 Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Are there any Android TV box experts here at lakeside..? The reason I ask is that I brought 2 of them down here with me.. They worked well, one still does but I screwed up the other one.. Video is fine but there is no sound. And yes I have checked its not muted and the volume is turned up.. Can anybody help...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gstevenson Posted November 4, 2015 Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 I have been using a CuboxTV box from SolidRun. It is about 2" by 2" and runs Kodi on OpenElec Linux. It works pretty well, but as with all such devices success is dependent both on your local Internet connection and contention (busy) at the source end. Anyway, I am happy with the device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerGuy Posted November 4, 2015 Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 Gstevenson is so right. Add to that the wide variety of different boxes with different setup requirements, and throw in the numerous Kodi updates and plug-ins, and it is very difficult to become an "expert"... other than for the basic setup requirements. Each one has it's own oddities. I've set up many, and it's been different every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skurvish Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 thanks skurvish , again its another possibility for me. think the big buffering problem is a poor source, but of course my 5 mbps doesnt help. i might try changing the buffering allocation do i do this in kodi itself ? I use Openelec on my G-Box Q (a version of linux) so I can log into the box and make the changes. There is a program addon that will let you tweak some of these parms but I have never used it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skurvish Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 ... one of my gadgets is a Matricom G-Box Q....the remote is a pain...any thoughts on the matter? You might try installing Openelec on it. I have not had any problems with the remote having to be direct, perhaps it is a problem with Android. Openelec never locks up on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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