After a small PC.

[PlaneMan]

I’m after a small PC, something like a Gigabyte Brix, just for Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime and playing local media. Doesn’t need to be hugely powerful or have loads of SSD space but 128 GB, 4GB RAM + would be great. If it comes with Win 10, great if not I’ll bag a cheap licence.

This is for my mother who is getting overwhelmed with the various sticks hanging off the back of her main TV. Budget is not much, the cheaper the better but if needed £250 ish is viable.

I’m out of the loop when it comes this kind of thing, I’ll be doing some research over the next couple of days/weeks.

Also after a decent Bluetooth keyboard, kind of like a laptop keyboard with a built in trackpad.

T.I.A

[Dave Rice]

The very thing on E-Buyer http://tinyurl.com/y9omvy7y £204

Gigabyte Brix BXBT-2807 Ultra Compact PC Kit
Intel Celeron N2807 2.17GHz
4GB RAM
120GB SSD
No Operating System so off to E-Bay

Wireless not Bluetooth but I’ve used one: Microsoft All-in-One Media keyboard £33 http://tinyurl.com/y995wssg

 

[PlaneMan]

Nice one Dave, I’ll have a proper look tomorrow, knackered right now. ?

[blacklion1725]

The only thing with doing it all off a PC – I have a now (rarely used) Intel NUC – is that the interface even with a decent keyboard/mouse controller is not great……nowhere near as easy (especially for non-PC enthusiasts) as say a FireTV or a Roku. The PC will do it all, but it is not a great user experience.

Just an opinion, and while I prefer the UI of the Roku by a mile, the FireTV box is probably the best solution to do just about everything with a “normal” remote experience. It gets better the more you use it as the “Recents” populates with the stuff you use.

Just a consideration, as I say I very rarely use my media PC these days, main use of it is recording.

[Drezha]

I’ve one of those and its pretty good. I did use it as an Office PC at cadets for a bit but at the minute, it’s sat at home doing nothing for the minute.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Ed P]

My wife has a NUC, it is an excellent small footprint machine for most situations with one huge caveat. You MUST use the Intel update site and ensure that you have up-to-date drivers as amazingly some of the Windows 10 updates have not been fully compatible.If you just use the Win10 advice for driver updates it does not give the most up to date drivers! So I guess I echo the comment that it unfortunately the NUC is not for those adverse to technology.

As usual it is the sound and graphics drivers that are most vulnerable.

[Dave Rice]

I’ve had four of these Celeron Brixs in everyday office use (Office 2016 Pro) for at least 2 years, in fact I’m off today to install one I’ve re purposed.

I have never had to intervene with any updates. I can understand that MS may be a driver behind the curve but I’ve not seen any issues.

Of course if the CPU was an i5 or i7 with better graphics I could see that may be different, but at this end MS seem to get it right enough.

[Ed P]

I think it may be an Intel mobo thing, there were a number of published issues with the Intel drivers. link

[edit] Specifically this is the action that Intel always recommend for NUCs.

“… install the latest Intel chipset and Intel® management engine driver, ”

This latter is the route that will give updates not suggested by M$

[Dave Rice]

Could well be the Intel mobo.

At launch, the Brix had UEFI issues if you didn’t want to install W8 (I was using Ubuntu on them at that time). One model had to be upgraded to the latest UEFI, the other downgraded. To do that you had to get W8 on them first and run the Gigabyte @BIOS utility.

The initial CSM boot tussles you get with everything when using legacy is now gone as they are all UEFI / GPT / W10.

With an SSD they are fine for Office work. The one I’ve just re-purposed has a 5400 rpm spinner and once it gets going it’s OK, but not wonderful. It’s going to be basically an internet kiosk so it’ll be fine for that.

[blacklion1725]

I was more on about things like switching between programs or browser apps like Netflix, iPlayer etc from an armchair – my NUC has an IR remote built in which works with an MCE remote, but that and a woreless keyboard with trackball are still clunky. Moving around within an app or browser is not great either, particularly for someone who is used to a point and click remote.

I finished up using Synergy to control if via the laptop next to my chair. Since I got the FireTV back in action, it is more or retired since I was using it mainly for Kodi.

The Windows interface, even the Metro one is not suited for a Media system as far as remote control goes (in my opinion). OpenElec (instead of Windows) with an HDMI-CEC adapter solves the issues but you are restricted to Kodi addons, so sort of defeats the point

I can confirm on mine (Intel 4th Gen i5) I had update issues and found the Intel Update Utility the safest way to go. My Mum has my old Celeron 2820 version and Windows 10 (and 7 before) always have always beenfine with that (hers is a “normal” PC).

The FireTV is much easier to use, and everyone else in the house has no issues using it. I don’t use Alexa on it but have tested it and it works fine. Kodi, Netflix, iPlayer, NowTV etc all available…..and you can cast content to it. Mine is the 2nd gen box as opposed to the stick – I think the new stick will do all the same stuff (but no usb port and slightly slower). If I could only keep one box the Fire would be it.

[Drezha]

That’s it – mine currently has a 5400 spinner in it as it was to be used as a server where I wasn’t to concerned with the access speeds (a Syncthing node). However, I dropped that idea and stuck with Resilo Sync on my NAS.

I’m considering taking it to cadets and using it as a NAS there for various items but at the minute our wifi is on the blink so it’s not worth it.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Dave Rice]

What do you need to sort out the WiFi?

Coming to Manchester on Monday, may have something in the spares cupboard.

[PlaneMan]

Thanks all, need to have a think about the best solution.

Will have to get the exact model number of the Android box that’s there at the moment and see if I can flash a newer version on, it’s stuck at about 4.0 so lots of apps won’t work. I suspect it’s a non-starter as it was a generic job.

The small pc was the plan as it’s so flexible, mum is no technophobe but could do with a better solution for media. ATM there’s a chromecast, fire TV stick, Android box, DVD player (hardly used) and the Virgin box which was never collected after the contract was stopped.(Does freeview only).

The Fire TV could well be the way to go, if it doesn’t do what she needs can always send it back….

[Dave Rice]

My Fire TV with Kodi will do most of what you want.

The biggest PITA with the Fire remote is when you need to input text, but if you’re using Kodi you can use a smartphone as a remote (which I do) and that solves that problem.

With Amazon Prime you can just talk to it (I still hate doing that). Don’t use Netflix so can’t comment on that.

[blacklion1725]

Yeah the minimalist remotes (also Roku) have their drawbacks – as Dave says you can get round it with a phone or tablet – and mostly you only need the keyboard at the setting up or signing in (once stage). If using Kodi, then for example in Exodus there is an option in settings to exclude results that need a text code or captcha.

I can confirm Netflix works AOK on the Fire and syncs (what you are watching) perfectly with other devices with the same Netflix account. I hated the Fire when I first got it, but use it a lot now, I think it supports just about everything, and although the UI is still Amazon-focused it is much less so, and easier to get to non-Amazon stuff especially as you use it more…..and kicks an Android box right in to touch.

 

[The Duke]

Wife loves her fire tv (gen 1). She uses her phone to control it, over the remote. I think it’d lost tbh, as everyone uses their phones for it.

I refuse to use it, I just never took to it. But everything now does seem to work well now. I found it cumbersome coming from years using the rokus

I prefer the roku, (still have the 3 in the bedroom and 2 in the office)  but accept that the roku is a bit more limiting compared to the fire tv. I also use the roku via my phone, as the batteries ran out on it about 18 months ago.

Still not tried Xbmc on the fire, I should as we all use Xbmc to access the movies I have plugged into our router. Though as s don’t ever go in the lounge, I’ll never be bothered to do it.

Only allowed on there when we have guests.

[Dave Rice]

Kodi works the same way on everything, the only difference is what you use to control it. Use the smartphone app all the time and that’s that sorted.

[blacklion1725]

My only reservation withe the Fire is if they (Amazon) nobble Kodi….they took the Kodi app out of their App Store a couple of years back, and have also blocked some stuff from time to time like Alternative launchers.

Not read anything to suggest they will, and the boxes sticks are not overly cheap compared to Android equivalents….so maybe not the incentive for them to block Kodi like NowTV (many bought just to get a cheap Plex box) did with side loading Plex.

In any case at the moment – happy days.

[Dave Rice]

I use Apps2Fire to side load onto my Fire TV.

[blacklion1725]

Same as that Dave, but I think they could still stop it running if they chose to

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