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which adroid tv box should I choose. New on this market...


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epayson85

Btw have you ever used a hdhomerun directly from the NP? If you have you would know livetv via channels and view run like shit. With the Shield it works perfectly. No transcoding no issues.

 

I get your being cheap point but your view and usage is limited compared to many others.

The reason I even started testing emby in my house was to not have to use the view app anymore.  I like having the same tvguide and being able to set my recordings from any room and so forth.  Just one easy to use system.  I don't care that it transcodes.  Also the view app can't even pause livetv.  Hopefully emby eventually figures out time shifting for livetv but until then its another reason why WMC / a $200 computer is better than the sheild lol but I don't watch live tv in any room of the house enough to care and the electricity savings are worth it to get rid of the PCs.

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epayson85

Wait a second LOL the shield doesn't even come with a remote??? You have to use the game pad or pay an extra almost $50 for a remote?  I'm sorry but if I put that game pad in the hands of my GF or my parents they would laugh at me! Let alone if I had people come over the house.  So Lets be honest its a $250 android box.  MY GOD!  WHAT A RIP OFF!

 

So... If you need to game in more than one room of the house and you have multiple surround sound systems then yes go for it make the $250 "investment".

 

If you just want to get emby to other rooms in your house and you use normal TV audio then you can spend $60 to $100 on a great experience via NP or AFTV.

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MSattler

Wait a second LOL the shield doesn't even come with a remote??? You have to use the game pad or pay an extra almost $50 for a remote? I'm sorry but if I put that game pad in the hands of my GF or my parents they would laugh at me! Let alone if I had people come over the house. So Lets be honest its a $250 android box. MY GOD! WHAT A RIP OFF!

 

So... If you need to game in more than one room of the house and you have multiple surround sound systems then yes go for it make the $250 "investment".

 

If you just want to get emby to other rooms in your house and you use normal TV audio then you can spend $60 to $100 on a great experience via NP or AFTV.

I have never paid more than $200 for the shield and remote. Nvidia offers sales all of the time.

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Deathsquirrel

I can't imagine the shield and a nexus prime even target the same markets, certainly not effectively.  Comparing them on price seems pointless.  If you don't need a client device that won't need transcoding by the server, can play hd audio, and can play high bit rate video without the wifi being a bottleneck then you should not buy a shield for video playback.  You're overspending.

 

If those things matter to you there aren't any alternatives other than a HTPC which has some serious drawbacks.

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epayson85

I have never paid more than $200 for the shield and remote. Nvidia offers sales all of the time.

Amazon offers sales for the AFTV too I bought my parents on sale for $85 :) $90 with an amazon hdmi cable lol

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epayson85

I can't imagine the shield and a nexus prime even target the same markets, certainly not effectively.  Comparing them on price seems pointless.  If you don't need a client device that won't need transcoding by the server, can play hd audio, and can play high bit rate video without the wifi being a bottleneck then you should not buy a shield for video playback.  You're overspending.

 

If those things matter to you there aren't any alternatives other than a HTPC which has some serious drawbacks.

The other devices are able to play high bitrate video without transcoding over wifi.  I play blu-ray rips just fine on mine.  The only thing mine transcodes are really old files that I have and its probably because the files are messed up lol but luckily the PC can read them and transcode them.  I bet they would transcode on the shield too.  Maybe you are playing straight up Blu-ray files that aren't encoded in anyway if the shield can play those without transcoding over wifi thats something else but my devices play just about everything I throw at it.  

 

I think unless you are hooking it up to surround sound or using it for gaming which is completely unrelated to EMBY then you can buy a cheaper option.

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Vidman

Wait a second LOL the shield doesn't even come with a remote??? You have to use the game pad or pay an extra almost $50 for a remote? I'm sorry but if I put that game pad in the hands of my GF or my parents they would laugh at me! Let alone if I had people come over the house. So Lets be honest its a $250 android box. MY GOD! WHAT A RIP OFF!

 

So... If you need to game in more than one room of the house and you have multiple surround sound systems then yes go for it make the $250 "investment".

 

If you just want to get emby to other rooms in your house and you use normal TV audio then you can spend $60 to $100 on a great experience via NP or AFTV.

You would have to be pretty unlucky to get one without a free remote, but anyway as I said it supports hdmi-cec so your TV remote will control it out of the box with very little effort
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MSattler

Amazon offers sales for the AFTV too I bought my parents on sale for $85 :) $90 with an amazon hdmi cable lol

And limited codec options for surround sound.

 

A pretty shitty menu.

 

The emby app/response is slower on it than the shield.

 

No frequent Android updates, try getting Marshmellow for the FTV.

 

The microsd upgrade possibilities are smarter on the Shield han the ftv.

 

So unlike You I have first hand used the following:

 

Fire tv stick

Fire TV 2

Nexus Player

Minix Neo X8H Plus

S805 based players

Shield

 

Again, how can you know what you are missing when you have never even tried the shield? It is like saying youd never drive a Corvette because a Camaro is just as fast and costs a lot less. Easy to say when you have no experience with both.

 

If all you want is a player that works marginally well with wifi, don't require ethernet, want no future Android updates, want a slower interface and response, don't care about working view or gogole channels, and a cheap remote then sure the NP will work fine.

 

If you want something that can do all that the Shield can.

 

Kinda funny that the guy talking about his universal remotes is the one who complains the shield comes without a remote. Besides the shield controller works damn well with all of the emulators as well.

 

To each his own. Oh yeah and the Shield supports 4k playback which I am also already using.

Edited by MSattler
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epayson85

So I just wanted to upload a little video the link is below.  This is using a nexus player, completely wireless (I show it in the video that there is nothing connected to the usb port), and I am using the HDhomerun view app.  The user interface is still crap but here it is.  No transcoding just straight playing an HD channel.  No stuttering, no nothing.  So if there were issues before its one of two things.  Either HDhomerun updated their software so it was the software's fault OR people having issues have poor wifi in their house.  Either way... the NP is an incredible box for less than half the price of a Shield.

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5OwWoVy_GQucFNEdE1nV2haUFU

 

 

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MSattler

Perhaps the hdhomerun software got better but considering the stuttering happened only on the NP i find it hard to believe. Which profile are you using for playback? Non transcoded?

 

 

And the playback issues happen even wired so it was not just a wireless issue.

 

Again, when the shields work great on wifi and the NP didn't that doesn't mean my wifi network sucks.

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Vidman

So I just wanted to upload a little video the link is below. This is using a nexus player, completely wireless (I show it in the video that there is nothing connected to the usb port), and I am using the HDhomerun view app. The user interface is still crap but here it is. No transcoding just straight playing an HD channel. No stuttering, no nothing. So if there were issues before its one of two things. Either HDhomerun updated their software so it was the software's fault OR people having issues have poor wifi in their house. Either way... the NP is an incredible box for less than half the price of a Shield.

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5OwWoVy_GQucFNEdE1nV2haUFU

That depends on your requirements and expectations, as yours are both low then yes the NP is perfect for you Edited by Vidman
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MSattler

That depends on your requirements and expectations, as yours are both low then yes the NP is perfect

Or if you are a cheap ass. :). Guess i shouldn't mention I run an i7-6600 with 32gb of ram as my emby server. He will tell me its overkill and too $$ :)

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epayson85

And limited codec options for surround sound.

 

A pretty shitty menu.

 

The emby app/response is slower on it than the shield.

 

No frequent Android updates, try getting Marshmellow for the FTV.

 

The microsd upgrade possibilities are smarter on the Shield han the ftv.

 

So unlike You I have first hand used the following:

 

Fire tv stick

Fire TV 2

Nexus Player

Minix Neo X8H Plus

S805 based players

Shield

 

Again, how can you know what you are missing when you have never even tried the shield? It is like saying youd never drive a Corvette because a Camaro is just as fast and costs a lot less. Easy to say when you have no experience with both.

 

If all you want is a player that works marginally well with wifi, don't require ethernet, want no future Android updates, want a slower interface and response, don't care about working view or gogole channels, and a cheap remote then sure the NP will work fine.

 

If you want something that can do all that the Shield can.

 

Kinda funny that the guy talking about his universal remotes is the one who complains the shield comes without a remote. Besides the shield controller works damn well with all of the emulators as well.

 

To each his own. Oh yeah and the Shield supports 4k playback which I am also already using.

Whats the point of buying a corvette if you just drive to work everyday and will never use all the features?? LOL  I will stick with my ford Pinto

 

I really don't think you can get emby to work any faster than instant but sure lol

 

I agree the menu on the Firetv is shitty, I hate it lol you can put your own launcher on it but I haven't bothered.

 

Why do I need marshmallow on the FTV?  The only reason I even wanted it on the nexus is so that I can move EMBY to the first app choice... AFTV already does that for me.  The nexus player also got Marshmallow before the shield so...

 

Why do I need a microSD? I don't store anything on these devices its all on the server.

 

I have the expensive universal remote in one room which is with all of my high end gear... I don't get your argument lol I want a cheap extender for all the other rooms... why would I want to spend money on another remote???

 

Again I don't want a gamepad I want a remote... and there is no way my family would use the gamepad. 

 

I also don't want to game on every tv in the house.. I have my mame arcade machine for that.

 

I don't know where you are getting 4k videos but great I can't wait to play them on my PC and firetv which also supports 4k lol 

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Vidman

Or if you are a cheap ass. :). Guess i shouldn't mention I run an i7-6600 with 32gb of ram as my emby server. He will tell me its overkill and too $$ :)

Oh no now you've done it!! ;)
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epayson85

Perhaps the hdhomerun software got better but considering the stuttering happened only on the NP i find it hard to believe. Which profile are you using for playback? Non transcoded?

 

 

And the playback issues happen even wired so it was not just a wireless issue.

 

Again, when the shields work great on wifi and the NP didn't that doesn't mean my wifi network sucks.

Non transcoded??? Its the hdhomerun prime. There is no transcoding.  Its pulling MPEG2 straight from the box.  If there were transcoding it would have to be done by the nexus player which would slow it down even more.

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epayson85

Or if you are a cheap ass. :). Guess i shouldn't mention I run an i7-6600 with 32gb of ram as my emby server. He will tell me its overkill and too $$ :)

It all depends on what you are doing with it lol people tell me 16gb is overkill for a server and technically it is since I only have use about 10 gigs.  So yea I would say 32 is overkill unless you are also gaming on it.  The i7 isn't overkill if you are doing tons of transcoding... but since you spent a ton of money on shields that "never have to transcode" then yea its absolutely overkill and a waste lol.  If its for gaming an i5 is just as good and in some ways its actually better.  Especially if we are talking emulators.

 

Also I'm not a cheap ass... I'm just not a dumb ass that wastes my money on over priced products.  

Edited by epayson85
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epayson85

That depends on your requirements and expectations, as yours are both low then yes the NP is perfect for you

These aren't my requirements.  I don't use this crap software with an awful GUI.  However I was told that the NP can't use the hdhomerun view and its another reason to spend twice as much money on a shield.  As everyone can now see... thats not true.

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MSattler

It all depends on what you are doing with it lol people tell me 16gb is overkill for a server and technically it is since I only have use about 10 gigs.  So yea I would say 32 is overkill unless you are also gaming on it.  The i7 isn't overkill if you are doing tons of transcoding... but since you spent a ton of money on shields that "never have to transcode" then yea its absolutely overkill and a waste lol.  If its for gaming an i5 is just as good and in some ways its actually better.  Especially if we are talking emulators.

 

See, you have this habit of assuming which makes you look like an an ass.  My family has the ability to watch from any of their devices.  Unlike you, my usage when it comes to apps spans every app that exists currently.  Roku, IOS, Xbox One, Android, Android TV, Web Browser, Emby Theater, Kodi w/ Emby Sync, and DLNA.

 

I have the Shields in the house, except one, allowing me for TrueHD/DTS-HD, View/Google Channels, etc.   My kids can use those at home, and can continue watching at their moms or their grandparents via any of the apps mentioned above.

 

While you may be happy with 10Gigs, I'd rather have the usage be pristine at all times.  Hence why my server is running dual SSD's as a primary disk, with another 128GB SSD and 10GB of memory used for r/w caching using Primo Cache.

 

I guess the point I'm getting at is sure, you can run Emby on next to nothing, and you can run it on crappy hardware for clients.  But why?  If getting the best sounds/video/experience is not what you are after you can go the Kodi/Genesys route.

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MSattler

So here is a length post that deals with some of the playback issues people have with the NP and the HDHomerun.

 

https://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=20053&sid=75e466164a074f2f3e1c3f9b49869df3&start=135

 

As for LiveTV, perhaps the hardware decoding issue is fixed now.  For some time the NP had issues with decoding because of it's ability to hardware decode mpeg-2.

 

Also, depends which HDHomerun we are talking about.  For instance the HDHR Prime, cable card tuner, can only output mpeg-2.  So the player has to be able to support mpeg-2.  There is no transcoding of the feed on the HDHR itself.  

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epayson85

See, you have this habit of assuming which makes you look like an an ass.  My family has the ability to watch from any of their devices.  Unlike you, my usage when it comes to apps spans every app that exists currently.  Roku, IOS, Xbox One, Android, Android TV, Web Browser, Emby Theater, Kodi w/ Emby Sync, and DLNA.

 

I have the Shields in the house, except one, allowing me for TrueHD/DTS-HD, View/Google Channels, etc.   My kids can use those at home, and can continue watching at their moms or their grandparents via any of the apps mentioned above.

 

While you may be happy with 10Gigs, I'd rather have the usage be pristine at all times.  Hence why my server is running dual SSD's as a primary disk, with another 128GB SSD and 10GB of memory used for r/w caching using Primo Cache.

 

I guess the point I'm getting at is sure, you can run Emby on next to nothing, and you can run it on crappy hardware for clients.  But why?  If getting the best sounds/video/experience is not what you are after you can go the Kodi/Genesys route.

So when you and the family aren't using your shields is everyone crying and complaining that its not as fast? LOL How are they possibly watching anything without surround sound??

 

And sorry but again view / google channels works incredibly well on the NP you should check out your wifi LOL 

 

Happy with 10gigs? No I said I have 16 and it only uses 10... thus I said the 6 is technically a waste LOL.  Its not a matter of opinion its FACT.  Its not being used.  Its waste.  Until your computer is maxing out the memory it is wasted.  If the computer is running slow without maxing out its memory then it means it has another bottleneck some where else.  So I guess I'm perfectly happy with it only using 10? what ever that means.  I guess I could be happier if it were using 11 cuz then I would be wasting less?

 

Dual ssds as a primary disk... why? Whats the advantage to say one ssd as your primary disc?  Other than more space its not faster lol.

 

I can completely understand the 128gig as a cache but honestly all I really use my server for is watching video, my smart home software, my security system, and backing everything up... so the drives are more than fast enough even at 5400rpms for doing all of that.  It won't make them start faster either since most of the time the drives are not spinning you will have to wait for that spinning up no matter what so the cache won't help with that.  So unless I had multiple streams all coming from the same exact drive I would never experience any enhancement from that type of cache.  I mean a 10 gig movie at 2 hours only needs 20mbps... Even a 5400rpm drive is going to give you at least 100... and if you have a 50tb server I highly doubt you ever have more than a couple streams coming from the same drive.  So again its a waste.

 

I also don't run emby on next to nothing I have an i5 16gigs of memory and an ssd for my OS / software.  Also I don't understand what you mean by if that experience is not what you are after then go the Kodi route ... Kodi is probably one of the best players when it comes to playing any codec out there.  As far as video / sound goes its pristine.  I just wouldn't give that UI to any one that isn't tech savvy. 

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MSattler

These aren't my requirements.  I don't use this crap software with an awful GUI.  However I was told that the NP can't use the hdhomerun view and its another reason to spend twice as much money on a shield.  As everyone can now see... thats not true.

 

Again, there are plenty of reasons to choose the Shield over the NP.  Let's also remember to get the NP at your $60 you have to be luckily.  I see none right now for that cheap.  Right now units are starting at $80 used.  More for brand new units.  And since none of them are from a Asus Reseller, you run into a warranty issue.   What happens when your cheap $60 player dies in 6 months?  Buy another?

 

Let's just call it what it is.  You want the cheapest player you can get.  Fine, it's the NP.  but if you think the experience on the NP is identical than the shield, you need to continue spending the money you are saving on the illicit drugs you are using that gives you that perception.   Have you noticed anyone else raving on the NP?

 

As for 4k video there is plenty of it out there.  Personally, I like it because it can play the 4k Videos I take with my 4k GoPro.   

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epayson85

So here is a length post that deals with some of the playback issues people have with the NP and the HDHomerun.

 

https://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=20053&sid=75e466164a074f2f3e1c3f9b49869df3&start=135

 

As for LiveTV, perhaps the hardware decoding issue is fixed now.  For some time the NP had issues with decoding because of it's ability to hardware decode mpeg-2.

 

Also, depends which HDHomerun we are talking about.  For instance the HDHR Prime, cable card tuner, can only output mpeg-2.  So the player has to be able to support mpeg-2.  There is no transcoding of the feed on the HDHR itself.  

 "Non transcoded??? Its the hdhomerun prime. There is no transcoding.  Its pulling MPEG2 straight from the box.  If there were transcoding it would have to be done by the nexus player which would slow it down even more."  - My previous post

 

It looks like google hadn't figured out mpeg2 yet on the nexus player and got it fixed with the first marshmallow update.

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MSattler

So when you and the family aren't using your shields is everyone crying and complaining that its not as fast? LOL How are they possibly watching anything without surround sound??

 

And sorry but again view / google channels works incredibly well on the NP you should check out your wifi LOL 

 

Happy with 10gigs? No I said I have 16 and it only uses 10... thus I said the 6 is technically a waste LOL.  Its not a matter of opinion its FACT.  Its not being used.  Its waste.  Until your computer is maxing out the memory it is wasted.  If the computer is running slow without maxing out its memory then it means it has another bottleneck some where else.  So I guess I'm perfectly happy with it only using 10? what ever that means.  I guess I could be happier if it were using 11 cuz then I would be wasting less?

 

Dual ssds as a primary disk... why? Whats the advantage to say one ssd as your primary disc?  Other than more space its not faster lol.

 

I can completely understand the 128gig as a cache but honestly all I really use my server for is watching video, my smart home software, my security system, and backing everything up... so the drives are more than fast enough even at 5400rpms for doing all of that.  It won't make them start faster either since most of the time the drives are not spinning you will have to wait for that spinning up no matter what so the cache won't help with that.  So unless I had multiple streams all coming from the same exact drive I would never experience any enhancement from that type of cache.  I mean a 10 gig movie at 2 hours only needs 20mbps... Even a 5400rpm drive is going to give you at least 100... and if you have a 50tb server I highly doubt you ever have more than a couple streams coming from the same drive.  So again its a waste.

 

I also don't run emby on next to nothing I have an i5 16gigs of memory and an ssd for my OS / software.  Also I don't understand what you mean by if that experience is not what you are after then go the Kodi route ... Kodi is probably one of the best players when it comes to playing any codec out there.  As far as video / sound goes its pristine.  I just wouldn't give that UI to any one that isn't tech savvy. 

 

You are a moron, my wifi is fine.  I gave my NP away for free, as have several others on here.

 

Dual SSD's because in case 1 fails I continue running, mirrored disks.

 

As far as the movies I have nearly all content is 30-40Mbps.  If you have 6 users active at a time, which is common for me, that is 180-240Mbps inbound alone, with the movie being read from the Storage Servers, to the Emby Server.  Add to that the outbound traffic which could be as much as 180-240Mbps.

 

While the movies are coming from seperate drives on seperate storage servers, the internal disk still does a ton of transcoding for users who are remote, which can a majority of my usage.   With the SSD's, and the 10GB of memory and 128GB ssd disk most of the transcoding is being cached, which means less writes to disk, and means the web interface isn't slowed by the constant writes to disk.

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MSattler

 "Non transcoded??? Its the hdhomerun prime. There is no transcoding.  Its pulling MPEG2 straight from the box.  If there were transcoding it would have to be done by the nexus player which would slow it down even more."  - My previous post

 

It looks like google hadn't figured out mpeg2 yet on the nexus player and got it fixed with the first marshmallow update.

 

I guess you are slow.  

 

There are multiple versions of the HDHomerun tuners.  The non prime tuners can transcode directly.

 

The Prime uses Mpeg2, but the client itself needs to decode it.  I said so in my post.  Guess you have trouble reading.  You know just like the bit where I have explained multiple times that my issues with the NP wifi were not my router since wifi works fine for everything else.

 

Sometimes it's easier to shoot the horse than to lead it to water.  This may be one of those cases.

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MSattler

 Also I don't understand what you mean by if that experience is not what you are after then go the Kodi route ... Kodi is probably one of the best players when it comes to playing any codec out there.  As far as video / sound goes its pristine.  I just wouldn't give that UI to any one that isn't tech savvy. 

 

Reading comprehension is obviously lost with you.  

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