Media Streamer recommendation

[Dargason]

All,

I'm finding myself in need of a media streamer capable of streaming vudu, netflix, amazon, etc. I have a Roku that works fine and I was planning to get another, but now that stuckless is making such great progress on an android app for sageTV, it makes sense for me to get something that is or will be supported by this.

Without having done any research yet, I think the options are
Nexus player
Nvidia shield (expensive option?)
Amazon fireTV stick

I know many of you have experience with several of these options and I'm wondering if you can provide your thought, pro vs. con, etc?

It would be nice if the UI isn't too different from Roku in that my GF needs to be able to pick it up and use it and she's not interesting in anything complicated.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[stuckless]

I think the Nvidia Shield will be $149 on the black friday sales. If you are in the US, you can probably get it at several stores.

http://shield.nvidia.com/black-friday#x

As for the UI, it won't be like the Roku, but it's pretty simple. Just check out the Android TV site, they have lots of screenshots of what the main UI looks like.
https://www.android.com/intl/en_ca/tv/

The Nexus Player, I think is a decent device as well, but I'm also interested in the G-Box, since the specs on that seem pretty impressive.

http://www.amazon.ca/Matricom-G-Box-.../dp/B00QHLSKOE

[Dargason]

Hmm... thanks for the comments, Sean.

I hadn't heard of the G-box, but it looks like a great option. It's only $100 here in the US, which isn't much more than the other options, but it has a much better remote.

Are all 'android TV' devices basically capable of running Android TV apps?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Dargason

Hmm... thanks for the comments, Sean.

I hadn't heard of the G-box, but it looks like a great option. It's only $100 here in the US, which isn't much more than the other options, but it has a much better remote.

Are all 'android TV' devices basically capable of running Android TV apps?

Well, that's hard to say, from looking at the G-Box site, it says that it's running Android 4.4 and most Android TV units are running 5.

You an also look at the Fire TV unit which I hear is another good unit. Eventually I'd like to get each of these to do some testing.

[Dargason]

I did a little more research. There are some reports that the G-box has trouble running some apps, and although I saw a forum post that they are working on upgrading to Android 5.0, that was in August with no update. The same forum commented that the system had a lot of problems...

So I'm leaning towards the Amazon Fire TV, which probably has much larger development/support teams and certainly larger volumes. The latest one also is quad core with 2GB of ram, though it has less on-board storage than the g-box. (only 8GB vs. 16GB). The fire TV, though, as a microSD slot which enables expansion up to 128GB. Unfortunately it is rather new and there are some reviews that it is buggy. (Mostly related to 4k video, which I don't have, though)

[dinki]

I own three Matricom G-Box MX2's (bought two, one given to me). Official support is dreadful. They promised to fix the MPEG2 720p problem I've mentioned before multiple times but as far as I know still has not been fixed after being in their to do list for over a year. They also promise updated firmware to fix other things but rarely deliver. I would advise against purchasing any of their gear.

That said, I was able to flash OpenELEC on the boxes and they are very solid if your only intention is to run Kodi.

[Dargason]

The fire TV went on sale today for $75 and I bought it. It should be arriving on Saturday.

[Gustovier]

I would go with the Nvidia shield. It has hardware decoding for a lot of codecs. It also has proper refresh rate handling. It also can run Netflix / HBO go / etc (missing Amazon prime though) that almost all of those tv boxes that run phone/tablet version of android. It's still missing some things bout Nvidia has been pretty good about listening to feedback and adding features. Can't wait to see what we get in the next update as it will be a major one and should include marshmallow.

[Dargason]

Anyone know anything about this one? It lists the following for its video decoder:
Video Decoder: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, H.265, AVS, VC-1, RV, VP6 / VP8, Sorenson Spark, HEVC 4K x 2K

http://www.amazon.com/Android-RK3288.../dp/B0122UZQPY