What's the best comprehensive client device for live TV?

[bcjenkins]

Hi all,

I am interested in buying a device which has the capability of playing MPEG-TS with AC3 audio without the need to transcode it. The ideal device would support a full fledged remote. I would likely use something like the Atlas OCAP 1056B01 and program it with JP1 cables.

The device should support the use of 3rd party applications and streaming services so that it works with Netflix, Plex, Amazon, etc.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[SHS]

Nvidia Shield or look in to Ultra Compact Mini PC like Intel NUC or Zotac or Gigabyte Brix as for your Remote that I don't know but it should work with USB-UIRT.

[jchiso]

You will likely need to go all the way up to a Windows PC. A Flirc receiver could fill your remote control receiving needs ...

[wayner]

IMHO you might be better off with two devices - a HD-300 for SageTV and a Roku or something similar for everything else.

[Telecore]

Originally Posted by wayner

IMHO you might be better off with two devices - a HD-300 for SageTV and a Roku or something similar for everything else.

+1 I also use hd300+Roku - just plain works with good hard button remote control (Logitech 650). Nvidia Shield is really close to being a great all in one solution - but it is designed around a remote with few buttons and I can't seem to get ac3 out of the box.

[stuckless]

The NVidia Shield does the fit the bill pretty closely. The main challenge is really audio-passthrough. If you use the ExoPlayer player, it does support it, but, I find the video handling to be buggy (that's my fault, since I need to figure out what's going on, and how to fix it). Using IJKPlayer (it's a ffmpeg based player), plays everything and will use hardware decoders if they exist, but it will not do audio-passthrough, and it's likely it never will. In my home, I use 2 Shields at my primary viewing areas, and I use a MIBox at the 3rd less used station. We use a mix of SageTV, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Plex, so it's worked out very well. I admit, I've changed how I use the devices vs trying to force my will on them. ie, I use the 5 button remote, and I've actually grown to prefer to it, but I still need the full universal remote to turn on the tv, audio system, etc, but then I just use the 5 button remote until I go to turn off the system. I find the prayer, "grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference", goes a long way in achieving technological happiness

[KeithAbbott]

If only the quote was "grant my wife and children the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to let me change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference". Then, maybe we're talking...

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

If only the quote was "grant my wife and children the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to let me change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference". Then, maybe we're talking...

(That's good)

I will confess... I have been fortunate. My wife works in the technology sector (as do I) and she's been pretty good at "accepting change" provided I can show value. So when I moved to 1 device to control everything instead of 2 and HDMI switching, etc, BUT the remote changed, she was fairly accepting. My kids, they likely don't know how to actually turn on a TV. Any TV they watch is done via Plex/Netflix/YouTube on their desktops.

[KarylFStein]

I have a Harmony remote and it controls the SHIELD (plus everything else) just fine. I just have to remember things like long press instead of channel down to scroll a list a page at a time, etc. It doesn't do audio searches, though, so use the gamepad for that.

ExoPlayer has been working well for playback with audio passthrough AFTER I started transcoding everything. (Something I'd really like to get away from doing, but not a huge deal.) What does Emby use for playback and could it be incorporated into the mini-client? I know before I started transcoding everything I tried playing some problem files through the Emby app and they worked with audio passthrough.

[Greg2dot0]

Just got a shield for the main viewing area and it's a champ compared to all of the other sage streamers I've tried (except of course the HD300). I was wondering if there was any work being done on the client to optimize it for simplified remotes. it would be great to be able to hold the scroll-down button instead of having to press-release-repeat.

I don't understand if this is a complex ask or not, but figured I'd ask just the same.