Cheapest box to play movies with multiple codecs in .mkv and .MP4 from a portable hard drive.

by J-rizzler

Basically my neighbour is a bit old and technophobic and I've been sorting some movies and TV shows out for him to watch. Only thing is his TV will only play certain things, and usually nothing in .mkv or .MP4 will play. I'm guessing it's modern codecs that it struggles with.

So I'm looking for a cheap box I can get, under 50 quid if possible, so that I can just download the movies for him, put them on a hard drive and all he has to do is plug and play.

Any idea what the cheapest box with widest compatibility would be?

BiggussDikkuss

Please for the love of god do not subject you elderly Neighbour to a regular Android box running the Android tablet/touchscreen OS. He will hate you for it.

The included remotes on those sort of devices are usually rubbish. They are nearly always infra red and are IR range limited and need to be pointed directly at the media player. On top of that you have really horrible Air Mice to deal with.

Do yourself (and you Neighbour) a favor and buy an Android TV device, something with a Wireless remote like Mi Box. Or if on an Ultra tight budget a MECOOL Pro W with its Wireless remote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMeIqU_gbWQ

lupenyk

Cheapest Android TV device is Xiaomi Mi Box 3 for 80 pounds.

elister

Raspberry Pi3. Image LibreELEC onto the SD card, power it on and its basically dedicated Kodi box, which will play just about anything you connect to the USB port.

Kodi can control volume easily, so any IR remote should work.

elgenes

Or buy it from here for 44 pounds. After you order go to live chat and make them declare properly so you don't have to pay VAT. I am not sure, but I think you don't have to pay if they declare it as 30 GBP as the VAT payable is under 7 Sterling.

https://www.geekbuying.com/item/-Official-International-Version--XIAOMI-Mi-Box-4K-H-265-Android-Box-371297.html?pmrm=home-top-3small-banner

cedesse

The cheapest solution is to just use a standard Chromecast and the free Videostream for Chromecast app . It plays all common video, audio and container formats (I haven't thoroughly tested it with VP9 and H.265 video though), and it also has subtitle support. Just plug the hard drive into his computer and stream to the TV through the app.

raptor75mlt

You are not looking for an AndroidTV box. Check freaktab forums for comparisons of cheapo china android boxes, and information on the Mecool boxes which are part AndroidTV

azbest_hu

With androidtv the cheapest option is mibox, you need to check what is the cheapest way to buy it in your country.

If androidtv is not a requirement (you want to play back downloaded content), than you can choose any of the cheap s905/s905x/s905w... devices and install libreelec to an sd card. With some luck, you can find someting usable from $30 from china.

https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/9759-choosing-a-s905-s905x-s905d-s905w-s912-box-guide/