Looking For a Box To Play Local Media

by Paft_Diddy

I gave my Raspberry Pi 3 to my sister. So need something to replace it. I could get a Pi 4 but the board alone is £58 for the 4GB model. All it needs to do is play local media over the network/NAS and USB with Kodi ( for library managing) and support for demanding formats like x265.

I'm looking at these android boxes on Amazon but 99% of them look like China crap with mixed reviews for various reasons.

I'm only on a 1080p display for now. But to save buying twice ideally it needs to support 4k.

The reason I was looking into android box instead of a Pi is the price and having to make your own power switch, or a plug with a switch on it, which isn't quite as ideal.

googllgoog

A xiaomi mi box could do the trick

jouja_thefirst

Mi box s and it's super cheap on AliExpress

Paft_Diddy

Thanks. I've seen those. It seems about the only branded one. Sadly it doesn't have a network port. i still might consider it though.

BiggussDikkuss

I suggest you look for the most popular AMLogic S905X2 box to run CoreELEC Kodi. The X96 Max seems popular.

https://discourse.coreelec.org/

And if you are heading down the 4K route in the future one with a Gigabit LAN (1000M)

Such a combo will be far better for playing anything you throw at it vs Android. Much better vs a RPi4 as well.

There are a few of us using such a Combo :D

https://stats.coreelec.org/