Is Roku or Chromecast worth it? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Is Roku or Chromecast worth it?

Motorcycle Mike

Motorcycle Mike

Well-known member
I currently download any shows or movies that I want to watch from private trackers and play them on the tv using a patriot box media serve, it is free and works great.

I am considering a Roku or a Chromecast though, mainly for surfing the TV... but am wondering how much content they offer for free? I don't really want to get a netflix or hulu account or any such nonsense because I belong to some of the best trackers out there and can get almost anything I want for free -- I just can't stream it.

If either one has a decent amount of free content, then I would give it a shot. Can either get discovery channel or any of the home reno/real estate shows that my wife likes to watch?
 
I just ordered an Android Tv Box.. I believe you can get most of that content for free through XBMC on the Android Box. I just experimented with XBMC and MotoGP on the tablet for free. Seems to work ok. Not sure of the picture quality on the larger TV though.
 
A guy at work was just telling me about his G-Box MX2 thingy. He bought it off a guy on kijiji and he said he gets a bunch of TV streams and movies for free. I currently torrent everything I watch and play it through AppleTV.
 
Chromecast seems neutered. You can only watch what they want you to watch. Get an HTPC with some fat storage space and be done with it... let it handle all your media.
 
N3WMAN said:
Stick with what you're doing. Most of the streaming stuff looks like ****.
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Yeah, I think that is the best plan.

My download machine is a repurposed laptop that runs linux, and it runs in the basement directly below my TV, so now I am just thinking about running a 15ft HDMI cable through the floor and operate the laptop via teamviewer or similar. That way I could stream stuff through XMBC if I wanted to, or could play the downloaded stuff directly on the screen with VLC and bypass the PBO if I wanted to.
 
Diesel said:
Yeah, I think that is the best plan.

My download machine is a repurposed laptop that runs linux, and it runs in the basement directly below my TV, so now I am just thinking about running a 15ft HDMI cable through the floor and operate the laptop via teamviewer or similar. That way I could stream stuff through XMBC if I wanted to, or could play the downloaded stuff directly on the screen with VLC and bypass the PBO if I wanted to.
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If you're running cables you might as well run a USB extension up to the TV too... maybe hook up a bluetooth dongle and use a keyboard/mouse/trackpad to basically retain full functionality of the PC.

I have an old macbook pro under my TV, it's awesome. Never cared for having keyboards and mice on the coffee table but Apple makes some pretty stuff... the wireless keyboard and trackpad are great for exactly this kinda thing.
 
my suggestion
get a netbook and you are set
put elementary OS and maybe upgrade them to 2gb of ram
it will use little power, smaller, works well
hookup an external drive and make it a backup machine too

there is a wifi keyboard with a built in touchpad...I think logitech makes it
 
-D- said:
there is a wifi keyboard with a built in touchpad...I think logitech makes it
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Logitech has one, as do several other companies. I've been using an Adesso in the garage for years.

Adesso-WKB-4000US-SlimTouch-Wireless-Touchpad-keyboard.jpg
 
I run a 8 year old PC with a 2tb hard drive and Microsoft media center has a tv tuner so I still get ota tv and local news.

If you had to choose I would go with a roku 3. The chrome cast is a waste.
 
I have a Roku 2 and a Chromecast stick.

ChromeCast is a great product for the 35 dollars that it costs. At this time in Canada you are limited to Netflix youtube and some other apps (The streaming torrent site popcorn time supports full casting tho) and the tab cast works ok but not with MAC right now (For some reason). Like most of googles products its is still in very early Beta. But it does work well and as more developers work with it functionality will increase. The annoying thing is that when you stream apps like Netflix it takes over the streaming and uses its own(googles) DNS servers so even using media hint wont let you want US Netflix by it. The Roku stick is the roku app loaded in a stick so its more of a stand alone product and its also a very good price at $50 but roku in Canada is limited for channels and without A Paid VPN its difficult to get US content.

To be fair trying to compare chrome cast to Roku isn't a fair comparison. While they have some of the same features the Roku is a stand alone product were the Chromecast is more of a media extender and is meant to be paired with Tablets and phones for content. If you don't always want to have a smart phone or tablet kicking around get the Roku. If you are using it to simply have the ability to watch Netflix in a room without having a big *** media box in like i am the Chromecast is great and will only get better.
 
So I turned my MiniPC into an HTPC using XBMC, replacing my WDTV(I should be a rapper). Surprised how well it works. Imported all my movies from an external HDD and added the common streams. The scrapers do a great job of getting all the info, a few I had to fix manually but 90% imported properly. The streaming quality is not as good as a proper rip, but its good enough to watch the occasional movie or show you cant be bothered to DL.

XBMC can also handle games with an addon so I threw on some emulators and made it into an arcade in addition to HTPC duties. I can now go from watching a show to playing Mario Kart 64 within the same program. Got the usb sync module for the 360 controllers and it works a treat.

Overall I am impressed by XBMC's versatility. I used to think it was just for knobs to watch free movies, but once you get into the addons it is way more than that.

Now I gotta throw a cheap SSD into this thing to speed up the boot time and I'll be set.
 
N3WMAN said:
XBMC can also handle games with an addon so I threw on some emulators and made it into an arcade in addition to HTPC duties. I can now go from watching a show to playing Mario Kart 64 within the same program. Got the usb sync module for the 360 controllers and it works a treat.
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Oh, really??? It has a ROM Emulator addon? and it streams to your television, or do you have to output video from the device to your television??
 
SweetOnion said:
Oh, really??? It has a ROM Emulator addon? and it streams to your television, or do you have to output video from the device to your television??
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You install the emulators seperate(ZSNES, JNES, Project64 in this case). Then you use advanced launcher plugin to index all the titles and scrape the info for them. So you can launch games directly through xbmc.
 
N3WMAN said:
You install the emulators seperate(ZSNES, JNES, Project64 in this case). Then you use advanced launcher plugin to index all the titles and scrape the info for them. So you can launch games directly through xbmc.
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Great to know. I first just downloaded xbmc to stream media to my smart tv, but have been finding more and more cool uses for it.

Although I have found that the add on channels, ie south park, only has 9 minutes or so of an episode. Any ideas there?? I don't mind downloading the stuff and doing it old school anyway, but seeing all those tv addons is somewhat desirable.
 
N3WMAN said:
So I turned my MiniPC into an HTPC using XBMC, replacing my WDTV(I should be a rapper). Surprised how well it works. Imported all my movies from an external HDD and added the common streams. The scrapers do a great job of getting all the info, a few I had to fix manually but 90% imported properly. The streaming quality is not as good as a proper rip, but its good enough to watch the occasional movie or show you cant be bothered to DL.



XBMC can also handle games with an addon so I threw on some emulators and made it into an arcade in addition to HTPC duties. I can now go from watching a show to playing Mario Kart 64 within the same program. Got the usb sync module for the 360 controllers and it works a treat.

Overall I am impressed by XBMC's versatility. I used to think it was just for knobs to watch free movies, but once you get into the addons it is way more than that.

Now I gotta throw a cheap SSD into this thing to speed up the boot time and I'll be set.
Click to expand...

don't buy the 500gb units or under, they are older and had issues
the 750gb or 1TB is cheap


save the money on ssd
try the seagate momentus xt 750gb hybrid laptop hard drive.
Been using one for a while now and it is pretty fast.
Considering you can load linux on the 8gb part of the ssd it will fly.

These hybrid drives are a good median and work pretty damn good.
 
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