PC Tech Thread

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hugo7 in reply to @spotter

@spotter

have done this for over a decade, and have set numerous up for loads of friends / family inc. user @amey My recomendation is to get an enterprise SFF desktop (Dell/HP/Lenovo).

They are small, low power, take normal components, easily upgradable and importantly cheap on eBay.

There are some even smaller form factor ones like the HP Elitedesk Mini's which use laptop components

Do you set up remote controls with this? And if so which one? And does it support voice control?

For some reason kodi has been playing up with my firestick. I've only tried it with borrowed content rather than the apps. Nvidia shield is a bit more than I want to spend, but equally if a SFF is £70 + £30 for a remote which isn't as easy to use then it seems like less vfm. Cheers.

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aggi in reply to @hugo7

I used to have a PC as a media center. Had it set up with Kodi (with Plex add-on) and used an IR remote control. These days I'd use a bluetooth remote as they tend to allow switching between cursor and mouse mode and don't require line of sight. (You can get remotes for about a tenner.)

Realistically though they are a faff if you go beyond just using Kodi, Steam big picture, etc. Windows isn't designed to be used from the sofa.
Something like this can help if you want portable

but I also ended up using a K400 for ease.

I've got an Nvidia Shield but they are remarkably expensive given the age of them (I bought mine nearly 4 years ago). They are probably still the best option if you want all singing, all dancing but unless you need the USB ports or want to run a plex server on there I'd get a Google TV chromecast 4k which I think is about £50.

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hugo7 in reply to @aggi

Cheers.

I'm using an unlocked Fire TV Stick 4k Ultra HD. 4yo now and has been fine, but recently started playing up a bit, and Kodi seems to not want me to borrow Rob and Ramesh from the Internet when I use Kodi.

I've added a skin to make Kodi a bit more usable and tidied it up. I realise this does have a performance downside when using something with so little power.

Tbh if it wasn't getting a bit temperamental I wouldn't be looking elsewhere. The voice control is good, other people can use it, and it was £30.

For someone who's unlikely to get around to running a server the Shield just seems like so much more money. But then when I see comments about Android boxes or your eg of a media centre they never sound so much better than an unlocked fire stick and seem to be creeping towards the cost of a Shield.

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