Fire stick / Chromecast / Pi / etc?
Discussion
When abroad I usually carry an HDMI cable so I can plug my laptop in to a telly and watch downloaded files or streaming TV. I now have an apartment for the next 6 months or more so would like a more user friendly set up, and with Black Friday sales coming in a few weeks, what is my best option?
Firestick:
Presumably I won't be able to get at iPlayer when abroad but could it do the ITV equivalent?
My wife has a prime account, and as a linked account I get the prime delivery but not my own amazon prime video, I assume we could use her account for video but we'd need to be careful that I don't access it here at the same time as she accesses it in the UK?
Can it play streaming media from a computer or drive on the network?
Chromecast:
Does this just mirror my laptop screen on the TV?
If so I assume I use it just like the HDMI cable connection but don't need a physical connection to the TV?
What's the picture quality like on a reasonable sized TV?
If it's from my laptop then it has the advantage of iPlayer being an option through the VPN.
Pi
I have a Pi2 at home that I use the for streaming from the network and watching TED talks, but bought a Zero when they first came out, only to find OSMC didn't work on it at the time. I plan to bring that over next week to try, but can I get decent streaming TV apps on it?
Google suggests it might be possible to set up PureVPN on OSMC to watch iPlayer.
Any other decent options?
Firestick:
Presumably I won't be able to get at iPlayer when abroad but could it do the ITV equivalent?
My wife has a prime account, and as a linked account I get the prime delivery but not my own amazon prime video, I assume we could use her account for video but we'd need to be careful that I don't access it here at the same time as she accesses it in the UK?
Can it play streaming media from a computer or drive on the network?
Chromecast:
Does this just mirror my laptop screen on the TV?
If so I assume I use it just like the HDMI cable connection but don't need a physical connection to the TV?
What's the picture quality like on a reasonable sized TV?
If it's from my laptop then it has the advantage of iPlayer being an option through the VPN.
Pi
I have a Pi2 at home that I use the for streaming from the network and watching TED talks, but bought a Zero when they first came out, only to find OSMC didn't work on it at the time. I plan to bring that over next week to try, but can I get decent streaming TV apps on it?
Google suggests it might be possible to set up PureVPN on OSMC to watch iPlayer.
Any other decent options?
deckster said:
You can sideload Kodi for watching media that is stored on your local network.
Does that mean Kodi is on it as an app and the rest of the firestick functionality remains unchanged?MYOB said:
You can watch amazon prime from your wife's account. Just link your accounts in settings. At least that what I did before.
We already have our Amazon accounts linked, so can see each others Kindle books and Echos, are you saying I should be able to watch prime video when logged in as me rather than having to log in as her?I've just discovered PureVPN have Firestick app so iplayer might be a possibility.
I'm not really bothered about hooky streaming services. If I can get iPlayer and the like, it'll cover most of what I want to watch, but would need the VPN for iPlayer despite paying for a TV licence. Amazon Prime would be a bonus but not really essential, but streaming from my network would be good as I've got "backups" of a lot of my DVDs.
Looks like a Fire Stick + Kodi is winning at the moment, I assume they do some good discounts on them for Black Friday or January sales?
Looks like a Fire Stick + Kodi is winning at the moment, I assume they do some good discounts on them for Black Friday or January sales?
I've got Plex on my PC at home, think I used to use it for the Playstation to stream stuff but stopped using it when I got the Pi, so happy to have that set up on something.
It's starting to sound like I want both a Firestick and a Chromecast to do what I want, but I can't help thinking if I need to sue my laptop to stream to Chromecast, I may as well just leave the laptop plugged in to the telly.
How does Chromecast work with multiple devices? I'm renting a place where the wifi is shared with the Landlord so don't want to find he's got one as well and I'm accidentally streaming to the wrong TV
Not looked at Roku, lack of VPN would mean no iplayer unless I download first to the laptop, in which case I'm back to the Chromecast issue, but at first glance it seems like a more robust and user friendly version of my Pi running OSMC/Kodi. Is that fair or does it do a lot more?
It's starting to sound like I want both a Firestick and a Chromecast to do what I want, but I can't help thinking if I need to sue my laptop to stream to Chromecast, I may as well just leave the laptop plugged in to the telly.
How does Chromecast work with multiple devices? I'm renting a place where the wifi is shared with the Landlord so don't want to find he's got one as well and I'm accidentally streaming to the wrong TV
Not looked at Roku, lack of VPN would mean no iplayer unless I download first to the laptop, in which case I'm back to the Chromecast issue, but at first glance it seems like a more robust and user friendly version of my Pi running OSMC/Kodi. Is that fair or does it do a lot more?
Amazon appear to have the Fire TV Stick with 1st Gen Alexa Voice Remote, and the Fire TV Stick 4K Ultra HD with All-New Alexa Voice Remote
Obviously the latter's 4k while the former's 1080p, and it looks like the 4K ones remote can be set up to control compatible TVs, which the first gen can't, but does anyone know if there are other differences?
Obviously the latter's 4k while the former's 1080p, and it looks like the 4K ones remote can be set up to control compatible TVs, which the first gen can't, but does anyone know if there are other differences?
Picked up a firestick for £25 in the black Friday sale and so far it's not going well. I can watch TED and YouTube on it so the connection is working OK, but PureVPN refuses to connect, so no iplayer and I hadn't realised that ITVplayer and 4OD are also geolocked (I'm in the Netherlands). Plus Plex says I need to link my accounts in the Alexa app, but they're already linked.
Not sure if I've used the vpn since moving in to this flat so it's possible the router is blocking it, I'll have to test that on the laptop tonight. No idea what's happening with Plex though.
Not sure if I've used the vpn since moving in to this flat so it's possible the router is blocking it, I'll have to test that on the laptop tonight. No idea what's happening with Plex though.
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