• 🇬🇧󠁿 🇸🇪 🇿🇦 🇮🇪 🇬🇭 🇩🇪 🇪🇺
    European & African
    Drug Discussion

    Welcome Guest!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
  • EADD Moderators: Shambles

sites to get a second cheap tvs not ebay or amazon though

It's probably a moot point now as FG isn't around ATM but I was looking in the window of a British Heart Foundation shop the other day (kind of like Oxfam but better quality and loads of electrical goods) and they had portable TVs for a fiver!!

Admittedly they weren't flatscreens and were the old CRT type but I mean fucking hell!....a fiver!!
 
felix said:
Our TV needs a Roku box (or whatever) to make it a Smart TV, and that's all I aspire to for now.
Click to expand...

I looked into a few streaming box options recently, and in the end went for a Minix (x8-h, but there's a range of specs and prices). Seems like a pretty good way to get all the UK catchup TV, with the Android iplayer, itvplayer, 4oD, demand 5 apps, plus Netflix and Now TV subs. I mostly use xbmc to stream vids off my network drive though :)
 
Josh said:
I looked into a few streaming box options recently, and in the end went for a Minix (x8-h, but there's a range of specs and prices). Seems like a pretty good way to get all the UK catchup TV, with the Android iplayer, itvplayer, 4oD, demand 5 apps, plus Netflix and Now TV subs. I mostly use xbmc to stream vids off my network drive though :)
Click to expand...

Cool info, thanks. I'm aware that my most recent investigations are well out of date, so hearing about this Minix is all good. :)

We have a 40" Sony non-smart TV, which is 1080p, and we currently watch digital stuff via a laptop's VGA cable. Either streamed online or from the hardwired gigabit NAS. Old skool, I know. :p Bearing that in mind, would you recommend this Minix thing?

I was blown away by the £1000s that my brother has recently spent on this kinda stuff, like wired ethernet sound and vision and fibre wifi connectivity all over the place, so I'm aware of how out of touch I've been in the past couple of years. Our needs are somewhat simpler but I'm gonna be looking into fibre very soon. :)

All I want for now is to ditch the laptop and VGA solution, have a better interface with a physical remote control, and to be able to access the NAS from the sofa easily. We have wired gigabit ethernet everywhere already, which probably helps.
 
felix said:
All I want for now is to ditch the laptop and VGA solution, have a better interface with a physical remote control, and to be able to access the NAS from the sofa easily. We have wired gigabit ethernet everywhere already, which probably helps.
Click to expand...

Yep. Although the Minix remote is a bit basic (and IR I think, so requires line of sight). I also got mine bundled with their "air mouse" remote, which is at least RF, but the gyro that controls the pointer is a joke, even with the sensitivity turned way down, it dances about all over the place. Reminds me of the time I tried to control a Linux media centre pc with a WiiMote, which is also pitifully inaccurate. I'm using the Google TV Remote app on my phone to control it over WiFi, which seems like a better idea, and half the screen can become a touchpad which is pretty cool.

There are literally a million different Android TV boxes out there, so it's worth reading up on them. I chose the minix based on a recommendation from a techy friend, and it seems like it has a decent online community for support, which I sometimes value over having the most powerful, feature-packed device.

But you should be covered for streaming off any online service that has an android app, and xbmc (soon to be renamed Kodi - sad times, I've been using it since it was only available for chipped original xboxes, and have seen it grow and spread to almost every platform known to man), xbmc supports pretty much every audio and video codec you can throw at it, so it'll suit your local content too.
 
Right. Just to add: our computers all run Linux Mint. The LG NAS runs some proprietary firmware which I intend to upgrade to a FOSS version, which is out there with a strong community. We have two iPhones. Possible remotes?

No Android presence here, and I don't even know if that is something we can harness if we only have iPhones (un-jailbroken and never gonna be). Can there be any interaction with iPhones and an Android-based device like the Minix?

Appreciate this btw. :)
 
Fantastic. Pieces of this are slowly moving into place. :)

BTW this is a samba household! So yeah... it looks like the LG-NAS actually has some Linux-based undercarriage with LG branding. Makes me more confident to do that firmware change actually.

Honestly - thanks for your input here. :)
 
felix said:
Honestly - thanks for your input here. :)
Click to expand...

No problem at all, just sharing what I've recently learnt myself :)

I'm just trying to find some concrete info that the Google remote app will definitely work, it's possible that the Android one is customised for the cpu type in the minix, and I'm not sure the iPhone one is.

What would definitely work is the Xbmc app for iPhone:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/official-xbmc-remote/id520480364?mt=8

...but you'd have to launch Xbmc on the minix first. Perhaps you can do this at boot? I notice that the Xbmc build for minix actually has the capability to launch other Android apps, so you could launch iplayer or Netflix from there too. This is revolutionary to me because for years the home brew iplayer add on for Xbmc has sucked royally, and anything with DRM like Netflix or Spotify was a no go. I think finally I have a device that does everything I want, in a tiny, low powered box :)
 
The iPhone app reviews and the UI look great, so why not?

I've flirted with XMBC via an Xbox before, and could not get any joy out of it. But that was about 3 years ago, and things have moved on a lot everywhere,

I'll look into the Minix and similar devices soon, and realise now that the Roku from the local Currys is probably not the best option for a semi-geek like me.

Cheers! :D
 
felix said:
Right. Just to add: our computers all run Linux Mint.
Click to expand...

I hate Linux mint Josh :|

I have it at home on my machine but I'm all Microsoft windows 7 elsewhere, with professional office. I find it hard to go between the 2 and as far as I'm concerned I can't do work on work spreadsheets, project or word between the 2. Without massive formatting hassle :\

What's wrong with me?

Is it so wrong to want Microsoft across all my machines?

Josh agree with me =D
 
Heh, I like the principle of Linux everywhere, but the software I use for work is windows only, so I end up having windows everywhere at home too. I've had Linux (mint and plain old Ubuntu) media centres and laptops semi- longterm in the past though, but it is easier to stick to one operating system for sure.

I get my open source fix from cyanogenmod on my phone, but that's about it at the moment.
 
I can't be fucked with people regularly conflating BROWSER issues with OS issues.

Mint is rock solid. Firefox is not, and people would have issues with it on Windows too.

Rant over, not directed at anyone not sitting next me. :p

;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top