I have used many Android and other media players for XBMC and even HTPCs(Intel). Right now i'm using FireTV and i can say it's one of the best media player if not the best. But i must say this that if you are buying FireTV purely for XBMC/Kodi then it's not the best choice to go for cuz it doesn't support HD Audio and have few other problems (similar to all Android players)
Reason i'm still using it cuz i use it for Netflix and Amazon Prime along with XBMC and if u using all these 3 then it's "THE BEST" device otherwise i would suggest buy a chrome box or intel based HTPC if only use is XBMC.
For my own personal XBMC use i'm using my media server which has intel core i3 processor and gives far better Video & Audio Quality.

No FireTV does deliver Dolby Digital 5.1 & DTS but not HD Audio/DTS HDMA/7.1 etc.
But trust me when i say this, I have literally used almost every brand of media player and Android based media player in market and think FireTV is the best among all very reliable, never crash, totally remote control friendly and all applications optimised for the use of remote not like other chinese android media players.
But if my primary and only use is XBMD/Kodi i will go for a dedicated option of either going with a Intel NUC/HTPC/Chromebox type of solution which will give me more juice and better experience than XBMC.
This is i'm saying based on my experience of using following brands (Himedia, xtreamer, Minix, Dune, PCH, Apple TV, Roku, WD TVlive and literally many others) and i have used many of the models of these brands. For Amazon, Netflix, Hulu etc i will use FireTV and for XBMC/Kodi i would go for a custom HTPC with Flirc.
Currently my setup is also based on the same along with a custom build NAS which host my 15TB+ HD collection.

If you or anyone need any suggestion, please feel free to PM me. I have setup many such full network enabled setups for my friends.

This post has been edited by jaan76: Mar 6 2015, 04:16 PM

I'm using both cuz i'm using multiple devices some are connected through Wifi (5Ghz) and some through Gigabit Network, but my NAS server is connected through Gigabit LAN using Gigabit Home Plug.

Bro i bought DLINK, QNAP and Synology NAS devices in the past but was not satisfied with them one they are very expensive (as my collection was growing) and even from functionality and interface point of view was not satisfied with their functionality (to my linking).
So i decided to build my own NAS my first NAS was using AMD Mobo with built-in processor which comes with 6 SATA, running ubuntu with few software to perform usual tasks. While building this NAS i did tried few pure NAS OSs but again i found after many iterations that ubuntu is the best OS for me to build the NAS. Later i upgraded my NAS with Asus H87i mobo and core i3 processor (i know many people have concerns regarding power usage of core i3 but i used a power meter to test and i find i can live with the power consumption because using i3 proc gave me excellent performance. With AMD mobo i was used to have buffering issue but with core i3 proc streaming is smooth even for my Bluray collection as i got many 3D BD ISO and BDMV folder collection.
2nd reason of using core i3 is that now i'm hosting and managing my video library through software mediabrowser which has far better and excellent interface and functionality than XBMC & Plex. So now my backend is mediabrowser running on my NAS and managing my video library and frontend is XBMC as XBMC can consume mediabrowser library, so no need to create library in xbmc. cuz of this i can even access and let other consume my collection over the internet.
Biggest issue for me was finding a nice casing for my NAS and after doing more than a month or two research i found Lian Li Q25 as one of the best casing, it's very compact, very premium quality and can take 8HDDs
I have built 4 such NASes so far for my few friends. This is the config:
1. Casing: Lian Li Q25
2. Mobo: Asus H87i
3. Proc: core-i3 Ivy bridge
4. OS HDD: SDD
5. Total Storage: 17TB
6. OS: Ubuntu 14.04
7. Software: Webmin (for over the web management), mediabrowser (Library Management), XBMC (front end)
8. Remote: FLIRC (best device for remote control) + Harmony Ultimate

Let me know if you want to know anything else, if you would like i can help you build the NAS, don't worry no charge

This post has been edited by jaan76: Mar 6 2015, 09:21 PM

Thanks bro, i did monitor power usage in both cases, also frankly for me quality is more important than consumption, mind you my NAS is running 24*7*365 i have never shutdown my NAS and thanks to ubuntu it never slowdown or require restart after few days. cuz i'm running XBMC also for one of my viewing on the NAS so i have made some tweaks and my XBMC on ubuntu also support HD audio.

I do have an option to set raid but none in my case, as mentioned by WhitELighterR no point setting raid for media server and waste storage

True but these are just movies can be downloaded again though i have backup of my collection cuz i copied all of them to one of my friend

Well in last 5 years i only had one of my HDD crash and that was also purely my fault while copying movies using toaster i hit the toaster and HDD fell down, but i had backup of those movies so no lost

No bro, yes ubuntu do update but you don't need to update every time. like for last 1 year or more i was running 13.10 despite 14.04 and 14.10 were available. i just recently last month actually updated the server to 14.04. cuz you running this as a NAS so you don't need to update to every new release or patchset. again in my case my kids who are only 10 & 6 year old use the NAS more than i do never a problem. Cuz this s the beauty of running a ubuntu/linux based NAS it never hangs, restart, crash and keep running for months without requiring a restart. Also for end user it doesn't matter what's running in backend cuz for them access is through XBMC so either ubuntu or a readymade NAS it's same for them. Let's say even if there's a problem all what they need to do is restart the server which they can do by just pressing power button.
2nd thing in my case i have setup my NAS and home network in a way that i can access my NAS with full operational access from anywhere in the world so even if i'm not home i can still perform maintenance tasks over the internet.

Touchwood bro really i never had a bad disk as i said the one incident was also purely my fault Which brand disks you got? I bought all WD disk made especially for NAS/Video archive use mode.

Bro just 2 days ago despite having experience with many Android and other media players i decided to give a try to another Android box for pure XBMC use and returned the same day. so now i will only count on 2 devices either build my own HTPC or Amazon FireTV. I returned that Android player and bought another FireTV cuz i think this is really one of the best media player even if you are buying only for use of XBMC.
So i would suggest if no hassle buy FireTV (BTW you can attach a USB keyboard with FireTV, i have attached one with it though hardly use) or if you willing to spend more money then build a HTPC. Amazon FireTV is locally available from one guy, excellent seller this is my 2nd device from him and i'm very happy.

Bro have you compared or used other media players, would be interested to know how the performance compare to other devices? Does RPi support HD Audio (DTS-HDMA, DD HD etc) also how is the performance while playback of Bluray ISO or BDMV folder over LAN?
This is the only device i have never tested or used and would be happy to buy if it supports the above.

Yeah mostly Chinese. For fire tv you can check kindle Malaysia website just google kindle Malaysia. Excellent seller I won't mind paying more for the excellent service he provide and comes with local warranty.

I'm facing a strange problem and have already spent too much hours but no fix. My kodi on my Ubuntu server is not connecting to Internet. My internet is working fine and i'm able to ping or use internet in everyway on my server but when i run Kodi and go to information page, it says not connected and check your internet.
This start happening right after i upgraded to Kodi 14.2.
any help????

Tried and tested many chinese media players but nothing beat the quality and stability of FireTV.

Hi,
Can you please guide which one is a better choice to build OPENELEC media player to watch 1080p movies, either Intel Celeron N2820/N2830 process or new Intel Atom processor i.e. Z3735F or how these 2 compare with RPI-2? Which one would you suggest? Use is purely watching online contents from Genesis etc or watching 1080p movies from local disk attached via USB.

May i know why? Also then what would you suggest?

And if I want dtshdma/truehd then what's the suggestion?

Nope power is least of my concerns.

Bro the whole point of asking for was that i don't want it to be heavy on my pocket. Let me tell you my setup
I have currently 3 Kodi's running
1. Core I3/Ubuntu (Dual Job of my NAS + Kodi) (Support All HD Audio and Video formats no problem, but it's basically my NAS so can't let kids play with it)
2. Amazon FireTV (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu + Kodi) (Keeping for HD playback of Amazon, Netflix, Hulu... Kodi is just a plus cuz Kodi doesn't support all HD Audio formats)
3. RPI 2 (Newly build, running OSMC, after trying OPENELEC, Kodi and OSMC.. decided OSMC is the most stable and best... but it doesn't support HD Audio)

So now i'm looking for is there any solution which shouldn't cross RM500-600 total which can play all HDAudio and Video formats without buffering/stuttering issues.
Problem with building a Intel based HTPC is the lack of nice HTPC casings availability in MY and those available online or in Singapore also very expensive. so that's where i started looking into Intel NUCs (celeron) or those other new Intel Atom based mini PCs which are very small and do fits the budget.