HD300 Replacement options

[Dargason]

I have an HD300 that I think is on its last legs, and I'm looking for replacement options. I know the NVidia shield is a good option, but I'm between careers at the moment and can't justify the cost.

I heard the MiBox worked pretty well, but that was a year ago and I wonder if there are better options available now.

I saw this list and see that there are a lot of boxes out there I've never heard of. The KitBox in particular looks like a great choice, assuming it runs the miniclient OK.

Does anyone have any experience with these boxes? What should I be looking for in terms of Android version, or chipset, or capabilities, or features?

BTW, I have a gen2 fireTV running the miniclient, but it doesn't work terribly well. It seems picky about the file format, which I don't have control over as it's all being recorded from OTA tuners. And it doesn't seem to be deinterlacing...

Thanks,
Mike

[panteragstk]

Use any box that has Android TV installed. There aren't very many that actually run Android TV, but there are tons that run regular Android. Which isn't meant to work with a remote, but expects touch input so the experience isn't very good.

If you were to get a regular Android box you caould try to install the leanback launcher (Android TV launcher) and see if it works, but the Mi box works very well for me.

I also have a shield and it works very well too. The new version of the shield is cheaper since the remote comes with it, but I understand being leery of the price. Especially since the Mi box works almost as well for a third of the money.

Check here for all the "official" Android TV devices.

[wayner]

Or you could try to buy a used HD300 or HD200. IMHO they work at least as well as a MiBox, especially if you have MPEG-2 content. I have lots of HD-200s that are still running fine after close to a decade and 2 HD300s.

[JustFred]

Also consider this: often it's just the power supply (wall wart) that dies first. A replacement power supply often sells for $10-15. Others have reported this one works well: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038NCES2...=I36U1QTRB2T15

Or look thru your junk box of old modem/router/switch power supplies. 12 volt power supplies are very common.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by JustFred

Also consider this: often it's just the power supply (wall wart) that dies first. A replacement power supply often sells for $10-15. Others have reported this one works well: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038NCES2...=I36U1QTRB2T15

Or look thru your junk box of old modem/router/switch power supplies. 12 volt power supplies are very common.

agreed about old HD200's, as I have 10 yr old units. Also check Salvation Army, Goodwill, thrift shops for power supplies. You can find them there for .50 cents.

[wayner]

And one other issue that some folks have had with HD300s is overheating - make sure that it is well ventilated or add a fan blowing over it to keep it cool.

[panteragstk]

The SageTV extenders are great, but they only do SageTV. If you just want that, then used is probably the way to go, but if you want any of the streaming services, kodi, emby, plex, etc. then I'm all for the all in one solution that android TV offers.

Even then, you can go into "single app mode" on any of the Android boxes, even the cheap ones that will launch sage from startup so there is no other UI to worry about. As cheap as some of these boxes are it might be worth a try.

[SteveW]

Something to keep in mind - there is also the question of what is in your video library, if anything, that you want to be able to play.

As far as I know, at the moment, you still cannot play straight bluray and dvd rips with the android client. You'd be limited to extenders or clients.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by SteveW

Something to keep in mind - there is also the question of what is in your video library, if anything, that you want to be able to play.

As far as I know, at the moment, you still cannot play straight bluray and dvd rips with the android client. You'd be limited to extenders or clients.

I have a comparison of the MiniClient vs Extender vs Client here...

https://github.com/OpenSageTV/sagetv-miniclient/wiki

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I have a comparison of the MiniClient vs Extender vs Client here...

https://github.com/OpenSageTV/sagetv-miniclient/wiki

a full client being a PC with installed software? Nice table Do you t think at some point functionality for say a USB UIRT may be added to the miniclient, so the IR remote checkbox would be crossed off, or is that not possible...

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by SteveW

Something to keep in mind - there is also the question of what is in your video library, if anything, that you want to be able to play.

As far as I know, at the moment, you still cannot play straight bluray and dvd rips with the android client. You'd be limited to extenders or clients.

While true, I don't know why you would use SageTV for this on an Android client that has things like plex, emby, kodi, etc.

I got tired of maintaining two sets of metadata and totally switched movie playback to Plex. To each his own. I also switched everything over to .mkv for compatibility reasons too. As annoying as it may be, it is still something to think about to somewhat future proof things.

I used PC clients exclusivly before the Android TV clients and SageTV never played back blu-rays reliably for me. I had to use an external player.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

a full client being a PC with installed software? Nice table Do you t think at some point functionality for say a USB UIRT may be added to the miniclient, so the IR remote checkbox would be crossed off, or is that not possible...

Yeah, "Full Client" mean Windows PC.

As for IR... as long as things like FLIRC exist, there's no need for it to be baked into the MiniClient itself.. I'd just be duplicating that effort, and likely not doing it as well

[7up]

I've haven't tried it recently but does Kodi have the ability to do DVD or Blu-ray playback? While not supported by mini client, just wondering if that's still an option for Android TV devices.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by 7up

I've haven't tried it recently but does Kodi have the ability to do DVD or Blu-ray playback? While not supported by mini client, just wondering if that's still an option for Android TV devices.

Yep. One of the main things kodi does well. I'm assuming they are stored in the original folder structure? If you've converted to a container (mkv, m2ts, something else) then you can use plex or emby as well.

For android I'd use SPMC instead of Kodi as it is written specifically for android. Same thing, but a fork of Kodi.

[DarkWolf77]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Yeah, "Full Client" mean Windows PC.

As for IR... as long as things like FLIRC exist, there's no need for it to be baked into the MiniClient itself.. I'd just be duplicating that effort, and likely not doing it as well

I'll also note that the Shield supports IR natively, no need for FLIRC - I have it set up with my logitech harmony 650 and it works great.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by DarkWolf77

I'll also note that the Shield supports IR natively, no need for FLIRC - I have it set up with my logitech harmony 650 and it works great.

I'm pretty sure only the old (2015) version does, not the new (2017) version.

I haven't had much luck with MPEG-2 and the SageTV client on the Shield, so I would personally not recommend it at this point.

[dgeezer]

The old version of the shield does have an ir receiver and works with my Harmony hub remote using ir. The 2017 does not support ir but it does come with a remote. It will pair with the harmony hub remote using Bluetooth and works very well. The only difference is that the ir on the 2015 model supports a few more buttons. Stop being the one that comes to mind.

Maybe I'm not as picky, or don't have great vision anymore, but we find that the mpeg2 playback is good enough. I use the standard player in the Miniclient.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by cncb

I'm pretty sure only the old (2015) version does, not the new (2017) version.

I haven't had much luck with MPEG-2 and the SageTV client on the Shield, so I would personally not recommend it at this point.

Mpeg2 works perfectly fine if you don't use exo player. I have zero problems.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Mpeg2 works perfectly fine if you don't use exo player. I have zero problems.

I have "lip sync" problems when playing through my AVR which I assume is due to bitstreaming/passthrough being unavailable for ijkplayer.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by DarkWolf77

I'll also note that the Shield supports IR natively, no need for FLIRC - I have it set up with my logitech harmony 650 and it works great.

I didn't know that.. although I'm pretty acclaimatized to the shield remote now... I tend to prefer it.