re: Piece of electronics you bought that never really caught on

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originally bought Roku 3 for this purpose

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I can't really say that people are favoring Roku over Ouya for what you're describing. Roku was never intended to be a network media streaming device- it's why I was so hesitant to spring for one until the 2nd gen came out and my desire to tinker and MAKE it a network box work.

To that end, my 2007 purchase of the D-Link Media Lounge 510 was utter upset. My buddy had just landed a nice job and bought his first home, so he decided to set the electronics in it up like he wanted. Went with 7 in-ceiling speakers and a powered standard woofer. When he was explaining this to me, I offered up a solution to stream my extensive music library from my room to the living room with the entertainment system. The solution was utter failure that never particularly worked very well. The included Nero Media Home server failed to connect to the wireless G device. It wasn't until several years later when I abandoned that software and realized it was UPnP + DLNA compatible that I found use for it.

Which brings me full circle to the Roku network streaming, as this applies to both devices equally well: go for an off-device solution that is controlled remotely and turns the device into a "dumb" receiver. Twonky and "play to" in media player are both excellent ways of doing this. It requires phone/tablet/computer browsing and selection of file for streaming, but has been the best solution for pushing media to a device.


ETA: per my invoice, I spent $199.99 + $9.99 shipping for that box.