re: Battle of the Streaming Boxes

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Im thinking of getting a fire stick and seeing if i can install that XBMC.....

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it can. but if you're willing to spend the extra money the full box is always a better choice.

but is a stick truly mobile?
can i take it to grandmas (who doesn't have HD channels on her TV) or to the hotel on vacation, and use it where ever we go?

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my smart TV in the living room streams full HD via wifi, and it looks great.

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Yeah? How's your fast forward and rewind functions?

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Yeah? How's your fast forward and rewind functions?

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90% of the time it's netflix or amazon movies.
there's not a lot of fast forward and/or rewinding going on.
it may get paused to go pee or to go get the popcorn from the kitchen, but yea it's fanfreakingtastic on netflix ultraHD or Amazon (1080p)

Oh look, there's a thread on the tech board right now about a guy not being happy with his Fire TV wireless: LINK

I'm shocked.

I don't think I'm a good example, my wifi comes from a router downstairs in a restaurant. My qualms with AFTV come from more than just my connection though. But it's growing on me, I'll probably keep it b/c my gf likes it.

Let's get back on the subject.
I'd like to hear about the different user experiences with the streaming devices.....

Calm your tits.

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No. Maybe 1 GB.

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Then if you had wireless reliability issues streaming small files like that, something is wrong.

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What kind of shitty NAS are you talking about? And a NAS doesn't have to worry about interference and walls and furniture. Irrelevant argument.

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Yeah, exaggeration. I'm talking about a NAS, for example, with typical WD reds that top out at about 100 MB/s sequential read in best case. In the scenario I stated, just to emphasize the throughput potential in a worthwhile wireless router, with an AC router with a strong signal (talking in the same room, of course) achieving full throughput per spatial stream, you'd see the Nexus player (2x2) achieve over 800Mbps on an 80MHz channel, translating to just over 100 MB/s (obviously, you'd need a router with a CPU that can quickly process large packets, absolutely zero attenuation as well, so it's not realistic with two spatial streams and accounting for overhead as well. Probably more appropriate to use a low-power laptop HDD as the media source example. But that's all it was, just an example related to throughput -- a fraction of which would be needed for local streaming -- ignoring all interference of course, which you clarified to be your issue rather than throughput, so never mind.)

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And gigabit ethernet will outperform AC all day long in both throughput and reliability.

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It will indeed, if your clients or AP have less than 3 or 4 spatial streams, or your AP placement is not adequate. And sure, even in a perfect scenario, Gbps ethernet > 4x4 MU-MIMO 802.11 AC. But so much more reliable that your wireless experience actually hinders seamless streaming of small media files in any way? Nah, something's wrong there. But APs/routers do vary, as do houses and the freedom to place equipment where it would perform best (so many people ask for router recommendations because their current one doesn't cut it and the wife won't allow it to be moved and mounted elsewhere).

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I was running XBMC on a jailbroken ATV2 for over two years. Earlier this year (last year), I bought a Fire TV and let me tell you it runs XBMC so much smoother. It's night and day after using the ATV2 for all that time. It's definitely worth it for that alone.

However, I will say that I HATE the interface of the native FTV apps like Netflix and WatchESPN. I find myself using both boxes - the FTV solely to run XBMC and the ATV2 for the native apps.

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This, I got tired of the ATV2 constantly rebooting and half the addons not working. So I ordered my 3rd FTV and tried to reload XBMC on the ATV2. Well ATV 2 updated and now I can't get XBMC back on it. No worries. I was prepared to kiss it goodbye for good