My mother has decided to switch to amazon video or netflix exclusively since commercials on TV have become too much of a nuisance for her, obviously I'll help her find the best solution but what TV stick or tiny computer would be the best choice here?
She'll basically need one small computer (just for media consumption, watching netflix or youtube or playing back video/music) like the Asrock Beebox. I'm just naming that one since Wendell did a video on it a while ago and it seemed pretty nice. Anything in that formfactor with low power consumption, wireless, bluetooth, USB and HDMI will work. Ideally one m.2 or msata slot + one 2.5'' HDD slot, but just the HDD slot will be fine too. If that could stay <100€ that would be ideal. If it comes with and can be controlled well with a remote that would also be a huge plus.
For the second TV upstairs one of those TV sticks should be fine, it just needs to connect to her router via WLAN and do netflix, amazon video and youtube, basically. A bit of web browsing would also be nice. There are plenty of these HDMI sticks out there but I honestly have no clue which one is the best value and the most user-friendly.
If anyone could point me towards the right direction here that would be great, thanks in advance!
MY first thought is a 5350 build with that asrock board that allows you to use a laptop charger. Then a tiny case (there is a cheap one that expects you to use a micro psu, but the asrock board eliminates that need), and a cheap ssd. I don't know how much that would cost in pounds, but I would expect more than 100. Would be the most versatile option and the cheapest way to get a full computer (aside from something like a pi).
She doesn't have a computer, at all. So I want this thing to serve as a netflix box that she can also use to do all kinds of other tasks, it doesn't need to be powerful but it should be able to run Windows and Linux, all kinds of programs and peripherals and have enough options for storage.
I use a pretty old core-2 laptop with a 2.4GHz dualcore and 4GB of ram and it does just fine, a NUC from intel (or a similar tiny PC from asrock or zotac) comes with a Celeron dualcore at 2.16GHz and 4GB of memory for 150 bucks, that would be more than enough for my mother.
Put together a low cost PC build. Motherboard offers room for a little expansion (TV card?) and the case has an option to throw in an optical drive of your choice if desired.
Quote "For full HD playback, you should install the Catalyst Control Center, which AMD makes available through the Ubuntu Software Center. You can also download the drivers directly from AMD." End quote
I also looked into the chromecast, she does have an older samsung smartphone, so if she could use that to browse the internet on the big screen or watch youtube/netflix/amazon video then that should work. From what I've heard the fire TV stick has a terrible youtube app so that's not brilliant. A chromecast would also eliminate the need for a bluetooth keyboard, do they work well with older devices and in general?
In my experience the chromecasts work well in general. After you install the app to your phone, video services like youtube, netflix, google movies and music etc, show this little cast icon. They are easy to set up and use. (even my mom knows how to use them). Chromecasts also work better with android devices imo. On some devices you can mirror the screen to the tv. This of course introduces some latency so I wouldn't recommend playing any games on it.
She has an android phone and a tablet, but both are a bit older. I'll see if I can find something about her phone and how well it works with the chromecast online, that seems like the best solution honestly. She won't be playing any games, it just needs to do youtube, netflix and amazon video via the browser.
I can also recommend a Chromecast for your mother's media needs. It's dead simple to use. The only thing I would say is that relying on it for all of your media consumption might be a bit much. If your mother watches, say 30 minutes of tv a day and tends not to flip channels, it will be fine, but if she is watching for hours, it's going to be a lot more pleasant with a dedicated remote on a device such as a Roku or Apple TV.
For her computing and browsing needs, a Chromebook or Chromebox might be a good addition. If she is used to Microsoft Office, a desktop interface, and local storage, there is a bit of a learning period in transitioning to cloud services, but it shouldn't be a problem if someone can teach her how to use it. They are cheap and easy to use. Google really does have people like your mother in mind. For techies, the privacy stuff and other things make it less attractive, but for doing everyday stuff, it's an increasingly compelling platform.
100€ is an extremely tight budget, and for that amount, you're either going to get something of very low quality, or you'll have to get highly creative with used parts. I would start thinking in the €250+ range (EDIT: for the computer, that is. All of the streaming media solutions should fit inside your budget).
Depending on the age of yo momma and her computer literacy, my response will always be; buy an AppleTV and add Netflix. That way there is no administration on your part. Value your time.
Just read your 2nd or 3rd post. Get a $150 googlebox thingy and load Kodi on it.
I've realized that, but for 200€ she can get a NUC with an N3150 (a quadcore at 2GHz) and 4GB RAM (single channel, but everything I've read seems to suggest that the N3150 has no problem playing back 1080p content even with single channel memory). That seems like a decent choice for a media PC honestly, it's more powerful than my current laptop and that works just fine.
As for the chromecast, I'll probably have to look up some videos on it, but if she wants to watch a movie on netflix or a long youtube video, wouldn't that be ideal? She just has to pick up her phone and hit play and it'll do its thing for the next hour or so. Also keep in mind that the chromecast is for her secondary TV upstairs, which will basically only be used when her significant other is watching sports on the main TV.
She's never really used a computer before because she never had to, she's a quick learner though, I'm more than confident that she'll be able to get the hang of it in no time. I was thinking of setting up some flavour of linux for her and locking it down/making it as simple as possible.
