4k Media Player with Hard Disc

sengan

Recruit
Hello, I need to purchase a 4k media player with Hard disc support. Budget is not yet decided.
Should be able to connect to a network for streaming too.
Prepared to buy online on aliexpress/gearbest/amazon/ebay, if worthy.
Will be installing KODI or stock android or its likes. Kinda out of touch but prepared to learn.

Should a standalone media player like himedia/zidoo/AC Ryan suit better or should I get a intel NUC 7th gen or 8th gen processors.

Will be used by people in the 60-80 year olds, so ease of use is kinda needed.

Thanks
 
All the standalone media players support external portable and external wired hard disks. What they don't support is HDR playback. Most of them do 4:2:0. Even Kodi is limited to 8 bit playback due to the chip drivers. They do playback some 10 bit files though but stutter a lot or just flat out drop frames and play like slide shows.

For 60 - 80 year olds, what are they going to see on TV besides the usual normal dth box? I've seen old people above 70 not liking to use 2-3 remotes at once. Just changing HDMI channel from 1-2 in TV remote and using stb or android box remote is big for them. I doubt they will know how to browse a network and play files off it. Intel NUC 7th / 8th Gen are too expensive for this and have little to show for it. You can't go far with integrated graphics of Intel. Even these Intel graphics start stuttering and dropping frames while playing 10 bit HDR files. They support 4K but not worth the money.

Not worth getting stb like media player with hdd inside it. The hdd will fail due to heat or bad power supply. Just get one of those standalone media boxes which have LibreElec support and you can enjoy more ram of the device without having to sacrifice anything except sdcard slot.

https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/9759-choosing-a-s905-s905x-s905d-s905w-s912-box-guide/
 
I would suggest to get a Roku/Firestick + setup a RPi with the HDD (if needed) as the backend for them.

The UI for these is simply very easy to navigate for those in their 60-80s.
 
All the standalone media players support external portable and external wired hard disks. What they don't support is HDR playback. Most of them do 4:2:0. Even Kodi is limited to 8 bit playback due to the chip drivers. They do playback some 10 bit files though but stutter a lot or just flat out drop frames and play like slide shows.

For 60 - 80 year olds, what are they going to see on TV besides the usual normal dth box? I've seen old people above 70 not liking to use 2-3 remotes at once. Just changing HDMI channel from 1-2 in TV remote and using stb or android box remote is big for them. I doubt they will know how to browse a network and play files off it. Intel NUC 7th / 8th Gen are too expensive for this and have little to show for it. You can't go far with integrated graphics of Intel. Even these Intel graphics start stuttering and dropping frames while playing 10 bit HDR files. They support 4K but not worth the money.

Not worth getting stb like media player with hdd inside it. The hdd will fail due to heat or bad power supply. Just get one of those standalone media boxes which have LibreElec support and you can enjoy more ram of the device without having to sacrifice anything except sdcard slot.

https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/9759-choosing-a-s905-s905x-s905d-s905w-s912-box-guide/

I couldn't give the entire background earlier, but some memories. Actually the 60-80 year olds are living in old age home with a NGO. Actually we as volunteers often spend some time with them. So when another volunteer gave his AC Ryan Media player to use with another generous donation of 4k TV from a company that launched some 4K TV's a while back, they got hooked. We ended up encoding some famed documentaries available in bluray in HD and 'received' some more in 4k and streamed content from youtube in HD on 4G. We actually saw them using Air remote quite easily though not so fast. During weekdays they group together and watch contents from AC Ryan Media player though it doesn't support 4k without any help. We were surprised that they watched 18 documentaries over 5 weeks (I know I can't). Hence we decided to sponsor for this kinda setup with 4k support. I agree on HDR Support and its hardware troubles. But the lack of pure HDR Content is actually forcing us to decide on max 10bit 4k HEVC.

As regards HDD, AC Ryan is good. I have seen NUC running as HTPC continuously over the weekend with a 2.5" HDD inside it. But you actually made a point with bad power supply, which is rampant at that place. Also the stutters on youtube streams.

As stated earlier I have been looking at Ziddoo X10 ( around 200~300 $) and its upcoming upgrade X20 (rumors are kinda pricey). If everything is alright or normal will this suit our requirements. This is with the 4K TV and probably some projector in the future. Will be in China by June end so might lap it up. I just cant trust shipping and customs.

I am not versed in LibreElec & its use. So thanks for the mention. Knowledge for me.

I would suggest to get a Roku/Firestick + setup a RPi with the HDD (if needed) as the backend for them.

The UI for these is simply very easy to navigate for those in their 60-80s.

I agree UI of Firestick and KODI is much better with HDD rather than different sources which might confuse them and not to mention slow bandwith. Also simple device rather than multiple device will be better for them to operate. This is because the NGO dont like them to meddle with electronics and get in harms way.
 
An almost perfect option could be 'Mi box pro' . 76$ on geekbuying
Almost because NO ETHERNET PORT!! So if you can get a solid speeds via wifi where the TV is kept , only then this non-ethernet option should be considered.

I have an mi box 3, which should be very similar to the pro version, except for the performance ofcourse. and I highly recommend it. It has it all - voice remote, very stable, kodi, hdd, SMB play via kodi/archos .

btw in which city are you based ?
 
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