What is currently the best player hardware?

I am working on a very simple installation that only uses one client player. I want to know what the community’s thoughts are on the best hardware to use. I am looking for something small and lightweight. I would prefer to have ethernet with wifi as backup, and HDMI out. That’s really all I need.

I would have assumed that there was a linux player… I was surprised to see that I am basically limited to Windows or Android. What are your thoughts? I like Android because it’s free. I like Windows because it’s mostly stable. I dislike them both because neither one was designed for this.

I’d like to keep it under $200, if possible.

Thank you all in advance for your input!

I believe this will be a very good solution when it launches at the end of this month:

It doesn’t have ethernet but you could get an usb to ethernet adapter for a few dollars, and it includes everything you need out of the box. It also has the added benefits of using the full Windows OS (free supported Xibo client), it is also handy if you want to use remote desktop onnections for troubleshooting eventually.

That definitely looks promising, and it’s right in my price range. How do you know it will become available at the end of the month?

We are running the 1.7.3 windows client on modified Wyse thin clients that have HDD’s in them (here’s the hardware: http://wyse.vecmar.com/products/productpage.asp?pid=19790-Wyse_Z90D7_Thin_Client ). It has 4 GB memory and is running a dual core 1.6 GHz proc.

Currently we are running 3 layouts (they aren’t all that busy) that have images and wmv’s/mp4’s running on them. They don’t have a problem at all. Anything with similar hardware should do.


Release Date: 05/25/2015.

Well I was off by a month ( :fearful:), but still it seems like a very good device for digital signage, specially since it includes a Windows 8.1 license out of the box, and will probably be eligible for the free Windows 10 upgrade. As i said, having access via remote desktop is a really nice perk too!

There is also the HP stream which is a bit more expensive and bigger, but still under 200 dollars.
http://www.amazon.com/HP-Stream-200-010-Mini-Desktop/dp/B00R7R1GWK

We ended up going with the HP Stream Mini (Link to HP Stream Mini). It has a 1.4GHz Celeron, 2GB RAM, and a 32GB SSD. It has Ethernet and WiFi, runs Windows 8. $180. We’re going to give this a shot and return it if we’re not satisfied with performance.

We have been running RMK’s mk902ii, It is android based and solid as a rock. It does not have Windows Remote Desktop, but you could install a small VNC server on it. The CMS supports it.

Specs:

RKM RK3288 Quad Core 1.8GHz Cortex A17 Android4.4TV BOX 2G RAM, 16G ROM,2.4G/5G WIFI, Gigabit LAN, 4K H.265, Bluetooth 4.0

Ethernet and Wifi w/5GHz and big external antenna, plus expandable memory via SD card. Did I mention small.

We buy them striaght from RKM for $95 USD each.

We have seriously been through 7 different small units before we found this, and it just beats everything else hands down.

@cslaughter

Could you specify what devices did you use, untill you found this RKM?

@ilges

We have since given away all the hardware that did not work. Also we did not keep the data on the units we tried once we found the MK902ii to work so well.

Sorry I can not be of more help.

Added the MK902ii to the Device Compatibility Guide.

More feedback

The Lenovo Stick performs well - testing over night with a few videos
(Running win 8.1)

Currently have 53 of the Quantum Access sticks running all over the country (US) from one XIBO CMS.

Moved to the new Azulletech LAN with Win10 Pro which is the same basic hardwaras the Access, with the addition of an Ethernet port, which we found was needed in some locations due to bad WiFi accessibility.

No field failures so far on the Access stick, and some have been running since August 2015 24/7. We reimaged them with Win10 Pro for the deployment.

I have one sample LAN stick that has been running for a month 24/7, no issues.

Beelink BT3 is wonderfull for that. I installed 3 of them in my corporation.

I am looking at theAzulletech stick you mentioned. I have a couple monitors that are old enough to not have HDMI. Would this stick PC function via HDMI to DVI adapter? Does it have an external power supply or does it pull power directly from the HDMI bus?

I have the G-Box and it’s awful. It’s network speeds makes it pretty much useless for streaming 1080p video.

As for android nothing wrong with a mk808b tv stick… I have ran 5-6 since 2010 one failure… PS: that failure was cured with a reflash of the os. My newest Android box i am testing is the Ugoos AM3. not to bad for a octacore and is SU rooted. But having issues finding a VNC server for it.

For a Windows TV box I am testing the Kodlix Z83-V box… not to bad either but to early to say.

RMK’s mk902ii
is Screen rotation possible? . Landscape/portrait?
Automatically power on ?

We have not tried screen rotation with these units.
It powers on when you supply power, but I do not think it has an ability to schedule it to turn on.

Intel NUCs work well (lots of SKUs and options), some Compute Sticks work better than others depending on if you are pushing static content or 4K videos (I say this because there is limited storage on some Compute Sticks and your media library for 4K content will likely need to be on a microSD Card, so performance will depend on the microSD card and ComputeStick SKU).