im not particularly tech savvy and im wondering what is available.

im currently using an xbox for my telebox. i dont use it for games, just streaming stuff off the home network and internet. got a cable going from the router to it so doesnt need to be wireless.

it needs to be able to handle iplayer, ch4OD etc, netflix nowTV and also being able to stream stuff from my laptop via the home network

what im not liking about my xbox setup is;
the noise (the fan is loud)
its slow to start up and constantly has to update which is annoying and i have to have xbox membership (which is due for renewal next month)

what is out there that is good? im not going to spend a fortune

Have you thought of an android tv, maybe running XBMC?

http://visopix.com/shop/dual-core-hd-player-netflix-pre-installed/

I use an xbox as a media extender for my PC that has two tv tuners. And I agree with the gripes except I dont have xbox membership as I dont use the tv applications like netflix. I will add a chomecast dongle to the tv to be able to use some tv apps when it arrives in the UK.

We use a zbox with an ssd hdd and its running xbmx. Its super quick to turn on and off and playing everything, we have 1gb cabling running throughout the house meaning the huge 8GB files stream flawlessly. Have a tried a few over the last 5 years and this has lasted the longest for being consistently good, quiet, fast etc.

PS3 at least you won’t need gold, and the new ones are pretty quiet. WDTV live but they don’t have as much as xbox or PS3, raspberry pi?

GolfChick – that’s some impressive hardware…

I just set up one of these:
http://www.tier1online.com/15-vfy-e3521pf021gb/refurbished-fujitsu-esprimo-e3521-sff-pentium-dual-core-e5500-2-80ghz-4gb-250gb-windows-7-professional-no-cd-dvd

Added a £20 Radeon 5450 and XBMC, and it handles anything I can throw at it. The el-cheapo graphics card can even handle Portal 2, which is an extra bonus. Add an SSD and the thing is almost silent.

Raspberry PI running XBMC, silent, connect to pretty much anything and can be built for 50 bucks. Bargain.

these all sound great but they miss out a big thing for me which is serving tv programmes recorded on windows media centre. I dont have a TV, my PC has a dual digital tuner in it so we can schedule recordings. Then we can choose what to watch using WMC in the xbox.

Is it possible for XMBC installed on a local device to control tuner cards in another networked windows machine? And then play the WMC tv files?

I don’t own a TV, but do have a USB free view tuner in the iMac. The SW lets you record stuff to HD etc.

Well, with a low profile tuner card in the PC I linked to above…
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=PVR

I use the earlier version of this
http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/DS61V1.1.html
It’s slim line, silent and runs a full OS so can be used as a PC too, so if anything won’t play you can just run VLC or play off the webpage. I run XBMC on it with the media hosted elsewhere on cabled connection. Add in spotify etc for a full media set up.

Really good bit of kit runs HDMI/DVI to the TV and optical or standard audio out.

interesting, flaperon.

Might look into it when I next need to re-jig our media stuff when I redo the boys play room.

I’ve got one of the android USB sticks and I haven’t managed to get XBMC to work on it

Raspbery pi running raspbmc. Needs a bit of setup to do everything you want but will do it. Cheap to buy runs silent and uses next to no power.

Quick edit, the ? is running raspbmc.

isn’t that just the Rasp Pi version of XBMC anyway?

Sorry for the hi jack, but has anybody got their media centre able to run sky go/bt sport (which require Microsoft silverlight)? Currently I plug my laptop into the tv to get sky/bt sport, but a media centre that don’t require my laptop would be great.

Yes Mike, it is.

The version I use would (somewhat) as it’s a PC under it running windows so you can drop back to the browser if required. Search XBMC for plug ins for the ones you want.