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Cheap, small media solution for gym

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    Cheap, small media solution for gym

    We're setting up a home gym and I'm looking at a TV solution to stick in front of the cross-trainer. A small TV is fine; the charity shops near us always have these; however I need a device to actually play media.

    As a minimum, I need something which will run Netflix, Crunchyroll, those sorts of media apps. As a secondary, DVD playback would be nice. BluRay playback is a plus, I guess.

    What do people recommend? I wanted to avoid a PS3 if possible just because of the large size of the unit. Anyone got other ideas? Cheapness and a small size are really important here as I don't want to buy furniture (I'm looking into mounting the TV on a camera tripod).

    #2
    Could you not get a tablet, either Android or Windows?

    You could set some shortcuts for the things you want to watch.

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      #3
      Probably a Fire TV stick would do the job for about 50 quid. No DVD or Blu-Ray. If you really want those, just buy a Blu-Ray player that has Netflix and DVD playback built in. A lot of them do now (not sure if you'd get Crunchyroll support, but it might have Amazon Prime too).

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        #4
        Originally posted by QualityChimp View Post
        Could you not get a tablet, either Android or Windows?

        You could set some shortcuts for the things you want to watch.
        This, get a cheap tablet and stand for it. The reason this might be better option than a cheap TV is the tablet will probably support better Wifi and Bluetooth so if you grab some semi-decent sweatproof headphones you can exercise in silence...

        Take a look at:

        iPad (older models are cheap but bang for buck decent)
        Samsung Tab A 10.1 series
        Samsung Tab s5e
        Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 Plus

        I have the Samsung s5e and it has an amazing screen, quad speakers and is just great for media consumption. Paid £230 for it on eBay in a sale... running Android Pie now and have it skinned to act as like a pixel UI.

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          #5
          I think a FireTV stick is probably one of the best options.

          As for BluRay support why not use Plex (or Emby)? All your BluRays/DVDs, Home Media, Music etc. can be stored locally and played back on any device on your network. Made the move years ago and whilst I'm trying to move away from physical media (so digital instead of BRs) I adore Plex.

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            #6
            Does Plex work with 3D BluRays?

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              #7
              My understanding is yes but I have never encoding anything other than DVDs or normal BluRays with H.264 codec. So I'd defer to those with experience but I'm sure there is much more info out there.
              Last edited by Digfox; 16-10-2019, 13:16.

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                #8
                A quick search says "yes", so I may investigate, thanks.

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                  #9
                  I bought a 10" fire tablet refurb from Amazon last year (looks brand new) for £89, side loaded Google playstore, its pretty impressive?

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                    #10
                    Chromecast is what, £25? Netflix, crunchyroll and showbox support.

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