I am looking for a travel Kodi setup. Mainly vacation travel (Airbnb’s/hotels). Currently I have a Firestick 4K with Kodi for travel but is very slow (I have Kodi on Apple TV 4K at home) and has occasional issues with playing videos (playback stops immediately. Requires power cycle to resolve).
I mainly use Seren with RD and a Open VPN app on firestick to connect to my home VPN server (just to hide traffic from hotel/Airbnb ISP). VPN App is not native to Firestick and is designed for a touchscreen so is a bit difficult to navigate with Firestick remote.
Looking for a better option, maybe Chromecast with Google TV, with captive portal support and Kodi, Open VPN app natively with better performance.
Looking for the following features:
- Can install Kodi (preferably natively)
- Can install Open VPN client (preferably natively)
- Captive portal support
- Remote has TV power + volume controls (through CEC/IR or otherwise)
- Bluetooth for headphones
- Small size (easy travel)
- International voltage support (USB powered?)
- Budget of $100 USD
Any opinion/suggestions? Please comment on Kodi performance/speed on Firestick 4K vs. Chromecast with Google TV for people who have used Kodi on both.
Thank you
Chromecast w/ Google TV is the way to go. I’ve already setup a few for friends and family. Massive upgrade from a firestick.
I can only recommend the newest Fire Cube. It goes on sale a few times a year.
Dont own the Google, so no idea how it compares.
Would bluetooth mouse help your remote issues?
The Google TV stick is the better choice. It has the requirements that you need
Openvpn is on the playstore for Google, while firestick it has to be sideloaded. To help with openvpn app on firestick use the firetvmouse app. Openvpn doesn’t support captive portals if using tun adapter, tap would be required.
Just grab a raspberry pi 4. No speed issues, no resets (that I’ve encountered), and it much much better with a wireless keyboard with touchpad for everything.
Firestick 4k with syncler. You can find it in the Play store and it’s light years better than kodi. You need to purchase Syncler+ but it’s well worth it and our can have up to 5 devices for the basic sub. If you’re tech savvy at all, I recommend rooting the firestick and dropping the Amazon launcher, and bloat. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
google tv isnt bad, its decent but pretty much if you want good performing devices you get a cube, shield tube, or regular shield. Firesticks only belong in one place, the trash can
I know this is a kodi sub but i was in a similar position before with travels before covid and what i did was to find a plexshare, no addon, no vpn, no kodi too slow, bo source not found etc and plex app runs flawlessly on firestick 4k
Are you using the default skin or another? Because if you’re using Kodi on any stick, you should really just use the default estuary.
Edit: I have several cubes using AZ2 with widgets and hub menus. But my kids have firesticks with default estuary and just a few shortcuts in favorites.
And just to point out I am an avid Nvidia Shield user. What I can install into a Nvidia Shield I can to the Chromecast w/ Google TV. It’s not as powerful as a Shield TV, but it definitely packs a punch. It’s an inexpensive alternative.
Do you need to expand the storage with a hub?
Good point about VPN. I dont know if i have come across this scenario. Mainly do airbnb, so typically there are no captive portals. I try to avoid VPN but sometimes i feel that streaming speeds are better with VPN. Maybe some ISPs have DPI with throttling.
Will try it out sometime with a captive portal.
Wrong sub. Not helpful to OPs question at all.
but u need to store files somewhere with plex
Shield user as well. I have some older MiBox S in the spare bedrooms for family, when those die, definitely gonna try out the new Chromecast with Google TV.
You don’t need to, but you most definitely can. I purchased one from Amazon. It’s called Vemont. I purchased it for testing and ethernet works great too!
No with plexshare you pay someone (or you find a free one) to share their whole plex library with you. So it is someone else paying for a server and auto downloading every new movie tv show etc there are even request bots on discord that you can download anything you want to the server.
My Mom has had a MiBox S for a few years, as well. She’s going to upgrade to a Chromecast w/ Google TV soon.
My dad’s is on its last legs. It’s the original MiBox. All the updates and it’s crazy slow. I’ll wait for him to let me know when he’s ready for a new one.