h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chromecast or Raspberry Pi?

I've finally acquired a television for our bedroom at home, and I need some way of watching things on it. Things like Netflix and BBC iPlayer (and YouTube, SkyGo, NHL Gamecenter, 4OD...).

The way I see it, I've got two options:

1) Google Chromecast

Pros:
It's £30
It's plug-in and play
It'll work with the knackered old TV's HDMI port
I can control it direct from my phone and tablet

Cons:
It won't work with the service I use to make Netflix think I'm American
Beyond Netflix, iPlayer and BT Sport, it doesn't support a hell of a lot

2) Raspberry Pi

Pros:
It'll stream everything I want, and more
They quite like h2g2 - A13735596

Cons:
I once installed a new CD ROM drive by taking the side of my PC off, plugging the wires in and duct taping the drive to the top, because I'm terrible with computer hardware
I'm only marginally better at software than at hardware
I have no idea how much it costs to buy a damned Raspberry Pi, or how to get it to do what I want

So, I'm leaning towards the Chromecast. But what do you folks think?

If you just want to watch TV
Cromecast or equivalent


If you want to learn how to build your own computer projects
Raspberry Pi

Because the chances are if you go for the Pi you will be forever "Improving it"

The best answer is actually, Both

That way you can watch TV while assembling the Pi.

Cheers BB.

I was thinking more along the lines of "bang for my buck" than attempting to learn computing. Especially given that I'm a special kind of inept...

In terms of "bang for your buck", it's Pi all the way.

Except... you have to put some work in.

If you want plug-and-play convenience, it's got to be Chromecast or something similar.

But I'd say get "something similar", i.e. something better. Specifically, get something I got the other week - a Bluray player with smarts built in. I was amazed to be able to pick up, for less than £100, a high definition Bluray player that could, as well as play the superduperdiscs AND all my old DVDs, even the Region 1 ones, it could also get iPlayer, Youtube, Netflix and a bunch of other things AND stream video wirelessly from my desktop PC to my TV. It has transformed my lounge media node. It's amazing. Chromecast is, by comparison, very limited in scope and capability.

That does sound pretty impressive.

I'm not averse to putting the work in with Pi. I'm just aware of my own limitations.

My Pi acts as both a media server and PVR. We run RaspBMC and TVHeadend on it, with a HDD plugged in for recording telly. Neither Lovefilm/Amazon Prime/Dave or Netflix are available on the Pi as they run on Silverlight (which sadly isn't supported on Linux), but that problem's easily solved by plugging the tablet or laptop into the telly. The Pi is really cheap with the Model B (the one with a network card) costing around £28. XMBC Remote means I can control it from my phone