There's just too many to pick! What do I look for?

Hey fellas. I'm in the market to buy an Android tv box with specific reasons for XBMC playback and to be able to hook this think up to my Pioneer amp via optical or coaxial connection. (why not enjoy a movie in DTS or DD right?)

I've been doing ALOT of research online and I have to say that I'm quite overwhelmed with the amount of boxes out there. What kind of things should I be looking for (except for audio) in an android box? The most important thing is smooth 720p playback. I don't necessarily need 1080p because my set can't do it anyways (have a 32" Sony).

I've read online that many people are complaining that they are getting lots of buffering, choppy video playback and even boxes that boot them out back to the dashboard. I DO NOT want these types of problems people!

My budget is around $100 bucks. Don't know if that's going to be enough or not. Do I really have to seek out a quad core box or is that not really necessary to get smooth video playback? Please help me understand what is important for video to play without any hiccups. I just want to be able to stream tv shows, movies and watch documentaries smoothly. I've seen online that there's alot of people offering "xbmc mods" and they claim that your box will run buttery smooth and have quick response (linux).
In your opinion, is this something anyone can do or is it best to bring your box to a "professional" and avoid bricking it? Can you really mess your android box up if you do something incorrectly? My guess is that you can always save your settings to a micro sd card right and start over?

Thanks!

 

All I can say is....WOW.

57, I repeat, 57 views and not ONE comment. You're telling me out of all those people NO ONE could have posted something to help me out????

Guess I have to start posting in another forum.

It's all good anyways....I've found alot of stuff on youtube and I'm definitely looking at a quad core unit with 2gb of ram and a GPU. Those specs should get XBMC running pretty smoothly.

Thanks for nothing folks! :eviltongue: