All in one streaming solution

OK so I do not watch any linear TV anymore except live sport, for which I have a VM XL pack which includes BT Sport and NowTV Sky Sports (discounted 9-month voucher; thx Brekkie).

As such, 'er indoors has sole use of the Virgin Media box attached to the living room TV for her NCIS / CSI / Law & Order etc and my viewing is mainly second-screen computer or streaming device based. I would however like a solution that allows me to watch *all* my content on the big TV in my upstairs room.

My current equipment is as such:

> a laptop running Windows 10 which is one of my VirginTV Go devices which I primarily use for YouTube, VMGo or occasionally BBC iPlayer and TV Player. The HDMI port on my laptop allows me to plug a 3m long HDMI cable in and extend the screen onto my room's big TV, which allows me to watch BT Sport on the TV and still use laptop. Talking of which....

> a Roku Streaming Stick is also attached to that TV (which is old and not very smart) which I use primarily for NOWTV (Sports package) and YouTube

> an NVIDIA Shield K1 tablet which I use for NowTV (device 2) and YouTube and also for watching files stored on my network NAS.

> a Marshall London mobile phone which is NOWTV device 3 and VMGo device 2, and again also used for all other Android applications.


It's a wee bit fragmented and I find the laptop/TV setup to be a bit clumsy, especially as the laptop takes up quite a bit of space. I'm not a fan of Chromecasting stuff as it tends to eat away at the battery on my devices quite a lot and it tends to crash on my weak-ass Virgin WiFi.

So can anyone recommend an all in one solution for my needs? Basically I want to watch BT Sport via the Virgin Media TV Go service; NowTV, YouTube, TVPlayer, BBC iPlayer and the commercial equivalents, plus also have access to media stored on my local NAS, all in one convenient package.

I was thinking, as my laptop allows me to watch VM TV Go via the HDMI out, which my NVidia shield *doesn't*, that some sort of Windows mini-pc or stick PC setup may be the answer, with a wireless mouse keyboard combo acting as the "remote". Or is there an Android mini-computer / stick that VMTV Go would work on?

(Extant but unused hardware in my posession also includes an Amazon Fire box, a generic android box and a WDTV Live).

One solution with the laptop would be setting on the TV stand and using a wireless keyboard with trackpad. Here’s a cheap one from Microsoft on Amazon.uk for £29.99 rated 3.9/5 stars. It’s cheap but I’ve never gone wrong with Microsoft keyboards and mouses.

I'm not sure where you're coming from with that approach, so apologies if you've misunderstood me -- I'm looking to *replace* the laptop as a streaming source for Virgin Media Go with a dedicated platform/unit, preferably something I can hide in and around the TV area, and at the same time see if it would have the capability to also stream my other media sources. At the moment I can get everything *bar* VM Go on my Roku stick, and when I want to watch BT Sport I connect my laptop up from the sofa to the TV via a 5m long HDMI cable. It *works* and has the added benefit of being able to then use the laptop screen (Screen 1) for social media, emailing etc while the sport is playing merrily on the TV (extended desktop with maximised browser window on Screen 2). This has the added benefit of playing the audio through my soundbar. However it's a little bit of a clunky setup; I just wondered if there was any neat and tidy way to have say a NUC or a stick PC or similar which I could run VMGo and other sites in a browser plus have Windows apps for Now TV, BBC iPlayer etc etc.


PS I will be using a wireless trackpad and keyboard, possibly something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Careshine-Portable-Wireless-Keyboard-Touchpad/dp/B06ZZB8VY9/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1539272998&sr=1-6&keywords=wireless+trackpad+keyboard

Okay, I get it. Intel makes some 64 bit HDMI stick computers.

Yes - there are a number of either Compute Sticks (the Intel m3 model is well regarded, the Atom-based Celeron models less-so)

You can also get some Apollo Lake or Gemini Lake Mini PCs for a relatively low cost - but they are slightly underpowered. (They have hardware H264 and H265 decode though)

And they dont have HDCP protection on their HDMI connections?

Windows 10 will use HDCP if the display supports it (and Intel CPU+GPUs do), and some streaming providers won't allow streaming without it. I think that's the basic lie of the land?

Well at the moment I am able to extend my monitor and watch VM Go onto my slightly old Panasonic TV via HDMI without any issues off my laptop (which is 3 years old) ... this indicates to me that perhaps my display isn't enforcing HDCP. This is the crux issue, let's face it.

Almost any TV sold in the UK with HDMI will support HDCP - so you are unlikely to have any issues either way. Only very early, slightly unusual, TVs will have HDMI but not support HDCP. If you have an HD Ready or better display - HDCP won't be an issue for HD content.

Here's a thought - would it work OK if I was to route it through an AV receiver such as a Marantz 1403?

What problem are you trying to solve - I'm not clear?

What is your display model and why do you think it doesn't support HDCP?

An AVR in the path won't remove the requirement for HDCP handshaking - though there are plenty of solutions that can't really be discussed here that will.

But pretty much any TV sold with an HDMI connector will support the HD-flavours of HDCP - and any which were branded HD Ready or better will (it's a requirement of the licensing of that logo)

You realise the entire point of HDCP is to verify that a source (your laptop) is connected to a display (your TV), as opposed to some sort of capture device? It's there to stop people from getting digital copies of the source material, not to stop them watching stuff on a TV.

Why do you think HDCP will even be an issue with this set up?