Chromecast, EZcast, Roku or... to stream XBMC

Looking for a way to watch XBMC streamed from my Windows laptop (or Android device) onto my TV as I am getting fed up of having to constantly connect the laptop to the TV.

I was sold on the EZcast, but have since read too many reviews complaining of "stuttering" when viewing streamed videos. I was thinking then that I should spend the extra for the Chromecast, but not sure that will stream XBMC. While searching I came across Roku dongles etc and the result is that I am now truly confused.

I already have a Raspberry which often decides to take time off and when it does work, is very slow. I briefly tried an Android MX type box, but it kept playing up so was returned the following day. Because of those two experiences I am not keen to try another box/player which may not be as fast and reliable as the laptop.

If your tv is connected to your network, try pressing Y on your keyboard while streaming a video, on mine it gives an option to play on my tv (samsung).
Otherwise the rpi2 is excellent and streams hd video over the network from my Vu+ box with no problem.

I can highly recommend the trmk1 android box from totalxbmc.tv I did have a android mx2 box before this. The trmk1 is a quad core android box which is fully supported at totalxbmc, finless bob has created a custom rom for the box and this runs fantastic with Kodi helix on. Also over at totalxbmc they have an addon called community builds which is full of Kodi builds all complete with addons and very nice skins.

Thanks for the advice and replies .TV isn't connected to network, not sure it can be either, its over 6 years old now.

Not suggesting all Android boxes are the same, but having had a bad experience with the one I tried (which was also a quad core) and finding it was no better than my laptop when it did work, I am hesitant to try another.

This is the one I tried.

CS918 Android 4.2 RK3188 Mini PC Quad Core TV BOX Smart Media Player 1GB/8GB | eBay

There are a lot of MX clones, and they're not all created equal.

You can install Kodi on the Amazon Fire TV. It's currently £64 though (usually £79), so it's not the cheapest solution.

As suggested by fatbob46, replacing your RPi with an RPi2 is probably your cheapest option.

You could try Openelec for the Pi. Mine is working fine.

I may look into the RP 2. The original Pi I have running RaspBMC (I didn't have any luck with Openelec) does work, it's just very "clunky" and prone to occasional crashing which may or may not require reformatting SD card and reinstalling XBMC. It has been sitting idle for the past month since the last crash as I couldn't be bothered getting it going again especially as I found the laptop was so much better.

If the RP2 addresses those problems then it might be the way to go.

Haven't picked one up myself yet (I've got the Fire TV), but compared to the original they've more USB ports, double the RAM, and a 900MHz quad core ARMv7 CPU.

If the need for a non-Microsoft OS was holding anyone back, it's getting a version of Windows 10 for free (Win 10 for IoT).