I'm going to assume that if you've read this far, you're not necessarily a tech geek who has a ton of spare parts lying around with which to build a media streaming PC. If you do, that's great. XBMC/Kodi runs best, in my experience, on a compatible full PC motherboard. There are a ton of different working configurations that your media streamer can be built on, and a wealth of articles/forum discussions all over the interwebs on how to build such a PC.



Lots of people will argue that Android set top boxes are also very good or the best. Some of them indeed are very good. In my experience, most of them are...how do I say this politely? Crap.



I love you Android, I really do, but a lot of the set top Android boxes are just sweatshop junk. If you decide to use an Android box as your media streamer, research what is available. There are great Android boxes out there, but there are far more junkers than good boxes. Read reviews, and find something that works well and has a lot of support.



If you decide to go the route of building your own PC, or using an Android box, or something else, you can skip to step #6 of this guide, after you install XBMC/Kodi, of course.



I am going to cover building a media streamer with a Raspberry Pi, as it is a common piece of hardware, all of them are configured pretty much the same, and it has a fantastic amount of internet support.



So Step 1 is to get a Raspberry Pi, and all components needed to get the Pi up and running (listed below).



You will need;

A Raspberry Pi Board (Preferably model B+)

A Power Cord (Micro USB charging cable, most "Phone Charger" style, for power)

A Micro SD Card (Or SD card for Older Raspberry Pi models)

An HDMI Cable (Or An Analog Video Cable + Y Audio cable if you have an older TV)

Most of these items will come in a Raspberry Pi Kit, along with a case to mount it all in. The case is completely optional. You can use a bare board, but I personally prefer to use a case. Electronic device nudity offends me, especially robots. Disgusting.

In addition to the parts listed above, you will also need a USB stick to install your data files to. I recommend nothing smaller than 2GB in size. 8GB or larger is optimal, in my opinion. You will also need a length of ethernet cable(optimally) or a WiFi adapter(Last Resort). Most Raspberry Pi kits include a WiFi adapter.

Items of note: Remember what I said about not spending a dime to save a nickel? Learn from my mistakes here. If you're going to build a media streamer on a Raspberry Pi, buy a Raspberry Pi KIT!!! Ok...let me rephrase that. Unless you have everything ALREADY on hand to build a complete Pi, buy a kit. Do not buy a piece here, and a piece there. You'll spend way more money buying a board, then an SD card, then a power adapter, then a case to put it in. Also, try to get a model B+, as long as you have an HDMI port on your TV, that is. The extra two USB ports will go a long way to preserve your sanity.If you don't have an HDMI port on your TV, you'll be stuck using the older model B, because it has analog video "RCA" output.





--EDIT 1/15/2015: As pointed out by TheMainMan in the comments section; the B+ does indeed put out analog video;



"The B+ can still be used with an older composite (RCA) TV. The audio jack on the B+ is a TRRS (Tip, Ring, Ring, Sleeve) which allows it to also carry video in addition to the audio. The other end of the cable will have yellow, white, and red RCA connectors. While these cables may not be as readily available today as HDMI, they were fairly common with when camcorders were common."

There ya have it, folks. Buy a B+, and make sure you have a TRRS cable. These come with Roku Players, WD TV Live boxes, etc. --

Some people power their Pis from a USB port on the back of their TVs. You can, but you shouldn't. If you do this, powering off your TV will power off your Pi. You should turn on your Pi and leave it on, only reboot it on the rare occasion that the system lags, or various other operational problems that could occur.