[oWarchild]

For composite I would suggest an HDMI to composite adapter (untested example), they should cost around $10 and will keep you choice of potential boxes broad. I never used one but should work fine.

H264 Hi10 is a pain because the fansub scene doesn't really care for standards or for people not using a laptop/desktop. It will mostly depend on the anime itself. Hi10 doesn't means strictly 10 bit, it means variable bit rate between 8 and 10 bits. I have watched a few Hi10p animes in my raspberry that had little artifacts because there were only a few scenes with more than 8 bits encoding. Other Hi10p animes are completly unwatchable unless they are software decoded (the more general case) and for these you need a CPU with some grunt. Otherwise you have lots of skipped/dropped frames and the video plays back slowly. Also notice that 720p or SD Hi10p requires less CPU than 1080p. For example, the Nexus Player was able to cope with a 720p sample and not 1080p (more info).

If you really need HEVC and your price limit is $130 and you want to buy something now, I think your only option is an Android box such as the Minix (from what I read in the forum they seem to have the best support). Not sure if they can handle a 4TB external drive but maybe you can ask on the android support category or in the minix forum.

Wanting something that can deal with H264 Hi10P (high CPU) and HEVC (future format) is a bit of a niche, I know, I am on the same boat.

[noggin]

So does Hi10 doesn't work at all or is it the video poor on most of these boxes?

Because Hi10 is an unsupported profile for hardware acceleration, the boxes drop over to CPU decoding. If the CPU is powerful enough you are fine, but if not you end up maxing out the CPU and having lots of dropped frames (aka lag)

I just wonder why they put out Hi10 in the first place if it doesn't work well?

You are not alone... None of the Hi10 stuff is sourced from 10 bit originals, it is a re-encode of 8 bit content. AIUI the argument is that re-encoding 8 bit as 8 bit means you'll lose some information in the maths, which you will retain if you re-encode to 10 bits. And I suspect as most of this is anime, with areas of flat colour, if you see discontinuities in that colour more obviously (i.e. banding) then it may annoy you. AIUI Hi10 releases are mainly Japanese anime encodes with very enthusiastic (obsessive? Who am I to cast aspersions - whatever floats your boat!) fans releasing them. Not an issue for me - I don't source my media via these routes.

Nevertheless, it's more important my box plays x265 and works with 4TB HDD's and does composite with kodi. Do you know of some boxes with good support that do that?

Not sure - H265/HEVC isn't on my radar yet - apart from for 4K at 50/60p - which is very difficult to handle at the moment. Composite is increasingly rare, and will only become rarer. It's just not a requirement for most people these days as every TV sold pretty much for the last 8 years or so has had HDMI.

You may be better off with an external HDMI to Composite converter to expand your choice. You won't find any x86 (aka PC) boxes like the Chromebox, Zotac BI320, HP 260 G1 etc. with composite support, so that puts you in either ARM OpenElec or ARM Android territory. Raspberry Pi/Pi2 supports composite, will work with 4TB hard drives via USB 2.0, and will support H264 8bit. nVidia Shield Console is out of your price point but may be worth a look - though I don't think it has composite, and is still a new work-in-progress platform.

[wrxtasy]

What is wrong with getting just one of these Generic HDMI to Composite adapters for $10 off Amazon ?
I doubt you will have much luck with an affordable x265 (HEVC) device with composite built in.

This composite requirement limits your HEVC options far too much.

1080p HEVC on the ODROID-C1 currently works reliably by using Kodi Isengard's external player function to activate the Android MX Player app. This app will only play content from a directly connected Hard Drive due to some Android limitation. For the $35 I payed for this device I'm willing to put up with this small compromise, which will be fixed going forward.

[oWarchild]

All I can say is I want a turn key solution (already built and has a remote and great support.) that can do the following...

@wrxtasy, I'm not sure the ODROID-C1 qualifies as "turn key" solution

[noggin]

All I can say is I want a turn key solution (already built and has a remote and great support.) that can do the following...

@wrxtasy, I'm not sure the ODROID-C1 qualifies as "turn key" solution

And the composite mod for the C1 definitely isn't : http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=7726

[wrxtasy]

Ah yes...
To Play without getting your hands dirty at all, you must pay - especially for a "turn key solution" with mature and supported Android firmware.

---

Just posted a review of newly released C1 Android Firmware that includes Frame Rate Automation patches in the Kernel for perfect 24p video sync here:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2055827

[noggin]

Yep - suspect the nVidia Shield Console and an HDMI to composite adaptor may be the nearest solution - but not at the $130 price point?

[oWarchild]

Apart price I think that's the only solution that ticks all the boxes.

[wrxtasy]

As a bit of a warning, any 3:2 pulldown video judder sensitive potential nVidia Shield buyers need to keep a close eye on the Android thread.
Some users are having issues with judder and a certain brands of TV:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=232347

Let the Kernel and Firmware mature first. Buying from any Manufacturer on promised features is fraught with headaches, especially if you are paying decent coin for a device.

[oWarchild]

Some users are having issues with judder and a certain brands of TV:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=232347

In that thread the problem is only with one user and one specific TV, where he even had issues with youtube videos. Have you heard of other users experiencing similar issues?
EDIT: nevermind, just found http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2052989.

I agree with you regarding the rest and the NVIDIA Shield Android TV thread1 and thread2 are probably the best places to find out about the platform's existing limitations.

[theplunger]

I would like to have an update on the original subject of this thread. Has a box come out that meets those requirements? Basically if a say, "Mirror Mirror on the wall. Which box is the best one for me?" Is the answer still the Chromebox?

[wrxtasy]

Since I posted last I now have pretty decent versions of both OpenELEC 6.x and Ubuntu 14.04 running Kodi 15.1RC on the ODROID-C1+. These both do 1080p HEVC hardware decoding. OpenELEC is nice and quick and works well.

Added a FLIRC usb IR receiver to easily setup customisable Kodi full keyboard control mapped to a remote control.
Running a Linux based OS on both these images has no limitations on Hard Drives (untested) like you would see running Android.

[theplunger]

Since I posted last I now have pretty decent versions of both OpenELEC 6.x and Ubuntu 14.04 running Kodi 15.1RC on the ODROID-C1+. These both do 1080p HEVC hardware decoding. OpenELEC is nice and quick and works well.

Added a FLIRC usb IR receiver to easily setup customisable Kodi full keyboard control mapped to a remote control.
Running a Linux based OS on both these images has no limitations on Hard Drives (untested) like you would see running Android.

Wouldn't a Chromebox do all of that? I just can't believe that the Chromebox's price hasn't gone down much.

[wrxtasy]

Yes it would if you don't want to play anything above low bitrate 1080p HEVC files as it will be using ffmpeg software decoding. In the Codec window you see ff-hevc
It WILL run out of CPU grunt when using ffmpeg to decode.

Any device these days running Kodi can ffmpeg software decode HEVC files, how well depends on how much CPU power you want to throw at the decoding process. The RPi2 can also software decode 720p HEVC files up to about 1.4Mbp/s, but even then not totally reliably.

For 1080p HEVC the cheapest solution is a device with an AMlogic S805 SoC in it.
4K HEVC @ up to 30fps, then you need a AMlogic S812.

[theplunger]

Yes it would if you don't want to play anything above low bitrate 1080p HEVC files as it will be using ffmpeg software decoding. In the Codec window you see ff-hevc
It WILL run out of CPU grunt when using ffmpeg to decode.

Any device these days running Kodi can ffmpeg software decode HEVC files, how well depends on how much CPU power you want to throw at the decoding process. The RPi2 can also software decode 720p HEVC files up to about 1.4Mbp/s, but even then not totally reliably.

For 1080p HEVC the cheapest solution is a device with an AMlogic S805 SoC in it.
4K HEVC @ up to 30fps, then you need a AMlogic S812.

What boxes has this AMlogic S812? Is it still better for me to wait? I can't wait much longer.