2015-07-05, 00:05
Edit: Note - this is now 2 merged threads, hence the strange title for my post. My experience is of the 43" 755 series... Though presumably the experience re: Android and Kodi will be the same.
Evening all, long time Kodi (and XBMC) user, first time post...
I wanted to alert any who may be interested that the new (2015) Sony Android TV's (which i think are the 70 series and upwards, in various sizes from 43" and upwards) can have Kodi installed on them, and that it works!
Bear in mind that the firmware for the TV itself is still very actively in development (and lots of AV forum users have reported hiccups with sound etc), and some features are not yet live (YouView doesnt exist yet, is promised to launch Summer 2015).
Also, Kodi (via Google Play, so 15.0) of course remains RC1 at time of writing.
So lots could still change.
But going in to the menu system, installing Kodi, and then being greeted by the traditional Kodi Confluence interface (WITHOUT A HTPC)...
Firstly, in settings, i wanted to see what hardware was shown up. Some type of dual core CPU, which was running at around 20% CPU power just in the background, though went up to close to 100% when scanning for files over a network / NAS.
The GPU was shown as a Mali T624, which i know is used in a few higher-end tablets (eg Note 3), and got me excited about the possibility of H265 Decode (for reference, my Quad-core Nexus 5 phone can decode H265 video at DVD and slightly higher resolution with typical bitrate, but chokes on 1080p decode).
I scanned a few network folders (CPU went up alot), and ran a few files.
I changed the Skin to the 'Arctic Zephyr' (which i have only just started playing with - beautiful, clean, and a nice 'Spotlight' feature for the main menu - very pretty).
The menu navigation was smooth. Fast flicking through multiple films (over 100) was pretty quick, perhaps not identical to my HTPC, but not slow. Much, much smoother and quicker than a Raspberry Pi (1).
I will also comment that the remote control buttons are well-mapped, and do exactly what you'd want them to - up, down, select etc. Even 'back', which is very needed for Kodi to work well. All good.
1080p H264 DTS files, slightly lower bitrate than BluRay - played perfectly.
1080p H265 DTS files (8GB for a 3 hour movie) - perfectly
Finally, i tried playing a file over the USB stick plugged in to the rear - recognised the USB drive, and was easy to navigate to the file, which then played well. Exactly as you'd expect.
So i'm happy. I think a little more development of Kodi, of the Skin, and of Android and it should be perfect.
Overall for me, i've run a few HTPC's over the years, inc Rasp Pi's, an Intel NUC.... and we are now in a position where the TV no longer requires a machine to process and feed it
Evening all, long time Kodi (and XBMC) user, first time post...
I wanted to alert any who may be interested that the new (2015) Sony Android TV's (which i think are the 70 series and upwards, in various sizes from 43" and upwards) can have Kodi installed on them, and that it works!
Bear in mind that the firmware for the TV itself is still very actively in development (and lots of AV forum users have reported hiccups with sound etc), and some features are not yet live (YouView doesnt exist yet, is promised to launch Summer 2015).
Also, Kodi (via Google Play, so 15.0) of course remains RC1 at time of writing.
So lots could still change.
But going in to the menu system, installing Kodi, and then being greeted by the traditional Kodi Confluence interface (WITHOUT A HTPC)...
Firstly, in settings, i wanted to see what hardware was shown up. Some type of dual core CPU, which was running at around 20% CPU power just in the background, though went up to close to 100% when scanning for files over a network / NAS.
The GPU was shown as a Mali T624, which i know is used in a few higher-end tablets (eg Note 3), and got me excited about the possibility of H265 Decode (for reference, my Quad-core Nexus 5 phone can decode H265 video at DVD and slightly higher resolution with typical bitrate, but chokes on 1080p decode).
I scanned a few network folders (CPU went up alot), and ran a few files.
I changed the Skin to the 'Arctic Zephyr' (which i have only just started playing with - beautiful, clean, and a nice 'Spotlight' feature for the main menu - very pretty).
The menu navigation was smooth. Fast flicking through multiple films (over 100) was pretty quick, perhaps not identical to my HTPC, but not slow. Much, much smoother and quicker than a Raspberry Pi (1).
I will also comment that the remote control buttons are well-mapped, and do exactly what you'd want them to - up, down, select etc. Even 'back', which is very needed for Kodi to work well. All good.
1080p H264 DTS files, slightly lower bitrate than BluRay - played perfectly.
1080p H265 DTS files (8GB for a 3 hour movie) - perfectly
Finally, i tried playing a file over the USB stick plugged in to the rear - recognised the USB drive, and was easy to navigate to the file, which then played well. Exactly as you'd expect.
So i'm happy. I think a little more development of Kodi, of the Skin, and of Android and it should be perfect.
Overall for me, i've run a few HTPC's over the years, inc Rasp Pi's, an Intel NUC.... and we are now in a position where the TV no longer requires a machine to process and feed it
(Longer answer is that my house is about to get the builders in for a couple of months, and i wanted to jump to buy the TV now due to the free soundbar offer).
