[wrxtasy]

I think wrxtasy has made the 'deciding factor' point that the technology and capabilities change so fast that you may as well just accept that in a year or two you'll be buying something new.

So...I did see on the Wetek site that they're out of stock on the Core at the moment. Is there any more specific news on when that will change (or is there a deeper problem with the company itself?)
If Wetek itself is out of them, would it be unwise to buy one from one of the Hong Kong sellers on eBay?

If the Wetek Core isn't available and I had to go for a budget solution, I guess I'll look at the post on "Budget AML S905 boxes" and try one of the Mini Mx 905's or a Zidoo X5, unless there's something better i the $50-$70 range.

Around the End of Feb I'm told for more Core's
Definitely nothing wrong with the company itself.
They sold so many, so quickly that naturally stock ran out I'm told. I would look in the WeTek thread and add your name to the list if your interested.

Very very unwise to get anything from Ebay, doubly, especially Kodi Android devices.
Go for a drive in your car and throw Money out the window to save yourself the hassle.

[cyber7]

hi jttraverse

OK, I have read the thread and looking at what was said neutrally, I would not go for a WETEK. Make no mistake, I love OpenElec and love the ability that this OS is so light-weight. WEETEK's hardware seems to be old and too light-weight for today's demanding streaming abilities.

I looked at a whole horde of devices and of all these the "Zidoo X6" stands head-out in the crowd.

Let me explain:

• Read the forums at Zidoo and you will see the firmware is being supported and answered. The only negatives I read was where users acted like children and being impatient to get stuff done - exactly as what happens here....
  
• The support is done by people genuinely interested in their products and expanding it the whole time!
  
• The company is small enough to communicate with.
  
• Zidoo's X6 spec is HIGH. (8 processors, GB network, 2G DDR3, Optical and the list goes on...)
  
• Alternative OS FLASH (for the bravehearted) is available at XDA and being developed all the time.
  
• DRM protected steams for non-kodi supported streams (from Android Store) works well and out the box.
  
• The hardware of the system is fairly new, thus you will get a long path of development.
  
• Very stable...
  
• The FrontEnd GUI is awesomely friendly and very well written.
  
• The hardware IR is programmable for use with other peripherals.
  
• Registered IEEE hardware...
  

All that said, i do not work nor have any affiliation to the Zidoo team or company. I can not use most hardware in my country (South Africa) due to restrictions set by Amazon etc. I also have a need for streaming a VERY protected DRM stream from my local TV Satellite company. This works and works out the box.

cyber7-out

[wrxtasy]

.. today's demanding streaming abilities.....

Please define "Todays demanding streaming needs" as you see them.

I will go and get the popcorn whilst you type

[XperImenT]

Please define "Todays demanding streaming needs" as you see them.

I will go and get the popcorn whilst you type

I have noticed that you seem to defend a product just because it's a sponsor of Kodi and bash better products just because they're not.

I Concur and have argued in the past that Wetek's specs were outdated on release and are not justified by the price tag. The reasoning that these Chinese manufacturers are unable to provide quick firmware support for newly released CPUs and hence we are stuck with old hardware just to get stable firmware isn't good enough. Also, providing firmware support doesn't make up for overpriced outdated hardware.

Specs do matter. they matter in our phones, in our laptops, in our tablets and an android box is no different. In this day an age, we shouldn't have to pick between hardware versus software. They BOTH need to exist when I'm paying $130 for a little stream box. If i was paying $40, then sure I'd expect to get one or the other.

When cheaper android boxes can pack better specs for $40, WeteK shouldn't charge $130 for old hardware just because they provide "support". That's a lame justification and an insult to our intelligence more so when you try to be justify crappy hardware by saying "looking for hardware specs is a rookie mistake". No it's not a rookie mistake to demand good hardware when you're paying top dollar for it.

[Latinbull]

Wetek costs 119 or 109 and use s812 (boxes that you cannot find per 40 usd) + very nice and expensive remote...

[XperImenT]

Wetek costs 119 or 109 and use s812 (boxes that you cannot find per 40 usd) + very nice and expensive remote...

Are you saying you can't find s812 boxes for around $40? because you sure can.

[Soulbind]

Yes you can. Good luck with them, when they crap out on you, usually software wise due to the piece of shit coded-by-monkeys firmware they use. I have 2 Android tablets by Ding-jong-fung-Great-Wall-Of-China companies, both of them bought for my mother for use, now both of them sitting in a drawer (actually, one is sitting in garbage dump somewhere) since the software is crap, even if the specs on one of them is better then the Samsung tablet i finally bought for them and what she uses. You don't just pay for support with something like the Core or Nvidia Shield, you pay for properly optimized software.

[XperImenT]

Yes you can. Good luck with them, when they crap out on you, usually software wise due to the piece of shit coded-by-monkeys firmware they use. I have 2 Android tablets by Ding-jong-fung-Great-Wall-Of-China companies, both of them bought for my mother for use, now both of them sitting in a drawer (actually, one is sitting in garbage dump somewhere) since the software is crap, even if the specs on one of them is better then the Samsung tablet i finally bought for them and what she uses. You don't just pay for support with something like the Core or Nvidia Shield, you pay for properly optimized software.

Sure when you pay $40 you can expect not to get support but for $130 i should get both top hardware AND support/software.. For the Shield, you get what you pay for which is good but for the Core you get less than what you pay for because the hardware was outdated on release.

[XperImenT]

delete...redundant post

[wrxtasy]

A few little facts before we continue:

Zidoo in the past promoted a fancy X6 Pro fresh out of the factory that was supposedly meant to blown the competition out of the park. HD Audio passthrough, Frame packed 3D, 24p and more. The device turned out to be nothing better than an Alpha Firmware test product and should never have been sold in the state the Firmware was in. Many Kodi users got burnt and became justifiably very angry when Core promised features did not work at all. They were basically lied too right from the start.

And I did warn users that time about buying such a device from an unknown Kodi seller, making outragous claims and did cop a bunch of flack for speaking up that time too. Seems you really cannot win with some people.

Have a look over in hdmkv's 3D sticky thread for core Kodi features that still do not work properly on the Zidoo X6 Pro, some 4 months later.
Now do you think the Kodi community should trust Zidoo a second time around ?

---

A lot of these cheap, newly released Android boxes come packaged with the Banned Kodi addons, or the ability to very easily install them. These facilitate piracy and basically tarnish the reputation of the free Kodi Open Source project itself. The sellers give nothing back at all to the Kodi project and are in fact a terrible liability.

By $40 dollar boxes I assume we are talking the new AMLogic S905 ones. I have one of them and the Firmware included was not a nice experience.
- No refresh rate switching meant I could not easily watch 25/50fps video on a 60Hz Kodi desktop.
- Included Kodi was not really usable, due to video mode signalling changes within the Kernel on the new S905 vs the mature S812-H (this problem still applies BTW)
- Frame Rate Automation for 23.976fps video output did not work
- The included IR remotes are as cheap as, and have to be accurately pointed at the box unless you sit close.
- No RF Wireless remote with no Google voice button.
- No 4K or 1080p DRM Video streaming.
- No HD Audio Passthrough or even (fast becoming standard) lossless Multichannel PCM.
- No Dolby or DTS Licences, so Android Apps will not decode and output any Audio at all from content containing these Audio codecs. MX Player for example.
- HDMI CEC did not work
- The bog standard factory desktop launcher was a garish, candy coloured, cluttered mess.
- I cannot customise the desktop without installing a completely new one.
- Questionable support due to a lack of Knowledgable AMLogic Android developer experience.
- I did not see the device listed on the OpenELEC GitHub, for official OE support.
- And to top it all off 10-bit HEVC video is output as 8-bit due to a lack of software support, so really no video playback quality improvements over 8-bit HEVC devices when watching 24p HEVC video content.

If newbies can put up with that then I say go for it. You are only paying $40. You get what you pay for.

BTW XperImenT, the WeTek Core was USD$108 inc free delivered last time went to buy. This was the export price for delivery outside the EU.

[XperImenT]

Fair enough. I personally believe the choices should be among reputable companies: nexus player, AFTV2, and nvidia shield depending on ones's budget/requirements. Spending >$100 for a Chinese box with underwhelming specs doesn't sound like a smart investment to me especially when on its release day, it's hardware was beaten by boxes that came out before it at a third of a price.

[Latinbull]

AFAIK Wetek is not Chinese.. last time i saw Slovenia was at Europe on map.
Still cannot find a S812 2gb RAM per $40.00... anyway this is not about ram but...no chinese box have drm, dolby, dts, netflix and so one...
So you have reason you have nvidia, nexus, wetek... and than others....

[XperImenT]

AFAIK Wetek is not Chinese.. last time i saw Slovenia was at Europe on map.
Still cannot find a S812 2gb RAM per $40.00... anyway this is not about ram but...no chinese box have drm, dolby, dts, netflix and so one...
So you have reason you have nvidia, nexus, wetek... and than others....

Don't think Slovenia is much of an upgrade, either way it uses the same components as any other cheap chinese android box company.

I just put in s812 and 2gb of RAM and am pasting you the first result for $47:
http://www.amazon.com/M8S-Amlogic-Chipse...s=s812+2gb

[Latinbull]

So nexus player should cost 20 usd? Btw. This is your shop? Now all this discussion have sense to me

[XperImenT]

So nexus player should cost 20 usd?

Actually Nexus player is on clearance at Walmart for $25 ;=]