[DragonFly]

Entering the 4K era, I need to replace my old trustworthy Scaleo E, running a an old 32bit Pentium 4 CPU/Geforce 210 on OpenElec. OpenElec because the JOS concept runs much smoother on old hardware than (a stripped down) Windows. What’s most important to me is flawless HD Audio Passthrough. Currently, my setup passes every audio format correctly through the Geforce 210 to a Yamaha receiver.

Every time new promising hardware gets released and people start using Kodi on it, there tends to be some trouble at some point on some platform with PT (like Rockchip on Android, Skylake on Windows etc.)

I’ve been reading Kodi’s hardware forum topics for years now, including the “pick the right hardware” topics, but they tend to address the various hardware capabilities in conjunction with 3D playback. 3D in not important to me. In fact, its hype is passed and will probably not be included in future televisions.

So, I’d really like from users to know and to summarize which specific hardware on which platform gives the best HD Audio Passtrough results using Kodi. (or at least the less headaches). This could be x86 hardware, android based devices or anything else. Preferably hardware that’s capable of 4k output (regardless of bitdepth or framerate).

[BoxFreak]

I think OpenElec@Chromebox is quite good at this. At least I haven't had any problems. I haven't tested with very many HD audio video files, but all I've tested have worked.

[Matt Devo]

I think OpenElec@Chromebox is quite good at this. At least I haven't had any problems. I haven't tested with very many HD audio video files, but all I've tested have worked.

yep, the Chromebox, like most current Intel platforms, has no problem outputting all HD audio formats under Linux, and works OOTB with OpenELEC.

However, now is a terrible time to buy something for 4k if you want it to be good for another 1-2 years. Intel's current platforms with HEVC decoding are limited to 8-bit HEVC and 30Hz output at 4K (though you can get 60Hz from Skylake with a DisplayPort-->HDMI 2.0 adapter) and don't natively support HDMI 2.0, let alone HDMI 2.0a (required for some upcoming HDR formats).

The lone exception to the above is probably the Nvidia Shield TV, which can do 4K 60Hz output via HDMI 2.0 and has 10-bit HEVC decoding, and should be updateable to HDMI 2.0a. But it has a few idiosyncrasies of its own currently I believe

[danjames92]

I think OpenElec@Chromebox is quite good at this. At least I haven't had any problems. I haven't tested with very many HD audio video files, but all I've tested have worked.

yep, the Chromebox, like most current Intel platforms, has no problem outputting all HD audio formats under Linux, and works OOTB with OpenELEC.

However, now is a terrible time to buy something for 4k if you want it to be good for another 1-2 years. Intel's current platforms with HEVC decoding are limited to 8-bit HEVC and 30Hz output at 4K (though you can get 60Hz from Skylake with a DisplayPort-->HDMI 2.0 adapter) and don't natively support HDMI 2.0, let alone HDMI 2.0a (required for some upcoming HDR formats).

The lone exception to the above is probably the Nvidia Shield TV, which can do 4K 60Hz output via HDMI 2.0 and has 10-bit HEVC decoding, and should be updateable to HDMI 2.0a. But it has a few idiosyncrasies of its own currently I believe

Like Android not having a maintainer.

[Roby77]

android what ?

[noggin]

Entering the 4K era, I need to replace my old trustworthy Scaleo E, running a an old 32bit Pentium 4 CPU/Geforce 210 on OpenElec. OpenElec because the JOS concept runs much smoother on old hardware than (a stripped down) Windows. What’s most important to me is flawless HD Audio Passthrough. Currently, my setup passes every audio format correctly through the Geforce 210 to a Yamaha receiver.

Every time new promising hardware gets released and people start using Kodi on it, there tends to be some trouble at some point on some platform with PT (like Rockchip on Android, Skylake on Windows etc.)

I’ve been reading Kodi’s hardware forum topics for years now, including the “pick the right hardware” topics, but they tend to address the various hardware capabilities in conjunction with 3D playback. 3D in not important to me. In fact, its hype is passed and will probably not be included in future televisions.

So, I’d really like from users to know and to summarize which specific hardware on which platform gives the best HD Audio Passtrough results using Kodi. (or at least the less headaches). This could be x86 hardware, android based devices or anything else. Preferably hardware that’s capable of 4k output (regardless of bitdepth or framerate).

Pretty much any x86 box based on a Core architecture (Haswell, Broadwell and newer) will deliver HD Audio bitstreamed in both Windows and Linux with the integral Intel GPU. Some Baytrail (Atom architecture) chips will also do this in Windows and more will do it in Linux. Avoid the low power SoCs like the Z-series Baytrails and x-series Cherry Trails - which have lousy-to-nonexistent Linux support and only bitstream DD/DTS (and DD+?) in Windows, along with PCM5.1/7.1 (though this means you can losslessly decode HD Audio to PCM should you need to)

Other platforms that support HD passthrough are Wetek Core and nVidia Shield with Android - though these are new. There is a hope that the Wetek OpenElec builds may get HD Audio at some point - but I don't think it has happened yet.

If you are buying now - I'd ignore UHD/4K and HDR. There is close to no point buying hardware to deliver it - the mainstream hardware isn't quite there and the dust hasn't settled.

Also - look carefully at the content you want to play - some solutions have flaws with certain content (mainly MPEG2 or VC-1 interlaced)

[DragonFly]

Sorry, for the late response. Work intervened.

Having built and configured HTPC's for years, I personally lean towards building on x86 hardware, probably based on an ASRock N3700M.

However, the family expects something more than just a slick HTPC to play (or stream) media content these days. They want to be able to browse the internet, interact with social media etc., all within the same interface. This would mean a Shield TV or something along those lines.

I just don't want the hassle with the HD audio....