[jbinkley60]

This is a Kodi forum -- so I won't be posting when the V is released and will leave it to the enthusiastic users to do so, but if you sign up to our Newsletter at https://osmc.tv/about/#newsletter, we'll send an email when it's released.

Already subscribed and will be on the lookout for announcements. 


Thanks,

Jeff

[ExTechOp]

There are 4 similar hardware devices Homatics Box 4K, RockTek G2, the Dune Homatics box mentioned above and the Nokia 8010 all using the same Android firmware and the S905X4-K licensed for DV.  https://www.androidtv-guide.com/oem/sei-robotics/  is the OEM link.  There are cheaper S905X4 devices without DV support so be careful ordering.

I would say many Kodi using it are getting one for the CoreElec Kodi DV and if your interest is Kodi for Android you may see different results.

I ended up getting the Homatics Box 4K, partially based on people here saying the hardware has worked for them.
I guess CoreElec is the next step? But for basic 4k operation, what version do I want, some bleeding-edge nightly version or will the stable version be sufficient?

[izprtxqkft]

I ended up getting the Homatics Box 4K, partially based on people here saying the hardware has worked for them.
I guess CoreElec is the next step? But for basic 4k operation, what version do I want, some bleeding-edge nightly version or will the stable version be sufficient?

only nightlies have Dolby Vision

https://github.com/CoreELEC/CoreELEC/releases

CoreELEC-Amlogic-ne.aarch64-21.0-Omega_alpha2-Generic.img.gz should do it for you


as always, however, run what suites your needs

[emveepee]

I ended up getting the Homatics Box 4K, partially based on people here saying the hardware has worked for them.
I guess CoreElec is the next step? But for basic 4k operation, what version do I want, some bleeding-edge nightly version or will the stable version be sufficient?

You are in luck since CE has restructured because of long standing issues with ffmpeg 5/6 in Omega that need to be resolved so you should be able to able to use Nexus stable builds now.  For basic operation Kodi for Android might be good enough.

[ExTechOp]

I ended up getting the Homatics Box 4K, partially based on people here saying the hardware has worked for them.
I guess CoreElec is the next step? But for basic 4k operation, what version do I want, some bleeding-edge nightly version or will the stable version be sufficient?

You are in luck since CE has restructured because of long standing issues with ffmpeg 5/6 in Omega that need to be resolved so you should be able to able to use Nexus stable builds now.  For basic operation Kodi for Android might be good enough.

The only resolution I'm getting with Kodi for Android is [email protected], should it also give me higher resolutions?

[JamesX]

The only resolution I'm getting with Kodi for Android is [email protected], should it also give me higher resolutions?

Yeah it should. What limits the apk Kodi is the audio part, not the video.

[ExTechOp]

The only resolution I'm getting with Kodi for Android is [email protected], should it also give me higher resolutions?

Yeah it should. What limits the apk Kodi is the audio part, not the video.

All right, that's strange. Does anyone have suggestions how I should debug this, what could be wrong?

[izprtxqkft]

The only resolution I'm getting with Kodi for Android is [email protected], should it also give me higher resolutions?

Yeah it should. What limits the apk Kodi is the audio part, not the video.

All right, that's strange. Does anyone have suggestions how I should debug this, what could be wrong?

android apps are probably locked at a certain resolution by the OS

installing cpu-z can show what is available

same as this thread https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=373998

i have the rocktek version of this device and it is locked to 1080p

[ExTechOp]

android apps are probably locked at a certain resolution by the OS
installing cpu-z can show what is available
same as this thread https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=373998
i have the rocktek version of this device and it is locked to 1080p

Google Play store says "CPU-Z by CPUID isn't available on Google Play on this device"

What I have is "Dune HD Homatics Box R 4K Plus", running Android TV OS 11, with April 5, 2023 security patches. Box R 4K Plus SW Version v11.8.5310
The Android system Settings / Display & Sound says Screen resolution is 4k2k-59.94Hz, but Kodi just reports 1920×1080 @ 59.94 Hz

Is Android limiting the resolution, or is Kodi just reporting the resolution that its user interface is using, and it'll switch to the correct resolution on playback?
As far as I can tell (by eyesight, and by what Kodi reports during playback) Kodi is able to play 2160p video without downscaling and at an appropriate frame rate.

[izprtxqkft]

android apps are probably locked at a certain resolution by the OS
installing cpu-z can show what is available
same as this thread https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=373998
i have the rocktek version of this device and it is locked to 1080p

Google Play store says "CPU-Z by CPUID isn't available on Google Play on this device"

What I have is "Dune HD Homatics Box R 4K Plus", running Android TV OS 11, with April 5, 2023 security patches. Box R 4K Plus SW Version v11.8.5310
The Android system Settings / Display & Sound says Screen resolution is 4k2k-59.94Hz, but Kodi just reports 1920×1080 @ 59.94 Hz

Is Android limiting the resolution, or is Kodi just reporting the resolution that its user interface is using, and it'll switch to the correct resolution on playback?
As far as I can tell (by eyesight, and by what Kodi reports during playback) Kodi is able to play 2160p video without downscaling and at an appropriate frame rate.

i used the Rocktek G2 which has the same base hardware from SEI - https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=373812

i too found that the GUI in kodi only ever displayed 1080p, not 2160p, when testing i feel like it was outputting 4K when 4K was playing but i never found out for certain

i ultimately terminated my testing due to an inability to get audio issues fixed and never really determined with certainty what the video output was


under the android tv jellyfin app it was outputting 4K

[jbinkley60]

Way ahead of you there, Sam - very keen to read about it when the announcement comes!  And congrats on the launch - must have been a mountain of work to climb to get to this point.

My order of 3 new Vero Vs came in Tuesday.  I've gotten 2 of them deployed so far, replacing a couple of Vero 4K+ devices.  With Mezzmo and the OSMC backup utility it only took me a few minutes per device, even doing a full Kodi 18 to 20.2 upgrade.  The specs are good for these devices.  So far I am seeing anywhere from a 30-50% speed improvement depending on the task. 

Here's a few examples I use from the performance monitoring that the Mezzmo Kodi addon does for me:

13 secs - Vero 4K+ Sync 400 items to Kodi
  9 secs - Vero V Sync 400 items to Kodi
21 secs - Raspberry Pi 4 Sync 400 items to Kodi

2.1 secs - Vero 4K+ Kodi time to display 300 items
1.2 secs - Vero V Kodi time to display 300 items
1.7 secs - Raspberry Pi 4 Kodi time to display 300 items

For a more robust test, here's the results of a full video library daily sync of 21K items:

17m 23s - Vero 4K+ Mezzmo to Kodi sync 21k items
12m 39s - Vero V Mezzmo to Kodi sync 21k items

This is a 27% overall improvement in speed.  This testing stresses network, processor and storage performance. For comparison purposes here are a few other platforms doing the same sync process:

51m 20s - Raspberry Pi 4
3 m 48s -   Intel NUC 8i7BEH
7m 57s -   Kodi on a Windows PC

The Raspberry Pi 4 suffers from a slow internal storage system since it is writing to the SD card.

Overall playback has been very smooth, including testing 4K UHD full bitrate video files.  A good test is how fast it respond to FF/RW commands.  Note this playback testing is over HTTP leveraging the Mezzmo server and not SMB shares.  The Vero V was very quick and no lags.  Overall it feels much snappier than the Vero 4K+.

Update -  I tested John Wick 2 UHD full bitrate over 5ghz wireless with the Vero V including downscaling to 1080P for my monitor.  Video playback was flawless.  I did a lot of FF, RW and jumping.  In almost every instance the result was instant.  A couple of times I could get it to pause for a second or two on large consecutive jumps but playback restarted perfectly.  In these couple of instances I was smashing the forward arrow 6-7 times quickly.    


Thanks,

Jeff

[salim2]

I would`t recommend any of the Amazon sticks for Kodi as they are all too weak to run Kodi.

Huh? I run the old firestick 4k and it handles everything I've thrown at it. My only gripe is the audio pass-through limitation but that has nothing to do with processing power.

Is the claim that Amazon sticks are too weak to run Kodi accurate? I've had a positive experience with my old Firestick 4K, except for the audio pass-through limitations. Is it processing and power that is really the issue here?

[MatteN]

The new Raspberry Pi 5 is presented, will be in stores end of october.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-5/

[JamesX]

The new Raspberry Pi 5 is presented, will be in stores end of october.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-5/

I wonder how much of the RaspPi4 Kodi GPU code will be usable. Hopefully a lot... it would be a bummer to take years to have proper HDR implemented again.

Anyway... no hw AV1 means it's a big no no from me.

Ps. I read that hw h264 was removed on the GPU of the RaspPi 5. Is that true? Jeez... it would be an even bigger no then!

[noggin]

The new Raspberry Pi 5 is presented, will be in stores end of october.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-5/

I wonder how much of the RaspPi4 Kodi GPU code will be usable. Hopefully a lot... it would be a bummer to take years to have proper HDR implemented again.

Anyway... no hw AV1 means it's a big no no from me.

Ps. I read that hw h264 was removed on the GPU of the RaspPi 5. Is that true? Jeez... it would be an even bigger no then!

The LibreElec guys said it took less than an hour to get it running on a Pi 5? Isn't that right @chewitt ?  Hopefully HDR10 and HLG are working as on the Pi 4B - and also HD Audio  - as also on the Pi 4B.

The h.264 hardware decode being removed follows the Pi Foundation's previous moves of removing MPEG2 and VC-1 licensing option from the Pi 4B. Once the CPU is fast enough to decode in software - there is less need for hardware acceleration (and in the case of h.264 - no need to pay licensing fees as a result?).  The old h.264 block only supported 1080p max 8-bit h.264.  Software decoding on the Pi 5 is apparently supporting 4K h.264 for streaming bitrates.  AIUI AV1 at 1080p is also working OK?

https://libreelec.tv/2023/09/28/rpi5-support/ is worth a read, as is the LibreElec announcement thread https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/27580-...erry-pi-5/