(2017-03-19, 05:21)nickr Wrote: [ -> ] (2017-03-19, 01:48)Piracy Cop Wrote: [ -> ]I'd like an S905X box with gigabit Internet. What are my options?
Piracy Cop
Why? What media do you think you'll need GigE for?
Yes - unless you are mastering your own UHD content, there should be no mainstream sources that currently go above around 60Mbs, which is fine over a 100Mbs connection.
My connection is 178 mb/s. So, if I am using the browser of the box for downloading content, I'll be restricted to 100M.
You are aware to use browsers on touchscreen Android devices you need to factor in either a touchpad keyboard or a PITA Air Mouse remote.
Stop looking for budget solutions when you already have demanding requirements.
Browsing on Android is painful - use a PC or Tablet instead.
Patching together some sort of Cheap Ass solution in the hope it will work and cover all use case scenarios is never a good idea.
Trying to do everything all on the one device is always where users come unstuck. You end up with too many compromises.
(2017-03-19, 16:29)Piracy Cop Wrote: [ -> ]My connection is 178 mb/s. So, if I am using the browser of the box for downloading content, I'll be restricted to 100M.
I would seriously advise using your media player for this. Much better to leave non-media playing duties to other devices. Chances are you'll hammer the CPU at those bitrates anyway...
Okay. Thanks, guys, for your replies. I'll take your advice.
(2017-03-19, 04:55)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]Noggin is correct - you need to get a S905 device like the ODROID's or WeTek's if you want GigaE support.
The S905x chipset does not have the necessary GigaE controller onboard. This controller was sacrificed in the name of cost cutting on the S905x.
I've been looking at the Q-Box range which all state they support gigabit Ethernet. They mostly seem to be last year's S905-based Android-5 box with 2GB/16GB (
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QBOX-16GB-2GB-...SwfVpYp~ej ), or this year's with the newer S905X and Android 6.0 but only 2GB/8GB (
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06X...NP48ND0NS1 ).
Which would be the better solution in your opinion for general media playback from my NAS (mostly 1080p for now, but may want 4k in the future)?
Actually I just found this one, which seems the offer the best of both worlds if the description is to be believed (S905X, 2GB/16GB, Android 6) at
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2017-Q-Box-KOD...SwuxFYvDXa
Has anyone tried these?
Andre
I think most of us using S905 boxes for Kodi - and just for Kodi - ignore Android and just run LibreElec - so the Android version is kind of irrelevant to us.
(2017-03-19, 22:29)noggin Wrote: [ -> ]I think most of us using S905 boxes for Kodi - and just for Kodi - ignore Android and just run LibreElec - so the Android version is kind of irrelevant to us.
Thanks for the help, I've read a few posts which suggest this. So this is basically a dual-bootable (loaded from memory card) cut-down/tailored version of Android designed with Kodi in mind, so the device boots straight into Kodi? Which would presumably mean that without various installed bloatware, the difference between 8GB and 16GB local memory is pretty much irrelevant too. So I should probably opt for the S905X version?
If I use LibreElec, can I still run the usual tools that I'm used to - for example ES File Explorer, or apps to let the device be seen as an SMB share on my local network so I can easily manipulate its files over the LAN or WLAN? Sorry for the noob questions.
(As long as I can turn off the daft front-panel LED light-strip anyway!
)
Andre
You got it... but, I pushed LibreELEC (Kodi) to internal NAND, basically wiping out the stock Android OS, which makes performance even better. But, you can try from mSD card for a while before deciding if you want to do this.
(2017-03-20, 03:26)andrewilley Wrote: [ -> ]So this is basically a dual-bootable (loaded from memory card) cut-down/tailored version of Android designed with Kodi in mind, so the device boots straight into Kodi?
There is NO Android included with the LibreELEC OS at all - its a minimal Linux based OS specifically designed to run Kodi only. If you Pop the SD card out the box will boot into the internal Android OS. They are two completely seperate Operating Systems.
Quote:Which would presumably mean that without various installed bloatware, the difference between 8GB and 16GB local memory is pretty much irrelevant too. So I should probably opt for the S905X version?
LibreELEC need approx ~250MB of RAM for the OS/Kodi - even boxes with 1GB RAM can stream the highest bitrate 4K video files you want to throw at them. You are not running a PC with Windows here that needs heaps of RAM.
Quote:If I use LibreElec, can I still run the usual tools that I'm used to - for example ES File Explorer, or apps to let the device be seen as an SMB share on my local network so I can easily manipulate its files over the LAN or WLAN? Sorry for the noob questions.
LibreELEC is not Android - you cannot run Android Apps when using the LibreELEC OS. There is a built in SAMBA and SSH file server included with every LibreELEC distribution.
(2017-03-20, 04:50)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]LibreELEC is not Android - you cannot run Android Apps when using the LibreELEC OS. There is a built in SAMBA and SSH file server included with every LibreELEC distribution.
Thanks for that. So LibreELEC is presumably a simple command-line Linux build with no GUI and no Google bloat, etc to get in the way? I can live with that, I wouldn't want to be spending any daily time in the OS anyway, so to just have it load quickly straight into Kodi would be fine by me, especially if I can edit the Kodi support files manually directly from my PC, with the media player device acting as a SAMBA share on the network (or via SSH if necessary, but that's a bit more cumbersome).
If I end up flashing LibreELEC to memory, I'd want to make a full Nandroid backup of the whole device in Recovery first so I could quickly restore it if I ever needed to (I assume that installing a custom recovery is possible on these sort of S905 devices, such as TWRP?).
One last question (sorry!) but if I use Libre how would I control any device-specific stuff which is manufacturer-provided via Android? I'm thinking of the blue LED strip on the Q-BOX devices which I would want to turn off completely. I guess worst-case scenario I could either run a strip of black insulating tape around the edge, or just snip the LED legs off the motherboard, but that would mess up any warranty. Of course I may be lucky and find that it's only being switched on by Android anyway.
Andre
(2017-03-20, 03:26)andrewilley Wrote: [ -> ] (2017-03-19, 22:29)noggin Wrote: [ -> ]I think most of us using S905 boxes for Kodi - and just for Kodi - ignore Android and just run LibreElec - so the Android version is kind of irrelevant to us.
Thanks for the help, I've read a few posts which suggest this. So this is basically a dual-bootable (loaded from memory card) cut-down/tailored version of Android designed with Kodi in mind, so the device boots straight into Kodi?
No - this isn't Android at all. Instead it is LibreElec - which is a very lightweight Linux (not Android) operating system optimised to provide only what Kodi needs to run and very little else. As such it takes up tiny amounts of storage space, and has very low overheads. You are right that it boots straight into Kodi.
Some people dual-boot with LibreElec on a uSD card, and Android on the internal storage, some of us see no point in keeping Android (it's not like you'll get HD Netflix etc.) on the internal flash and install LibreElec to that instead.
Quote:Which would presumably mean that without various installed bloatware, the difference between 8GB and 16GB local memory is pretty much irrelevant too. So I should probably opt for the S905X version?
Yes - 8GB is more than enough to store LibreElec and a reasonably large library. You can connect USB storage for local library playback, or network to network storage if your content is on a NAS.
Quote:If I use LibreElec, can I still run the usual tools that I'm used to - for example ES File Explorer, or apps to let the device be seen as an SMB share on my local network so I can easily manipulate its files over the LAN or WLAN? Sorry for the noob questions.
As LibreElec isn't running Android you don't have Android apps available. However LibreElec has built in file management utilities, and because it is based on Linux, you may find you need to use these less, as LibreElec will mount external storage devices with few problems.
LibreElec also includes some useful add-ons of its own - and because it's Linux, not Android, these can be more useful. Examples include - proper support for DVB USB (*) tuners and a TV Headend PVR backend (so you can use your LibreElec install as an OTA TV PVR as well as just a client to a remote PVR backend)
Quote:(As long as I can turn off the daft front-panel LED light-strip anyway! )
Can't help you with that...
(*) Because LibreElec often has to run on older kernels on S905 boxes, you may find some DVB USB tuners are unsupported, or you have to use specific builds that include them. (This is the curse of Android. It runs on older kernels, so many manufacturers haven't kept their kernels up to date, which has a knock on for Linux)
(2017-03-20, 10:30)andrewilley Wrote: [ -> ] (2017-03-20, 04:50)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]LibreELEC is not Android - you cannot run Android Apps when using the LibreELEC OS. There is a built in SAMBA and SSH file server included with every LibreELEC distribution.
Thanks for that. So LibreELEC is presumably a simple command-line Linux build with no GUI and no Google bloat, etc to get in the way? I can live with that, I wouldn't want to be spending any daily time in the OS anyway, so to just have it load quickly straight into Kodi would be fine by me, especially if I can edit the Kodi support files manually directly from my PC, with the media player device acting as a SAMBA share on the network (or via SSH if necessary, but that's a bit more cumbersome).
Actually - unless you SSH in you shouldn't ever see the command line. But yes - you're right. It's a minimal Linux OS that boots straight into Kodi.
It's actually massively optimised for running as an appliance, to the point that the main system file system is read-only by default.
It doesn't have a standard package manager - so no apt, yum, rpm etc. You install stuff via Add-Ons within Kodi.
Quote:If I end up flashing LibreELEC to memory, I'd want to make a full Nandroid backup of the whole device in Recovery first so I could quickly restore it if I ever needed to (I assume that installing a custom recovery is possible on these sort of S905 devices, such as TWRP?).
I believe so - but some devices may need a strange USB A-USB A cable to do so, as they don't have a Micro USB B OTG socket. I have an S905 MiniMX box which I flashed to LibreElec and have kept that way. I see no point in running an ancient, unsupported, Android build on it as it has no meaningful DRM support (unlike the Wetek Hub)
Quote:One last question (sorry!) but if I use Libre how would I control any device-specific stuff which is manufacturer-provided via Android? I'm thinking of the blue LED strip on the Q-BOX devices which I would want to turn off completely. I guess worst-case scenario I could either run a strip of black insulating tape around the edge, or just snip the LED legs off the motherboard, but that would mess up any warranty. Of course I may be lucky and find that it's only being switched on by Android anyway.
Andre
I think that will depend on how the LEDs are driven and whether there is support for them in LE or not. You could get lucky and find they don't light up...
(2017-03-20, 11:15)noggin Wrote: [ -> ](*) Because LibreElec often has to run on older kernels on S905 boxes, you may find some DVB USB tuners are unsupported, or you have to use specific builds that include them. (This is the curse of Android. It runs on older kernels, so many manufacturers haven't kept their kernels up to date, which has a knock on for Linux)
Modern Mainline (v4.1) Linux Kernel testing for S905 LibreELEC (Play2) has started last week by the BayLibre guys AMLogic have employed to bring the old AML Kernel up to modern standards. It should be an interesting year
Still no sign of stable Linux GPU drivers required for LibreELEC on AML S912's.