2014-12-31, 11:30
I have been looking for a stand alone box that supports 3d ISO playback in 3d from within XBMC I have acquired a number of them: Himedia Q5 4K, Vidon box, Zidoo X9, Open Hour Chameleon. I also have a Tronsmart R28 pro, Fire TV, and a MiniX 8-H plus and a Chromebox although with these latter four boxes I have never expected 3D ISO support. I have a Mele X2000 and an Eweat EW902 in the post to me.
The Vidon box is the only one of these that delivers 3D ISO playback in 3D from XBMC at this stage. The Himedia can do it from the native player, but not from XBMC. Open Hour Chameleon can almost do it from the native player on beta firmware, but has problems with HDMI audio and subtitles.
But if you aren't interested in 3D ISO, I don't think there is much to recommend the Vidon box over the others other than the very competitive price. Aside from the several bugs that still need addressing, one big disadvantage for the Vidon box is that it renders the UI in 720p, even though video is played back at 1080p where that resolution is present in the source file. This makes the UI in XBMC look significantly less sharp than others on a 1080p TV. If you don't need 3D ISO, I would not recommend the Vidon box over XBMC/Kodi on an Amazon Fire TV, and the cost is very similar.
In my view, none of these Android based boxes come close to an openelec Chromebox in terms of simplicity, stability and speed. Chromebox may cost a bit more and involves a little bit of a set up initially, but once running knocks the spots off the Android solutions.
One thing I will say about Vidon, however, is that at least someone is here in the forum (Wolly) trying to help users and feeding back to the developers. He is copping quite a lot of flack in the process, but seems to be well aware that the box is yet to fully deliver on the marketing claims made for it.
The Vidon box is the only one of these that delivers 3D ISO playback in 3D from XBMC at this stage. The Himedia can do it from the native player, but not from XBMC. Open Hour Chameleon can almost do it from the native player on beta firmware, but has problems with HDMI audio and subtitles.
But if you aren't interested in 3D ISO, I don't think there is much to recommend the Vidon box over the others other than the very competitive price. Aside from the several bugs that still need addressing, one big disadvantage for the Vidon box is that it renders the UI in 720p, even though video is played back at 1080p where that resolution is present in the source file. This makes the UI in XBMC look significantly less sharp than others on a 1080p TV. If you don't need 3D ISO, I would not recommend the Vidon box over XBMC/Kodi on an Amazon Fire TV, and the cost is very similar.
In my view, none of these Android based boxes come close to an openelec Chromebox in terms of simplicity, stability and speed. Chromebox may cost a bit more and involves a little bit of a set up initially, but once running knocks the spots off the Android solutions.
One thing I will say about Vidon, however, is that at least someone is here in the forum (Wolly) trying to help users and feeding back to the developers. He is copping quite a lot of flack in the process, but seems to be well aware that the box is yet to fully deliver on the marketing claims made for it.
