[wrxtasy]

Hi all, fist time poster but used the forum for a few years to help me out in the past.

I seem to be going around in circles when choosing an upgrade to my trusty 6year old Acer Revo 3700 running Kodi, so I am throwing it out there for the guru's to help.

First of all I'll briefly list what I think I need based on my current equipment setup - I have a UHD 4k TV and an Onkyo 7.1 Atmos enabled amp (with the atmos speakers). I don't stream too much due to an average 10meg ADSL connection and with 3 kids with xbox's, ipods etc it gets used up pretty quick.
I mostly watch content from my Synology NAS box, which comprises of a mixture of 1080p & 720p 5.1 recordings, 3d, DTS and DTS-MA movies . I have noticed of late that a few HEVC H265 recording downloading onto my NAS which my old Revo just can't cope with.

Just when I think I have picked the right box, I have noticed that there is always something that it can't do, wether it is limited to HDMI1.4, not 7.1 passthrough, no Atmos, non DTS-MA or HEVC 24p 10bit playback...frankly it's doing my nut in!

I don't mind paying that little bit more to get what I (think I) want.
OpenElec is fine as is Windows 7/10 or Android

I was looking at the AMLogic S905, Asus Chromebox Celeron / intel, but like I said it's doing my nut in and I don't know what to go for, I just want something fast, with smooth playback, quality picture and no hassle running most things that I can throw at it.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

The elimination list:

UHD 4K TV = HDMI 2.0 so you can play 2160p video @ 50/60Hz and not just be limited to 30Hz over HDMI 1.4 going forward.
10bit HEVC for 4K/2160p/1080p playback = nVIDIA Shield or an AMLogic S905

7.1 HD Audio Passthrough (inc Atmos) = nVIDIA Shield or a MINIX U1 or the soon to be released WeTek Hub (15th May)

Content Protected DRM Video streaming Apps, like Netflix etc (no Amazon Prime, you need to get a FireTV2):
1080p = WeTek Hub
1080p/2160p = nVIDIA Shield

VP9 for 4K YouTube = nVIDIA Shield

Money no object, plug N play, runs big remote friendly Android Apps designed for the TV screen = nVIDIA Shield !

The Chromebox will do most things well with smoothness and speed inc. 7.1 HD Audio. It will even software decode 1080p low bitrate 10-bit HEVC I'm told, but will choke once you start getting into the 2160p stuff as there is no HEVC Hardware decoding. It only has HDMI 1.4 as well. For a 1080p Kodi media player its fantastic.

Really the choice depends on the content you are likely to watch.