[Calum]

One problem I had while navigating XBMC was that the remote doesn't have a menu button so I could not get a right click menu. I would like to have some work-around to help with that. Wish I had an option to press and hold the center button to get a right click menu.

Thanks for the review.

To any,

Could the back button be mapped to right click function in xbmc?

[ars92]

To those who already have the nexus player could you test the following?
Does it passthrough dts HD and trueHD?
Is it able to playback h.265 videos smoothly? I presume even with the latest nightly its still software decode and not hardware decode?
Is it possible to playback movies at 24hz? Android 5.0 is supposed to have auto frame rate switching,so it should be there. Thanks!!

[trvbone]

I believe most of the answers are yes from what I read.

[alphinctom]

To those who already have the nexus player could you test the following?
Does it passthrough dts HD and trueHD?
Is it able to playback h.265 videos smoothly? I presume even with the latest nightly its still software decode and not hardware decode?
Is it possible to playback movies at 24hz? Android 5.0 is supposed to have auto frame rate switching,so it should be there. Thanks!!

I am getting DTS & DD passthrough. I need to test DTS-HS MA & Dolby TruHD. I also get hardware acceleration, however did not try Hz sync.

---

For those with this already and testing Kodi, How is the menu navigation using the Nexus remote? I assume a mouse/keyboard or MCE/Flirc combo will still be preferable.

I installed the standard 13.2 build and the default skin uses the remote just fine for navigation, but I hooked up my wireless mouse (quicker I find) to a USB hub along with ethernet USB and external HD, all working well.

What is the maximum hdd capacity supported? Can it take Esternal Desktop HDD with two USB ports (for extra power)?

[wolfbiker]

Is it possible to playback movies at 24hz? Android 5.0 is supposed to have auto frame rate switching,so it should be there. Thanks!!

I couldn't get 24hz to work on my Nexus Player hooked up to my projector. I enabled "adjust display refresh rate to match video" and it did nothing when I played a movie. It stayed at 60hz. On my OpenELEC install it switches fine with this setting. There's also no way to change the resolution and refresh rate manually. The options are grayed out in the settings.

[Koying]

Android 5.0 is supposed to have auto frame rate switching,so it should be there.

Not sure how that would magically work. Do you have a link?

[Martijn]

Android 5.0 is supposed to have auto frame rate switching,so it should be there.

Not sure how that would magically work. Do you have a link?

Yes i read that somewhere as well. It was described as "Android 5.0 gives the ability to lower refresh rate of display for saving battery". So not sure if that allows total control

[Wilberry]

To those who already have the nexus player could you test the following?
Does it passthrough dts HD and trueHD?
Is it able to playback h.265 videos smoothly? I presume even with the latest nightly its still software decode and not hardware decode?
Is it possible to playback movies at 24hz? Android 5.0 is supposed to have auto frame rate switching,so it should be there. Thanks!!

I am getting DTS & DD passthrough. I need to test DTS-HS MA & Dolby TruHD. I also get hardware acceleration, however did not try Hz sync.

---

For those with this already and testing Kodi, How is the menu navigation using the Nexus remote? I assume a mouse/keyboard or MCE/Flirc combo will still be preferable.

I installed the standard 13.2 build and the default skin uses the remote just fine for navigation, but I hooked up my wireless mouse (quicker I find) to a USB hub along with ethernet USB and external HD, all working well.

What is the maximum hdd capacity supported? Can it take Esternal Desktop HDD with two USB ports (for extra power)?

My USB hub is powered and so is my external drive, it in fact is an old Patriot Video Box with an internal hard drive. The drive is 500 GB and I don't have any others to test.

[Wilberry]

I currently run the 13.2 x86 version on the Nexus Player and it seems to work ok. I have noticed that launching Navi-X seems to close XBMC sometimes and other times works okay. I wanted to find out if it is worth installing v14 at this point. I have read on here that beta 1 runs best and beta 3 has issues. Just wanted to reach out to the community and see what the recommendation is on which version to run.

[hermit]

I currently run the 13.2 x86 version on the Nexus Player and it seems to work ok. I have noticed that launching Navi-X seems to close XBMC sometimes and other times works okay. I wanted to find out if it is worth installing v14 at this point. I have read on here that beta 1 runs best and beta 3 has issues. Just wanted to reach out to the community and see what the recommendation is on which version to run.

I have tested
gotham 13.2
kodi beta 1
kodi beta 2
kodi beta 3

For my experiences:

they all crash when left on buffering too long or if the buffer reaches too high ( even in software encoding mode )
they all crash on hardware encoding (with both options on, faster than no options on)

the best I could get was software encoding mode (I can't tell much difference of the crashing in any versions, they all crash)

Description of crashing:
with hardware encoding on, streaming playback wont last but a few minutes (5 to 20 minutes)
with software encoding on, streaming playback crashes randomly sometimes it doesn't.
the "crash" can be described as a full stop and close of xbmc, back to the home screen of nexus player (with a dialog that says xbmc has stopped responding).

(these are compared to my nexus 5 (xbmc 13.2, android 4.x) experiences, which rarely or ever crash)

This is with heavy usage, EG: xbmc is all I currently use for media perhaps 3 to 4 hours at night.

what I have tried:
- 0 cache in advanced settings
- all variations of encoding in acceleration
- clearing cache and uninstalling reinstalling multiple times.
- full factory reset of nexus player.

what I have not tried:
- 3rd party xbmc from amazon store

android lollipop is still new, even mx player doesnt support hardware encoding officially yet. so I guess it's just a waiting game.

I honestly believe after testing, that none of the versions address the crashing I am personally experiencing in any way and all versions are affected by the random crash.
if you feel you receive similar experience as me, then just stick with 13.2.

affected addons tested:
youtube: long youtube videos EG Gaming videos that run 1 hour long (search for binding of issaic)
various other 3rd party addons that shall not be mentioned.

as far as my nexus player, it performs regularly when i use it for netflix and youtube, so I don't believe the unit is faulty but that's just my opinion.

[hermit]

Side Note:
I recently received the android lollipop update on my nexus 5, and have not been experiencing the same problems even with hardware encoding on (with both libstagefright and mediacodec on).

so perhaps this is another issue regarding x86, or just nexus player platform.

I will continue to test through out the day and report my findings.

If anyone who has a better understanding of xbmc and wants me to perform certain tests with certain addons please send me a private message or reply in the thread. I would be happy to help out in anyway.

[Wilberry]

I currently run the 13.2 x86 version on the Nexus Player and it seems to work ok. I have noticed that launching Navi-X seems to close XBMC sometimes and other times works okay. I wanted to find out if it is worth installing v14 at this point. I have read on here that beta 1 runs best and beta 3 has issues. Just wanted to reach out to the community and see what the recommendation is on which version to run.

I have tested
gotham 13.2
kodi beta 1
kodi beta 2
kodi beta 3

For my experiences:

they all crash when left on buffering too long or if the buffer reaches too high ( even in software encoding mode )
they all crash on hardware encoding (with both options on, faster than no options on)

the best I could get was software encoding mode (I can't tell much difference of the crashing in any versions, they all crash)

Description of crashing:
with hardware encoding on, streaming playback wont last but a few minutes (5 to 20 minutes)
with software encoding on, streaming playback crashes randomly sometimes it doesn't.
the "crash" can be described as a full stop and close of xbmc, back to the home screen of nexus player (with a dialog that says xbmc has stopped responding).

(these are compared to my nexus 5 (xbmc 13.2, android 4.x) experiences, which rarely or ever crash)

This is with heavy usage, EG: xbmc is all I currently use for media perhaps 3 to 4 hours at night.

what I have tried:
- 0 cache in advanced settings
- all variations of encoding in acceleration
- clearing cache and uninstalling reinstalling multiple times.
- full factory reset of nexus player.

what I have not tried:
- 3rd party xbmc from amazon store

android lollipop is still new, even mx player doesnt support hardware encoding officially yet. so I guess it's just a waiting game.

I honestly believe after testing, that none of the versions address the crashing I am personally experiencing in any way.

and all versions are affected by the random crash.

affected addons tested:
youtube: long youtube videos EG Gaming videos that run 1 hour long (search for binding of issaic)
various other 3rd party addons that shall not be mentioned.

Thanks for the feedback, it is appreciated

[hermit]

P.P.S
I am using a usb Ethernet adapter, and It doesn't seem to do much difference in the crashes described in my last post.

I have tried both wifi and usb ethernet.

[drewg]

[quote='Wilberry' pid='1840520' dateline='1416410783']

they all crash when left on buffering too long or if the buffer reaches too high ( even in software encoding mode )
they all crash on hardware encoding (with both options on, faster than no options on)

the best I could get was software encoding mode (I can't tell much difference of the crashing in any versions, they all crash)

Description of crashing:
with hardware encoding on, streaming playback wont last but a few minutes (5 to 20 minutes)
with software encoding on, streaming playback crashes randomly sometimes it doesn't.
the "crash" can be described as a full stop and close of xbmc, back to the home screen of nexus player (with a dialog that says xbmc has stopped responding).

(these are compared to my nexus 5 (xbmc 13.2, android 4.x) experiences, which rarely or ever crash)

This is with heavy usage, EG: xbmc is all I currently use for media perhaps 3 to 4 hours at night.

I've been running a few nightlies between Kodi beta2 and Kodi beta3, and I have had no crashing once I disabled mediacodec.

Or.. Hmmm.. My usage is ~1-2 hours per night. Mostly NFL Rewind via the NFL Gamepass add-on, and PlexBMC, mostly watching the Daily Show plex channel. Both of these are low bitrate ~4Mb/s H.264 video. Non-Xbmc time is spent mostly in youtube. What do you watch? BD rips? Maybe you're stressing it more than me.

Hmm.. Maybe your problem is heat related? I'm always suspicious of these tiny / pretty cases designed by marketers. My device is velcroed-taped to the back of my TV, so it gets pretty good air flow, and the metal back of the TV probably acts as a heat sink.


Drew

[hermit]

[quote='Wilberry' pid='1840520' dateline='1416410783']

they all crash when left on buffering too long or if the buffer reaches too high ( even in software encoding mode )
they all crash on hardware encoding (with both options on, faster than no options on)

the best I could get was software encoding mode (I can't tell much difference of the crashing in any versions, they all crash)

Description of crashing:
with hardware encoding on, streaming playback wont last but a few minutes (5 to 20 minutes)
with software encoding on, streaming playback crashes randomly sometimes it doesn't.
the "crash" can be described as a full stop and close of xbmc, back to the home screen of nexus player (with a dialog that says xbmc has stopped responding).

(these are compared to my nexus 5 (xbmc 13.2, android 4.x) experiences, which rarely or ever crash)

This is with heavy usage, EG: xbmc is all I currently use for media perhaps 3 to 4 hours at night.

I've been running a few nightlies between Kodi beta2 and Kodi beta3, and I have had no crashing once I disabled mediacodec.

Or.. Hmmm.. My usage is ~1-2 hours per night. Mostly NFL Rewind via the NFL Gamepass add-on, and PlexBMC, mostly watching the Daily Show plex channel. Both of these are low bitrate ~4Mb/s H.264 video. Non-Xbmc time is spent mostly in youtube. What do you watch? BD rips? Maybe you're stressing it more than me.

Hmm.. Maybe your problem is heat related? I'm always suspicious of these tiny / pretty cases designed by marketers. My device is velcroed-taped to the back of my TV, so it gets pretty good air flow, and the metal back of the TV probably acts as a heat sink.


Drew

I've experienced the crash with both SD and HD but mostly been testing 720p streams and up.
I have not tested nightlies, do you have a certain one you recommend so I can test?

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, with software encoding enabled, the crash will only happen MAYBE once or twice a night, sometimes not at all. however with the same behaviors using my nexus 5. I don't get those errors.

as far as the heat issues, I doubt it, as its in the open and has plenty of air flow, but I will try monitoring its temperature when it stops vs when i'm just using youtube.

also my kids have used this to watch barbie on youtube for a full 3 hours before as nexus player seems to continue to the next video. haven't had any issues on the default youtube app yet.