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Hi all,
Lots of great info in here. Thanks for that. I'm kinda lost with my requirement and which box can do them. For what it's worth I think the Vero 4K is my only option but the lack of gigabit ethernet scares me.
Here's what I'm looking to do
- 1080p mostly
- 4K occasionnaly
- Atmos all the time when watching 1080p. Can the Vero 4K take a 4K HDR mkv file and downscale it to 1080p SDR while maintaining the Atmos soundtrack ?
- I have a Nas with gigabit internet and everything is stored on it.
- Not a fan of Android, so booting to Kodi is a must (SPMC, OSMC, MrMC, or whatever)
- Control without line of Sight so Bluetooth, Wifi or RF required. I can control with my phone if thats the only thing that doesn't work with the box
- Curently using Madnox Skin and would like to keep it but willing to change if thats a deal breaker.
I have a dedicated Hometheater with a 1080p projector and Atmos setup and a 4K tv with a 2.0 setup. I'd like to move the box around when I want to watch 4k on the tv but I want to keep atmos in the theater.
Am I ok thinking that the Vero 4k is my only option ?
thanks for clearing this up for me :-)
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The Vero 4K has HDR -> SDR capabilities. There isn't a defined spec in how to achieve this however; so we're planning to make some presets available via Kodi.
For now, we've been busy getting HDR in to better shape alone.
The Atmos track would be bitstreamed and is not dependent on the video resolution output.
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Hi,
I'm planning on updating my old WDTV player for a Vero 4k or a Minix U9 with LibreELEC soon.
I have several external HDD drives with my movies stored on them and with the WD device I just plug the HDD into the USB and play.
My question is:
Are there any problems playing 4k HDR content (bluray remuxes/mkv etc) the same way? I do know I would need a powered USB hub or a self powered USB HDD.
Thanks.
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I can only answer for the Vero 4K.
If you attach a USB hard drive you will have no issues. They are automatically mounted.
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Thanks wrxtasy for the prompt reply.
I'm looking forward to my foray into Kodi territory, can't wait.
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2018-05-05, 12:25
(This post was last modified: 2018-05-05, 12:29 by wrxtasy.)
If you want Kodi on a media player - it's LibreELEC I will be talking about in the following text....
The RK3399 boxes are not close to being stable & ready for prime time demanding Kodi usage yet - especially not Kodi Krypton and definitely not for HDR or anything to do with 1080p TV / DVD deinterlacing. I doubt hardware deinterlacing will ever work. They are very much a WIP.
That leaves the pretty snappy AML S912 which will do nearly everything you need audio and video wise. If the USB Hub is externally self powered I would see no problems with Multiple HDD's and LibreELEC.
The pick of the devices is the MINIX U9-H simply due to the quality of the hardware, it has the best thermal heat management out of all the AMLogic boxes.
Use a Wireless MINIX A2 lite mini keyboard remote with it, the included IR one is rubbish and highly directional - just like all IR remotes on AMLogic boxes. The newer MINIX A3 lite remote has wake from sleep issues.
Be aware you will not get losless 24bit FLAC > 24 bit LPCM audio out of any AMLogic hardware, it will be 16bit LPCM only.
BTW: LibreELEC running on the AML S912 can do up to 11Mbps 1080p 10bit H264 aka Anime - CPU software decoding (I've personally tested it)
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Hi, I was looking for some advice and look like I have come to the right place.
I am looking for a Android box that will run Kodi, but also allow me to run android games, and emulators of older consoles. I am familiar with Kodi as I run it on my mac, and also my Android phone (A xiaomi red note 4).
My budget is low, the lower, the better. I'm in the UK, so ideally would like to buy it from here online so it doesn't take too long to arrive, although I have used gearbest and fast tech plenty of times in the past for bargains from China.
All of my TV's are only 1080P, as I didn't feel the need to upgrade to 4K as I sit quite far from the screen, so even SD looks OK. I will upgrade to 4K eventually, but probably not until these TV's break.
So, could you recommend me a few models? I was looking at a Xiaomi box which was just £60 here in the UK, but worried this wouldn't be enough for my needs. The gaming will only be occasionally, with the PSX being the most demanding console I will run, mostly 16 and 8 bit games though.
Thanks for your help, Conan.
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I've had a look round, and the TX3 mini seems quite good, with the same processor and GPU as the Xiaomi mi box. Also includes an ethernet port, is this good enough for Kodi streaming?
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2018-05-06, 19:26
(This post was last modified: 2018-05-06, 20:45 by conanthewarrior.)
EDIT: I ended up going for a t95z plus. It was only £48, had a newer processor than the other two with better performance, should be here sometime next week. I hope I made a reasonable choice, I'm not expecting anything amazing, but something watchable as I have wanted a dedicated box for a while.
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2018-05-08, 22:47
(This post was last modified: 2018-05-08, 23:30 by crazygambit.)
I've been reading this and other threads and trying to absorb as much info as possible, but I figured I would still ask for advice instead of having regrets later. I'm looking to move on from my old i5 Intel NUC. I need proper HDMI 2.0a (at least) support and even though I bought one of those powered adapters for the DP I could never get 4k at 60 fps. I'm running Windows 10 and I'm tired of the resolution switching to 1024 x 768 every time I switch inputs. I do like running Aeon Mq7, but if I have to sacrifice it for superior video performance, then so be it. Here's the list of my requirements:
- At least HDMI 2.0a and HDR10 support.
- Support for 2160p remux Blurays (my NUC can't play these at all).
- Support for 10bit anime.
- Must be able to edit advancedsetting.xml. I have some custom regex I use, particularly for anime. I'm not sure how easy or hard this is on the Android boxes, but not being able to do it is a deal breaker.
- Atmos would be nice, but currently I only have a 5.1 system. HD codec support is a must. I should mention I have a HDCP 2.2 compatible receiver (Denon X6200W).
- I'm thinking my TV (Samsung KS9000) will do a better job upscaling 1080p content than most of these boxes, so auto resolution switching would be nice.
- I'm only interested in playing media from my NAS, so I'm thinking a Gigabit ethernet is also a must.
- Netflix would be a nice to have, but I currently just use my TV's app, so not a deal breaker.
- Don't care about too many add-ons (except subtitles) and PVR or live TV.
- Decent remote and compatibility with either my TV's remote or a universal IR one is a plus.
- My TV doesn't even support 3D, so that's not a concern.
Budget is no object, I just want the best box for my needs. If the best is a newer NUC instead of an Android box, then so be it (but I've read they have many issues as well). Also I'm not in a huge hurry, so If a box that ticks all these boxes is about to come out, I can wait.