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I can already play HDR content on the HDR capable AML S905X Xiaomi Mi Box sent to my non HDR 4K TV and color output looks normal.
However try that same test on a AML S905 that does not support HDR and the color output looks washed out.
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I've never understood the value proposition of the Vero (now on revision 3) compared to similar hardware/chipsets available at the time of release. The original Vero had support for 3 years when it shipped in February of 2015 and now the Vero3 has support for 5 years (through spring of 2022). There is still another year of support left for the original Vero, which I think means it will probably have Leia available before support "stops" (though no reason they might not continue to support). I do wonder how many of the original Vero devices are still in use running OSMC/Kodi and how many have been replaced by the Vero2 or another device due to better features (4k, h265 hardware decode).
With similar hardware (s905/s905x) at 1/2 to 1/3 the cost and more and more powerful chipsets coming out every year or two (some being supported/developed for Kodi, some not), it makes more sense to me to just plan on replacing my Kodi device every so often. Some care has to be taken in choosing a specific device that works well with Kodi, so that is one advantage for the Vero because it is guaranteed to work.
I've been quite pleased with an Odroid-C2. The gigabit ethernet has no issues and iperf shows it can run at true gigabit speed, so I am unsure why fast ethernet on the Vero3 is needed unless the network adapter is like the original Vero and can run at gigabit speed but is connected to a bus that can't handle gigabit throughput.
I haven't looked at OSMC in about 2 years, are there any great apps in the app store, maybe something for Netflix that would differentiate the Vero/OSMC from other distros that include Kodi?
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Looks like the new Vero is shipping and at least one customer has actually received their order already, so hopefully some reviews will be coming shortly. I suspect dukester is correct and that the device won't be anything special compared to other s905/s905x devices or at least the ones that work with LE / OE already.
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2017-04-04, 17:55
(This post was last modified: 2017-04-04, 19:11 by zaphod24.)
Looking at the updated START HERE important thread you mentioned was updated, in every place the Vero 4K shows up, I see my Odroid C2 there as well.
I will totally agree that for some, the additional price of the Vero 4K may be worth it to get personalized support and that the inclusion of a working out of the box wireless remote is a very nice touch. Myself, I went with a C2 and the MINIX A2 Lite remote recommended in the C2 thread. I'd say total cost was about half that of a Vero 4K, but I did have to customize the Kodi remote file to get all of the buttons to do what I want and of course the labels on some of the buttons don't match their function (STOP as you mentioned).
All that said, I'm not sure exactly what the personalized support gets the average consumer. Yes, there are very quick acknowledgements of issues in the OSMC forums. In some cases there are quick fixes provided as well, but in others there are not. There are several owners of the original Vero that have waited 2 months for a fix to some stuttering issues on certain videos which occurred after an update to Krypton. The OSMC team can fix/address some issues themselves, and for others they need additional resources from Kodi developers, the hardware vendor or developers that work on a supporting a specific hardware platform like imx6.
Being based on the work of other projects and developers, there is only so much a specific Kodi/Linux distro can do to encourage issues to be resolved quickly. If some consumers think the device performance and level of support they get with a Vero 4K is worth the price, I have no problem with that. I don't understand or agree, but that's what free markets are all about.
*Edit: Since the C2 is based on S905 and the Vero 4K on the S905x, there are some slight differences in codec support.
*Edit2: Full disclosure, I've had a negative opinion of the Vero line of media players ever since the first Vero was released and responses to questions about what was under the hood, where it was made, and how it was any different than the Cubox-i2w were very cagey. It took an owner taking one apart and posting images of the guts to confirm that the device was made by SolidRun and was very similar to a Cubox.
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2017-05-13, 05:12
(This post was last modified: 2017-05-13, 05:19 by wrxtasy.)
Thx. Sam.
I must admit I only skimmed over the first page of vero3 - v3.14 Linux Kernel commits and it looked a bit familiar.
Question - and this get's asked a lot now - especially for a 4K capable device....
Can the Vero 4K handle streaming high bitrate 4K video, from a NAS over its 100M Ethernet connection ?
There are many potential buyers that simple dismiss the Vero 4K (and all AMLogic S905X) 100M platforms outright due to this very concern.