(2015-05-28, 16:39)RockerC Wrote: Almost all that have been said here can also be said about WeTek Play and no one seem to be bashing the maker of it like people here are bashing on the Vero, it is discrimination because WeTek Play is a sponsor or just a few people who have something personal against Sam Nazarko or his commercial endeavors? As I see it both WeTek Play and the Vero are overpriced if you only look at it the hardware, but they both add value via customized firmware and offering end-user support without just referring to Kodi. Yes the Vero is more expensive than a SolidRun's CuBox-i2 or CuBoxTV, so what, probably neither it or WeTek Play is really marketed at you as Kodi enthusiasts, so just don't buy one!
WeTek Play is over priced for the SoC alone, and I probably wouldn't buy one (I was given one for testing). However, they actually hired a developer from Amlogic, made their own remote from scratch (which is crazy awesome, I love this remote so much), and managed to squeeze a crazy amount of performance out of weak hardware. The end result is something similar to a Raspberry Pi, where the hardware is still weak, but the software-level support is amazing.
We're honestly surprised that it turned out this way. We expected WeTek to just be another random Android box maker, and wanted to sponsor us to get their name out, but they actually dove in and made significant code contributions, supported both the Kodi project and OpenELEC, as well as individual developers. The boxes they provided us perform better than other nearly identical (in specs) boxes, because of that software support. Even if they were not a sponsor, I would say they have earned a ton of respect for that alone.
If someone needed a single box, with an internal tuner, and a great remote, then I would recommend the WeTek Play even now. It's just that most people don't need that.
On the flip side, right now in May of 2015, wouldn't tell anyone to buy a CuBox-I or a Vero for any situation. They're not bad, but there's no reason to buy them given the few remaining issues they both have, and that there are other boxes that are the same price or cheaper with none of those issues.
I think people get frustrated when there's this claim of "superior" support for the Vero, when fundamentally the product itself has flaws that negate the support in other areas. At the same time, a lot of people might buy the Vero and be perfectly happy, because it's still not bad hardware. It's not a lot of money when you consider that $300-500 used to be the normal price for an HD-captable HTPC about five years ago. It's like getting mad at payin $35 instead of $30; it's really not a big deal when you look at the big picture.
In the end, Raspberry Pi 2 came along and just wreaked everyone's plans. Raspberry Pi 2 is freaking awesome and most people will find it a better fit than the Vero, CuBox-i, or WeTek Play. Now all that's left is to argue about things that don't really matter, because anyone wanting to survive at this point needs to be working on their next box that brings something new or better to the table.
