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Pick the Right Kodi Box (UPDATED FEB 2015)
(2015-09-07, 13:55)giacombum Wrote: Hi, my odroid U2 gets broken so now I'm without a good device to play my whole library with Kodi: I'm searching for a device that supports 4k HEVC video playing and I prefer to run linux + kodi instead that android + kodi (but I can also evaluate the last option).
My lacking experience allows to me to see these embedded devices:
- wetek play;
- xtreamer wonder 4k;
- g-box q;
- nvidia shield console;

The latest seems the best option (and I hope that in the next months a development board with tegra x1 will be released), but all of this are running android (except wetek play that can run also openelec). Is there any x86 box that can play HEVC 4k files with linux + kodi?

I'd probably skip 4K HEVC for another generation. There is no current, low-cost, optimal solution for 4K HEVC yet.

I'd probably go for an interim, low cost, solution as a stop-gap until the situation has settled down a little bit and the situation with 4K HEVC is clearer. Something like a Raspberry Pi 2 or an ODroid C1+ would be a good suggestion ? The C1+ will also do HEVC 1080p
If you were an early adopter, you would grab an ASRock Beebox (Braswell) for up to 24p 4K 8-bit HEVC hardware decoding and use an OpenELEC development image (or Linux) on it provided by the clever Kodi devs over in this thread:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2098873

This is the leading edge of 4K HEVC Kodi development, OpenELEC is easy to install and use too.

(2015-09-07, 14:01)noggin Wrote: I'd probably skip 4K HEVC for another generation. There is no current, low-cost, optimal solution for 4K HEVC yet.

I'd probably go for an interim, low cost, solution as a stop-gap until the situation has settled down a little bit and the situation with 4K HEVC is clearer. Something like a Raspberry Pi 2 or an ODroid C1+ would be a good suggestion ? The C1+ will also do HEVC 1080p

Thank you, you're right and probably the best solution is to skip 4k HEVC player now. I didn't know that odroid c1+ can play 1080p HEVC, great, I think VP8, am I right? It's necessary the latest kodi alpha for HEVC playing? Or also kodi 15 can play HEVC 1080p? And sorry, another question: do you suggest to install the unofficial openelec, the official ubuntu image or the official archlinux-arm image (I love arch...) to obtain a full hardware accelerated media center?

And what about the odroid xu4? It can hardware decode HEVC @ 1080p?
(2015-09-07, 15:09)giacombum Wrote:
(2015-09-07, 14:01)noggin Wrote: I'd probably skip 4K HEVC for another generation. There is no current, low-cost, optimal solution for 4K HEVC yet.

I'd probably go for an interim, low cost, solution as a stop-gap until the situation has settled down a little bit and the situation with 4K HEVC is clearer. Something like a Raspberry Pi 2 or an ODroid C1+ would be a good suggestion ? The C1+ will also do HEVC 1080p

Thank you, you're right and probably the best solution is to skip 4k HEVC player now. I didn't know that odroid c1+ can play 1080p HEVC, great, I think VP8, am I right? It's necessary the latest kodi alpha for HEVC playing? Or also kodi 15 can play HEVC 1080p? And sorry, another question: do you suggest to install the unofficial openelec, the official ubuntu image or the official archlinux-arm image (I love arch...) to obtain a full hardware accelerated media center?

I'd go for wrxtasy's OpenElec builds - have a look around the forum and you'll find them. They're really the best solution for an ODroid C1 at the moment.

Only thing to say about the C1/C1+ is that it doesn't do HD Audio (bitstreamed or multichannel PCM decoded) and I haven't had great success with deinterlacing interlaced DVDs.

Quote:And what about the odroid xu4? It can hardware decode HEVC @ 1080p?

Best avoided. The XU4 is a powerful board but it uses a Samsung Exynos not AMLogic SoC that the C1/C1+ uses - and the Exynos MFC/VPU decoder support is not as good. It's not been targeted as much for Kodi, and the experience isn't as good. I have a U2 (older Exynos) and the OE builds are still very basic. (No deinterlacing for instance)
(2015-09-07, 16:12)noggin Wrote: Only thing to say about the C1/C1+ is that it doesn't do HD Audio (bitstreamed or multichannel PCM decoded) and I haven't had great success with deinterlacing interlaced DVDs.
Funny you should mention that, just been test ripping 25fps mpeg2 Interlaced DVD's to a .mpg container and they all play fine. It looks like amcodec is having a few issues with various mpeg2 DVD's in containers like .ts and .vob. And thats being worked on by Oversun. Anyway latest discussion here:
http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=...00#p105150

I agree with Noggin, just get a cheap 8-bit 1080p HEVC hardware decoder that runs OpenELEC like the C1+ and let the 4K HEVC stuff sort it self out and only purchase when devices are released that can play and output via HDMI - 50/60fps 4K HEVC properly. 10-bit 4K HEVC playback will be sorted out by then as well.

Yep - don't think it is a problem de-interlacing MPEG2, think it's more a problem when you run them as DVD ISOs or VOBs with menus etc.

Once you rip them mkv, mpg etc. then they aren't really DVDs any more and are just video files.
(2015-09-07, 14:32)wrxtasy Wrote: If you were an early adopter, you would grab an ASRock Beebox (Braswell) for up to 24p 4K 8-bit HEVC hardware decoding and use an OpenELEC development image (or Linux) on it provided by the clever Kodi devs over in this thread:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2098873

This is the leading edge of 4K HEVC Kodi development, OpenELEC is easy to install and use too.


I can decode 60fps 4K 8-bit HEVC files on my beebox. But due to HDMI 1.4, only output to 24fps@4096x2160, 30 fps@3840x2160 and 60fps@1440p or 1080p.
(2015-09-07, 16:23)wrxtasy Wrote: I agree with Noggin, just get a cheap 8-bit 1080p HEVC hardware decoder that runs OpenELEC like the C1+ and let the 4K HEVC stuff sort it self out and only purchase when devices are released that can play and output via HDMI - 50/60fps 4K HEVC properly. 10-bit 4K HEVC playback will be sorted out by then as well.

AMD Carrizo based hardware is having hdmi 2.0 and hardware HEVC.
(2015-09-07, 20:48)Robotica Wrote:
(2015-09-07, 16:23)wrxtasy Wrote: I agree with Noggin, just get a cheap 8-bit 1080p HEVC hardware decoder that runs OpenELEC like the C1+ and let the 4K HEVC stuff sort it self out and only purchase when devices are released that can play and output via HDMI - 50/60fps 4K HEVC properly. 10-bit 4K HEVC playback will be sorted out by then as well.

AMD Carrizo based hardware is having hdmi 2.0 and hardware HEVC.

Fingers crossed for decent Linux driver support :-)
(2015-09-07, 20:48)Robotica Wrote: AMD Carrizo based hardware is having hdmi 2.0 and hardware HEVC.
Yes I know that Carrizo has HEVC and hdmi 2.0 support, but the overall cost (motherboard with hdmi 2.0, CPU, ram, ssd and psu) is too high for my today standard... If you know a cheap carrizo box with hdmi 2.0 support please let me know
(2015-09-07, 16:12)noggin Wrote: I'd go for wrxtasy's OpenElec builds - have a look around the forum and you'll find them. They're really the best solution for an ODroid C1 at the moment.

And in your opinion, what's the best option: buy an emmc 16 gb module or with this money buy a 32 gb class 10 sd and the flirc module? I know that it's a strange question, but I haven't understand if the performance difference between sd and emmc justify the cost.
Branched the reply to this question off to the dedicated C1+ thread:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2100574

Are there any Chromeboxes that can bitstream DTS-HD MA and TrueHD, output @ 23.976 fps and do 3D?
My Theater: JVC X790R + Peerless PRG-UNV | 120" CineWhite UHD-B Screen | KODI Nexus + PreShow Experience | mpv | madVR 204 RTX 2070S | Panasonic UB420 | Denon X3600H @ 5.2.4 | 4 x ADX Maximus w/ Dayton Audio SA230 | 3 x Totem Tribe LCR + Mission M30 Surrounds + SVS PC2000 + Monolith 15 | 40" HDTV w/ Z83 + MoviePosterApp | 40TB Win10 SMB Server over Gigabit Ethernet
(2015-09-12, 08:47)MidnightWatcher Wrote: Are there any Chromeboxes that can bitstream DTS-HD MA and TrueHD, output @ 23.976 fps and do 3D?
All of them
Btw. As all of you talk about the best media players. Have you ever taken into account "correct colors"? Which of the AML boxes can output full rgb with correct dithering and color upscaling to avoid banding? Which of them output correct Limited Range colors?

Currently I only see these features implemented on intel hardware.

To see what I mean: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2102543
First decide what functions / features you expect from a system. Then decide for the hardware. Don't waste your money on crap.
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