[wrxtasy]

Ok, so Core it is. I do like that it has RF remote with air mouse function as a bonus.
Also there isn't any Chromebox available here in Croatia and as i now have Kodi running on laptop i don't want another "PC".

To be fair the Chromebox isn't really a PC. It's similar in size to the Core and boots directly into OpenElec. No Windows, no Ubuntu. To me there is zero difference in 'experience' terms between a Chromebox running OpenElec and a Core running OpenElec, other than the Chromebox rendering the UI more fluidly.

Understand that they are trickier to get in Europe. The HP 260G1 is very similar (needs a DP->HDMI £5 adaptor) and was available for <£100 at one point in the UK, but I think that was to get rid of excess stock. There is a Zotac based around the 2957U too.

The Core is a great box - though there's probably a reason I always end up switching back to my Pi 3 or my Chromebox, and not using my Core. (It's probably the DVD MPEG2 issue - as I have a lot of concert DVDs that the Core won't play).

Only thing available here is HP 260G1 and its around 300€, 3 times the Core. Is the GUI 3 times more fluid, i don't think so
Market here isn't so oriented on that kind of solutions (Chromebox....etc). Most of the time people in shops look at me like im crazy for wanting something like that.
If your only grudge with Core is with mpeg2 playback and i don't have any mpeg2-s, would you recommend it then?
Also, did you try just ripping those DVDs to mkv and store them to NAS or whatever you have?

Noggin has very particular requirements with his DVD's and I'm guessing a pretty extensive library.
As an example, the 25fps mpeg2 movie ISO DVD's Rips I have play fine on the Core. These are not interlaced.

mpeg2 plays back just fine when viewing mpeg2 Interlaced broadcast TV it just the mpeg2 Interlaced files in .vob containers from certain DVD iso rips have playback issues. For me its not a big deal, everyone is different.

[willowgate]

Hi

Like I already posted, I want to buy a good KODI box. I read alot and now I hesitated between the Dell Chromebox and the WeTek Core.

I put away the Fire TV 2 Box, I think it is not as good as the others.

See below my criterias:

- Most of the time I will stream my own library with KODI
- I want a good and stable hardware
- A fast navigation and and fast playback
- Good video decoder
- Good audio decoder (exemple decode AAC to to PCM 5.1)
- A fast wifi

What is the best box fir my criterias?

I await your responses.

Again, thanks alot for your help!
Willow

[noggin]

Ok, so Core it is. I do like that it has RF remote with air mouse function as a bonus.
Also there isn't any Chromebox available here in Croatia and as i now have Kodi running on laptop i don't want another "PC".

To be fair the Chromebox isn't really a PC. It's similar in size to the Core and boots directly into OpenElec. No Windows, no Ubuntu. To me there is zero difference in 'experience' terms between a Chromebox running OpenElec and a Core running OpenElec, other than the Chromebox rendering the UI more fluidly.

Understand that they are trickier to get in Europe. The HP 260G1 is very similar (needs a DP->HDMI £5 adaptor) and was available for <£100 at one point in the UK, but I think that was to get rid of excess stock. There is a Zotac based around the 2957U too.

The Core is a great box - though there's probably a reason I always end up switching back to my Pi 3 or my Chromebox, and not using my Core. (It's probably the DVD MPEG2 issue - as I have a lot of concert DVDs that the Core won't play).

Only thing available here is HP 260G1 and its around 300€, 3 times the Core. Is the GUI 3 times more fluid, i don't think so

No - and there are other models of the HP with more expensive processors (I think there was an i3 or i5 version)

The Celeron 2955/7U isn't common in machines - which is a real pity as it hit a sweet spot for HTPCs.

Market here isn't so oriented on that kind of solutions (Chromebox....etc). Most of the time people in shops look at me like im crazy for wanting something like that.
If your only grudge with Core is with mpeg2 playback and i don't have any mpeg2-s, would you recommend it then?
Also, did you try just ripping those DVDs to mkv and store them to NAS or whatever you have?

I rip DVDs to VIDEO_TS or ISO, 2D Blu-rays to folders or MKV, and 3D Blu-ray to ISO or MKV.

The only issue with DVDs on the Core is native interlaced content. I like watching music concerts - from pop to rock to opera - and almost all of these are shot native interlaced. I also quite like classic British TV, and lots of this stuff (Monty Python, Doctor Who, Blakes 7 etc.) was shot interlaced in the studio and progressive (i.e. film) on location.

I can't use a solution that won't let me watch interlaced DVDs. For many other people this won't be a problem. If you only watch movies and recent TV dramas on DVD you're probably OK (3:2 60i permitting)

[noggin]

Hi

Like I already posted, I want to buy a good KODI box. I read alot and now I hesitated between the Dell Chromebox and the WeTek Core.

I put away the Fire TV 2 Box, I think it is not as good as the others.

See below my criterias:

- Most of the time I will stream my own library with KODI
- I want a good and stable hardware
- A fast navigation and and fast playback
- Good video decoder
- Good audio decoder (exemple decode AAC to to PCM 5.1)
- A fast wifi

What is the best box fir my criterias?

I await your responses.

Again, thanks alot for your help!
Willow

Both are good solutions. Do you have any interlaced VC-1 or interlaced DVDs in your library?

Do you need HEVC?

[noggin]

To be fair the Chromebox isn't really a PC. It's similar in size to the Core and boots directly into OpenElec. No Windows, no Ubuntu. To me there is zero difference in 'experience' terms between a Chromebox running OpenElec and a Core running OpenElec, other than the Chromebox rendering the UI more fluidly.

Understand that they are trickier to get in Europe. The HP 260G1 is very similar (needs a DP->HDMI £5 adaptor) and was available for <£100 at one point in the UK, but I think that was to get rid of excess stock. There is a Zotac based around the 2957U too.

The Core is a great box - though there's probably a reason I always end up switching back to my Pi 3 or my Chromebox, and not using my Core. (It's probably the DVD MPEG2 issue - as I have a lot of concert DVDs that the Core won't play).

Only thing available here is HP 260G1 and its around 300€, 3 times the Core. Is the GUI 3 times more fluid, i don't think so
Market here isn't so oriented on that kind of solutions (Chromebox....etc). Most of the time people in shops look at me like im crazy for wanting something like that.
If your only grudge with Core is with mpeg2 playback and i don't have any mpeg2-s, would you recommend it then?
Also, did you try just ripping those DVDs to mkv and store them to NAS or whatever you have?

Noggin has very particular requirements with his DVD's and I'm guessing a pretty extensive library.

Not THAT particular. I just want DVDs I've bought to play! Just so happens that I don't just buy movies on DVD, I buy concerts as well (opera, pop, rock etc.) and TV shows (70s and 80s TV shows in the UK were shot interlaced in the studio) Same will be true of most Sport DVDs (apart from those shot on film)

As an example, the 25fps mpeg2 movie ISO DVD's Rips I have play fine on the Core. These are not interlaced.

25p movie DVDs will be fine. If that is all people watch - they will be very happy with the Core. If they want to watch the stuff I watch - they won't. Which is why my Core doesn't get a lot of screen time. Until the VOB issue is fixed it can't be my main player.

mpeg2 plays back just fine when viewing mpeg2 Interlaced broadcast TV it just the mpeg2 Interlaced files in .vob containers from certain DVD iso rips have playback issues. For me its not a big deal, everyone is different.

Yep that's what is infuriating. The Core can obviously play MPEG2 fine as it handles Live and Recorded native interlaced TV fine and deinterlaces MPEG2 well in hardware. Yet it can't handle (any?) native interlaced DVD content properly (can't comment on US 60i 3:2 DVDs as we replaced our Region 1 60i DVDs with Blu-ray or Region 2 50i ones a while back)

What's even more infuriating is that it hasn't been fixed yet... (You can pretty much bet that if this had happened on the Pi it would have been...)

[noggin]

I don't think the Fire TV Stick will do PCM multichannel, so you'd probably have to transcode if the Kodi Android build on th Fire TV supports it.

Fire TV stick and box support 5.1 PCM and also 7.1 PCM (with a channel mapping error- surround and rear surround channels are switched).

Thanks - wasn't aware. Useful to know.

[noggin]

Pis have best in class CEC (allowing you to control Kodi from your TV remote, and allowing Kodi to control your amp volume remotely). Core has some CEC (think you get TV remote control but not remote Amp volume). Chromebox has no CEC (can be added with external USB HDMI passthrough device from Pulse8)

I remember being told you can control your Amp volume when using Android Lollipop and HDMI CEC on the Core. Not sure if it's only certain AVR's. I don't have an AVR to test with. OpenELEC on the Core now has libCEC functionality in Kodi like you see on the RPi's to control Amp volume.

I'll dig the Core out and have a play again. (I hadn't realised how often I watched music concert DVDs until I switch to the Core...)

[willowgate]

Hi

Like I already posted, I want to buy a good KODI box. I read alot and now I hesitated between the Dell Chromebox and the WeTek Core.

I put away the Fire TV 2 Box, I think it is not as good as the others.

See below my criterias:

- Most of the time I will stream my own library with KODI
- I want a good and stable hardware
- A fast navigation and and fast playback
- Good video decoder
- Good audio decoder (exemple decode AAC to to PCM 5.1)
- A fast wifi

What is the best box fir my criterias?

I await your responses.

Again, thanks alot for your help!
Willow

Both are good solutions. Do you have any interlaced VC-1 or interlaced DVDs in your library?

Do you need HEVC?

I don't have any interlaced VC-1 or interlaced DVDs.

Am I Right that the Fire TV 2 Box is not as good as the ChormeBox or WeTek Core, for my criterias?

Thanks again.
Willow

[Tony4Fingerz]

Hi guys
Newbie here to Kodi and media players.
I'm looking for player and can't decide which to get. The three I like the look of are:
Minix U1
Shield
Wetek Core
Basically I want to be able to do the following-
- play my own media from an external drive
- access Netflix
- stream movies and TV shows on Kodi
- easy to use
- games are not overly important
- video is more important to me than audio but good audio is always nice!
Any help making the right decision is much appreciated guys
Thanks

[noggin]

Hi guys
Newbie here to Kodi and media players.
I'm looking for player and can't decide which to get. The three I like the look of are:
Minix U1
Shield
Wetek Core
Basically I want to be able to do the following-
- play my own media from an external drive
- access Netflix(US version, using Getflix at the moment)
- stream movies and TV shows on Kodi
- able to install the good add ons for Kodi like Genisis etc
- easy to use
- games are not overly important
- video is more important to me than audio but good audio is always nice!
Any help making the right decision is much appreciated guys
Thanks

Sorry - banned add ons and advice on running them not going to be forthcoming here. Kodi is not about watching pirated content using 'good' add ons.

http://kodi.wiki/view/Official:Forum_rul...ed_add-ons

[Tony4Fingerz]

My apologies,
I should have spent longer reading the rules.
Post has been updated.
Thanks
I'm new to all this stuff and didn't realise about the add ons.

[jmh2002]

I'm starting to wonder if anyone is bothering to read this thread (and others) anymore or are simply posting up for a personal recommendation?

Most of the answers to these general type of questions are already available. If after doing all research a specific question remains then I can understand, but otherwise I think some people are maybe wanting to be spoon fed just a bit too much...

[TeleFragger]

got some good reading to do here....

got HDHomerun Prime / Plex / Kodi / NextPVR / MceBuddy all running. to xbox one, xbox 360, ipads, androids, smart tvs, roku streaming sticks. Out of it all I am going to see what in this thread would be best to put into my bedroom (wireless and remote to watch live tv via kodi using hdhomerun prime). Current setup works but you go into plex channel watch then exit and find next. want to boot straight into Kodi, hit tv guide and go.... wondering if kodi/nextpvr supports channel up and down too..

so as stated.. much to read!!!!!!!

p.s. thanks for everything you guys do... your donated time is appreciated!

[noggin]

got some good reading to do here....

got HDHomerun Prime / Plex / Kodi / NextPVR / MceBuddy all running. to xbox one, xbox 360, ipads, androids, smart tvs, roku streaming sticks. Out of it all I am going to see what in this thread would be best to put into my bedroom (wireless and remote to watch live tv via kodi using hdhomerun prime). Current setup works but you go into plex channel watch then exit and find next. want to boot straight into Kodi, hit tv guide and go.... wondering if kodi/nextpvr supports channel up and down too..

so as stated.. much to read!!!!!!!

p.s. thanks for everything you guys do... your donated time is appreciated!

I think you have a couple of options with your HD Home Run.

1. If you have a compatible Android Box - use the HDHR app outside of Kodi for Live TV.
2. Run a compatible back-end outside of Kodi that has a good Kodi PVR client (I mainly run TV Headend in Europe - but that really needs to run on a Linux box, but if you run a Linux/OE box you could run it on that as well as Kodi) I don't know much about NextPVR. If you are using MCE there is a reasonable MCE PVR Client in Kodi (I've used it to check it out - but TV Headend does what I want well)

The Chromebox and Core are both worth a look - as is the Raspberry Pi 3. The ODroid C1 or C2 is an outside bet too - though a bit more tinkerer-level IMHO.

[TeleFragger]

I'm starting to wonder if anyone is bothering to read this thread (and others) anymore or are simply posting up for a personal recommendation?

Most of the answers to these general type of questions are already available. If after doing all research a specific question remains then I can understand, but otherwise I think some people are maybe wanting to be spoon fed just a bit too much...

count me as 1 out of 10 that is reading... hah... i gave a quick synopsis of what my current setup and will come back in a bit on my questions... starting on page 1 well after I have a meeting in 9 minutes...