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START HERE - Pick the Right Kodi Box (updated Dec 2020)
(2016-04-09, 17:28)vmat Wrote: Hello!

It's been a week now that I've been looking into the iptv and media players thing, and I can't get to a conclusion. I finally found this forum and it seemed the most appropriate place to ask, I hope you can enlighten me... Wink

By the way, this thread is growing so long that it's virtually impossible to read every post in details, so I started in the first post and then sampled the rest looking for some keywords. Sorry if I missed something important.

What I have now is:

  1. An old 42" 1080p LCD TV (LG 42LG50).
  2. About 350 movies (and counting), between DVD's and BD's (roughly 2/3 and 1/3 respectively), ripped into ISO images and stored in a couple of NAS's (Zyxel NSA310, arm-based, CIFS, NFS, Twonky - no Plex).
  3. One RPi B running Openelec, does a decent job playing DVD ISO's but can't handle BD ISO's well. I have it set up with a hard disk, powered USB hub, and a USB to gigabit ethernet adapter (this will have to be replaced by a wifi adapter). Remote is on the way (Adesso).
  4. One RPi 2 that could be re-purposed as a media player (and the RPi B would then be turned into an audio player or something else).
  5. A decent DVD player and a decent BD player (both Pioneers from 2009, still working good).
  6. Two 10-month olds but only one wife... so I need to help her a lot with the babies and that leaves me very little time for playing with my own toys (main reason why #4 hasn't been done so far).

What I think I need now is:

  1. Watch free iptv (I mean legally free).
  2. A streaming solution for "casual" movie watching (for "serious" watching I can always pull out the discs and use the standalone players - besides, due to #6 above, I doubt I'll find the time for "serious" watching in the next 2 years or so). Streaming from the NAS's. Compatible with DVD and BD ISO's.
  3. Youtube, Netflix, etc. (HD is desirable but I can live without it).
  4. H.264 and H.265 hardware decoding.
  5. Lossless audio pass-through or decoding to LPCM (DTS HD-MA and Dolby True HD).
  6. Open architecture. I want some flexibility.
  7. Wife-friendly interface.
  8. Something that I don't need to put much effort on in terms of updates, re-configuration, etc., i.e., I'd like to set it up once and forget it.
  9. Up to CAD $100 (might stretch that a little bit if there's a good reason).
  10. Preferrably a standard Kodi version, not a fork.
  11. A device with a reasonable lifespan (I'd say 2 years minimum - for anything over $100, 3 years minimum).
  12. A device with decent support and the due respect to the Kodi team (I was about to take the plunge on a T***smart when I read about the GPL "circumvention").

What I think I don't care about at this time:

  1. 3D.
  2. Hi10P.
  3. DD Atmos.

I'm in Canada, so I have somewhat limited options. The Openelec in the RPi works great for me, and I guess it would be the obvious solution (I mean, after upgrading to the RPi 2). But it's not very wife-friendly, I think. And I'm not sure how it will hold up to continuous, every-day-use. I'd hate to have to rebuild the installation from scratch if it crashes. I'd rather have a ROM-based firmware.

So I'm looking into the devices I can buy from Amazon, and there's zillions of them, so it's very hard to make a decision. I'm trying to narrow down the list by the chipset - only S905 devices and Android 5. So I found the Zidoo X5 (it now says "Based upon Kodi 15.2" in the description, is that a sign of them wanting to come clean about GPL?), the Goobang Doos (suspicious descriptions), and the Matricom G-Box Q2 (more than $100). Still can't find a winner.

There are also the older models based on S805, S812, etc. that run from $50 to $80, or even $100 in case of this "Kodi TV box" sold by C-Mall (also suspicious description, but attractive specs, except for Android 4.4). I might take one of them if I can't find what I want in the newer models, just to get going for a year or so, until I find a definitive solution. At least I won't spend too much.

Any input is welcome. Thanks!

VMat
- Fire TV2 using the Firestarer solution to install Kodi, you may want to check about HD Audio to LPCM decoding when using Kodi. It will do H265 hardware decoding and give Dolby Digital 5.1/7.1 audio from the Android some Apps. Android Apps will be wife friendly.

- or at the price you are looking at - the WeTeK Core, only 2.0 Audio and the Android Apps are not as remote control friendly. Remote friendly Android TV OS launcher versions of Netflix and YouTube can be used however. A lot more of an open platform, and better support than the FireTV2.
Custom version of Kodi Jarvis, but this is pre installed and updates OTA whenever Firmware is updated. It's all pretty easy. Set and forget.
Some concert and documentary DVD ISO's will have issues, movies will likely be fine once deinterlacing is permanently disabled when software decoding.

the gbpx Q2 is s812 not 905.
Amlogic s812 Quad Core @ 2GHz
Mali-450 Octo Core 3D GPU
OS :Android 5.1
Box: Matircom G Box AMLS812
Kodi: SPMC
Skin APPTV
Country:USA
Connection ADSL(11MPS) , Ethernet
Game Systems : Wii, PS3
Cable Provider: WOW! (Wide Open West)
Media servers (windows 10 PC) Mediaportal, Playon, Kodi

(2016-04-10, 03:26)wrxtasy Wrote: - Fire TV2 using the Firestarer solution to install Kodi, you may want to check about HD Audio to LPCM decoding when using Kodi. It will do H265 hardware decoding and give Dolby Digital 5.1/7.1 audio from the Android some Apps. Android Apps will be wife friendly.

- or at the price you are looking at - the WeTeK Core, only 2.0 Audio and the Android Apps are not as remote control friendly. Remote friendly Android TV OS launcher versions of Netflix and YouTube can be used however. A lot more of an open platform, and better support than the FireTV2.
Custom version of Kodi Jarvis, but this is pre installed and updates OTA whenever Firmware is updated. It's all pretty easy. Set and forget.
Some concert and documentary DVD ISO's will have issues, movies will likely be fine once deinterlacing is permanently disabled when software decoding.

The Wetek Core is $190 at wetekcanada.ca Undecided. And Amazon.ca doesn't seem to sell Fire TV - from what I read, it looks like you need some VPN or something to get it working in Canada. Kind of clumsy.

Since you didn't mention the ones I did, I take it that you don't recommend them... right? Smile

Thanks,

VMat
(2016-04-10, 04:00)tornicade Wrote: the gbpx Q2 is s812 not 905.
Amlogic s812 Quad Core @ 2GHz
Mali-450 Octo Core 3D GPU

Right - it just seems to have good acceptance and some better than average support, that's why I included it in the short list. On the other hand, it's $135, so it must be really good for me to fork out that much. Probably not the case.

How about the Zidoo and the Kodi GPL? How are things standing now?

Thanks,

VMat
Hi guys, I hope it's the right place to ask this question. I'm sick tired of Sony Bravia 2015 Android (in short summary it sucks...) and I'm looking for some TV Box. If you were to choose one with the following requirements:
- KODI performance is the priority
- 24p
- h264,
- h265 (10bit nice to have, I'm afraid that more are more movies will be using it in the future)
- 1080p should be enough (however 4K would be nice too, maybe I'll change display at some point)
- ethernet port
- low price
would you go with Android based device (S905 seems reasonable here) or Windows (z8300 or z8500 or z8700, depending on price)? Android TV's GUI, applications, YouTube, Netflix etc. seems to be a better TV box solution compared to Windows. However, my current experience with Android TV (shame on you Sony) is not the best, that's why I'm considering Windows with less friendly GUI for TV (that's my personal opinion).
I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!
(2016-04-11, 08:37)pavel_pl Wrote: would you go with Android based device (S905 seems reasonable here) or Windows (z8300 or z8500 or z8700, depending on price)? Android TV's GUI, applications, YouTube, Netflix etc. seems to be a better TV box solution compared to Windows. However, my current experience with Android TV (shame on you Sony) is not the best, that's why I'm considering Windows with less friendly GUI for TV (that's my personal opinion).
I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!

There are only a couple of Android platforms that support 1080p Netflix - Wetek Core, nVidia Shield and I think the Nexus Player (plus possibly a few others). All the other no-name Android boxes are limited to 480p low-quality Netflix as the manufacturers haven't achieved Netflix approval. The Core is 2.0 PCM only from Netflix (no surround) for some reason.

Windows 10 offers a Netflix app which will deliver 1080p and 5.1 audio (as long as you have a proper HDCP connection), though it is not remote optimised.
Subscribing.
Hi Guys, just new to this forum, I need your expert opinion regarding selecting the best kodi box.

I now have the below devices but still unsure about which one is the best device to go with the kodi/openelec

NUC5CPYH, BOXD34010WYKH, NUC5i3RYK, NUC6i3SYH, ATV4, Asus Chromebox 2955u

Cost is no problem here as i am a movie buff and its going into my dedicated HT room. I been playing the BD rips using my OPPO-103D but i would love to get one with a nice gui like kodi. I can go openelec, linux or windows but i need the best performance.

Please let me know which one is the above is the best, it has to play atmos movies which are over 40GB in size. The reason i asked here is i know there are compatibility issues with the different versions of nuc's.

Thanks
(2016-04-15, 08:22)dreamzz Wrote: Hi Guys, just new to this forum, I need your expert opinion regarding selecting the best kodi box.

I now have the below devices but still unsure about which one is the best device to go with the kodi/openelec

NUC5CPYH, BOXD34010WYKH, NUC5i3RYK, NUC6i3SYH, ATV4, Asus Chromebox 2955u

Cost is no problem here as i am a movie buff and its going into my dedicated HT room. I been playing the BD rips using my OPPO-103D but i would love to get one with a nice gui like kodi. I can go openelec, linux or windows but i need the best performance.

Please let me know which one is the above is the best, it has to play atmos movies which are over 40GB in size. The reason i asked here is i know there are compatibility issues with the different versions of nuc's.

Thanks

Do you need 3D, or just 2D 1080p with HD Audio bit streaming for your Atmos content?

Do you watch any HEVC content?

Do you watch any interlaced Blu-ray content? (VC-1 decoding of interlaced (and progressive wrapped as interlaced (*) ) content in hardware on Intel in Linux is borked, so you never to software decode, which means you need a heftier CPU potentially if this is content you need to play. Native 23.976/24p VC-1 is fine)

(*) Because Blu-ray doesn't include a 1080/25p standard, European TV shows shot in 25p (most European drama, documentary etc.) released on Blu-ray are usually released as 50i (or in the very early days 59.94i). If they are encoded AVC/H264 then there is no problem playing them on Intel in Linux. However if they are encoded VC-1 you DO hit a problem. A number of BBC Blu-ray releases fall into this camp... Some other shows are slowed down to 24/23.976p and encoded progressive, they cause no problems whatever the codec (though are running slower). A number of Scandinavian releases have done this, as did the first series of Downton (whilst not ideal it means you can release the same master in the US market - whereas 50i content often won't play on US players and TVs, even though the reverse is not true - as US frame rates are universally supported in Europe)
(2016-04-15, 12:12)noggin Wrote: Do you need 3D, or just 2D 1080p with HD Audio bit streaming for your Atmos content?

Do you watch any HEVC content?

Do you watch any interlaced Blu-ray content? (VC-1 decoding of interlaced (and progressive wrapped as interlaced (*) ) content in hardware on Intel in Linux is borked, so you never to software decode, which means you need a heftier CPU potentially if this is content you need to play. Native 23.976/24p VC-1 is fine)

For now no 3D, but love to have it as an option when time comes, my projector is a 3D projector.
HEVC - new rips are coming to this format right, so yes I prefer to have it decoded, same for interlaced. The idea is to play anything i throw to it without worrying what the format the video/audio is encoded.

I tried openelec and kodi and my recievers info saying the content as atmos, and play smoothly, but the problem i am having is the video is not clear, especially dark scenes or skin tones, its like oil painted, not sharp as to compared with my oppo, is there any video settings i can tweak? I tried both in openelec and windows/kodi, same

I have done the below to get the audio to work. but i couldnt find any special settings for video in kodi or openelec

Right-click audio icon is taskbar at bottom-right, choose 'Playback devices', make sure the right device is set as default. Also, click 'Configure', set to 7.1 and apply.
In Kodi, make sure you have WASAPI HDMI selected for audio under 'Passthrough output device', not just at the top where it says 'Audio output device'.
For Intel video settings:
Right-click 'Intel HD Graphics' icon in bottom-right of taskbar and choose 'Graphics Properties...'
Click 'Video' icon.
Under 'Image Enhancement', disable 'Skin Tone Enhancement'.
If there's an 'Advanced' tab there (depends on h/w), go to it and disable both 'Contrast Enhancement' and 'Film Mode Detection' (latter will be done by Kodi).
(2016-04-15, 14:13)dreamzz Wrote:
(2016-04-15, 12:12)noggin Wrote: Do you need 3D, or just 2D 1080p with HD Audio bit streaming for your Atmos content?

Do you watch any HEVC content?

Do you watch any interlaced Blu-ray content? (VC-1 decoding of interlaced (and progressive wrapped as interlaced (*) ) content in hardware on Intel in Linux is borked, so you never to software decode, which means you need a heftier CPU potentially if this is content you need to play. Native 23.976/24p VC-1 is fine)

For now no 3D, but love to have it as an option when time comes, my projector is a 3D projector.
HEVC - new rips are coming to this format right, so yes I prefer to have it decoded, same for interlaced. The idea is to play anything i throw to it without worrying what the format the video/audio is encoded.

I tried openelec and kodi and my recievers info saying the content as atmos, and play smoothly, but the problem i am having is the video is not clear, especially dark scenes or skin tones, its like oil painted, not sharp as to compared with my oppo, is there any video settings i can tweak? I tried both in openelec and windows/kodi, same

I have done the below to get the audio to work. but i couldnt find any special settings for video in kodi or openelec

Right-click audio icon is taskbar at bottom-right, choose 'Playback devices', make sure the right device is set as default. Also, click 'Configure', set to 7.1 and apply.
In Kodi, make sure you have WASAPI HDMI selected for audio under 'Passthrough output device', not just at the top where it says 'Audio output device'.
For Intel video settings:
Right-click 'Intel HD Graphics' icon in bottom-right of taskbar and choose 'Graphics Properties...'
Click 'Video' icon.
Under 'Image Enhancement', disable 'Skin Tone Enhancement'.
If there's an 'Advanced' tab there (depends on h/w), go to it and disable both 'Contrast Enhancement' and 'Film Mode Detection' (latter will be done by Kodi).

Also - check that Sharpness and Noise Reduction are at 0 too. They both process decent quality content horribly. (Sharpness masks fine detail with artificial black and white edges, Noise Reduction averages content across frames and smears motion)
(2016-04-15, 14:44)noggin Wrote:
(2016-04-15, 14:13)dreamzz Wrote:
(2016-04-15, 12:12)noggin Wrote: Do you need 3D, or just 2D 1080p with HD Audio bit streaming for your Atmos content?

Do you watch any HEVC content?

Do you watch any interlaced Blu-ray content? (VC-1 decoding of interlaced (and progressive wrapped as interlaced (*) ) content in hardware on Intel in Linux is borked, so you never to software decode, which means you need a heftier CPU potentially if this is content you need to play. Native 23.976/24p VC-1 is fine)

For now no 3D, but love to have it as an option when time comes, my projector is a 3D projector.
HEVC - new rips are coming to this format right, so yes I prefer to have it decoded, same for interlaced. The idea is to play anything i throw to it without worrying what the format the video/audio is encoded.

I tried openelec and kodi and my recievers info saying the content as atmos, and play smoothly, but the problem i am having is the video is not clear, especially dark scenes or skin tones, its like oil painted, not sharp as to compared with my oppo, is there any video settings i can tweak? I tried both in openelec and windows/kodi, same

I have done the below to get the audio to work. but i couldnt find any special settings for video in kodi or openelec

Right-click audio icon is taskbar at bottom-right, choose 'Playback devices', make sure the right device is set as default. Also, click 'Configure', set to 7.1 and apply.
In Kodi, make sure you have WASAPI HDMI selected for audio under 'Passthrough output device', not just at the top where it says 'Audio output device'.
For Intel video settings:
Right-click 'Intel HD Graphics' icon in bottom-right of taskbar and choose 'Graphics Properties...'
Click 'Video' icon.
Under 'Image Enhancement', disable 'Skin Tone Enhancement'.
If there's an 'Advanced' tab there (depends on h/w), go to it and disable both 'Contrast Enhancement' and 'Film Mode Detection' (latter will be done by Kodi).

Also - check that Sharpness and Noise Reduction are at 0 too. They both process decent quality content horribly. (Sharpness masks fine detail with artificial black and white edges, Noise Reduction averages content across frames and smears motion)

Yes they are at 0
Hi guys,

Can someone recommend a current box for running Kodi on?

I usually watch x264 720p24 or 1080p24 content from my Emby server but I would like it to be x265 HEVC compatible.
One thing I would not go over is the lack of HDMI-CEC.
I just want a plug and play box that runs smoothly, outputs video at right frequency, has audio passthrough HDMI (connected to Denon X1100W) and handles HDMI-CEC.

Any suggestions?
Yes Price would be a good starting point ?

Otherwise I recommended 8-bit HEVC Hardware decoding on an AMLogic device such as the WeTek Core, which will also do 7.1 HD Audio passthrough. A pretty solid choice.

Also the 8/10-bit 4K HEVC ODROID C2 is coming along nicely now a whole bunch of features have been added to LibreELEC. (minimal fast Linux OS + Kodi). 5.1 Audio passthrough here. Pretty new device.

Further up the 8/10-bit 4K food chain you have the HEVC capable Android King the nVIDIA Shield.
Depends if you are are loaded with $$ or not.

All three will do HDMI-CEC control.

(2016-04-16, 16:53)wrxtasy Wrote: Yes Price would be a good starting point ?
I would probably be willing to go up to 200EUR.

(2016-04-16, 16:53)wrxtasy Wrote: Otherwise I recommended 8-bit HEVC Hardware decoding on an AMLogic device such as the WeTek Core, which will also do 7.1 HD Audio passthrough. A pretty solid choice.

Also the 8/10-bit 4K HEVC ODROID C2 is coming along nicely now a whole bunch of features have been added to LibreELEC. (minimal fast Linux OS + Kodi). 5.1 Audio passthrough here. Pretty new device.

Further up the 8/10-bit 4K food chain you have the HEVC capable Android King the nVIDIA Shield.
Depends if you are are loaded with $$ or not.

All three will do HDMI-CEC control.
So, this Android devices have enough processing power to run HEVC video and maybe some more heavy Kodi UI without a hitch?
And... does nVidia Shield also pass through DTS-HD and dolby multichannel HD audio?

I had a Wetek play box for some time but I was not satisfied with UI reponsivness. Everything was kind of laggy. Full HD x264 played fine though...

Thanks.
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