Than you for the swift answer
TL;DR at the end. My goal is to have all my content
under one umbrella, I don't want apps, so when I'm talking about 4K HDR Netflix, I'm talking about the kodi Netflix addon. It appears that there is no perfect solution for my needs unfortunately. What I wanted was:
- 4K HDR for streamed DRM (Netflix etc.), and for downloaded content.
- Perfectly deinterlaced live TV (I'm in Hungary, H264 1080i is the standard here, no mpeg2)
- Snappy 4K interface, lots of fanart etc.
- Noiseless operation
- Small form factor, so I can carry my whole MediaPlayer experience to anywhere (to my projector in the garden or to family holidays etc.)
My main rig is a fanless coffee lake NUC running LE Milhouse, great for almost everything apart form
- no HDR (I know, we'll get there someday)
- Netflix is only 1080p (I don't know if we can get to 4K HDR on Linux, Netflix has it's own ideas about their service)
- my akasa plato x isn't really something I'd call portable
My cheap noname S905 LE does most things well,
only 720p Netflix though. There is 2 ways to watch 1080i TV content, either HW deinterlace it, or "passthrough" to the TV. (this gives way better quality) So, to have something (Netflix) 4K HDR capable, I started looking at L1 Android devices, and let LE go for now.
- FTV stick 4K: fantastic image quality on my TV it really blows my mind, but no HW deinterlacing, nor 1080i output.
- FTV 3rd gen Penadant: great image quality, hectic deinterlacing (great motion adaptive for PAFF, complete failure with MBAFF) and of course no 1080i output.
- nVidia Shield TV: appears to be a good solution, if I have to set the GUI to 1080p and let the TV do the upscaling then I am willing to do so. No 1080i output AFAIK
(2019-05-12, 02:34)wrxtasy Wrote: Both the 2016 / 2018 Mi Box (S) can do Kodi auto Frame Rate Matching and 4K HDR Netflix.
However the Mi Boxes have 5.1 DD+ Netflix audio dropout problems.
ALL Android TV media players (inc. the Shield) can only passthrough 5.1 DD+ Netflix audio to a DD+ capable audio receiver. If your audio receiver is Dolby Digital only then you will get only 2.0 PCM channels of audio. Its a Android TV limitation it seems.
I don't mind the sound, 2.0 PCM is all I need really. I use my TV's speakers or a JBL soundgear (on analogue output), or Bluetooth fed ifi xDSD + AKG K872 if I really want great quality audio.
(2019-05-12, 02:34)wrxtasy Wrote: I would not use the Mi Boxes for interlaced H264 video content viewing. They are lousy with interlaced mpeg2 / h264 TV content. A LOT worse vs your current LE S905 device.
By lousy you mean lousy rendering, 1080i or lousy deinterlacing? As long as I can output the 1080i, it is OK for me isn't it? Or is it possible that it renders 1080i in a shitty quality, that even a TV cannot deinterlace it properly? Please clarify.
(2019-05-12, 02:34)wrxtasy Wrote: Only the Apple TV 4K can do auto Frame Rate Matching when using the Netflix App. It can also downmix Netflix 5.1 DD+ audio into 5.1 DD only audio to be highly compatible with older DD only audio receivers.
The MrMC App on the ATV 4K easily handles 1080i h264 TV content properly. A lot better upscaled output picture quality (to 4K) vs the NVIDIA Shield as well.
The ATV 4K is a great companion media player (especially for Apps) to the AML S9xx LibreELEC / CoreELEC Kodi media players.
I suggest you read the review: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=335219
I don't mind Apple, but as I said, I want everything under one interface, not apps.
MrMC isn't kodi in the way I'd like to use kodi.
TL;DR: I want something that can output 1080i for TV, has L1 DRM, framerate matching, I'm happy with 2.0 PCM audio, I will only use kodi. Will the Mi box do 1080i output for me?