[lawrence38]

Trying to find a replacement for my  Xiaomi Mi Box 3 mainly because I'm struggling with it due to lack of capability to properly play H.265/HEVC content. I've almost pressed "buy it now" when I saw there's a newer version of this, the Xiaomi Mi Box S, however good thing I started reading thru few reviews and it seems its a poor choice. 

I'm not at all an expert in appropriate hardware for use with Kodi, so coming here to ask those that are in the know.

Please note I'm based in Europe (CZ), hence some of the hardware easily available elsewhere is not available to me (I've looked for example at Roku Premiere+ box which is supposed to support HEVC well, however can't find any local retailers, nor in Europe in general, as for the Fire Stick from Amazon, those are also not available outside of the specific Amazon markers (i.e. neither Amazon.co.uk nor Amazon.de would ship a Fire stick to me, as it says shipping is only available domestically).

So what alternative boxes can I buy? What do you recommend? I'm quite technologically challenged, so the absolute easiest one to use, which at the same time can play H.265/HEVC without hiccups would be perfect for me...not looking for the most expensive version either as the sole purpose of this will be to play content off the local network onto a TV (via Kodi), nothing else.

Appreciate your expertise on this.

[PANiCnz]

Do you need support for Android apps like Netflix and Youtube? Or is it just for offline media playback?

[wrxtasy]

see THIS (click) Android TV device comparison table.

Otherwise Kodi only, Plug n Play = Vero 4K+

The Mi Boxes can play up to 4K HEVC content, the problem usually is you need Gigabit Ethernet for high bitrate 4K content. Too add that you need to buy an additional Ugreen USB3 > Gigabit Ethernet adapter.

[lawrence38]

Thank you very much for the reply, only seen it now as the reply notification email went to my spam. 

To answer the questions:
- No, I do not need Android support specifically, this will be for playing offline content only (from my storage)
- Main criteria for me is to be able to play without hiccups the newer video formats such as h265

So in your opinion this Vero 4k+ is the best/most simple option? I'm a bit worried though after reading this thread below, as it seems quite a pain to setup the system to easily access content from my network shared files? I don't plan to fool around with NAS or any of those complications, just want the simplest solution, something that can easily, without fuss, connect to and play content from the same wifi network its connected to.
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/help-with-wi...es/38592/4

[Rickt1962]

Thank you very much for the reply, only seen it now as the reply notification email went to my spam. 

To answer the questions:
- No, I do not need Android support specifically, this will be for playing offline content only (from my storage)
- Main criteria for me is to be able to play without hiccups the newer video formats such as h265

So in your opinion this Vero 4k+ is the best/most simple option? I'm a bit worried though after reading this thread below, as it seems quite a pain to setup the system to easily access content from my network shared files? I don't plan to fool around with NAS or any of those complications, just want the simplest solution, something that can easily, without fuss, connect to and play content from the same wifi network its connected to.
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/help-with-wi...es/38592/4

OSMC with VERO 4K+ is made for KODI plain and simple

[lawrence38]

Thank you very much for the reply, only seen it now as the reply notification email went to my spam. 

To answer the questions:
- No, I do not need Android support specifically, this will be for playing offline content only (from my storage)
- Main criteria for me is to be able to play without hiccups the newer video formats such as h265

So in your opinion this Vero 4k+ is the best/most simple option? I'm a bit worried though after reading this thread below, as it seems quite a pain to setup the system to easily access content from my network shared files? I don't plan to fool around with NAS or any of those complications, just want the simplest solution, something that can easily, without fuss, connect to and play content from the same wifi network its connected to.
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/help-with-wi...es/38592/4

OSMC with VERO 4K+ is made for KODI plain and simple 

 Thanks. But do you think it will be easy for a technically challenged person such as myself to connect this thing to my local network to play content from there without much difficulty?

[Rickt1962]

Thank you very much for the reply, only seen it now as the reply notification email went to my spam. 

To answer the questions:
- No, I do not need Android support specifically, this will be for playing offline content only (from my storage)
- Main criteria for me is to be able to play without hiccups the newer video formats such as h265

So in your opinion this Vero 4k+ is the best/most simple option? I'm a bit worried though after reading this thread below, as it seems quite a pain to setup the system to easily access content from my network shared files? I don't plan to fool around with NAS or any of those complications, just want the simplest solution, something that can easily, without fuss, connect to and play content from the same wifi network its connected to.
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/help-with-wi...es/38592/4

OSMC with VERO 4K+ is made for KODI plain and simple  

 Thanks. But do you think it will be easy for a technically challenged person such as myself to connect this thing to my local network to play content from there without much difficulty? 

OSMC offers great support for the non techincally challenged. It all depends how you have your videos stored

[Sam.Nazarko]

Thank you very much for the reply, only seen it now as the reply notification email went to my spam. 

To answer the questions:
- No, I do not need Android support specifically, this will be for playing offline content only (from my storage)
- Main criteria for me is to be able to play without hiccups the newer video formats such as h265

So in your opinion this Vero 4k+ is the best/most simple option? I'm a bit worried though after reading this thread below, as it seems quite a pain to setup the system to easily access content from my network shared files? I don't plan to fool around with NAS or any of those complications, just want the simplest solution, something that can easily, without fuss, connect to and play content from the same wifi network its connected to.
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/help-with-wi...es/38592/4

OSMC with VERO 4K+ is made for KODI plain and simple 

 Thanks. But do you think it will be easy for a technically challenged person such as myself to connect this thing to my local network to play content from there without much difficulty?

Yes. It will also be no harder than on any other Kodi device.