[ozkhan1]

I am using a Wetek Play2, with the latest LibreELEC,  playing Moviies (up to 30g and with full HD sound) and TV programs (various including x264 and x265) from a Synology NAS which works very well but is not very user friendly (my wife).

I am intending toget a 4K TV soon so I would be playing various 4K movies

What would i gain / loose moving to the Apple TV 4K with MrMC and would it be better than the Dune 4K or some of the other available.

The price would not be an issue (up to £150 -£200 ish) as long as what ever I get can play the videos with top quality vision and sound and is as easy to use as my old Mede8er 600.

Librelec/Kodi have different skins available and one of them looks exactly like the appletv interface, so I don’t believe LE/Kodi would be situated any differently compared to the other devices on the “WAF” spectrum.
In fact if anything, it’s so customizable, you can make it very very simple.

[wrxtasy]

Will MINIX U9 or Vero handle 4K HDR content with proper color/resolution switching, and for example (according to first page post)

Yes

Nvidia Shield will be there co add Netflix 4K HDR support? Or you really recommend Apple TV 4K over this kind of a solution.

I would not buy the Shield in its current buggy Firmware state for mixed, hands off, SDR / 4K HDR video streaming Apps usage. It does Not auto switch colorspaces at all and it does Not frame match (refresh switch the TV) for smooth video playback with virtually ALL Apps (not just Kodi/SPMC/Plex).

Don't buy on promises an Android Oreo O.S. Update is going to fix Shield Firmware issues either. That is nothing but a Newbie trap.

If you are in the UK, Europe, Oz, N.Z. and do not use Plex / SPMC / Kodi all the time, Expect video judder on the Shield when you watch any 25fps video sources Unless you like continually guessing and trying to Manually match the OS output Hz to the frames per second of source video content. Basically that turns into a right Royal PITA long term !

NVIDIA (and Google) are USA focused around 23.976, 29.97 and 59.94hz video output because that covers the majority of their USA video sources. You should also read the NVIDIA Shield TV forums for potential issues, There are some long running threads that need reading.

NVIDIA rely on Google to update the Android OS, that adds long delays in getting OS bugs fixed or features added.
Apple control the entire Hardware, tvOS and Firmware chain with their Apple TV's - this has BIG advantages long term, especially when they also have a 2017 iPad Pro lineup that also has very similar Firmware and internal Hardware to also cross develop from. Very smart move IMHO.

Currently, the Apple TV 4K is a superior SDR / HDR10 / DolbyVision video playback Apps media player platform, especially for International usage. Set and forget, sit back and relax.

Google have taken too long implementing a new colorspace API in Android Oreo and look to be having trouble getting video streaming Apps developers onboard to use the new Android TV Oreo interface properly. This looks to now be causing Android TV OS Oreo update delays.
I would say Android TV market share has something to do with it too for the lack of App developer enthusiasm shown.

The Shield has very capable hardware, it just needs developer resources throw at it and Google to get their shit together and focus more on Android TV and Apps developer support for it to reach it's full streaming potential.

[CiNcH]

Google have taken too long implementing a new colorspace API in Android Oreo and look to be having trouble getting video streaming Apps developers onboard to use the new Android TV Oreo interface properly. This looks to now be causing Android TV OS Oreo update delays.
I would say Android TV market share has something to do with it too for the lack of App developer enthusiasm shown.

Exactly. I also detailed this in my review. Some quotes:

Apps from all major content providers are WebViews only, all having a different look and feel to them, not following any of the Android TV design guidelines. There are simply too many TV platforms around which is the reason why content providers prefer easy portability over a truly integrated user experience. Some even only support Chromecast which adds up to the fact that Android TV is such an inconsistent platform.

Also, after the Google TV disaster, not many seem to trust in Google’s TV ambitions anymore. Android TV only gained traction in the Far East where the OS is put on some cheap media players. So it is for sure not as significant as Google intended it to be. Other platforms are much more functional with better app support and for sure more mature. Just don’t make the mistake and put Android TV on par with the mobile Android. The two are worlds apart. Even Google does not seem to believe in their own platform, putting new features and services on their own Chromecast device (and even competing platforms) long before they arrive on Android TV. I have yet to find any UHD content on Google Play Movies for example. YouTube HDR has yet to arrive as well.

I got quite excited when Google first demonstrated their new home screen prior to releasing it as part of Android TV 8.0 Oreo, finally replacing the app-centric launcher with a more content-centric one, introducing what Google calls “channels”, allowing apps to promote their content via the home screen in a much more comprehensive and targeted manner compared to the single Recommendations row in previous versions of Android TV. Fast-forwarding to now, so several months after the Oreo release, it is back to business. Android TV Oreo on the Nexus Player is a mess. Not only does it lack many of the demonstrated features, navigation is also noticeably more laggy even though Oreo is actually said to be well optimized for slower processors with little RAM, finally placing limitations on what apps can do in the background... Still hardly any content provider integrates with Android TV’s enhanced features like the unified (voice) search, the Recommendations or Watch Next row or this new “channels” idea in Oreo, only providing a bare minimum WebView to browse and watch content.

Sony and Philips/TPVision, both having a rather homeopathic market share compared to Samsung and LG, are just not enough to carry the Android TV platform forward. The nVIDIA SHIELD is more of a niche product and the many cheap Chinese streaming boxes won’t help Google make a lot of money either. On the app side, still many content providers lack a native Android TV app, many others integrate much better with competing platforms. Even looking at Google’s own services on Android TV pretty much tells you the story of how significant the platform really is. So where is Android TV heading? I don’t think that it will ever be big. It might very well live on in mediocrity for some time until it finally suffers the same fate as the late Google TV.

[grrrr]

So the new NUC looks like a promising bit of kit.

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-la...stem-ever/

quick spec list

IMHO too expensive to purchase (and power) as a dedicated TV box though.

[ozkhan1]

So the new NUC looks like a promising bit of kit.

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-la...stem-ever/

quick spec list

IMHO too expensive to purchase (and power) as a dedicated TV box though.

Yeah I was looking at that myself. Yeah too expensive for a tv box but a great addition for an all purpose gaming/tv box.... if it gets Linux support that is. Put steam and Kodi on it and your are off to the races..

[robertoafarias]

@wrxtasy (or anybody else), a 32gb Apple tv 4k is enough for apple streaming and MrMc/infuse/netflix apps usage? Or i would need the 64gb version?

[timstephens24]

@wrxtasy (or anybody else), a 32gb Apple tv 4k is enough for apple streaming and MrMc/infuse/netflix apps usage? Or i would need the 64gb version?

The 32G is plenty. I've gotten the lowest sized ATV4/4K except for one and I never noticed a difference. Most apps are actually really small, but most space will be taken by the metadata for your movies/tv shows.

[bMind]

After some thought and additional research..I think it boils down to Vero 4K and MINIX U9 for me. Is there a major difference that would force me to pick one over another. I know it's OSMC vs Android/LE when it comes to software, but other than this?

[robertoafarias]

U9 has gigabit, if its important for you...

[chrisssj2]

Why is apple tv 4k mentoined in OP? 11.2 isn't cracked and you can't connect usb harddrive to the apple 4k TV and play movies on it right...
So you can't install kodi either.

[wrxtasy]

For the same reason you can install SPMC 16.x - a Kodi Jarvis Fork on to the NVIDIA Shield, or other Android devices from the Google Playstore.

MrMC, another even more modded Kodi Jarvis fork can be directly installed from the tvOS Apps store. And unless you really need comprehensive Addon support or need to use more than than 6 or 7 inbuilt Skins then it satisfies many users needs.

The icing on the cake is Frame Rate matching and Dynamic Range matching for SDR and HDR usage and those work Operating system wide. Not just when using the MrMC / Kodi App
A rare combo.

Those with the $$$ to afford an Apple TV 4K use large capacity Network storage anyway.

[JohnWB]

I am interested in getting an Apple TV 4K but is there a way to get it to play Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, also will it play x264 and x265 10 bit files also high 10 and AAC files.

[wrxtasy]

It will handle Software decoding of 1080p Hi10P Anime because it has a nice powerful 2.39GHz 6 core CPU and will decode pretty much anything you throw at it. Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA will be decoded to lossless Multichannel LPCM audio and output:
https://support.firecore.com/hc/en-us/ar...tions-tvOS-

There will be no loss in audio quality, you will just not see fancy Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA lights on your AVR.

[robertoafarias]

Basically, the only feature missing in ATV4K is auto resolution switch? (For mr. Mc/infuse)

[chrisssj2]

But apple doesn't have google playe store so you can't install kodi? Am I missing something?
Also is network streaming enough for playing 4k? Isn't direct usb better?