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Budget AMLogic S9xx Media Player Options
Yeah ignoring the obvious addons comment, the answer is Xiaomi Mi Box.

Not gonna get much better out-of-the-box overall package for under $100
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Since I own a Mini M8S II 2GB/16GB (S905X) since a while now and finally figured out all the kinks (for my usage profile), I thought I share a few things with potential future buyers...

- First of all: Krypton is just not there yet. I faced a few issues, that are not quite resolved and unacceptable to me at the moment: consistent frame skips in 23.976fps videos, very bad upscaling of SD and 720p, generally the video player does not seem very stable right now. That is not kszaq's fault of course, he is doing an amazing job in maintaining and releasing builds!

Now to the good parts...

- Jarvis (currently judging kszaq's 7.0.3.012h build) works absolutely flawless, once it's set up correctly.
- Speed from internal NAND is unbelievably fast. I have not experienced a Kodi that quick, not even the Shield is as fast. Intel might be quicker, I cannot comment on that, but consider the 38€ I have paid for the box.
- Every 2160p demo video I tested works perfectly, including HDR10 (!), BT.2020 and 10 Bit. Maybe 10 Bit color depth is downscaled to 8 Bit by the system, but I did not see any additional color banding in comparison to the TV internal media player.
- High quality chroma upsampling! It passes the spears&munsil chroma upsamling test pattern with flying colors. The difference might not be noticeable in most cases, but it is still good to know. Advantage over Raspberry Pis.
- HD audio bitstreaming and PCM output works great.

However there are a few things you need to know in order to get to this flawless experience, it took me a while to get this:

- The GUI refresh rate needs to be at 60Hz! If for instance it is set to 50Hz, there is no proper 23.976p output after refresh rate switches, but 24p instead, which results in a stutter every 40ish seconds.
- Audio is out of sync by 175ms for 23.976p and 24p. This can be resolved easily by adding an advancedsettings.xml:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<advancedsettings>
  <video>
    <latency>
      <delay>0</delay>
      <refresh>
        <min>23</min>
        <max>24</max>
        <delay>175</delay>
      </refresh>
    </latency>
  </video>
</advancedsettings>
- Dolby Digital + (E-AC3) bitstreaming needs to be disabled, it is out of sync much more than the other codecs. Once it is decoded to PCM, the 175ms delay fits perfectly.

Thanks to the great support by users in the LibreELEC Forum I was able to figure these needed adjustments out.
The box runs very well and stable now and I even got used to using Amber instead of Estuary again. Wink

This is definitely the cheapest way to get HDR10 playback right now and the only downside is the flawed Krypton experience at the moment. I'm sure however that the Krypton hardware decoding will be fixed eventually. Smile
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Hi all !

I dropped by to say that I also own a Mini M8S II 2GB/16GB (S905X) and so far my experience has been really good (at least for my needs). I got it for 38 €.

- Latest Firmware updates have fixed most of the important issues it had when it first came out.

- XannyTech's custom ROM makes this box even better.
So I've flashed XannyTech's ROM on NAND and with SPMC everything is really smooth. Kodi Jarvis also runs without issues.

- I have also installed LibreElec on a Class 10 microSD and the experience is great.

- Beware, the latest batch of these boxes are shipped with the AP6212a Wi-Fi module (and not the AP6212). With this chip (AP6212a) the Wi-Fi performance is dreadful.
I happened to play with two of these boxes, earlier, a few months after their release, before I bought mine. Those earlier versions of the box with the AP6212 Wi-Fi module were not perfect but there were certainly better than my box. So I would not recommend this box for someone that relies on wireless for streaming, etc. I use a LAN cable and everything is smooth. Haven't tried 4K as I don't have and don't intend to buy a 4K TV anytime soon.

- Maybe there is a solution for the Wi-Fi issues with a compatible USB to Wi-Fi adapter, but I haven't tried it.
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I am looking at the same things
Right now i have an old box
CS918 with a RK3118 1g/8g and kitkat
it is fine for h.264 but it chokes hard on h.265

I really need h.265 to work because I am converting my library to that to save space.

I am looking at the hardware listings and it seems that the
amlogic S912 will do hardware encoding for h.265 and for V9
I don't have any 4k videos because I save all my recorded TV in 720p

the S912 seems to be the newest and I am sure there will be better ones
but the boxes I see with that CPU don't come with 3gigs of ram they come 2g/32g like the BeeLink GT1

I think 2gigs of actual ram might be enough to run most stuff and videos pretty well
it will definitely be better than 1gig of ram

But I am still looking at devices to find the best one at the lowest price

My Range is $50-60 USD
And I will need 2 of them once i convert to h.265 .. blah
there goes all my extra cash



(2017-02-06, 04:58)quizzer25 Wrote: Can you all recommend a good android box for streaming KODI addons? Budget less than $100.

What are the key factors to consider for Kodi?
RAM - Is 3 GB better than 2 GB for playing HD Live sports (without buffering)?
SOC - Amlogic 912 better than 905X?

Replacing a Nexus player (1 gb ram/8gb storage) which buffers a lot for HD live sports.

Any other pointers are appreciated too.
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Simple question why do you want to buy a S912 device that will come with the worst possible Android Firmware and support that is out in the marketplace ?

Do you want a device that actually works properly and is easy to use ?

Tech specs mean diddly squat if a device comes with rubbish Firmware.

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Agree... just avoid S912, at least until something changes to allow LibreLELEC or a decent Xiaomi Mi-like box w/this SoC comes along.
[H]i-[d]eft [M]edia [K]een [V]ideosaurus
My Family Room Theater
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The quote below is EXACTLY what happens with cheap AMLogic Android media players. Deceptive marketing repeating the words "supported" all over the place as though everything will just work out of the box. When a lot of it is all, bullshit, especially where the S912 is concerned...

From a senior Android Kodi Audio developer....

(2017-02-16, 14:06)fritsch Wrote: AMLogic has NOTHING to do with this broken software. Those are vendors that ship a very, very early prerelease they got from amlogic as an early Android 6 testing sample!

We tested with AMLogic and their final v6 release does fully support Kodi and we support all their audio formats, including dolby atmos, dts-hd, truehd ... What the users with the broken v6 (Android OS) have on their machines was never meant for public release, just some "money makers" shipped that totally broken ...

I don't know why ZippyTheChicken is asking the same questions already asked in his thread ....

Android Box with h.265 hardware encoding decoding I am on a budget

For Kodi use only....
The Solution to all this is a AMLogic S905(x) device, wipe Android completely and run LibreELEC Kodi Krypton. LibreELEC Kodi Krypton is far far superior to any Android Kodi version running on AMLogic hardware you will find.

The AML S912 cannot run LibreELEC Kodi.

And as @hdmkv, has already said - if you need Android the Xiaomi Mi Box is superior to all other AMLogic Android Boxes. It actually gets ongoing, regular, after sales bug busting Firmware support. This is critical with AMLogic Android Boxes.

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Can anyone tell me about the Beelink MINI MXIII II TV Box? (S905X Quad Core - 2GB+16GB 4K H.265 VP9 Decoding 2.4G + 5.8G Dual Band WiFi Bluetooth 4.0)?

I bought the Mi Box for $70 from Walmart, however the Beelink for $42 seems like a better deal, especially because it comes with an ethernet port and extra USB port over the Mi Box. Any disadvantages to the Beelink?
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A better deal to do what exactly, you need to be specific ?

Mi Box is a better Android TV OS device with superior Firmware (with ongoing support), superior AC WiFi, far better Audio support, actually has 1080p/4K DRM Apps support (Netflix, HBO etc), a Kick ass Wireless BT Voice Remote and no extra PITA Air Mouse has to be purchased to use Android TV Apps properly.
AND its not running the dinosaur touchscreen regular Android OS that frankly belongs on a Tablet not a TV screen.

Better quality Hardware as well with the exact same spec chipsets, packaged internally in every Mi Box.

A $9 ASIX Chipset USB > Ethernet adapter can be added if you need it but in reality even for 1080p 45Mbps Bluray Rips, the excellent WiFi is fine on the Mi Box if your Home WiFi Network is half decent. A dirt cheap unpowered USB Hub can be added to the Mi Box for next to nothing too.

The (non Android TV) AML S905 boxes have one clear advantage in that they can run the superior LibreELEC Kodi - for pure Kodi usage only. The Mi Box cannot.

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I've got the Beelink MxIII II running a kszaq libreelec build from a micro sd card. It meets all my needs (which may not be yours). I've got a fairly new Samsung TV that gives me HD Netflix, catchup tv, and Youtube, so I don't need those things in a media player. All I need is pure Kodi. I've had no issues with wifi. The remote is basic but looks good and works fine. Be aware that wired LAN is only100 mbit. When I did use Android on this box I really didn't like it that much. If I wanted Android I'd take wrxtasy's recommendation.
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I like all(non Android tv os devices ) i hate android tv os SmileCan you root xiaomi tv box??if you can is it posible to make ARR to work with kodi ,spmc?
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If you want LibreElec, buy an S905 or S905X box with support for kszaq builds. If you want DRM services like Netflix - then buy a properly supported Android box like Mi Box. Best of both worlds - with some caveats - a Wetek Hub.
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(2017-02-17, 21:49)Bajann Wrote: Can you root xiaomi tv box??
No
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any review for Zidoo a5s? my place doesnt have Mi Box 4K yet. it purchase mi box from gearbest or others, it will be more expensive than purchase zidoo locally here at msia. mi box that they sell here are the mi box 3s. the china version.
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(2017-01-06, 03:19)hdmkv Wrote: Just got 2x of M8S II S90X 2GB/8GB boxes, and Kodi (via LibreELEC) runs damn well on them. Just as good as on Beelink S905 MiniMXIII 2GB/16GB, which is very hard to find now.

Perfect 23.976 w/LE Jarvis version 7.0.3.011 and full HD audio. Most 4K samples play well as well, with only a couple of really high bitrate samples struggling due to M8S II's 100M LAN port.

I don't need 2x units (got a Mi Box while I wait a month for GearBest to deliver), so if someone's interested in one (already w/LE installed to internal NAND memory) at cost, PM me.

Keen to get 1 of these using LibreElec. The only question I had was the "known issues" reported by kszaq:

"If you use S905X device the screen will be darker than normal on boot. It goes back to normal after you start/stop a video"

Is this a common problem or something that is very noticeable. Any youtube video of this?

Apparently it is not a problem for the S905, however getting 1 of these is difficult. The only 1 that seems readily available is the Beelink M18 but there doesn't seem to be much about this on these forums.

Thanks
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Budget AMLogic S9xx Media Player Options6