[wiiija]

Hi all,

I've been through the following boxes recently to use with kodi and all had a limitation in some way:

Generic T95Z - poor quality and no refresh rate switching.
Minix Neo u1 - fantastic with Libreelec but no HDR support.
Xiaomi Mi box - No refresh rate switching, auto hdr broken.

Now I'm looking at the 3 decent boxes in the thread title and can't for the life of me decide which will suit me best, I seriously only want it for Kodi to play back my 4k and hdr files locally, but I need it to do so perfectly.
Which would you choose and why?

regards,
Sean

[wrxtasy]

Would not buy any of them for HDR if you want anything to work perfectly.

Because HDR is still in a state of flux and there really needs to be more Firmware support to get everything to run smoothly.

Don't get conned by the HDR Marketing. Unless you are buying a nVIDIA Shield that can actually stream HDR content - that is properly encoded in the very first place from Netflix and Amazon sources then it really is going to be a waste of time.

HDR UHD (4K) Bluray is uncrackable.

Buy a cheap AML S905(x) box, throw LibreELEC Kodi on to it and bide your time till Firmware is more mature and there is a wider availability of HDR content available.

Thats the reality of it.

[wiiija]

I think I wont bother about HDR so much then, may just get another U1 as it was perfect with Libreelec. That being said I do still have an urge for a new gadget so still may go for one of the above, I'm guessing the Shield may be the most polished.

[nenito2k]

@wiija

why the hell would you get a U1...if the U9 is already out and DOES HDR !?

[wiiija]

No Libreelec for the U9 yet? I was less than impressed with the U1 until I got that on there, plus it's early days for the U9 it appears its not without its problems, but I do understand your point

[hdmkv]

Another vote for Shield TV, assuming you also don't need 3D.

[wiiija]

No I don't need 3d, I think it's going to be the shield, it sounds the most solid from my reading

[nenito2k]

Be aware that shield has the least good picture according to many folks..as Blacks are weaker and upscaling not as good...but hey i Guess you will never notice
@hdmkv never mentionned it however..maybe he did not see that neither

[hdmkv]

There is no 4K box at this point that does proper HDR, color space, with 4:4:4 with 24/25/30/50/60 is there? Zidoo? HiMedia? I don't have a HDR-capable display, so just wondering.

[noggin]

There is no 4K box at this point that does proper HDR, color space, with 4:4:4 with 24/25/30/50/60 is there? Zidoo? HiMedia? I don't have a HDR-capable display, so just wondering.

Unless I'm mistaken you can't have 4:4:4 HDR 2160/50 or 60p with HDMI 2.0 or 2.0b can you?

AIUI at 2160/50p and 60p RGB and YCbCr 4:4:4 are limited to 8-bit, which is likely to be SDR only. For HDR 2160/50p or 60p you need 10 or 12 bit, which means you have to drop to YCbCr 4:2:2 or 4:2:0. This is probably a non-issue for video content - as at the consumer level this is likely to be 4:2:0 anyway. (Oddly looks like 10 bit is 4:2:0 only, but 12 bit is 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 in HDMI 2.0 at 2160/50p or 60p?)

http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_2_...q.aspx#146

For 2160/30p and below you have support for 4:4:4 YCbCr and RGB all the way up to 16-bit (in fact they are the only formats supported at 16-bit, though I think that is irrelevant for consumer video content)

[hdmkv]

I'm not sure... calling @wesk05...

Just wondering if any box does 4K (local media playback) fully and properly via HDMI 2.0. Not HDMI 2.1, which was only announced in January.

[hansolo]

There is no 4K box at this point that does proper HDR, color space, with 4:4:4 with 24/25/30/50/60 is there? Zidoo? HiMedia? I don't have a HDR-capable display, so just wondering.

UHD HDR bluray is 4:2:0, not 4:4:4. link

[wesk05]

Unless I'm mistaken you can't have 4:4:4 HDR 2160/50 or 60p with HDMI 2.0 or 2.0b can you?

AIUI at 2160/50p and 60p RGB and YCbCr 4:4:4 are limited to 8-bit, which is likely to be SDR only. For HDR 2160/50p or 60p you need 10 or 12 bit, which means you have to drop to YCbCr 4:2:2 or 4:2:0. This is probably a non-issue for video content - as at the consumer level this is likely to be 4:2:0 anyway. (Oddly looks like 10 bit is 4:2:0 only, but 12 bit is 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 in HDMI 2.0 at 2160/50p or 60p?)

For 2160/30p and below you have support for 4:4:4 YCbCr and RGB all the way up to 16-bit (in fact they are the only formats supported at 16-bit, though I think that is irrelevant for consumer video content)

You are correct on all! You can have 10/12-bit YCbCr 4:2:0 "Deep Color" for 4K 50/60Hz and 10-16-bit "Deep Color" for YCbCr 4:4:4/RGB at <50Hz refresh rates. HDMI specs. do not define "Deep Color" for YCbCr 4:2:2. It is 12-bit by design, but the actual data could be 8-12-bits (zero padding to make up 12-bits). Apparently, some HDMI 2.0b devices are sending 10-bit YCbCr 4:2:2 and I am not sure what those devices are doing differently with the packing.

There is no 4K box at this point that does proper HDR, color space, with 4:4:4 with 24/25/30/50/60 is there? Zidoo? HiMedia? I don't have a HDR-capable display, so just wondering.

Amlogic S905X, S912 can do YCbCr 4:4:4 HDR (<50Hz refresh rates). Xidoo X9S (and probably the other RTD1295 devices) have signal drop issues when "Deep Color" is enabled at 4K. Shield is limited to 12-bit YCbCr 4:2:2 or 10-bit 4:2:0 for HDR.

Be aware that shield has the least good picture according to many folks..as Blacks are weaker and upscaling not as good...but hey i Guess you will never notice
@hdmkv never mentionned it however..maybe he did not see that neither

This is not factually correct. There is nothing wrong with the blacks. Shield's grayscale output is near perfect (1080p and 2160p). Upscaling could be better, but in real world scenario, it is not something that will be apparent to most folks.

[nenito2k]

@wesk

Amlogic S905X, S912 can do YCbCr 4:4:4 HDR (<50Hz refresh rates). Xidoo X9S (and probably the other RTD1295 devices) have signal drop issues when "Deep Color" is enabled at 4K. Shield is limited to 12-bit YCbCr 4:2:2 or 10-bit 4:2:0 for HDR.

what of hisilicon v200 soc ?

[wesk05]

what of hisilicon v200 soc ?

I haven't tested any HiSilicon V200 boxes. So, I have no idea.