[noggin]

Isn't MrMC pretty much abandoned? I went looking at the support forums a while back and it looks like that.

I guess that's a possibility - still works pretty well for me - though I've not checked out 23.976 vs 24.000 stuff in detail (tvOS 14.5 introduced 1000/1001 support at last). Last release appears to have been November 2020...

[madmax2]

Isn't MrMC pretty much abandoned? I went looking at the support forums a while back and it looks like that.

I guess that's a possibility - still works pretty well for me - though I've not checked out 23.976 vs 24.000 stuff in detail (tvOS 14.5 introduced 1000/1001 support at last). Last release appears to have been November 2020...

Yeah that is what I was afraid 

Paying good money for a strip down app of the real thing
and being reliant on that dev to hopefully keep updating is not good

[noggin]

Isn't MrMC pretty much abandoned? I went looking at the support forums a while back and it looks like that.

I guess that's a possibility - still works pretty well for me - though I've not checked out 23.976 vs 24.000 stuff in detail (tvOS 14.5 introduced 1000/1001 support at last). Last release appears to have been November 2020...

Yeah that is what I was afraid 

Paying good money for a strip down app of the real thing
and being reliant on that dev to hopefully keep updating is not good

Yep - there's no perfect solution if you want high quality Netflix, Prime, Disney+ and ATV+ and Kodi on the same box - there are always compromises.  The cost of the app is minimal (like two coffees and cakes in a coffee shop) so that's not a huge barrier to me.  Being able to run MrMC on the same platform I watch the DRM services on, and which has a great UI and remote (now the ATV 4K v2 remote is out...) is a good compromise for me (I don't need add ons) and the ATV 4K v2 has a great CPU so is very snappy and responsive (plus it does 4:2:2 HEVC hardware decode, and has enough grunt for 1080i 4:2:2 h.264 software decode and deinterlace which has come in useful for me - nothing other than Intel platforms will do that for me otherwise)

If I were going purely for cost-benefit and had no requirement for DRM sources I'd go AMLogic and CoreElec, or begin to consider the Pi 4B + LibreElec now it has HDR, 12-bit video output, and HD Audio support, and deinterlacing is back (though avoid this if you rely on 4:2:0 for UHD p50/p59.94 - which is niche).

Shield TV falls between two stools for me - it's similar price to the Apple TV 4K v2, but with poorer DRM support.  Kodi support is better than the ATV 4K (HD Audio bit streaming and Python add-ons), but not better than the AMLogic solutions (ignoring DV)

[Up Next .....]

OK, so there is no perfection to be had from one single device. Is there perfection to be had by combining two (2) devices?

[noggin]

OK, so there is no perfection to be had from one single device. Is there perfection to be had by combining two (2) devices?

For me the ATV 4K is the perfect DRM streaming device, and AMLogic boxes running CoreElec play pretty much all of my locally stored content (apart from niche 4:2:2 stuff that most people don't have to worry about), though the Pi 4B is now looking interesting for this too with the latest LibreElec Nightly builds (and they are running mainline kernels, and have far better support than ODroid with their comedy warranties and support)

[Up Next .....]

OK, so there is no perfection to be had from one single device. Is there perfection to be had by combining two (2) devices?

For me the ATV 4K is the perfect DRM streaming device, and AMLogic boxes running CoreElec play pretty much all of my locally stored content (apart from niche 4:2:2 stuff that most people don't have to worry about), though the Pi 4B is now looking interesting for this too with the latest LibreElec Nightly builds (and they are running mainline kernels, and have far better support than ODroid with their comedy warranties and support)

I'm all for your ATV 4k recommendation. But when it comes to AMLogic boxes running CoreElec I get into a perpetual "This one. No this one.". I had my mind set on the OSMC Vero 4K+ (eventually). But it was released in July 2018. And with software support set to 5 years, it looks like it is not very wise to buy it.
P.S. I realise that OSMC does not equal CoreElec. Thanks for your response.

[madmax2]

OK, so there is no perfection to be had from one single device. Is there perfection to be had by combining two (2) devices?

For me the ATV 4K is the perfect DRM streaming device, and AMLogic boxes running CoreElec play pretty much all of my locally stored content (apart from niche 4:2:2 stuff that most people don't have to worry about), though the Pi 4B is now looking interesting for this too with the latest LibreElec Nightly builds (and they are running mainline kernels, and have far better support than ODroid with their comedy warranties and support)

so pi 4b can now playback of 4k HEVC 10bit HDR videos smoothly and have the same performance as Odroid N2+ and nvidia shield pro etc?

I got a pi3b with LibreElec, it is good kodi device
but lacks 4k playback and sometimes randomly reboots 

Do you have pi 4B and is there any heat throttling issues (as reported)?

[noggin]

OK, so there is no perfection to be had from one single device. Is there perfection to be had by combining two (2) devices?

For me the ATV 4K is the perfect DRM streaming device, and AMLogic boxes running CoreElec play pretty much all of my locally stored content (apart from niche 4:2:2 stuff that most people don't have to worry about), though the Pi 4B is now looking interesting for this too with the latest LibreElec Nightly builds (and they are running mainline kernels, and have far better support than ODroid with their comedy warranties and support)

so pi 4b can now playback of 4k HEVC 10bit HDR videos smoothly and have the same performance as Odroid N2+ and nvidia shield pro etc?

I got a pi3b with LibreElec, it is good kodi device
but lacks 4k playback and sometimes randomly reboots 

Do you have pi 4B and is there any heat throttling issues (as reported)?

It's still quite early days for the Pi 4B and full 10-bit HDR replay - and deinterlacing has only just returned too. It's in nightlies not stable - so that tells you it's still early days. If you put a Pi 4B into a case with decent cooling (the Flirc cases use the entire case as a large passive heat sink) then temperature issues should be reduced - and throttling should only really happen on CPU-intensive tasks, which hardware accelerated replay of h.264 and h.265 mitigates - though if you have a lot of HD MPEG2 or VC-1 stuff then that may be heavier on the CPU and good case cooling will be useful for that.

I'd put the Pi 4B ahead of the ODroid C4 - not sure how it stacks up against the N2+.  The ODroids have the benefit of optional, decent quality, eMMC - which can outperform uSD card storage for large databases and quicker boot times. The Pi 4Bs have better support, are easier to get hold of from multiple suppliers with decent warranties/RMA policies, and have better third party case support etc.

In terms of the AMLogic stuff - you really have a choice with the Pi-like ODroid boards - which have truly terrible warranties from their manufacturer (who also treat people's RMAs pretty badly by all accounts) but which are well like otherwise, or Chinese Android TV boxes based on AMLogic chipsets (which come with cases, PSUs, remote controls etc.). The hardware build quality of some of these leaves a lot to be desired in some cases (cheap eMMC, poor quality heat sink solutions etc.) - so I'd take recommendations from the CoreElec forums.

As for the Vero 4K+ - at least Sam is giving you a timescale for support - the other solutions have no such guarantee?

[Sholander]

In the context of Pi4, Odroid C4, and Vero 4K, Banana Pi BPI-M5 can also be mentioned. It is CoreElec supported and here is how they compare.

[noggin]

In the context of Pi4, Odroid C4, and Vero 4K, Banana Pi BPI-M5 can also be mentioned. It is CoreElec supported and here is how they compare.

Interesting board - £99 on Amazon UK - but delivery times of two weeks suggest it's not stocked in the UK.  eBay doesn't have many hits - so I guess this is AliExpress territory?

Ports look similar to a Pi3B+ but USB-C rather than Micro USB for power may mean cases are trickier to find?

[MatteN]

I´ve had some "Banana" Pi devices under the last 3-4 years and my experiance is; stay away, support is terrible.

[Sholander]

Since recent Banana Pi BPI-M5 is supported by CoreElec Team (CoreELEC 19.2 CoreELEC official support Bananapi M5 and M2Pro since 19.2-Matrix_rc1) I would't worry about software support.

[voochi]

so pi 4b can now playback of 4k HEVC 10bit HDR videos smoothly and have the same performance as Odroid N2+ and nvidia shield pro etc?

Do you have pi 4B and is there any heat throttling issues (as reported)?

4K HEVC HDR decoding and correct HDR output is just beginning to work in the last few weeks. Work in progress.

The temperature issues of Pi4 have been improved since launch with a number of firmware updates. Also the latest hardware revision has some improved power management and power gating.

My Pi4 is in the official plastic case with no extra heatsink or fan. It idles around 50C and for hardware-accelerated video playback there is no throttling or overheating.
However if you use the CPU heavily there will definitely be throttling. So it depends how you use it.

[Sam.Nazarko]

OK, so there is no perfection to be had from one single device. Is there perfection to be had by combining two (2) devices?

For me the ATV 4K is the perfect DRM streaming device, and AMLogic boxes running CoreElec play pretty much all of my locally stored content (apart from niche 4:2:2 stuff that most people don't have to worry about), though the Pi 4B is now looking interesting for this too with the latest LibreElec Nightly builds (and they are running mainline kernels, and have far better support than ODroid with their comedy warranties and support)

 But it was released in July 2018. And with software support set to 5 years, it looks like it is not very wise to buy it.
P.S. I realise that OSMC does not equal CoreElec. Thanks for your response.

For what it's worth -- we will extend those support commitments and we are making some arrangements to ensure we can support the device for a longer timeframe.

[JustATest]

Hi,
ODroid N2+ is basically impossible to buy, so I am looking for something else cheap.

I have tested my Network with my TV @ 100mbits on Plex, it seems that it is enough to play 4k HDR 100gb files. I have no external Sound, so there shouldn´t be very high requirements.

I have checked out S905 boxes, but those are either unavailable or quite expensive.

Would be the FireTV Stick 4k max + 1gb Ethernet my best decision or is there anything else I can look at?I guess that due to the USB2, the speed would be around 25-30MB.
Could the Fire TV Cube be an Alternative as it only costs 10€ more, although then with 100mbits.