[HotBlack]

I am about to but a new TV and have been looking at various options and they almost all now have some sort of Android based smart TV option. However, digging into each one they almost all seem to suffer from some combination of weak CPUs (Sony in particular), limited passthrough support, limited network connectivity or other issues which make running Kodi on android solely on the TV not a very pleasant experience. Does anybody know of a smart TV which does a good job of running Kodi within its own Android environment?

[mchp92]

I would never buy an android box in the forseeable future
As u r writimg - payng top dolllar for underperforming cpu
Just buy an android box for a fraction of the price and spend dollar on a high quality screen

[DarrenHill]

Thread moved to hardware.

Personally I'd also say you're better off with a dumb TV and a box you can change or update/upgrade as and when you want to...

[wrxtasy]

Agreed get a TV with the best picture output and video processing possible that is NOT an underpowered TV running the Android TV OS.
With the money saved, if you need Android, get a NVIDIA Shield...
or Kodi only - an AMLogic S9xx Box with Gigabit Ethernet and a Wireless remote running LE / CE or OSMC Kodi Krypton or Leia.

You are already talking about speed, audio passthrough and network connectivity, they are all going to be problems on a TV running Android TV.

[aerogems]

I'm going to agree with the others. Just forget about the "smart" functions of the TV. It's almost impossible to find a non "smart" TV over a certain size these days, but just treat it like an emergency fallback. Like if you have a Shield or ATV4K and it craps out on you just after all the stores close, so you can't run out and get a new one, you could use the smart functions to get you through till the stores open. I have also used the video decoding abilities of a smart TV to function as a crude media player when visiting family for a week. It is a far from optimal solution, but it's only for 1-2 weeks, so...

In basically every other situations, a set top box, like a Shield or ATV is going to be a better solution. They're upgraded more frequently, maintained for a longer period of time, and generally have better hardware for the job.

[noggin]

Yep - ignore smart TVs with regard to Kodi.  Just get the best performing TV in video terms (and audio if you don't have an external audio solution) - and use an external solution for Kodi (and in many cases external Netflix and Amazon Prime solutions are better quality than the built in players - some of which don't do frame rate switching properly for instance)  

If you have an AVR - then you also have major limitations with audio quality if you have a Smart TV running Kodi - as unless it runs the latest version of ARC, you will be limited to SPDIF 2.0/DD/DTS and possibly DD+ audio output only.  No PCM 5.1/7.1 or HD Audio / Atmos / DTS :X support

[chrisyu]

I think Sony Z9F/A9F are the best TV for Kodi for now.
I installed SPMC 17 and Kodi 18 on my Z9F, worked very nice.

It has powerful CPU, plays everything, smooth UI.
It will have eARC support (by future firmware).

But ethernet speed is only 100Mbps, you'll need faster 5G wifi to play some big UHD files from network share.
SystemUI resolution is locked at 1080p60Hz, Kodi can play videos at 4K, but refresh rate auto switch cannot be activated.

It's overall performance is same level to my Shield TV.

[271290fcb68d53]

I don't get why there is no Gigabit on these high end TV's. Luckily my TV is very close to my router which, over AC achieves +/- 300mbit consistently.

Is hardware decoding of 265 hevc material possible on these TV's?

[mchp92]

Coz a high end tv is still a tv and not a computer. These tv people just squeeze in some cheap ass pc hardware so they can call it “smart tv” and charge top dollar.

As pointed out in earlier post. Dont spend the money on smarter tv. All u will get is an underperforming and overpriced cpu. Buy a dumber tv with best screen u can get. Then buy an android set top box. Even high end models are way cheaper than the extra charge for higher end tv cpu.
Then u will likely still have some cash left. Get the missus some flowers. Se might give you extra screen time for that. Or more ;-)

[noggin]

I don't get why there is no Gigabit on these high end TV's. Luckily my TV is very close to my router which, over AC achieves +/- 300mbit consistently.

I guess because manufacturers are only concerned with streaming TV apps - and the highest bitrate streaming services have bitrates way less than 100Mbs. Streaming UHD BD rips is not on the road map for companies like Sony.

Is hardware decoding of 265 hevc material possible on these TV's?

  
Yes - UHD streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime use H265/HEVC for their UHD HDR content, and most modern UHD TVs (at least those sold in Europe) will accept H265/HEVC UHD content via DVB-S/S2, DVB-C or DVB-T. My Sony UHD set happily tunes and decodes the Astra 28.2 UHD test services (which are DVB-S2 using H265/HEVC 2160p50), and when I created test DVB-T and DVB-C muxes using a Dektec PCI-E modulator card - H265/HEVC UHD content decoded fine.

[wrxtasy]

Also of interest is Sony's new 2018 Master Series TV, that are running Android TV Oreo 8.x
Are actively, what looks like blacklisting and blocking standard Kodi App installs - click HERE for details

[271290fcb68d53]

As pointed out in earlier post. Dont spend the money on smarter tv. All u will get is an underperforming and overpriced cpu. Buy a dumber tv with best screen u can get.

Yes, the buy a dumb TV argument :-).

Almost all of the top OLED models are "smart". you can often get them way below list pricing (I've ordered a 55oled803 for 1249 euro). I prefer Android because I use a couple of apps that aren't on any other platform (retroarch for example).

Most of my media consumptions comes from other platforms such as Netflix.

I use Kodi to occasionally stream a movie from my nas, don't have a need for DTS pass through. So as long as Kodi can hardware decode some x265 hdr material directly on my TV I see no need for a seperate setup box.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the hardware in these TVs are shit. It's just impossible to find what their limitations actually are when it comes to Kodi

[noggin]

As pointed out in earlier post. Dont spend the money on smarter tv. All u will get is an underperforming and overpriced cpu. Buy a dumber tv with best screen u can get.

Yes, the buy a dumb TV argument :-).

Almost all of the top OLED models are "smart". you can often get them way below list pricing (I've ordered a 55oled803 for 1249 euro). I prefer Android because I use a couple of apps that aren't on any other platform (retroarch for example).

Most of my media consumptions comes from other platforms such as Netflix.

I use Kodi to occasionally stream a movie from my nas, don't have a need for DTS pass through. So as long as Kodi can hardware decode some x265 hdr material directly on my TV I see no need for a seperate setup box.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the hardware in these TVs are shit. It's just impossible to find what their limitations actually are when it comes to Kodi  

The two big issues with Kodi on Smart TVs usually boil down to :

1. No Frame Rate switching.  Many Smart TVs fix their Android TV apps to 60Hz. (So 24p stuff gets 3:2 and 25/50Hz gets horrible judder) Some appear to use bespoke frame rate switching functionality rather than Android standard?
2. Limited audio output. Most Smart TVs will only output PCM 2.0 and DD/AC3 (some may do DTS) as they rely on ARC to get audio to your AVR.  No chance of HD Audio bitstreaming or PCM multichannel for lossless HD Audio or multichannel FLAC replay.

They often also use underpowered CPU/GPU combos (as they are really only designed for very basic Smart TV streaming) and so Kodi's GUI can appear sluggish.

[271290fcb68d53]

As pointed out in earlier post. Dont spend the money on smarter tv. All u will get is an underperforming and overpriced cpu. Buy a dumber tv with best screen u can get.

Yes, the buy a dumb TV argument :-).

Almost all of the top OLED models are "smart". you can often get them way below list pricing (I've ordered a 55oled803 for 1249 euro). I prefer Android because I use a couple of apps that aren't on any other platform (retroarch for example).

Most of my media consumptions comes from other platforms such as Netflix.

I use Kodi to occasionally stream a movie from my nas, don't have a need for DTS pass through. So as long as Kodi can hardware decode some x265 hdr material directly on my TV I see no need for a seperate setup box.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the hardware in these TVs are shit. It's just impossible to find what their limitations actually are when it comes to Kodi   

The two big issues with Kodi on Smart TVs usually boil down to :

1. No Frame Rate switching.  Many Smart TVs fix their Android TV apps to 60Hz. (So 24p stuff gets 3:2 and 25/50Hz gets horrible judder) Some appear to use bespoke frame rate switching functionality rather than Android standard?
2. Limited audio output. Most Smart TVs will only output PCM 2.0 and DD/AC3 (some may do DTS) as they rely on ARC to get audio to your AVR.  No chance of HD Audio bitstreaming or PCM multichannel for lossless HD Audio or multichannel FLAC replay.

They often also use underpowered CPU/GPU combos (as they are really only designed for very basic Smart TV streaming) and so Kodi's GUI can appear sluggish. 

Thanks this explains a lot. 

1. Would that count for other streaming apps as well? So Netflix, Amazon prime face te same issue?
2. I'm aware of this.

[noggin]

Yes, the buy a dumb TV argument :-).

Almost all of the top OLED models are "smart". you can often get them way below list pricing (I've ordered a 55oled803 for 1249 euro). I prefer Android because I use a couple of apps that aren't on any other platform (retroarch for example).

Most of my media consumptions comes from other platforms such as Netflix.

I use Kodi to occasionally stream a movie from my nas, don't have a need for DTS pass through. So as long as Kodi can hardware decode some x265 hdr material directly on my TV I see no need for a seperate setup box.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the hardware in these TVs are shit. It's just impossible to find what their limitations actually are when it comes to Kodi   

The two big issues with Kodi on Smart TVs usually boil down to :

1. No Frame Rate switching.  Many Smart TVs fix their Android TV apps to 60Hz. (So 24p stuff gets 3:2 and 25/50Hz gets horrible judder) Some appear to use bespoke frame rate switching functionality rather than Android standard?
2. Limited audio output. Most Smart TVs will only output PCM 2.0 and DD/AC3 (some may do DTS) as they rely on ARC to get audio to your AVR.  No chance of HD Audio bitstreaming or PCM multichannel for lossless HD Audio or multichannel FLAC replay.

They often also use underpowered CPU/GPU combos (as they are really only designed for very basic Smart TV streaming) and so Kodi's GUI can appear sluggish.     

Thanks this explains a lot. 

1. Would that count for other streaming apps as well? So Netflix, Amazon prime face te same issue?
2. I'm aware of this.    

1. Yes - but not always seems to be the answer. Some Smart TVs run Netflix and Amazon Prime TV at a fixed 60Hz (or possibly 59.94Hz) refresh, as they also do with their internal media player apps. However in Europe some Catch Up TV apps (like the BBC iPlayer) do correctly switch to 50Hz - so it seems that frame rate switching is possible, but not always implemented in every app (possibly due to non-standard refresh rate control ?)

Some of Sony's current range of DVB-T/T2 Android TVs sold in Europe with integral HDD recording (you plug in a USB HDD and it will allow you to record shows) even replay 50Hz off-air recordings at 59.94/60Hz...