[romcrazy]

Hello,

I am considering buying this box https://forum.freaktab.com/forum/tv-play...i-bt4-ddr4 but I haven't found much support here or on freaktab regarding this. I guess its because its a new SoC or maybe the Y2 isn't yet supported by kodi or libreELEC I am not sure.
I am not asking about recommendation on buying or not buying this device. I am just wondering if this will be supported in near future and if investing in this box is fine or not?

I hope I didn't step on anyone's toes since that was not my intention at all. I am just a potential new user here who has little to no knowledge about this world (I have been only doing custom stuff in phone flashing at xda). Thank you for any feed back you can give about this Y2 chip.

Thanks

Edit: The START HERE thread has no info about S905Y2. I did the search before posting.

[wrxtasy]

Follow the link in THIS post and read onwards.

The Freaktab website has S905Y2 and S905X2 Subforums.

[romcrazy]

Thank you for the reply sir.

As far as I have read through countless threads in past few days, I have some observations, please tell me if I am correct so I can decide which device I should put my money on.

The new devices with newer chips like s905x2/y2 and (probably upcoming) s922 have limited to no support as of now because being relatively new, the devs are either deciding which chips to develop on and take forward, or they are just beginning to gather drivers and stuff needed for developing. So if I pick these devices, I am on my own for the time being until support develops for these chips.

The older devices with older chips like s905x have vast support and are better for users like me who want to play stuff on their devices. The support is plenty but its declining as the developers are moving over to new devices.

So the choice is really about picking an older supported device which will play most of the stuff without much issues (pretty much what a new user like me wants) or picking a newer unsupported device which may or may not be chosen by developers to be taken forward. Sort of like a gamble?

[wrxtasy]

The new devices with newer chips like s905x2/y2 and (probably upcoming) s922 have limited to no support as of now because being relatively new, the devs are either deciding which chips to develop on and take forward, or they are just beginning to gather drivers and stuff needed for developing. So if I pick these devices, I am on my own for the time being until support develops for these chips.

Yes on your own in Android v8.1 Oreo land and the Freaktab website for support.
Where on AMLogic v8.1. Oreo equipped devices, the required IEC61937 audio support now seems to be missing as well. That is required for Kodi Krypton onwards HD audio passthrough. No auto refresh or resolution switching with Android Kodi on such devices either.

The older devices with older chips like s905x have vast support and are better for users like me who want to play stuff on their devices. The support is plenty but its declining as the developers are moving over to new devices.

Kodi (LibreELEC) support is not declining, in fact the S905 devices will be the first in the AMLogic family to transition to a modern v4.x Linux Kernel with open source video decode drivers and support for the new graphics rendering system - that will be used for the Linux Kodi v19 M onwards user interface.
Such development and testing has already been ongoing for a while now by BayLibre / LibreELEC devs and others.

Currently there is no v4.9 Linux HDR Kernel support, same issue you see with Linux Intel / AMD

---

So that leaves four AMLogic S9xx choices at this current point in time if you want AMLogic Linux LibreELEC support for Kodi v19 M:

1. Gigabit Ethernet S905D devices like the Vero 4K+ or other S905D devices.
   
   
2. Or if you do not need HDR support, the ODROID C2, the fastest S9xx AMLogic device for running CoreELEC Leia from eMMC - when overclocked - yes I've been testing !
   
   
3. Cheap S905W / S905X devices and then add an ASIX or Realtek Chipset USB3 > Gigabit Ethernet adapter if needed.
   
   
4. Gigabit Ethernet S912 devices and then take the gamble that in a years time open source Mali T8xx GPU drivers, that are currently being coded are finished in time for Kodi v19 M.

Personally I will be happy sitting with a stable S9xx platform for quite a while running a variant of Linux Kodi Leia until the development dust settles.

W.

[romcrazy]

Sir Thank you for all the clarifications you are providing, its a nice change that a potential new user is being provided all the help, I guess I understand why and how kodi community has become so huge. Feels good to be here.

Although With the options you have given, I think you are overestimating my current situation, I am new to streaming, so new that I have only ever streamed 1080p on my tv with my laptop. My tv also supports ONLY 720p and 1080p. So 4k stuff is not even required with me, I am not sure if all the stream content has 1080p option for me or not. I am not a purist needing 4k yet because my tv is barely 1080p. I guess with that HDR requirement also goes out of the window because I have never used HDR (apart from lineage supported gcam which I installed on my Mi A1).

I am just worried that I will get a box which will crash or bootloop and have no updates from manufacturers or no kodi versions could run, so I am blowing my mind reading a lot of freaktab and kodi forums.

Also, all the devices available seem to be on 32bit OS (even with 64bit devices) which really seems to have peaked with 4gb 64gb setups. Which suggests to me, that very soon 64bit OS will become the norm considering that kodi has also moved to 64bit version and previous 32bit OS versions might loose support as 64bit gains momentum.

Maybe I am worrying too much I don't know. I also have a very mediocre wifi that does 20mbps barely but that will soon change as gigafiber has almost reached in my area (cables are being layed) so that transition will happen soon.

Please suggest keeping these in mind as I am a small time new user who is looking to stream 1080p I am not even thinking about netflix or amazon prime yet but that I have read can be worked around by other legit means.

[wrxtasy]

Best bang for the buck at the moment if you are in the USA is the Amazon Fore TV Stick 4K, plenty of power, the best Wireless remote in the business and it runs Kodi v18 Leia just fine if you are not too demanding.
Virtually Plug n Play with minor Kodi Leia Sideloading required.

It's amazing how much difference a reliable Wireless remote makes to any media player. A very often overlooked fact.

The AMLogic devices running LibreELEC / CoreELEC Kodi are DIY.
They can also dual boot, but for that you need a Wireless remote that has a USB dongle mini adapter/receiver like the MINIX A2 lite and others found in posts in the START HERE thread.

[romcrazy]

Sir I am fine with AMlogic DIY. If you could just clarify on the crash bootloop problems (do they still happen or are they things of the past)? And the 32bit 64bit OS thing? And whether 32bit old kodi versions will be supported in a long run or will they become obsolete as 64bit OSes take over? I will get a wireless remote too if you have any suggestions on that too I would be grateful, I am inclined to choose an AMlogic device just not sure about the Y2 thing because it seems to have almost no support yet. So maybe I will stick to s905x.

[wrxtasy]

Don't worry about 32/64bit, its a non issue with Linux Kodi.

For LibreELEC remote controls grab either a MINIX A2 lite Mini Keyboard or the USB mini dongle receiver seen in THIS post.

Or just buy a SDR - S905 MINIX U1 that already comes with the MINIX A2 lite Wireless Keyboard. High quality hardware that one.

A Wireless keyboard comes in real handy for Kodi Keyboard shortcuts after you have use Kodi for a while.

[romcrazy]

Or just buy a SDR - S905 MINIX U1 that already comes with the MINIX A2 lite Wireless Keyboard. High quality hardware that one.

 Very costly sir. many boxes are available at half price even mi box is half price from minix U1. Thank you for the important inputs. I might have a few more questions later since I am reading up more.

Thanks for your time sir. I appreciate it highly.

[noggin]

So that leaves four AMLogic S9xx choices at this current point in time if you want AMLogic Linux LibreELEC support for Kodi v19 M:
 

1. Gigabit Ethernet S905D devices like the Vero 4K+ or other S905D devices.
   
   
2. Or if you do not need HDR support, the ODROID C2, the fastest S9xx AMLogic device for running CoreELEC Leia from eMMC - when overclocked - yes I've been testing !
   
   
3. Cheap S905W / S905X devices and then add an ASIX or Realtek Chipset USB3 > Gigabit Ethernet adapter if needed.
   
   
4. Gigabit Ethernet S912 devices and then take the gamble that in a years time open source Mali T8xx GPU drivers, that are currently being coded are finished in time for Kodi v19 M.
   

 

One point @wrxtasy - is it that the C2 (and other S905) boxes don't support HDR output, or that they don't support HDR AND/OR Rec 2020 output (correctly flagged) and instead they only support SDR Rec 709.  SDR Rec 2020 support is the difference between just not supporting HDR, and only supporting Rec 709.

So rather than just not supporting EOTF flagging (required to flag HDR EOTFs like ST.2084 or HLG) and 10-bit output (required for good quality HDR), they also don't support any gamut flag other then Rec 709 (*) and don't support SDR Rec 2020 output?

(*) Rec 601 (which is pretty much identical gamut to Rec 709 but different colour space as the YCbCr->RGB matrices are different) may I guess be supported for SD 480i/p and 576i/p outputs?

[romcrazy]

Sir I read that tanix is a good device. I checked out tanix tx5 plus it has great specs but seems on presale yet. But it has not been mentioned anywhere on freaktab or on this forum. Its a S905X2 device. and the ram mentioned on gearbest is LPDDR4 but on Aliexpress, DDR3 is mentioned. I don't understand which is correct. Sir is tanix a good box? Tanix seem to say they have widevine L1 support also although it was not implemented in tx3 because AMLogic SoC s905w didn't support it. Is it supported in tanix tx5 plus?

A clarification: Tanix tx5 plus as it is named on various review sites, its link redirects to tanix tx5 max on gearbest and on searching gearbest, tx5 plus is not found. Its found on Aliexpress but Aliexpress shows DDR3 ram and LPDDR4.

[Rubytux]

Try the Le Potato 1GB SBC, it is at $35 dollars on Amazon, just add a Raspberry Pi case($9.99), a power adapter ( $6.99) and a spare MicroSD.

It has official support from Libre Elec

[romcrazy]

I bought H96 max x2 its on way, this thread can be closed. thank you for your inputs. appreciated.

[Gugelhupf03]

I have received a S905X2-Box a few days ago:

https://www.geekbuying.com/item/H96-MAX-...12497.html

I use i with an older non-android-1080p-TV (no external sound system!). 
My point was to have a Kodi-Solution that can stream all my content (SD, HD, 4k, 4k-HDR, HD-3D) to this 1080p-3D-TV flawless. 

All I did was to remove the preinstalled custom-kodi with official Kodi 18.0 RC4 and set it up to my linking and to my shared database; plus I installed a different Android-TV-Launcher (for me: simple TV Launcher) because I don't need anything but Kodi on it, and the standard-launchers are not customizable. 

Et voilá! It runs. Out of the Box (more or less). Smooth, flawless, stutterfree. Kodi plays all content as it should. It upscales SD-content and downscales 4k-content, 3D is working too. 

I had used LibreElec-hardware before, like RaspberryPi, and had meddled around with S912-android-boxes and custom-firmwares, incl. Linux-stuff, but nothing ever worked as good as this Android-thingy. 



Please understand that there is NO sound-related demand included. No passthrough, no Surround, no atmos, no nothing. Just the TV's stereo-speakers, and Kodi downsamples everything I have perfectly to this.

[menell]

How is LE potato in terms of using retro games? i am interested using this SMB computer. Thanks in advance