[Stildawn]

Hi All

Moving to a new house and have 3 TV's, one will be located right next to my HTPC which stores and runs Kodi / mysql library.

I need 2 cheap but good boxes/devices to run next to 2 other TVs around the house (both next to a ethernet port). Currently I have a exlease dell piece of crap for my bedroom TV which I have Kodi installed on and using the mysql library / source files from my HTPC via ethernet network. But its loud and old and runs bad has heaps of lag etc.

So I'm after some cheap but good devices that I can load Kodi on and have them use the HTPC source files / mysql library.

I heard a bit about Android boxes but have zero knowledge/experience with them.

So after recommendations.

Cheers

[alekseyzimin]

If you do not need audio passthrough, i.e. you are fine with stereo sound, Amazon Fire TV 3 works well with Kodi Leia (needs to be sideloaded, easy) and MrMC.  Use this build to get switches to software decode DVD ISOs in Kodi Leia
http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/arm/
click on the build with "androidswmpeg2" in the name

[Avds]

You could go the android tv box route and stick coreelec on which is just basically kodi on it's own.(must be amlogic soc). Cost is around £40+.

Get the firestick 4k, good firmware support and kodi runs pretty well. No ethernet but an adapter can be purchased, go for a usb gigabit adapter and get this adapter Cost 49.99 plus extra for ethernet bits.

[Atreyu]

If you only need kodi i would go with Avds’s first suggestion. I just stick a cheap aml box on the back of the tvs. Works great and has low power consumption. Started out with nucs, but they have different tasks now

[Stildawn]

Any of these have ethernet? I would much prefer ethernet over wifi?

[Avds]

You can buy an adapter for firestick check my previous post for links.
Android boxes usually come with ethernet as standard.

Are you wanting just kodi on the device or android?

[Stildawn]

Just Kodi mainly, but obviously having android as well is a plus.

Any suggestions for Android boxes?

[Stildawn]

I found this site in NZ (where I live) with a bunch of options, has anyone had any experience with these, all have ethernet.

https://www.nztvbox.com/product-page/a95x
https://www.nztvbox.com/product-page/m8s...with-voice
https://www.nztvbox.com/product-page/h96...-1-kodi-17
https://www.nztvbox.com/product-page/x88...-0-kodi-17
https://www.nztvbox.com/product-page/m8s...ice-remote

Or can anyone dissect their specs and advise which is the best one, obviously cheaper is better, but I want decent Kodi performance so yeah.

[wrxtasy]

Or can anyone dissect their specs and advise which is the best one, obviously cheaper is better, but I want decent Kodi performance so yeah.

Any S912 AMLogic Chipset device will do for CoreELEC Kodi if you want performance. I would NOT recommend Android Kodi on cheap Android boxes.
Popular S912 ones are the H96Pro and the Tanix TX92 / Vorke Z6.
Get a USB mini receiver dongle Wireless remote like the MINIX A2 lite if you want kKodi respnsiveness with No missed button pressings, because the included Infra Red ones are usually complete rubbish.

Job done.

You NEED to read the two Orange links in this thread:

START HERE - Pick the Right Kodi Box (updated Nov. 2018)

[ontap]

wrxtasy, is there a more "hand" sized wireless remote that will do the same job as the minix lite ? 
I had one of those at one time but gave it away , was like holding a "coffin" , I was thinking of something a lot slimmer and lighter ?

[wrxtasy]

Plenty of options like....


OSMC Remote Control or buy a Vero 4K+ and it will come with it.

[ontap]

So will that OSMC remote work out of the box with corelec on a mecool bb2 box ?

[wrxtasy]

Yes Plug in USB dongle and Play.

[Stildawn]

So I got this one:

https://www.nztvbox.com/product-page/m8s...with-voice

M8S Pro W as I didnt want to commit to the more expensive ones without trying them out, specs as below:

Voice Remote
Amlogic S912 Quad core (4 Core Processor)
2GB RAM + 16GB eMMC ROM
Google Android TV 7.1 OS 
Latest Kodi 17.6 ((TV Center)
H.265 decoder, 4k2k full HD output
Support USB/MicroSD/TF/AV ports
2.4GHz 
Support DLNA 

I set it up and it was quick enough in the menus etc, I downloaded the latest Kodi from the play store (as I didnt notice the TV Center Kodi version preinstalled).

Setting up Kodi, put in my video sources using smb + ip to my HTPC. Everything scanned into the library fine etc, however when I play a movie a few minutes in and the movie freezes and the sound glitches over and over, the remote is unresponsive and the only way to fix is to unplug the power cord.

So i transfered a movie to the M8S HDD, played it from there in a default media player installed (i think called MX player), it ran the movie fine no issues.

Next I loaded the M8S HDD folder into Kodi as a source, and played the movie from their (running off the M8S local HDD) and same thing, movie freezes and sound glitch, M8S unresponsive.

I'm running the movie again (a different movie each time, so not a file issue) now from the network again using FX network explorer (downloaded in play store) and so far so good.

So I think I have narrowed it down to Kodi causing the issue on playback, so any ideas on this? Has anyone had these issues with Android TV Boxes before?

Is this a warranty return thing?

[wrxtasy]

A bunch & many many more issues would be fixed if you bought a Sandisk or Samsung EVO Class 10 UHS1 microSDHC card or USB3 stick and ran CoreELEC Kodi Leia (click) from it.

When it talks about device trees, the one you use on the Pro W is the - gxl_p281_2g.dts (renamed to dtb.img).
Hint #2 - in CoreELEC enable the GPU Overclock option, and that will speedup everything.
Hint #3 - in Kodi's Power menu you can reboot to the internal Android OS - > select reboot Nand/emmc --> reboot Android and you are back in CE Kodi.

All further CoreELEC support over on their own Forums