[flame360]

I'm looking for a reliable companion to serve as the middle man between my NAS server and my LG C9.

I would like for something that can take advantage of all the latest standards HDR10, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos. I'll be streaming mostly 4k UHD Remuxes to it.

Price-wise wouldn't want to spend more than 400$ on it.

[wrxtasy]

I'm looking for a reliable companion to serve as the middle man between my NAS server and my LG C9.

I would like for something that can take advantage of all the latest standards HDR10, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos. I'll be streaming mostly 4k UHD Remuxes to it.

Price-wise wouldn't want to spend more than 400$ on it.

The LG C9 needs devices that do full blown 4K HDR Metadata Passthrough because it's it's Image Processing needs all the help it can get.

So you would be looking at:

a) ODROID N2 running the highly optimised CoreELEC Kodi, if you need 4K HDR Kodi & HD (inc. Atmos) audio only ..
b) Nvidia Shield if you want to stream DolbyVision from Netflix, Disney+ Apps etc. - but your C9's Apps already do that....

4K DolbyVision Rips Playback is basically a BIG - Can of Worms, so I do not repeat myself read the HDR Sticky https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332180
There is No DolbyVision Rips / Remux's playback possible with Kodi at all.

Personally I would go down the ODROID / CoreELEC route if you need Kodi only, because it's built from the ground up for 4K HDR Kodi usage.
There are all sorts of options once get stuck into it available to tweak as well. CoreELEC support is excellent.
I use that combo with a MINIX A2 lite keyboard remote for 4K HDR Rips playback on my GZ Panasonic OLED - works extremely well.

Use the LG C9 and Plex App if you want to play around with 4K DolbyVision Rips Playback (do Plex forum self research on that).
That is by far the easiest route for DV ISO Rips playback, you will however lose HD audio.

[flame360]

I'm looking for a reliable companion to serve as the middle man between my NAS server and my LG C9.

I would like for something that can take advantage of all the latest standards HDR10, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos. I'll be streaming mostly 4k UHD Remuxes to it.

Price-wise wouldn't want to spend more than 400$ on it.

The LG C9 needs devices that do full blown 4K HDR Metadata Passthrough because it's it's Image Processing needs all the help it can get.

So you would be looking at:

a) ODROID N2 running the highly optimised CoreELEC Kodi, if you need 4K HDR Kodi & HD (inc. Atmos) audio only ..
b) Nvidia Shield if you want to stream DolbyVision from Netflix, Disney+ Apps etc. - but your C9's Apps already do that....

4K DolbyVision Rips Playback is basically a BIG - Can of Worms, so I do not repeat myself read the HDR Sticky https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332180
There is No DolbyVision Rips / Remux's playback possible with Kodi at all.

Personally I would go down the ODROID / CoreELEC route if you need Kodi only, because it's built from the ground up for 4K HDR Kodi usage.
There are all sorts of options once get stuck into it available to tweak as well. CoreELEC support is excellent.
I use that combo with a MINIX A2 lite keyboard remote for 4K HDR Rips playback on my GZ Panasonic OLED - works extremely well.

Use the LG C9 and Plex App if you want to play around with 4K DolbyVision Rips Playback (do Plex forum self research on that).
That is by far the easiest route for DV ISO Rips playback, you will however lose HD audio. 

Thank you for your answer!

I'm gonna have a look at the ODROID/ CoreElec combo. I'm familiar with SMBC installations so it shouldn't be a problem setting it up.

I posted the same question on Reddit and most of the people recommended the Nvidia Shield Pro 2019. I don't have the need for added apps like Netflix and others since as you mentioned the TV can already handle all that.

But would the  experience be smoother on the shield or on the ODROID ?

[noggin]

But would the  experience be smoother on the shield or on the ODROID ? 

For core Kodi functionality I think an AMLogic box edges the Shield TV for SD, HD and UHD in SDR Rec 709 and HDR10 Rec 2020. CoreElec also allows you to do a bit more in terms of binary add ons. (You can install TV Headend and run a Live TV server in the background for instance)

The Shield TV is a very nicely packaged product, and the Pro 2019 model has a really nice remote (Apple take note...), and if you wanted DRM-ed sources like Netflix and Prime Video with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos - it's a great fit (though the Apple TV is arguably better in terms of frame rate switching and has more consistent HDR/SDR and Rec 2020/Rec 709 switching - nVidia often mess the latter up with new firmware releases, and Android TV doesn't have a consistently well implemented frame rate switching experience)

The AMLogic CoreElec experience will always be a little bit more effort (not much though) - and ODroid hardware is always a bit 'Raspberry Pi' in appearance, without a nice consumer device-like case, and the no-name Android boxes many of us use to get AMLogic SoCs in a consumer form factor always end up looking a bit cheap. (If you can hide them - you won't notice it!)

[wrxtasy]

But would the  experience be smoother on the shield or on the ODROID ?

For Kodi only use Yes - because Kodi on it has been tweaked to within an inch of it’s life to support basically anything you want to throw at it.
Even tricky old stuff that Android Kodi on the Shield has problems with like VC-1 Bluray rips and Interlaced TV.

The CoreELEC developers are specifically focussed on Kodi - any yes it does make a difference in the end especially when they also have complete control over the underlying Firmware and Linux based Kernel.

Anything 1080p the ODROID N2 cannot Hardware decode can be Software decoded with it’s 6 Core CPU package - which is actually more powerful vs the old 4 Core CPU package in the Shield.