[izprtxqkft]

With all the iterations of Android TV boxes released it's more difficult to NOT find one to suit your needs.

As well with that, there are very few features to look forward to as it seems everything has been covered.

With the Amlogic S928X it may actually be time to upgrade that old TV and look to getting an 8K upgrade.

No products yet available for this but I did want to start a thread for this platform and hopefully drive up some interest, as we all know products with interest will thrive vs. those without.


Is Kodi ready for 8K?

As long as FFMpeg supports demuxing it and the hardware supports decoding it the only limitation then would be hardware bandwidth, transferring that data from disk to memory to decoder.


I personally am excited to see what something like this can do and I'm looking forward to the flurry of 8K upgrades from Blu-Ray to Streaming to Displays.


S928X Specs


A couple articles discussing hopefuls for release or demos.

https://hd-mediaplayers.com/2023/02/27/s...-8k-tv-box

https://androidpctv.com/sdmc-mwc-2023

[Klojum]

Is Kodi ready for 8K?

Kodi is ready, I think the better question is: is the world ready for 8K?

Right now, there are hardly any movie/tv providers with proper 8K content (apart from some demo videos), and lots of the current 4K bluray content is simple up-scaled 1080p stuff. Do you already have an 8K display/TV? I have a 6-yr old Nvidia GT1030 card lying around somewhere, and it can already render 8K video in LibreELEC/Kodi.


It's just not much use without the proper content and with only a 1080p or 1440p display to look at...

[MatteN]

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/eu-8k-tv-...-around-it

[Klojum]

Yep, the power usage of big 8K displays is something to think about. It may not be everybody's concern who has a bigger wallet, but conserving energy is a hot topic these days.

And another thing, humans are flawed: not every person's vision is or remains good enough to fully appreciate an 8K display and its millions of colors at the prescribed distance. Sooner or later, eyes will experience the slow downfall of aging.

[izprtxqkft]

Is Kodi ready for 8K?

Kodi is ready, I think the better question is: is the world ready for 8K?

Right now, there are hardly any movie/tv providers with proper 8K content (apart from some demo videos), and lots of the current 4K bluray content is simple up-scaled 1080p stuff. Do you already have an 8K display/TV? I have a 6-yr old Nvidia GT1030 card lying around somewhere, and it can already render 8K video in LibreELEC/Kodi. It's just not much use without the proper content and with only a 1080p or 1440p display to look at...

no i sure dont have an 8k display, that's sort of the issue, i have an 82" 4k hdr10+ from 2018 (purchased early 2019) and it's still the best thing going

i look forward to an upgrade every few years and with this i cant seem to find better, the next thing for me would be 8k but it's rather useless to do so because of the things you pointed out

i am loosely aware that some production companies are actually filming in 8k+ but it's getting scaled down to 4k due to limitations of the market

i hope that if demand increases so will the market, nobody is going to release an 8k bluray for a target pool of less than 1000 devices, it's not even logical

[calev]

I legit care nothing about 8k. 95% time 1080P is fine for me at 65 inches. Between 1440P and 4k I could care less. Personally I would enjoy higher framerate video but I don't really care that much about anything higher than 4k.

[Tobor]

... Sooner or later, eyes will experience the slow downfall of aging.

Klojum,

I had a birthday yesterday and was feeling a little depressed today. I didn't think I could feel any worse, but you proved me wrong.

I found this to be interesting regarding 4K Blu ray players. Particularly, the statement  "A fading category. The number of new 4K Blu-ray players to test is dwindling. Most manufacturers have stopped making new players." This suggests to me that there may be little or no interest in 8K disc players.

Tobor

[Klojum]

Well, I'm already part of the category of humans that I was describing. So I have some experience in that department.

As far as bluray discs are concerned, I'm guessing all "major content players" want to push customers towards internet streaming. And if that is supposed to be 8K in the future, then we better all have proper glass fiber-optic Internet connections by that time.

[izprtxqkft]

maybe a move to 8K will spur new developments in optometry as well haha


i do and dont agree that it likely needs to be streaming since bluray player production has been stagnant

could argue it's stagnant because there's nothing new to develop
or lack of interest by younger generations

i know some are die hard media fans and the media library room has to be lined with bookcases filled with high quality steelbooks, myself included, so i cant see physical discs going anywhere

but as the technology moves forward and younger generations move in i see more and more demand for streaming over physical discs where there's no need to "own" anything and it's just a pass time to watch a movie

my own kodi library is 10% streaming where i have streaming offers, i also have quite a few titles on movies anywhere - so i can join the streaming camp as well


regarding "1080p is fine, who cares about 8K" if this is the case youre probably not the target audience and you can keep what you have


i also think most people should be on 1Gig internet by now and i feel either its

a) greed by providers who can charge just as much for old infrastructure so why bother upgrading anything and lose profit
b) infrastructure is just not there, rural places mostly

[ashlar]

Kodi is ready, as explained.

On the other hand, watching a 77" 4K set from 2 meters, I question the usefulness of 8K resolutions at any market-significant screen size.

[brazen1]

i have an 82" 4k hdr10+ from 2018 (purchased early 2019) and it's still the best thing going

I read and heard lots of talk about upgrading 1080p to 4k would be a complete waste because I wouldn't notice any difference.  Even salesman - eager to unload new old stock imo.  Turns out... they were all wrong.  I was astonished from the moment I plugged it in tbh.  Admittingly, the upgrade also went from 65" 1080p to 82" 2160p which obviously added the benefit of size to the upgrade.  My concern was that with larger screen size would lead to amplification of defects such as noise and artifacts.  That simply wasn't the case.  In fact, many faults of 1080p were/are no longer even present given better processing.  Coupled with even more processing like improvements to Kodi with and without madVR raise the bar even higher.  An upgrade from 65" 1080p to 65" 4k would not have been as astonishing at a 12' seating distance but at 82" it sure is.  This time I will be upgrading to 85" minimum.  I also use this panel as my PC monitor at 3' often.

4k native sources were sparse at the time but it was hardly a waste since all my 1080p titles were now getting upscaled to 2160p 4k.  It was the difference between night and day and it still is.  I will be repeating this entire scenario when I upgrade to 8k with zero hesitations this time.  My ultimate goal is to look my screen and mistake it for a window.  I'm very close.  My present 4k display works really, really well.  I couldn't say the same about my old 1080p display even though it was top of the line.  I always noticed things in video I wish didn't.  Retiring my present display won't be as easy I will admit. 

I will have to upgrade my AVR to 8k even though my decade old present one serves me fine using 4k.  The biggest thing holding me back is that I will need to upgrade my video card again.  My little GTX 960 is an oldy but a goody.  There is absolutely no reason to change it for my 4k system and I consider it fairly elaborate.  I'm waiting to see if by some miracle newer cards, particularly Nvidia 5x series, get reasonable MSRP's average consumers facing out of control overinflated envelope pushing will actually allow us the affordability we can justify.  Otherwise, I'll let Richie Rich play with his state-of-the-art card until he isn't the fastest guy on the block anymore and sells it used in which case I'll snap it up and enjoy it for years just as I've been doing my $100 GTX 960 for the past decade.    Problem is, even used stuff is ridiculously expensive these days including the flurry of broken items constantly flooding bidding sites.  At some point though, most things get milked until the teat runs dry and sellers face the stark reality that the only way to unload new/old stock is to continuously drop the price.  Just look at 8/10/12TB HDD's these days 

[HeresJohnny]

Young people watch video content mostly on their mobile phone ... and not even sideways, mind you... The industry is now trying to convince them that they need at least 2160p on a 6" screen to fully enjoy stuff :-) I guess nobody remembers the first portable video players where 640x480 was a great resolution.

[calev]

i have an 82" 4k hdr10+ from 2018 (purchased early 2019) and it's still the best thing going

I read and heard lots of talk about upgrading 1080p to 4k would be a complete waste because I wouldn't notice any difference.  Even salesman - eager to unload new old stock imo.  Turns out... they were all wrong.  I was astonished from the moment I plugged it in tbh.  Admittingly, the upgrade also went from 65" 1080p to 82" 2160p which obviously added the benefit of size to the upgrade...

85 inches is huge. For me hdr and really dark blacks from oled were the bigger upgrades going from 1080p to 4k. In gaming I really like variable frame rates. That has made gaming look amazing. I can tell the difference from 4k to 1080p at large sizes but it wasn't as big a leap as 480i to 1080p. The tv's were cheaper both in absolute value and accounting for inflation. a 2007 1080p plasma is more expensive than a 2018 4k set so the upgrade was worth it. I worry they upgrade the resolution more for increased drm on physical media than actual quality improvement. I don't even think movie theaters are ever in 8k. 

For me I'm looking more for a new dumb tv with good hdr,variable refresh rate in 4k. Not looking forward to 8k file sizes either.

[izprtxqkft]

right on @brazen1

i have been eyeballing the new 2023 85" samsung 8k but without anything to feed it an 8k signal and kodi not running on tizenos directly im waiting

i would rather not wait 2 years to fully utilize something like that then when i can utilize it there's already something better on the market i could have purchased instead

check out the specs for the qn900c

[DragonFly]

I have the 85QN900A

It's not just the 8k display. This TV has a superb up-scaling chip (compared to my previous 4K Samsung 75Q95T). Way better! Even 480/720p content looks remarkably sharp.