[izprtxqkft]

update

despite audio issues with truehd i am loving this box overall, i went back to my firetv cube gen3 after using this for a day and it was cludgy, missing features ive come to like with android 11 instead of fireos

2160p AV1 60fps HDR on youtube looks gorgeous with the box output set to 12 bit, playback is perfect with no frame drops

[noggin]

So in that approach CoreElec / Kodi runs off the SD card, correct ?

correct
 

So I would expect the Kodi database activities to be a bit slow ?

very likely since it is on the sdcard

in the brief time ive spent running coreelec from an sdcard i didn't notice so much for database but for thumbnails definitely, recommend redirecting them to (at minimum) a thumb drive or to a network location with path substitution for any long term use

I have the Homatics R4K Plus box which is very similar but doesn't have a uSD/TF card slot, so I'm booting from USB storage. I suspect you could use a USB 3.0 SSD or a SATA SSD with a USB 3.0 to SATA interface as a boot option for CoreElec (as quite a lot of Raspberry Pi owners do now that the recent Pi models will boot from USB)

Also for the original question - you HAVE to leave Android TV installed on the internal (eMMC?) storage as CoreElec has to use files in the Android partition to handle DolbyVision I believe.

[izprtxqkft]

I suspect you could use a USB 3.0 SSD or a SATA SSD with a USB 3.0 to SATA interface as a boot option for CoreElec

that would be preferable if possible, i will certainly have to try it out and see - ill post an update one way or the other

[jbinkley60]

update

despite audio issues with truehd i am loving this box overall, i went back to my firetv cube gen3 after using this for a day and it was cludgy, missing features ive come to like with android 11 instead of fireos

2160p AV1 60fps HDR on youtube looks gorgeous with the box output set to 12 bit, playback is perfect with no frame drops

So I've done some interesting testing recently with a new Roku Ultra box.  It has an ARM Cortex A53 processor.  The interesting part is that the reason I was asking about this box was for a new satellite TV in another bedroom.  Typically I've used a 2 box solutions, a Roku for Internet streaming, and some type of hardware running Kodi for local streaming from Mezzmo.  Roku has always had a problem with the transcoding audio like Dolby Atmos, DTS, True-HD etc.. to a TV which only supports AC3, AACS etc (i.e. older TV) which is why I was looking at Kodi hardware options beyond my current fleet of Vero 4K+, Raspberry Pi and Intel NUCs devices.

So I bought the new Roku box and an Insignia F20 TV (low end but this is just for a grandchild).  Much to my surprise the F20 supports all audio codecs so I am able to play 4K UHD media via the Roku over Wi-Fi from the Mezzmo server using the Mezzmo Roku app.  The Roku box will downscale to 1080P and pass through the audio which the F20 is able to play.   Mezzmo allows me to access the same library as the Kodi clients, share bookmarks, playcounters etc..  This gives me another option for satellite TVs leveraging a single box where I can have a single copy of the media on the server vs. having to pretranscode for locations where I don't have a Kodi client and have a separate copy for those systems. 

Kodi will continue to be my main client but it is nice to have another viable option.  At some point I may try loading Kodi on the F20 Fire TV, if that is an option.


Thanks,

Jeff

[izprtxqkft]

So I've done some interesting testing recently with a new Roku Ultra box. 

right on, glad it works for you

ive done a couple more tests on this one since @noggin mentioned usb booting and @hdmkv mentioned DTS was likely working in Corelec

so, under CoreELEC -

confirmed usb flash drive will boot on the usb 3.0 port (used a 32GB Samsung FIT, same thing I use for a lot of stuff because it's super cheap and quick)
confirmed DTS:X passthrough working
confirmed TrueHD Atmos passthrough working
confirmed EAC3 Atmos passthrough working

the rest of the audio "played" but in my opinion AC3 and the like have no benefit to passthrough and should work on everything by now so it would be more noteworthy if they didn't work at all

[noggin]

the rest of the audio "played" but in my opinion AC3 and the like have no benefit to passthrough and should work on everything by now so it would be more noteworthy if they didn't work at all

There is a significant benefit to passthrough vs multichannel decode with AC3 and DTS in some situations. If you have passthrough then you also have all the metadata for things like Dialogue Normalisation, Compression, Lo/Ro vs Lt/Rt mix down etc. for your AVR to use - which may well improve some things in the AVRs processing. (That metadata is there for a reason). With PCM multichannel output you aren't providing your AVR with any metadata.

[izprtxqkft]

i suppose i mean at a device feature level this should be supported by every device by now, if a device is so generic it would not support DTS or AC3 it is not worth buying

[ashlar]

so, under CoreELEC -

confirmed usb flash drive will boot on the usb 3.0 port (used a 32GB Samsung FIT, same thing I use for a lot of stuff because it's super cheap and quick)
confirmed DTS:X passthrough working
confirmed TrueHD Atmos passthrough working
confirmed EAC3 Atmos passthrough working

Considering it even supports Dolby Vision, this is close to the holy grail of devices, isn't it?

I have doubts about its performance. How is Kodi's GUI? Smooth/Fast? Sluggish/Slow? Can it handle resource heavy skins?

[izprtxqkft]

so, under CoreELEC -

confirmed usb flash drive will boot on the usb 3.0 port (used a 32GB Samsung FIT, same thing I use for a lot of stuff because it's super cheap and quick)
confirmed DTS:X passthrough working
confirmed TrueHD Atmos passthrough working
confirmed EAC3 Atmos passthrough working

Considering it even supports Dolby Vision, this is close to the holy grail of devices, isn't it?

I have doubts about its performance. How is Kodi's GUI? Smooth/Fast? Sluggish/Slow? Can it handle resource heavy skins?

under coreelec perhaps grail territory, under android its got issues i just work around and/or ignore (pretty standard android experience)

i use a slimmed down modified estuary (my own mods) with minimal addons so i cant speak to "heavy skins" - scrolling Wall view with 850+ movies and artwork set to 720p feels smooth but i would say no more so than anything else ive tried


-----

with everything modified i did time kodi start time in its log, it comes up ready to use in ~5 seconds

[izprtxqkft]

after nearly 2 weeks of testing this box has now been relegated to the parts shelf in the server room

i did everything i could to make it work as best as it could but for my use it is simply not as good as the less popular FireTV Cube Gen3 that i had been using

On Android, in Kodi 21.0-ALPHA2 (20.90.201) Git:20230721-f087be63b4 -
TrueHD passthrough only available via Raw IEC and due to firmware issues it constantly got stuck and stuttered - this works out of the box on FireTV
DTS:X passthrough not available - this works out of the box on FireTV

On Android, outside of Kodi
No Dolby Vision profile 07.06 available in exoplayer, most of my movies are this profile because they are 4K REMUX from my discs - this works out of the box on FireTV
again, DTS:X passthrough not available - this works out of the box on FireTV

With those 2 issues I cannot simply switch to a different player because this affects most my DV collection, they are usually DV+Atmos so neither way will play those.


These are specific issues to running android, they do work under CoreElec but that is not my choice of operating system.


this box had nice specs, it is still quite snappy but in the end it doesn't work for what i need

[jbinkley60]

after nearly 2 weeks of testing this box has now been relegated to the parts shelf in the server room

i did everything i could to make it work as best as it could but for my use it is simply not as good as the less popular FireTV Cube Gen3 that i had been using

On Android, in Kodi 21.0-ALPHA2 (20.90.201) Git:20230721-f087be63b4 -
TrueHD passthrough only available via Raw IEC and due to firmware issues it constantly got stuck and stuttered - this works out of the box on FireTV
DTS:X passthrough not available - this works out of the box on FireTV

Are you loading Kodi directly on a FireTV ?  If so, how ?  I just got a FireTV and haven't played around with the Appstore and such.
 

Jeff

[izprtxqkft]

after nearly 2 weeks of testing this box has now been relegated to the parts shelf in the server room

i did everything i could to make it work as best as it could but for my use it is simply not as good as the less popular FireTV Cube Gen3 that i had been using

On Android, in Kodi 21.0-ALPHA2 (20.90.201) Git:20230721-f087be63b4 -
TrueHD passthrough only available via Raw IEC and due to firmware issues it constantly got stuck and stuttered - this works out of the box on FireTV
DTS:X passthrough not available - this works out of the box on FireTV

Are you loading Kodi directly on a FireTV ?  If so, how ?  I just got a FireTV and haven't played around with the Appstore and such.
 

Jeff

i do it via adb

https://youtu.be/r_nZnxQm5Xg?t=24

adb connect x.x.x.x:5555
adb install kodi-*.apk



quick tutorial for many platforms on how to install adb for your pc - https://www.xda-developers.com/install-a...cos-linux/

[davelee77]

Curious to run a couple things past you on the G2. I just received mine this last week. I have been trying to get Kodi set up on here and I gotta say, unless I'm missing something(which is completely possible), I feel like every time I go to do something, I normally would have done on my firestick, I get roadblocked and I'm starting to get stumped. For example, it would seem about nearly everything for accessing the data and obb files on the internal memory is locked down. Not sure if there is a way to get passed that. I'm trying to write advancedsettings.xml and it doesn't want to let me write it, and then when I tried to create in Windows on Notepad and move it to try and add into Kodi File Manager through Kodi, it doesn't let me. I'm starting to like my firestick more if it weren't for the stupid storage issue. I got the G2 so I could attach my external hard drive with USB 3.0 and I'm having a heck of a time here. What are your thoughts on all this and any suggestions that could help me get past some of this? I would be very grateful.

Also seeing, when I try to scroll through Movies and TV Shows, the artwork struggles to keep up or even load in some instances. I find it quite odd as I would expect better performance with increased storage and ROM. No?

[emveepee]

I'm trying to write advancedsettings.xml and it doesn't want to let me write it, and then when I tried to create in Windows on Notepad and move it to try and add into Kodi File Manager through Kodi, it doesn't let me.

I just tried it here from a share and it work, so I suspect the issue is with your source not the RockTek.

[izprtxqkft]

Curious to run a couple things past you on the G2. I just received mine this last week. I have been trying to get Kodi set up on here and I gotta say, unless I'm missing something(which is completely possible), I feel like every time I go to do something, I normally would have done on my firestick, I get roadblocked and I'm starting to get stumped. For example, it would seem about nearly everything for accessing the data and obb files on the internal memory is locked down. Not sure if there is a way to get passed that. I'm trying to write advancedsettings.xml and it doesn't want to let me write it, and then when I tried to create in Windows on Notepad and move it to try and add into Kodi File Manager through Kodi, it doesn't let me. I'm starting to like my firestick more if it weren't for the stupid storage issue. I got the G2 so I could attach my external hard drive with USB 3.0 and I'm having a heck of a time here. What are your thoughts on all this and any suggestions that could help me get past some of this? I would be very grateful.

Also seeing, when I try to scroll through Movies and TV Shows, the artwork struggles to keep up or even load in some instances. I find it quite odd as I would expect better performance with increased storage and ROM. No?

change kodi's permissions in android to allow "access to all files", only media files is set by default
enable developer tools/adb, this is the only real way to manage an android device
loading will depend on skin and if it is caching thumbnails, i do not use heavy skins or addons and instead run an even slimmer customized version of Estuary