Time for an upgrade - advice please

  • Hello,

    I have an old S805 droidplayer that I have been using for years. Since last year, I have used it with Libreelec. It is still fully functional, used every day, but it seems that I should finally buy a new one.

    After browsing the forum a little bit, it seems that the majority of boxes now are s905? Right?

    I am looking for a cheap option that I can order on Amazon. Something under 100CAD, that can easily support Libreelec. Any suggestions please??

    Thanks

  • There is rumor that i can't confirm that Amlogic commit war crime! They reduce quality of 10bit content in both HDR and SDR by doing process called "8-bit internal conversion" it means your pricey 10 bit tv receive 8 bit color instead of 10 and thats dealbreaker. it produce fake 10 bit color and fake HDR.

    the most powerful soc on tv boxes beside apple and nvidia is Rockchip RK3399 which does not support by libreelec the second one is S912 which doesn't have proper linux driver and works with hacks in libreelec and sooner or later will drop support. you have 3 other option left, buy S905X/D tv boxes or Apple TV 4K. if live tv (DVB-S2/T2) is important for you buy the best S905D box you find (MECOOL KI PRO T2+S2) and if not S905X is wise choice. The best of all in my opinion is Apple TV 4K if popular streaming services like netflix, Amazon and youtube is what you are looking for. for your local media you should have NAS and stored all your media in it because Apple TV 4K doesn't have usb port. and you should buy a kodi fork called MRMC which is castrated kodi jarvis, you can do anythings with it besaid installing addons. Apple TV 4K video decoder, decode any thing you throw at it including (4k ,10 bit hdr, sdr, Vp9, hevc........ ) even 10bit h264 anim.

    Edited once, last by Aroosha (January 23, 2018 at 11:50 PM).

  • It is up to you what to choose but i can be more specific.

    1a) buy MECOOL KI PRO

    pros: it has S905D soc,DDR4 ram, hw vp9,hevc decoding and support for HDR, libreelec, plus Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi

    cons: Pricey, I'm not sure it may not have sufficient DRM licenses to play netflix in 4k and FHD only HD(720p)

    1b) buy Beelink MiniMXIII II

    pro: it has S905X soc, hw vp9,hevc decoding and support for HDR, libreelec, plus dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi

    cons: no Gigabit Ethernet and it may not have sufficient DRM licenses to play netflix in 4k and FHD

    2) buy Apple TV 4K

    this is the best and most powerful and highest quality tv box available in the market, unfortunately it runs apple tv os not libreelec but you can download Kodi(mrmc) from store.

    pros: the best media player available in market it even support dolby vision HDR format and you can watch all popular streaming services like netflix, Amazon and youtube up to 4k

    cons: pricey, no usb port, so you should have NAS for you local media and you can't install addons in kodi only you can use pre installed addons

    I hope this will help you to choose your tv box wisly.

    Edited once, last by Aroosha (January 24, 2018 at 11:36 PM).