Looking for Box with 4k HDR Capabilities

1st Official Post

    Hello,

    currently I'm using an Odroid C2 with LibreELEC running on it. The Box is really good.

    However more and more 4k HDR movies are coming now.

    These play super smooth, but look very pale and washed out on the "old" S905.

    Apparently it does not convert the color space.

    I've read many threads now and honestly i'm more confused than before.

    The S912 is able to do a conversion back into BT.709 color space as it seems.

    The Rockchip RK3399 could do that too, i guess from their specs.

    Maybe there are more capable SoC.

    My greatest problem is finding out which Boxes are best supported by LibreELEC.

    Here are my requirements:

    - play 4k HDR material on FullHD SDR AVR/Beamer with correct colors. (The AVR and Beamer will be replaced with 4k some time in the future)

    - play FullHD with correct colors without fiddling anything on the console. need seamless switching between 2k SDR and 4k HDR sources.

    - GBit LAN (WLAN cannot deliver 4k in these bit rates)

    - proper LibreELEC support (currently I use raybuntu's images on the C2. looking for something equally simple)

    - RF Remote highly appeciated, though can be added via USB

    - fanless design

    Could you please suggest some boxes that meet these criteria?

    Would be good if it is in the C2 price range, but can be more expensive too.

    Design is also not important. I can even live without a case.

    Most important is that it meets the expectations.

    Thank you.

    • Official Post

    Different Amlogic devices do different things based on hardware, the whims of source media, and the collection of patches and hacks applied by different community build creators. However, until Kodi actually has designed-in support for HDR there is basically no point in trying to answer the question.

    What about an intel NUC?

    i'm looking at the Celeron C4005 or J3455 version

    as i read it, it should do 4k HDR 10bit but correct me if i am wrong.

    i am looking to replace my current e350 amd board with a 4k device since i purchased a LG OLED end of last year

    I’ve just got the OSMC Vero 4k box. I’m impressed so far - it can stream UHD BR rips and automatically adjusts the resolution and passes the HDR metadata to the display.

    No, the OSMC Linux version of Kodi. I feel it will be quite a while before LE supports HDR properly. Google Vero 4k to learn more about it. There’s also a review on AVForums. Lack of a Gibabyte Lan is its main shortcoming so it will struggle with 4k 60fps content. However, most 4k BRs don’t run to that spec yet and you couls always add a Gigabyte adapter

    Edited once, last by MadScientist (March 13, 2018 at 9:12 PM).

    oh i see.

    is it based on KODI aswell with skins as you want ?

    still looking around for a new box and want it to be decent :)

    too bad osmc can't run on a NUC then, otherwise it would be easy

    HansP:

    is the following criteria met by OSMC on RPi3:

    - play 4k HDR material on FullHD SDR AVR/Beamer with correct colors. (The AVR and Beamer will be replaced with 4k some time in the future)

    Are the colors of a 4K-HEVC-HDR-movie displayed correctly on a SDR-only TV?

    Almost forgot about this thread.

    For the time being i switched to a Minix Neo U9-H and i use kszaq [8.2.2.3] LibreELEC 8.2 for S912 on it.

    This meets all my specs so far.

    4k HDR BT.2020 looks proper on 2k beamer and 4k up to 100mbit (don't have higher bitrate sources) plays smooth.

    Though cannot say if it plays properly on a 4k HDR beamer.

    Interface is also much smoother than on the C2 and it does not get nearly as hot. The C2 gets extremly hot sometimes.

    It may not be the cheapest box, but it surely is worth the money.

    Especially with the remote on/off.

    I'm in the same dilemma as you! Were you able to run libreelec on this tv box and did kodi read the HDR?

    Quote from rafaelreale

    I'm in the same dilemma as you! Were you able to run libreelec on this tv box and did kodi read the HDR?

    I'm not sure if I understand your question.

    What do you mean with read?

    The HDR files play on any version of Kodi.

    On the Minix Neo U9-H with kszaq [8.2.2.3] LibreELEC 8.2 for S912 they play also in correct color spaces.

    Quote from piece

    I'm not sure if I understand your question.

    What do you mean with read?

    The HDR files play on any version of Kodi.

    On the Minix Neo U9-H with kszaq [8.2.2.3] LibreELEC 8.2 for S912 they play also in correct color spaces.

    My doubt was the same as yours!

    Find a tv box that plays 4k hdr movies. Because I also have a C2 Odroid and it is not recognized by the HDR.