Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

  • YouTube, Netflix & Co started to stream AV1 encoded content and so on

    Yes they started to stream in AV1, but until they stop streaming in H264, VP9, etc. and ONLY stream in AV1 the lack of support for AV1 in boxes isn't really an issue. Hardware will catch-up eventually, but there's no rush.

  • Some kind of NUC like device is good. RPi4 is good. TV boxes are 50/50. The X96-Air will be supported by CE, but LE images are still rather WIP on newer Amlogic hardware (better on older). There is zero upstream support for S905X4 currently.

  • What about s905x3 - I think even one of them would be enough for me(i had old s812 box) - I would like to run LE/CE?anyELEC from nand I know that the problem with never devices is locked bootloader because of NF support(DRM sh*t).

  • An popular example is the Tanix TX6 (Allwinner H6) has proper support and works well. WLAN/BT are likely not the best (or not supported at all) at any of these "TV Boxes".

  • LE images for Amlogic are using the upstream kernel. H264 is fine. HEVC works great in older SoC generations like S905X, but needs work with the newer devices like S922X. However, if you only need 1080p, you can always disable hardware decoding completely and use software which is no problem for the CPU on N2+ .. and while it will run warmer the N2/N2+ boards are basically a huge heatsink with a small board attached so it's no drama. The VDEC stuff is being poked, slowly. You also have the option to run CE with Amlogic legacy kernels.

  • A quite depressing situation... I wonder if most people are buying these devices because of Android or because of CE/LE/... If the latter is the case, teams should just drop support for devices which belong to vendors not providing help/information etc., even if it means to drop support for all/most. If people would stop buying their devices because of this, maybe then they would decide to be more cooperative. I know, a lot of "ifs" there, but still...

    What about devices like Vero 4k+? They provide both: the device and the software. Not CE/LE, but similar, I think. Do they face the same problems as well, or do they have an NDA with Amlogic and have all the sources, (GPU-)drivers etc. they need?

  • A quite depressing situation... I wonder if most people are buying these devices because of Android or because of CE/LE/... If the latter is the case, teams should just drop support for devices which belong to vendors not providing help/information etc., even if it means to drop support for all/most. If people would stop buying their devices because of this, maybe then they would decide to be more cooperative. I know, a lot of "ifs" there, but still...

    What about devices like Vero 4k+? They provide both: the device and the software. Not CE/LE, but similar, I think. Do they face the same problems as well, or do they have an NDA with Amlogic and have all the sources, (GPU-)drivers etc. they need?

    I think the story is: either netflix or unlocked bootloader(CE/LE).

  • I think the story is: either netflix or unlocked bootloader(CE/LE).

    Not sure what Netflix has to do with my post. If it's meant as the reason for people to buy these Android devices, I'm not too sure it makes sense, because most of these devices aren't properly certiefied and often get blocked or work semi well or not at all for DRM stuff. But who knows, maybe that's the reason for most...

    Personally I couldn't care less about Netflix. Smart TVs make it possible to watch Netflix, cheap, but solid Amazon FireTV Sticks make it possible etc. If it works with LE - great, but it wasn't the point of my post.

    The point was the quoted summary of the issues and consequences from the point of view of media players and projects like CE/LE/OSMC/... this thread is about.

    I just thought that projects like LE/CE/... do help those companies to sell their devices and indirectly encourage them to continue with the stance they have regarding cooperation.

    And I wondered, how Vero 4k+ fits in into this mess, because the situation is a bit different here, because the hardware and the software comes from the same company.

  • Not sure what Netflix has to do with my post. If it's meant as the reason for people to buy these Android devices, I'm not too sure it makes sense, because most of these devices aren't properly certiefied and often get blocked or work semi well or not at all for DRM stuff. But who knows, maybe that's the reason for most...

    Personally I couldn't care less about Netflix. Smart TVs make it possible to watch Netflix, cheap, but solid Amazon FireTV Sticks make it possible etc. If it works with LE - great, but it wasn't the point of my post.

    I don't care about NF as well but my point was - if it fully support NF there won't be anyELEC for it - most cases.

    I also would like to have a box that boots straight into ELEC with good specs.