Choosing a S905 / S905X / S905D / S905W / S912 box guide

    Quote from doggyofone

    Jeffers, I am going to either wait, as there is a a lot of stuff coming - ie: Rockchip Libreelec build(s), new Amlogic processors, or consider an S905D processor/box. S905D are a bit hard to find and more expensive than S912. I have had lots of advice to skip the S912.

    I have a 3x S812 boxes that are running great on Demetris's 8.2.2 build and he is shortly going to release Leia builds when it goes Beta. That will keep them alive until Kodi 19 I guess. I also have 1 S905X box (Mecool M8S Pro+) which runs really well and 2x S905 boxes I will likely get rid of.

    So I don't need anything now but like to play with new tech.

    Do you ever have any issues with your Mecool M8S Pro+ running hot?

    Quote from Iridium

    My Mecool M8S Pro+ runs at about 45 - 50o in a heated house. If you're above 60o then something is not right.

    Interesting, what is the 'highest' room temperature when using?

    My unit is in Spain, will be a about 10 weeks before I can test it again.

    I also saw lots of youtube postings about Mecool temperature problems, running hot and crashing.

    Quote from Iridium

    Room temperature is about 20o but it's also in a cabinet so a bit higher. When you get the unit, check the temp via SSH with "cputemp" and also "top" to see what it is the main process that might be causing the issue - if there is one.

    What happens is the Mecool just freezes and have to pull the power cable and plug it back in.

    Thanks for suggestions, how do I use SSH "cputemp" and "top"?

    I could try it on a box I have in the UK.

    Quote from Jeffers

    I will need to test when I get back to Spain.

    I also have a Mecool M8S Pro L android, that runs at 70 degrees when watching a stream via Kodi

    I'm streaming a TV show @720p and temp = 55°C

    The Mecool M8S Pro L has an S912 cpu and they run very hot. My M8S Pro + is an S905X, so should run cooler.

    Quote from doggyofone

    Jeffers, I am going to either wait, as there is a a lot of stuff coming - ie: Rockchip Libreelec build(s), new Amlogic processors, or consider an S905D processor/box. S905D are a bit hard to find and more expensive than S912. The curious thing is that the Mecool and Magicsee units show lan as 10/100, so no 1000.

    In the end, I have had lots of advice to skip the S912.

    I have a 3x S812 boxes that are running great on Demetris's 8.2.2 build and he is shortly going to release Leia builds when it goes Beta. That will keep them alive until Kodi 19 I guess. I also have 1 S905X box (Mecool M8S Pro+) which runs really well and 2x S905W boxes I will likely get rid of.

    So I don't need anything now but like to play with new tech.

    My reading of the data indicates that the KI Pro has S905D and Gigabit, its the KII Pro which only has the S905 and 10/100M.

    Shoog

    Quote from Shoog

    My reading of the data indicates that the KI Pro has S905D and Gigabit, its the KII Pro which only has the S905 and 10/100M.

    Shoog

    Thanks Shoog, you are right, I find Mecool's model numbers confusing and I missed the K1 Pro completely.

    Looks like LibreELEC has now released an official alpha build for Le Potato (S905X-CC). I see this board has a 3.5mm TRRS AV jack. Can I connect a standard 3.5mm set of headphones into the Le Potato and get good, clean audio? The last board I did this with was the RPi and the analog audio out was less than desirable.

    Quote from wrxtasy

    Otherwise the cheap S912's will get you as far as Kodi v18 Leia with a decent bit of snappiness at the moment, unless workaround GPU drivers can be found/hacked again to progress further than Leia.

    What is the issue with the S912 GPU drivers which prevent Kodi > v18? I know we are talking about Mali-450 vs. Mali-T820 MP3 here., but what is the technical reason?

    BTW: Does LibreELEC support Dolby Vision on the S912?

    Quote from geraud

    Okay, I understand that T820 needs proprietary drivers/libs. But isn't that the current situation? Why will Kodi v19 not work with the current proprietary solution and the current kernel? What has changed on the Kodi side?

    Because the Kodi/Libreelec teams decided to stop supporting the current solutions.

    All of the current fixes which make it work will be weeded out in the next versions of Kodi as matter of active policy.

    Shoog

    Quote from geraud

    Okay, I understand that T820 needs proprietary drivers/libs. But isn't that the current situation? Why will Kodi v19 not work with the current proprietary solution and the current kernel? What has changed on the Kodi side?

    Wait, what? Does that mean i should sell my S912 Box again when i plan to use a Kodi 19 version? What Alternative do i have? S905X?