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

    Quote from solamnic

    Are you using MrMc in your apple tv?

    nope. I got the ATV through the DirectTV deal, and solely to play the occasional 4K HDR Atmos movie from my plex server. I didn’t do my research. We (wife and I) are perfectly happy with the Odriod C2 and LE for everything else. If I could have one box that does it all (see prior requirements), I would go for it.

    Quote from AllanMarcus

    From what I've read, The TX92 and the MINIX U9 are the top contenders.

    Yes because they have Gigabit ethernet which works well for high bitrate 4K HDR REMUX's with HD audio.

    If you want quality buy the MINIX U9, see post #1 for the reasoning.

    Basically it's superior hardware, especially it's thermal cooling and Wireless remote that has no issues switching the Box OFF / ON.

    U9 is a snappy setup once you copy LE's data partition to faster internal eMMC storage.

    Be aware you may encounter slight 4K HDR flickering with the current S912 LE 8.2.x from kszaq

    The same as Vero 4K LG OLED users saw it this thread:

    HDR Slight flickering (Workaround available) - Vero 4K - OSMC Forums

    I know what the dithering fix is for it is, because it's in the newer AMLogic Linux Kernel.

    Hey wrxtasy ! Any recent guide to move LE's data partition to internal eMMC storage? I'm running everything from SDCARD right now, but I'd love for my U9 to be even snappier.

    Would I have to reinstall anything?

    Cheers!

    Edit: Would this guide still apply?

    [HOWTO] Boot from SD card, use internal memory for data

    Edited once, last by e2zippo (March 12, 2018 at 9:53 AM).

    Oh joy. Thanks for the info. Seems like I should wait until the next version of the AMLogic Linux Kernel or wait for Apple to add Atmos to the ATV4K.

    Any ETA for the new kernel and LE?

    Quote from AllanMarcus

    Oh joy. Thanks for the info. Seems like I should wait until the next version of the AMLogic Linux Kernel or wait for Apple to add Atmos to the ATV4K.

    Any ETA for the new kernel and LE?

    No ETA for now, the critical part of SOC for new kernel remain untouched like Video Decoders and DVB TS Input , you can check the mainlining progress for Amlogic Meson SoCs hear Meson SoCs. I hope things get done before S9XX become obsolete, because new amlogic socs on the horizon.


    one more thing

    Various forks of Kodi are available for different platforms, For apple's tvOS you can use this fork of kodi MrMC, also there is an effort to brings Kodi v18 Leia to apple's tvOS and sooner or later this will happen. My advice is, stick to your odroid C2 and ATV until new kernel available for s9XX or something come up with HDMI 2.1.

    Quote from Aroosha

    My advice is, stick to your odroid C2 and ATV until new kernel available for s9XX or something come up with HDMI 2.1.

    I was under the impression the C2 cannot do HDR. That it was a hardware thing. Wrong impression?

    Regarding the ATV, I'm aware of MrMC, but the issue is that the ATV doesn't pass through Atmos. I think that issue is at the firmware or OS level.

    I'm using a 8.2.3.1 LibreELEC build for S905 on my cheap s905x TV box (MXQ Pro+ 2/16GB). Everything (video/sound playback of various formats) seems to be flawless so far, but the "Render methods" options in the video settings is greyed out and set to "Auto detect". Is this a normal behavior among the custom LibreELEC builds for S9XXs boxes or not? I am asking because I've noticed the HEVC hw decoding on my box seems to smooth the tiny details out as if some denoise/sharpening filters were applied (as opposed to the sw decoding on my PC). It's rather non-invasive, but still. Is this of a common occurence or not?

    Thanks for your answers.

    I was all ready to pull the trigger on a s912 based device but saw wrxtasy comment down the bottom. I don't intend to use the device for netflix but have plenty of h264 720 and 1080p content. Based upon the sticky I thought this would play OK.

    From below this appears to not be the case?

    Thanks!

    Sorry if this has been asked before I did search but could t find exactly what I was looking for... I would like a box that can;

    -output real 4k 10bit with auto resolution switching without any commands etc

    -pass through 5.1

    -working cec

    The main thing I want is to be able to play 2160p 10bit uhd remux with the best picture possible outputted

    Can anybody recommend a good box that can do all these things please?

    Quote from BeneDicT

    I was all ready to pull the trigger on a s912 based device but saw wrxtasy comment down the bottom. I don't intend to use the device for netflix but have plenty of h264 720 and 1080p content. Based upon the sticky I thought this would play OK.

    From below this appears to not be the case?

    Thanks!

    you are wrong, wrxtasy comment is about Netflix adaptive streaming, if I'm not mistaken (correct me if i'm wrong) there is no hardware acceleration for netflix adaptive streaming available in LE/kodi/addons for now, your h264/265 720/1080/4k content play fine without any problem in s912 based device.

    Edited once, last by Aroosha (March 15, 2018 at 9:08 AM).

    Quote from Aroosha

    S912 devices (TX92,MINIX U9 ) doesn't have proper GPU driver (for now) in linux and it may plays videos choppy with subtitles, Vero 4K has its own OS called OSMC not the LE.

    Quote from Aroosha

    there is no hardware acceleration for netflix adaptive streaming available in LE/kodi/addons for now, your h264/265 720/1080/4k content play fine without any problem in s912 based device.

    I do question myself the same as in the few prev. questions but those quotes are not clear. So is the problem on s912 just with (netflix) streaming?

    Other questions: Are TX92/ U9 the only options, wouldn't any s912 (with GbE) do (except some quality aspects)?

    And if someone is able to answer: let's say I would want to run Armbian, Android and Kodi, what's the best solution? Simply multiboot? Vm or docker like anbox? Would LE still be the better solution or use Kodi with intended Linux (are there maybe better drivers available)?

    Quote from wrxtasy

    Be aware you may encounter slight 4K HDR flickering with the current S912 LE 8.2.x from kszaq

    What about the LE 9 Alpha branch?

    LE on the S912 uses what I will call hybrid Android/Linux GPU drivers. This is what draws the Kodi graphic user interface and all those overlays you see on top of video during playback.

    There are NO optimised Linux GPU video drivers for the S912 available at all, no matter what the Linux OS used.

    It's my understanding kszaq has "robbed" CPU processing cycles to get this hybrid GPU driver to draw the Kodi graphic user interface smoothly without user interface picture tearing that was seen in early versions of LE on S912's.

    LE Kodi Leia when streaming ANY copy protected video content like Netflix has to CPU Software decode those h.264 video streams. Max. 720p at the moment because ffmpeg CPU Software decoding and playback is not yet optimised on any AMLogic LibreELEC platforms.

    LE on the S912's simply cannot playback CPU Software decoded 720p h.264 smoothly due to the hybrid GPU drivers used.

    All Hardware decoded video playback is unaffected by LE on the S912 when using Hybrid GPU video drivers. A co-processor called the VPU handles hardware video decoding.

    CPU Software decoded video playback is affected. There really is not much of that on S9xx platforms unless you are using the as previously mentioned Kodi Leia Netflix addon.

    The only Gigabit Ethernet DIY S912 option I know of that can dual boot to run LibreELEC and an unofficial Android TV ROM that will give you 1080p Netflix is the MINIX U9. DD+ 5.1 Audio from Netflix on the U9 is a mess.

    For 1080p copy protected video playback, like Netflix when using Android you need a box with Widevine L1 DRM and HDCP 1.x

    In the end it's a lot easier just buying something like a Plug N Play - Apple TV 4K that has really nice tvOS Firmware Apps support features for auto frame rate and auto dynamic range matching for smooth video playback with the correct SDR and 4K HDR colorspace outputs. Such Firmware Apps support is better than anything Android is offering. Impressive powerful hardware too.

    Then use a complimentary - AMLogic S9xx box for LibreELEC Kodi Krypton with all the trimmings.

    Ah, may I should have mentioned, that I wouldn't make use of Netflix (and Android for that). Or other streaming, generally not a fan of, more the guy having those in the hands and trying to keep things simple/long supported. Legal Blu Ray playback is unaffected by this, right? I also won't make use of HDR for now (but it may should be able to at least SDR fallback play it, though my tv is 10bit, but no official HDR Support, still it looks better than SDR so ... at least no DV required yet). 3D would be nice though, but AFAIK that's not working yet. Considering all that s912 sounds the way to go!? If so, may there is just the open question on dual boot. Are there any devices known to not allow it at all (I wouldn't mind if it's easy or not)?

    Edited 2 times, last by rastobil (March 15, 2018 at 12:29 PM).

    Anybody here have a nvidia shield tv? Or can tell me if it can do the following;

    Output 4k 10bit hdr from locally stored hevc and m2ts files

    Play 4k 10bit hevc and m2ts

    Pass through Dolby 5.1 and transcode dts hd, true hd and atmos to 5.1

    Auto switch frame rate,resolution and colourspace when switching from playing 4k hdr files to 1080p and vice versa

    HDMI cec on panasonic tv

    I would be using kodi and all my files are stored on a 4tb usb 3.0 hardrive.. mostly h.264 h.265 hevc m2ts

    Would be greatly appreciated if anybody could help, thanks!