Posts by essetikappa

Right, I'll ask in the Kodi forum.
Thanks for everything

Quote from Da Flex

You could use a tracking blocker like Pi-hole at your LAN.

Yes, already done, but seeing 70/80% of my network traffic blocked bothers me, so I was hoping I could fix the problem at the root.

Quote from chewitt

No, the underlying hardware is Amlogic but (as with all AndroidTV devices) the device requires encrypted boot firmware and the boot flow cannot be reconfigured to run Linux.

That's a pity. Does Kodi have hardware acceleration to play 2K/4K if I install it on Fire TV? Do you know if I need to get the Fire TV 4K version (not the HD one) for this?

thank you very much, you are very kind

Quote from Da Flex

essetikappa You can run Kodi on an Amazon Fire TV stick.

Hi Da Flex,

thank you for your answer. You right.

FireTV seems to have the right hardware, and the OS seems to be much better maintained than that of generic Asian TV box manufacturers. However, it's proprietary software, which I'm somewhat allergic to, with the same privacy/tracking/security issues as Android.

Is it possible to install LibreElec on the FireTV (2k/4k accellerated)?

Hi, and thanks for the suggestion.
Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, even the Pi4 is still too expensive. Spending over €100 (RPI kit + remote) for a device to connect to the TV to watch videos is a bit excessive. I would have liked to be able to use those devices, which are perfectly capable of the job, easily found online for €30-40 (remote included), but unfortunately they have terrible software, abandoned by the manufacturer as soon as the device is on the market. In my next life, I'll try to be a kernel developer.

Thanks for everything.

Hmm, this gets complicated. So either rpi5 (or earlier ones? I have an rpi3b+) or hoping for some astral conjunction to be able to buy a not-too-new TV box with the right SoC, like one of the SoCs for which there's a specific image I find in the download section (does hardware acceleration work for those?). Could Coreelec (sorry for asking here) be a solution? With the current Coreelec I have unstable hardware acceleration for 2k on my Amlogic SoC, but many other problems for which LE is preferable. Also, it has a 4.9 kernel which doesn't bode well for the future.

In the end, if I may take advantage of your kindness and expertise, is the Raspberry the only complete solution (updated operating system and hardware acceleration) to not use Android (no TV box is developed and supported by manufacturers that much, certainly none switches from one version of Android to another. Furthermore, the amount of trackers that my Pihole blocks when the box is on is unacceptable)?

Okay, I get it. Unfortunately, the RPI5 is out of my budget compared to a dedicated TV box, which also includes a remote control for less than half the price. I'll keep an eye on the progress of Rockchip and the TV boxes based on that chip. Thank you so much for your kind reply and valuable information.

Thank you so much for your kind and thorough response.
The situation is clear: I'll keep the Paleolithic Android system for a while longer, at least while it lasts.
I'll study what dtech has done and try to play around with it.
Thanks for the links.
One last question: which SoC is currently the most supported for 4K/2K (in case I feel like getting a new box)? Rockchip?

Thanks so much for everything.

Hi everyone,
Sorry to bother you. Before writing, I've read as much as I can, but I haven't been able to resolve this.

I'm having a little problem with my SoC905x (Beelink MXIII-II 2GB): the hardware acceleration isn't working. In the options, I find an option for PRIME hardware acceleration. If I turn it on, I can watch UHD content, but as soon as something happens to the video (fast forward, rewind, out of buffer), the image is destroyed by green artifacts, and I can only stop and restart the video. If I turn it off, everything works fine, but only in SD (720p max). FHD at 1080p drops several frames and is annoying. UHD at 2160p doesn't cope (one frame every now and then). When playing FHD, the CPU is at 100%.

The device is 2K capable. If I use its ancient Android 6.0, it runs 2K without any problems, so it's definitely a software issue (I also tried CoreElec, where the acceleration works, but I have other problems). LibreElec is the best, but I need hardware acceleration for 2K videos.

Do you think I have any chance?

Thank you very much.
Best regards