manucitc
Guide
There are hardly 5-6 box out there which support widevine.. It's actually quite sacred to get widevine support then you think
iBox: It came, I saw, it conquered!
- Thread starter frankmehta
- Start date
rdst_1
Innovator
But can't you play that on any Android device. I don't download that big remuxes, but I do download stuff which is around 15-20Mbps bitrate. Maybe I'll try and download a 40GB rip this month and update you whether my Android TV plays it or not. It didn't have any trouble playing these other rips. And as others have already said, the hardware this device has seems to be from around 2016 and available for around 35-40 dollars.
Sorry but you will have a hard time justifying the cost in light of plethora of options available today. You can get more powerful hardware for much much cheap and easily slap on Coreelec or Libreelec. I was using this (costed me approx. 6.5k with case and power adapter and was pretty much plug-n-play) for a while before moving on to a Intel NUC.
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Free is actually a bit of a misnomer here. There are processes to be followed, SOPs to be documented etc.
Ah. This clarifies things up some. I was asked to setup a similar thing inititally with Plex, but now with the advent of fast broadband, that money is going towards better internet and multiple streaming services.
He will have to support it. Its mostly part of an expensive AV solution which involves BD discs hopefully. Else wink wink
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superczar
Juggernaut
I dont understand the negativity on the thread when the maker has already stated the above.
While I (or you) may not be in the target audience for this device , there will be many for whom a well functioning and reliable kodi box is well worth the price..
Ps: FWIW, I don't even use kodi
y2s
Explorer
Good hustle if you're able to find enough clients. Probably need to focus on HNI client base looking to get into home theater setup (Non Techies) and make this part of a larger deal including other equipment. However, I don't know if there are too many people out there that are capable of downloading and maintaining a 4k Media Library but not able to figure out a Kodi/Plex Install.
Curious as to how customers are managing their content - NAS or something else?
Furthermore - Wouldn't a solution like this add a lot of complexity for an end user? They will still need a Smart TV / Other Streaming set up if they want content from OTT.
Curious as to how customers are managing their content - NAS or something else?
Furthermore - Wouldn't a solution like this add a lot of complexity for an end user? They will still need a Smart TV / Other Streaming set up if they want content from OTT.
I know of 1 person who has done something similar. Another person has been quoted and he actually was laughing with me on the cost. At a certain level, people just want things to work. Think of this as outsourcing your media to someone else.
Content - I dont want to get into this because its mostly ahem.
Complexity? Why? They will have their own private theatre in their house and someone else will setup the things for them.
rdst_1
Innovator
He did that quite later. And later he even clarified that this is not for the people who are more 'technically inclined'. You can understand that most people on a tech forum like ours won't belong to that category and hence not willing to pay such a high price for the software part and the handholding. Also, the high praise OP has given to this might not have resonated with others.
Very long ago, I had decided to use Plex or something like it, but I wanted to keep things simple, so I just use a file explorer to view my shared folders and play whatever file I want in the media player of my choice. I was in the market for a box, but surprisingly the hardware on my Philips TV turned out to be quite capable and stock Android TV is like cherry on the top.
ajaykamath
Beginner
You can get infinitely more powerful hardware but the beneifts they would offer in this use case scenario would be almost zero. So even if you got an expensive x86 PC with the fastest CPU and tons of RAM your gains for pure Kodi use over something running coreelec will be minimal and probably only be needed if running very heavy skins, using large memory buffers, running dockers or similar such services etc. For the purpose Coreelec is created, my kind of hardware does pretty much everything. For the Kodi Matrix version of my box I am indeed eyeing something better like the S922, but I still have a while to get things running smoothly.
With regards to the cost, let me reiterate - the price Frank has quoted is actually a CI price which includes installation, configuration and service for a client wanting a fully configured and ready to go setup where he merely has to sit with the remote in his hand. Often a media player system installation involves things like adding all shares, even some media management, server configuration, network mounts, setting a static IP, configuring the remote app, setting the right resolution and audio settings and many other things that may seem trivial to mosty advanced users here. Some want to stream their phone to the media player, others want their media streamed back to their phone. It can be a lengthy affair at the customers end. A fair price for someone who knows their way around a network media player would in fact be 6-7k.
You would perhaps be surprised to know that I have boxes that run into the 4 digits out in the market. So I’m no newcomer to this hustle. A few in the beginning were based on X86 hardware. Due to the "assembled" nature of the units they were riddled with issues and failed quite frequently. I learnt from all of it. Gradually both the software and hardware improved and what you are seeing is its last avatar that is bullet proof.
You dont need a 'HNI' client to buy something that costs 15k. Or a home theatre that costs 5 lacs. Well within the reach of, not the average, but the moderately affluent Indian.
We also set up servers, throw in a ripper for those sitting on a pile of discs. Customers also bring a lot of their content themselves. Many more Indians know how to download content than what you are giving them credit for, but not a single one of them would understand how to even get to the Coreelec boot screen. Also "installing Kodi" the way you put it is a little more complex than what it is being made out to be because of the various platforms, addon dependencies, hardware or version related incompatibility and many other such things. While you and I easily find our way around, this is definitely not a walk in the park for the average, torrent-downloading, PC user.
There is no complexity if someone wants OTT. Although the box can be dual booted to android, the last thing I want is someone calling me for support on the android side of things! So its best they buy what they prefer best for their streaming services and "stick" it into their home theatre for the times they want to watch adaptive content with no HD audio. Its just one more source for someone already juggling a half dozen of them.
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Agreed but I was referring to getting better hardware at a comparatively lesser cost. You can run Kodi in a Rpi zero as well. It would be down to your use case as well on what hardware you would need. Eg. not all h/w can output HDR or 3D.
So essentially most of the cost is for setting it up for the customer and maintaining it ? Something like a Kodi as a service ? Its good that there is a market as I would have thought that folks proficient enough to download content would be equally proficient enough to play/stream it.
superczar
Juggernaut
Leaving the target market aside, I do have a genuine question.
I was a big Kodi proponent till say 4-5 years ago.. having mucked around with flashing coreelec on cheap s905x boxes and the works.
However , majority of my usage is now OTT - but with a few specific asks.. ATMOS support on at least Netflix if not prime, 4K HDR and frame rate matching to 24p (i guess 99% of content is 24p anyway)
To that end, I had no choice but to use Apple TV boxes with Infuse as the media player for those one-off downloaded/ ahem content
I currently have 3 ATVs in active use with an Infuse subscription .. Is there any alternative I should consider?
ajaykamath
Beginner
All of this depends really on the sound system that you are using (I am assuming you are using a decent 4K display). Atmos on OTT is all lossy, cannot be compared with a disc or disc rip. I would be very happy streaming everything if I was using a simple sound system. But with a good sound system you need lossless audio.
Infuse appears to be cool. Seems to bring playback capability for unsupported formats without relying on the server to do any transcoding. Great addon for Apple TVs but I think as a standalone media player I still prefer the customization and addons that Kodi offers.
Some very basic features in favor of Kodi I can think off the top of my head:
VIDEO
1. Fast consolidated library search across all media types
2. Automatically selects the original audio track in multi-audio files
3. Type in the time in the video you want to move playback to
4. Use chapters in blu ray rips
5. Versatile subtitling capability like downloading with preferential downloading of subtitles identified as synced, manual search override, easy offsetting, and cleaning of ads and other garbage. In additon to tons of formatting options.
6. Plays disc image files
7. Indicates what you were last watching, sets resume points, suggest similar shows, filter by genre, year, actor etc
8. Trakt integration!
9. Unpause jumpback addon. Automatically adjusts for the phenomenon of over running the desired point when fast forwarding or rewinding videos.
MUSIC
1. I have used it a lot for music over the years. Kodi has been the free Roon for local files for over a decade now.
2. With the remote app I can play whatever I want without my display running. Not just local files, even from addons.
3. There is a really cool addon called Youtube Music. Nothing to do with the official app, in fact existed way before it came along. It does a daily update of some of the biggest charts from all around the world and across genres, and plays them with their offficial music videos! Without ads!!
4. Rips and catalogues CDs
5. Free airplay receiver and spotify sink
MISC:
1. My automation system can detect the state of Kodi. It knows when its playing, when its paused, when its in standby etc. This permits me to do some really cool automations.
2. Using cron and scripts I can use it for special applications. Eg. I want to the box to automatically do stuff like come on at a certain time and play music from a particular folder without any input from me for BGM purposes.
3. Easy to access the core files using samba
4. Use as a network server to share media with other devices for a variety of purposes
5. Run services. Like transmission lets say for a torrent client, or Emby to act as a music server for my handhelds etc.
6. 2.35:1 interface for use in scope theatre rooms
There's tons more I dont remember and even more stuff I'm probably not even aware of. Really not sure there is a more versatile player software than Kodi.
superczar
Juggernaut
All the setups are reasonably decent in terms of both Audio and Video setup ..
It’s just that the convenience of OTT is unbeatable.
Another issue I have seen (which may not be an issue now) is that a lot of HDR rips used to have issues with color rendering during playback (washed out / wrong colorspace) while the same video would play absolutely fine with proper HDR on NF/ Prime.
I think that + the convenience of the alternatives is what drove me away from Kodi
I haven’t really done an AB comparison between the ATMOS audio from a BR rip on Kodi vs NF or ATV+ playback but will give it a try.
Although from what I can recall, I did not really notice a degradation in audio when I switched although the video improvement was distinctly noticeable.
On a side note, ATV does work great for for Audio playback since it shows up as a straight renderer for Apple Music and / or spotify.
Even the AVRs show up the same way but theinitial connection takes a few seconds extra on the AVR vs instantaneous on ATV - though i am probably just nitpicking
Also, most external streamers are fairly straighforward to integrate with HA now to enable light dimming etc during playback.