If you are buying one a Xiaomi s905x5m devices specifically for CE use, I would be mindful of their Android updates. CE only boots on that device because of a security loophole. If Xiaomi chooses, they can patch that to disable CE booting in future Android updates.
The same can be said of any Android firmware from any vendor. I’d look to the companies past behavior. The Xiaomi device is Google certified and past Mi devices have been relatively locked down, so I wouldn’t be confident that a future Android update won’t disable CE use. My advice would be to keep Android updates disabled on that device, to avoid another Kinhank G1 situation.
A non-google certified device like the Vontar x4 is very unlikely to ever have CE booting blocked. Homatics (and their clones) is really the only company selling google-certified devices that can boot CE without a hack, which is probably against Google’s certification requirements.
Hi! I’m trying to find the right box to play along with my DV TV (TCL C7K) and Atmos Bar (Samsung Q990D). I don’t need full FEL but I would like “good” DV and DTS Atmos. Unfortunately, I have some major brain fog, and the sheer amount of information is exceeding my bandwidth. I see various devices that work, but many seem to be EOL or outdated, and I’d prefer not to spend money on those. Does someone have the patience to list a few devices that are a good choice and offer some future-proofing?
unfortunately not. @YadaYada thanks, thats a very good point - i was not aware of that.
So if i understood you correctly, you would recommend a homatics (or one of the clones). What would you recommend exactly?
There’s no Dolby Vision FEL in CoreELEC’s future: Sad, but unsurprising. However, while CE-NG 4.9 kernel builds are available, they should continue providing FEL support in Ugoos AM6B+ & compatible (J or K-variant) AmLogic S905X4 boxes. We’ll be stuck w/Kodi 21.x, and at some point, scrapers, add-ons, etc. may stop working. Wishful thinking is that someone may be able to fork newer CE/Kodi versions based on NG 4.9 to allow us to continue enjoying FEL.
If you don’t use addons then you will be fine with either players in this thread (that will stick with kodi 21)
Their is a small chance Coreelec release a Kodi build for AM6B+
you can also ask in that Kodi thread if they have future proof box.
You’re other choices is no FeL, but MeL.
like Ugoos SK1, AM8/PRO , X96-X10 (8GB), xiaomi Box S 3rd Gen
TL’DR as things stand and unless you hear differently, fel will n longer be supported by coreeelec after kodi 21 (this is not a choice by coreelec but limitation imposed by others)
I’ve not been following the conversation to know what you need. The MiBox S gen3 is a good value buy, just figure out how to block AndroidTV updates if you get it. If you don’t care about google certification (access to 4k, DV, Atmos streams from paid streaming services) or DV in general, the Vontar X4 and Tox3 are even better value buys for a CE device. You are paying an extra $50-80 with Homatics and Clones for that Google certification and DV FEL in CE-NG.
Really if it wasn’t for DV FEL nobody would be buying Homatics s905x4 or AM6+ boxes today at their current prices. These companies are heavily profiting from the DV FEL FOMO created by the AV community, selling dated hardware at close to their MSRP from 3-5 years ago.
I totally hear you about the FEL FOMO, however non-FEL DV is valuable. The problem is that there is no available device with S905X5-K/J. The only S905X5 out there I’m aware of is the Ugoos AM9, with no DV support.
So it seems that the set of current hardware with DV support is narrowed to the expensive S928X-K-based devices like the SK1.
New TV is a Sony Bravia 8 77" with Google TV. Tried Kodi install and while it works CPU is still too slow to run Kodi.
As recommended on forum went from NE nightly to NO nightly.
With : CoreELEC-Amlogic-no.aarch64-22.0-Piers_nightly_20251210-Generic.img.gz
It is working fine except for booting video “glitch” start up with NO logo. Everything else is working.
Here most NFS stream from NAS: movies and TV shows. Amazon AOD is running fine.
Read of an upgrade TV Box and wondering if it would be worth upgrading to a:
H618 Android 14 TV Box with 8K Decoding, 4GB RAM 128GB ROM, WiFi 6 Dual-Band, Quad-Core Streaming Media Player with Voice Remote, 4K/60fps Output, Ethernet & USB 3.0 for Smart TVs?
I wanted to get a media box that plays all but not to bothered about HDR at all as this box is for elderly parents and needs to be simple as hell.
Needs to boot into Kodi straight away like coreelec ?
Stream from an external drive , Remote control that lets you turn the device on and off
No internet needed
Not to expensive but needs to just work as I tried an older box a few months back and was crashing and not responding.
I will add then content to the external drive to playback from the box.
I am looking at the vontar x4 is this any good will it support all video formats including 4k not bothered about hdr like I say.
How is the remote handling can this be shut down and turned back on and boot straight into Kodi with no internet and will the 32gb be fine as using external drive to store the media
Any Kodi slow down with large library’s
Thanks
Thanks for the help as need something to them for Xmas thanks.
