I’m still hesitating between the ODROID N2 and the Beelink GT1-King, I think I’m going to the King for location reasons. However, is the N2 already fully functional? If so, which version of CoreElec should you install on the Micro Sd?
HDR10+ is only relevant for Samsung, Panasonic and Phillips TVs and some other niche brands, as far as I’m aware. Only the new Panasonic OLED TV supports both DV and HDR10+, so I don’t understand why you would need both HDR10+ AND DV.
DV is unlikely to happen on CE unless someone upstream will manage to implement and get it to work.
I’m unable to test HDR10+ support, so can’t comment on that.
HDR10 and HLG both work on the N2.
Currently we don’t have plans to support generic boxes, so if you want CE, generic boxes are not what you want to buy, at least at this point in time.
No, CE on the N2 is still not feature complete. It still has some issues, so the first release will have an Alpha status.
The new image will be ready late Tuesday or Wednesday.
Regarding the new codecs and formats, don’t get ahead of yourself. From the specs the S922X doesn’t support any of these new formats, specifically AV1 and H266. It’s also more than a year out, and probably much longer than that til we start seeing good quality content in that format.
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As things stand we will not be supporting future S905X2 or S922X Android set top boxes.
We want to offer users the best possible experience and support we can and we can only do that by adding support for devices that we actually own.
As it stands the only newer generation device that any of the Team own is the Odroid N2 and that is why we are focusing solely on that device for now.
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Hello adamg
first of all, thanks again for allowing us to run CE on cheap S905X/S912 boxes.
I understand your last comment about “boxes that devs actually own”.
Does it mean you would/could support future cheap S922X boxes if users can provide them ?
Thanks in advance for your answer.
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I think you will have to wait for a kszaq to do that. I don’t think any of the official developers are interested in cheap boxes as they have now received mainstream status upon receipt of sponsorship from hardkernel.
While one box with one developer might be enough to get something sort of working, to actually support a device properly several developers will need to have the device. Some support from the manufacturer of a device also goes a long way to enabling proper support for a device. Especially when some of these devices represent a brand new device to the project and not a yet another clone of something we already support.
Different developers work on different parts of CoreELEC, so support for some features would suffer if there is only one developer with the device. There are also situations where because this is something we do in our spare time that relying on only one developer with the device might mean long delays in fixing problems or adding new features for a device if that one developer has unexpected real world commitments eat up all their spare time.
Since we would like all our users to have the same experience and same level of support, and none of us like releasing code that we can’t properly test. Limiting official support to devices several of us actually have seems like the best way to achieve this.
We have had numerous difficulties in supporting some s905/s912 devices because of the previous approach taken to supporting them. It’s preferred that we don’t repeat some of the same problems from the past with the newer devices.
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Who want to develop anything for a box with fake ram, or wifi modul without source, etc.?
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If the pricing projections are anything like the Beelink GT1 King ($120-130) then it would make no sense for anybody to want to buy one over an N2.
do we know whether there will be an odroid s905x2 based board, i think i read that there was going to but possibly cancelled? The odroid n2 is nice for a pc but rather overkill for kodi, hoping they make an s905x2 based sbc.
@spaceship9876 hardkernel made some internal samples of an s905x2 based board, I believe they refered to it as the c3. However they decided not to pursue the project any further then that.
I believe they determined that it was not a worth while project, since features/performance for the price they could deliver it for did not compare favorably to the c2 and other products on the market.
Amlogic also had some production issues with the s905x2 early on that might have also contributed to hardkernel deciding not to market an s905x2 based device.
Overkill at this price point?
N2 looks very promising, but I’m missing optical SPDIF connector supported on good-old AML S9xx tvboxes.
Not sure whether the USB could be used for sending the audio to my external stereo DAC.
Are some audio-HAT hardware modules compatible with N2?
I believe you can build a SPIDF connection relatively easily. There is probably a pHAT for the PI which could be used.
Shoog
There are many HAT modules working with RPi… but the important questions are:
Which of Pi-HAT modules are compatible with N2 and whether there is a plan for supporting HATs in CE?
Is there a plan to implement proper USB audio support to the new AML S922 kernel used in CE ?
I have to wait until these are answered and some S922 devices start supporting USB audio or spdif (HAT module or directly) in CE. And rely on my good-old S905x devices until then…
The specs specifically say that there is a SPIDF output on the GPIO’s of the N2, as such all you have to do is add a SPIDF socket which should involve just two wires to a standard socket. As to dtb and driver support one of the developers would have to clarify.
The hardware implementation is described for the C2 on this link and the process should be exactly the same:
https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=21477
Shoog
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Thanks Shoog, so the coaxial-spdif connection could be done easily via wire to connector and optical-spdif requires powered 3-pin coax2optical module…
Seems like do-able hw mod 
The coaxial is a bit more complex since the GPIO pin is to high impedance to drive a line out so they need a transistor amplifier to work, which is not complex but certainly more challenging than the Toslink alternative, which can be driven straight off the GPIO’s.
Shoog
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As for the Audio stuff. I’m pretty sure HK will release an Audio board like they did with the hifishield.
About S905X2 or Odroid C3. As far as I know S905X2 has a serious hardware bug and everyone already buying a box with this SoC probably has it. It leads to constant crashes. Amlogic probably made a new revision. I told HK about this bug a few months ago and they didn’t know about it. Khadas also postponed their S905X2 board as far as I know.
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