Kodi Community Forum

Hi all,

I'm looking around for nice compact multimedia center and I have a few questions lined up, I definitely want one with Android built in.

1 - What OS Android is most recommended and stable

2 - What version of XBMC is recommended? I'm looking for everything, all movies, shows, PPV, etc. I was told about "Special Edition XBMC". Is this the best out there and is there anything better?

3 - What do you look for in terms of hardware? HDMI is the big one. I believe that's all I'll need..I see some with optical, composite, component, are any of these really needed? I believe micro sd and usb is handy, do you guys look for anything else?

4 - Internals CPU - What CPUs are most recommended for a good solid stable box to work with XBMC. I'm looking at boxes with the below

Rockchip 3188 Quad-Core CPU
ARM Cortex A7 Dual Core
Rockchip 3066 Dual Core 1.6GHz
Allwinner A20 Dual-core ARMv7 Processor
Amlogic 8726-MX 1.5GHz dual core Cortex A9

4a) - Memory - How much memory is usually recommended? How about flash memory?

Maybe there's something I missed which someone can chime in on. I think I covered a lot

Thanks all!
Dan

If you're set on wanting an Android box, you should look at the newer quad core AMLogic or Rockchip chips. The AMLogic S802 is the best, I think. The RK3288 devices are out, too, but they're buggier so far. I have this box and am pleased with it -- http://www.amazon.com/Tronsmart-Android-...s=s89+vega

1. I think anything after 4.1 is pretty good. A while back I think people were having issues with 4.4, but I think that's all been fixed since then.

2. XBMC v13.2 from xbmc.org or SPMC (wiki). The latest nightly builds (wiki) of the upcoming v14 are pretty good too and are mostly usable for day-to-day usage.

3. USB and a wired ethernet port, since I don't like having just wifi as my only option. Often the wifi that comes in various Android boxes isn't very good and the eithernet port is a much better choice. Even if you really don't want to run a wire, it might save your sanity.

4. I would avoid Allwinner since even on the newer Allwinner chips we've had mixed reports about what is or isn't working. They might be fine, but I wouldn't call it a safe bet at this point. Amlogic and Rockchip SoCs seem to have fairly solid support as far as hardware video decoding goes. with Amlogic having a bit of an edge. You can see more about this on the Android hardware (wiki) page.

4a. Most boxes will have anything from 512 MB to 2GB of RAM, and that should all be fine. Maybe lean towards 1GB and more, but XBMC/Kodi seems to do very well even with just 512. For internal flash memory, 8GB is a good minimal, but as long as it has microSD or USB ports then you can get away with even lower internal memory.


All that being said, I would go for a specific box that seems to have proven itself, rather than looking at individual specs. Even if the box has nice specs, sometimes the support or firmware isn't all that great. Take a look around the hardware forum for some good suggestions: http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=112

For example, the Fire TV seems to be a solid deal that is backed by Amazon, so you know the box will be supported for some time. MiniX sells a number of boxes that also seem to be well supported. Pivos has a good track record for support, but they haven't released anything other than an entry-level box lately. A used OUYA (I wouldn't buy one at a new price, but around $60-70 is fair) does a great job as well.

If you're willing to go in the $150 price range, there are a number of Chromeboxes that can have XBMC/Kodi installed that are an even better deal and are very stable.

I have both an Amlogic S802 Box and a couple of FireTVs (rooted). They both work very well. Overall, I prefer the FireTV. The setup on it was a bit more time consuming the first time through, but it's very polished. I use SPMC on that, have it auto-launch, and have my skin set to launch my favorite Android apps directly from the XBMC home screen. Everything works perfectly with virtually no glitches, buffering or crashes, even streaming 1080p over wifi. The only minor flaw is that in order to use Amazon Prime, I have to run it from the FireTV launcher. Hulu and Netflix run fine when launched from XBMC, as do games and other apps.

Previously I had an Apple TV 2, and the FTV is worlds better in every way.

The S802 Box is fine, and was a little easier to set up, but it's a much clunkier interface, and subjectively, the picture doesn't look quite as good as the FireTV. Netflix and Hulu run fine, but the interfaces aren't as remote control friendly as the FTV versions either. So far I've been unable to get Prime Instant Video to play at all on the S802, even though it theoretically should work. The IR remote control that came with my S802 is also pretty lame (very limited line-of-sight range, poor layout), in comparison to the Bluetooth remote that comes with the FTV.

All in all, I think the FTV is more spouse and kid friendly, which is also an important factor to me.

Awesome and detailed responses, thank you very much everyone

I think I'm pulling the trigger on a loaded box with the Amlogic S802 Quad-core Cortex A9r4. It's a bit over $100, but seems like it's worth it. 2GB SDRAM, 8GB Nand Flash RAM, BT 4.0 built in, HDMI 1.4b.

I saw this on another product "XBMC Helix (14) alpha specially modified for the Amlogic chip"

Is this XBMC most recommended with the Amlogic chips?

Thanks

Most sellers who claim they have a specially modified version are either lying or are over stating the modifications made. In nearly all cases you can just use what you can download from xbmc.org and it will work the same or better.

Ah ok good to know, I saw it on a product from geniebox

s802 is ok for you
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/...90501.html

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/...53829.html

I recently got an RK3288 based android box (named cloudnetgo CR13, but I think the CPU matters more than the name of the many clones using it) and it works great with a "slightly old" nightly of XBMC (from August), which was included by default on the box.
I had however to deactivate the MediaCodec hardware support (as explained here: http://makesmarttv.net/xbmc-unstable-on-...to-fix-it/ ) to fix some instability.
I would assume a more recent build of Kodi might help without having to deactivate MediaCodec

It is the first Android box I have that actually runs HD fine on XBMC without any weird trick. I have tried many of them over the past 2 years.
In particular, RK3188 (previous model) never worked fine with hardware acceleration for me (had to couple it with MX Player to get things right), neither did any of the AllWinner based CPU.

Bottom line, today I would recommend anything based on RK3288, but not older boxes based on AllWinner or RK3188.

I was looking at a few rockchip units...good to know about the 3188s.

I ordered a couple, gonna give one to the family. I got one unit with an s802 and one with an s805. I'm getting them from Asia.

My question is, where do I even start? Should I upgrade the firmware on the chips when I get them? How do I wipe the software and start off with a fresh clean copu of xbmc and where do I start with the applications I need? I want to load it up, all the movies, PPV, I heard theres an app which gives live Canada/U.S channels?

Any help for a newb..greatly appreciated!