[stefansaraev]

I dont care how cheap ir expensive it is, if the hardware is that great, really.

a hardware is absolutely nothing. nothing! without propper vendor support. as an openelec (and kodi) contributor I can say that from personal experience. I've spent countless of hours with people from a manufacturer I wont name right now to make kodi run good on 3 different boxes. I'll spend even more in next few months for the next 3 boxes. of course, then someone will sell shit on ebay, based on my work, then people will come here to spread shit about americans (I am not american btw, should be obvious from my poor english) and democracy. and no, I am not offended.

this thread is not about mxiii (I have some words to say about it but not right now), it's about mxq. so can you answer my question, isn't it a valid question ?

[Ned Scott]

The MXQ is really just a reference design (I think that's the term?), so anyone can make it. You'll often find it as MXQ or another name, and different brands/factories/whatever will do different things. Because of this, a ban list for hardware really isn't practical.

[stefansaraev]

@ned

from what I see in past years, they all got the same level of support, I've been asked at least 100 times for an official openelec for that hardware

look at ebay, electronics & tv/audio -> cable tv boxes. see the selling point. amazing. no? same shit on amazon.

still no clue where to buy a not "fully loaded" one, with "support" that does not entirely depend on team kodi's mercy.

[trogggy]

Of course I can't answer your question...
1. I don't own one - I own something similar.
2. It's an unreasonable question, in that the only way to find out would be to contact each vendor and ask the question. The box I bought - which we've already established you're not interested in - wasn't advertised as 'Fully loaded' or 'free movies'. And indeed it wasn't - kodi was clean - but it still had a dodgy app to install addons. That's the nature of the market when you buy cheap electronics.
And whilst I can sympathise with anyone who spends their time coding and sees vendors make money from it I find the idea of your 'banned list' horrible.

[stefansaraev]

it's good you are having fun with your $25 toy, @trogggy, but you have to understand that other toys you dont actualy own are trouble for some of us.

I stand my words, while it's my own opinion, not team kodi's opinion, MXQs have done more than enough damage to kodi.

and, you are wrong, I am interested in that box (mxq, not mxii, we'll have a talk about mxii later, perhaps), I'll buy one (even fully loaded will be okay) just to see if it's worth its price (as a hardware too, be sure I'll disassemble it immediately), compared to other boxes I already have.

and hey, I have absolutely no problem with vendors making money from my (EDIT: compared to other's work, mine is near irrelevant) work, I dont like the way (most of them) they do it. and I do not like people spreading bullshit and lies on forums.

EDIT: at least. very soon, due to an android min api bump, this hardware will not be supported anyway, so I guess it is not our problem anymore. then there comes a middle finger from OE/LE, it happened before, will happen again, trust my words

[trogggy]

I stand my words, while it's my own opinion, not team kodi's opinion, MXQs have done more than enough damage to kodi.

I'll bow out here then, as I thought all the cheap chinese tat boxes were much of a muchness as far as team kodi were concerned - so I'm obviously not as clued-up as I might be.

and hey, I have absolutely no problem with vendors making money from my (EDIT: compared to other's work, mine is near irrelevant) work, I dont like the way (most of them) they do it. and I do not like people spreading bullshit and lies on forums.

I hope that doesn't mean me.

[stefansaraev]

How would you go about deciding which hardware was verboten?

I think my last posts answered that question

[giaur]

You should know, that cheap means poor software or poor hardware. There must be something that makes price lower. Either low hardware cost, or low support cost (this often means no support). In second case though, sometimes community can do good job, but it's hard due to lack of sources and specs

[Ned Scott]

MXQ doesn't really exist. It's just one of many names that the same hardware is sold under. It doesn't matter if it hurts Kodi or not, because the name is an unreliable way to track what hardware is what. I'm not trying to defend it, just pointing that out :)

Another example is the MK808. There are three totally different versions, the MK808, MK808B, and the MK808B Plus. I bought the MK808B Plus a while back, and Kodi was not preinstalled and there was no pirate-features advertised, but the other two, who knows. Banning one would be confusing and cause others to be banned. Sometimes it's a specific seller who makes something "fully loaded", and it's not the same for everyone.

A more reliable method would be to target the more specific brands, like Eweat (I think that's the name...). "MXQ" is more like a model number (almost).

[User 325245]

You should know, that cheap means poor software or poor hardware. There must be something that makes price lower. Either low hardware cost, or low support cost (this often means no support). In second case though, sometimes community can do good job, but it's hard due to lack of sources and specs

Maybe other boxes have too high profits and that's why they're expensive? I.e. Apple that sells iPhones 4x the price of other makers but are not any better then i.e. Samsung etc?

The technology is advancing so rapidly that it simply doesnt' pay to buy anythnig expensive because in a year it will be just average and in 2 years totaly outdated....

[stefansaraev]

then you'll get 1 month support from the vendor after releasing a product, and no more than 3 months from any community. you shall live with that.

[stefansaraev]

also, the technology is advancing so rapidly, that it simply doesn't pay to develop for those cheap devices. in 2 years the code will be so messy (or obsolete) that you have to start from scratch.

hehe, we got your arguments, yeah

EDIT: oh wait, it "doesn't pay" to develop for the more expensive boxes, anyway

[User 325245]

To develop what? Android is not hardware specific... nor is KODI...

And what is the thing with "support"? When did you ever get any support from a big company? They just point you to FAQ and documentation and it never solves anything. Why do you need support at all?

[stefansaraev]

on this cheap hardware, both android and kodi are "very" hardware specific.

do you really think kodi works by magic on those amlogic boxes ?

do you really think amlogic's mediacodec support exists in android < 5.0. how good you think amlogic's mediacodec support work on android > 5.0 ?

do you really think their "custom decoder" works that good out of the box (oh, wait, kodi has to support it, somehow. right?) ?

I did get support from big and small companies. many times. it always matters for your product price when you hire 10 - 20 people to code and help people, and pay them > 1M / year in total.

[stefansaraev]

and, hey, tomorrow we can drop that custom decoder from kodi, and then point you to FAQ and docs, why would you need any support at all then?