Dolby
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I think they say it's 'the only certified product available off the shelf with an Ethernet port and AC WiFi '?
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Question of the day ~ Are you happy with your retirement strategy?
Be careful which Android TV box you buy
- Thread starter Bradley Prior
- Start date
I think they say it's 'the only certified product available off the shelf with an Ethernet port and AC WiFi '?
Crowley
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Which is still wrong. You can walk into a Telkom store and buy the LIT box which has both of those.
Dolby
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True.
Ambiguous then ... it's not quite 'off the shelf', but I hear what you're saying
Lots of AndroidTV media players and normal Android media players are advertised as 4K.
But video playback is actually downscaled a lot or even to 1080p in some cases.
This is most noticeable in apps like Kodi, VLC or stock video player apps if playing local stored content that are high bit-rate 4K or 4K@50/60hz.
For AndroidTV Netflix Certified devices
Apps like Netflix will most likely not do downscaling since most content is 4K@23.976/25hz but there will still be some line skips, not all 3840 horizontal lines will be displayed every second since the S905x processor is not powerful enough, it depends on the bit-rate and frame-rate, but most people won't notice this.
To check if your device plays back true 4K(4K@50/60hz) instead of downscaled 4K, people can follow this guide to determine if their device supports true 4K video playback.
https://mrmc.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4060
The test video is provided by the lead Kodi Android developer Koying that retired and work on Mrmc the AppleTV Kodi app now.
To play back 4K@50/60hz and/or in 10-bit you also have to use an HDMI 2.0 cable since an HDMI v1.4 cable bundled with 99% of devices only support up to 4K@24/30hz in 8-bit and also set your tv to enhanced/deep color mode.
If your device supports auto frame-rate switching in Android Kodi or in CoreELEC/LibreELEC then the video will play correctly otherwise it will be downscaled. If you use an expensive tv then the tv will sometimes also do it's own upscaling again to improve things.
It would be interesting to know which devices support true 4K(4K@50/60hz) and which ones only support basic 4K(4K@23.976/24/25hz) with downscaling occurring in 4K@50/60hz because some of the horizontal 3840 lines have to be stretched because some are skipped to compensate for the weak CPU/VPU in S905x devices.
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Apart from the Nvidia Shield and Xiaomi Mi box, 99% of other Certified AndroidTV S905x devices don't support auto frame-rate switching, so all your 1080p/4K@23.976hz videos will play back at 60hz instead. This will result in audio and video becoming out of sync. Some people also call this stuttering then the video might freeze for 0.5-1 second and then resume again to get the audio in sync, happens about 3-4 times in an average movie of 1.5 hours.
Using a device with auto frame-rate switching or an Android media player with LibreELEC/CoreELEC support(which Certified AndroidTV devices don't support) then audio and video will play perfectly in sync and video playback will be much smoother.
If someone has a lot of 1080p/4K@23.976 or 1080p/4K@29.97 content and not using LibreELEC/CoreELEC or an Android device with Kodi auto frame-rate switching, you are missing out a lot on smooth video playback especially on a 4K tv.
If your tv has a 120hz instead of 60hz panel then it also helps a lot to reduce this stuttering.
But video playback is actually downscaled a lot or even to 1080p in some cases.
This is most noticeable in apps like Kodi, VLC or stock video player apps if playing local stored content that are high bit-rate 4K or 4K@50/60hz.
For AndroidTV Netflix Certified devices
Apps like Netflix will most likely not do downscaling since most content is 4K@23.976/25hz but there will still be some line skips, not all 3840 horizontal lines will be displayed every second since the S905x processor is not powerful enough, it depends on the bit-rate and frame-rate, but most people won't notice this.
To check if your device plays back true 4K(4K@50/60hz) instead of downscaled 4K, people can follow this guide to determine if their device supports true 4K video playback.
https://mrmc.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4060
The test video is provided by the lead Kodi Android developer Koying that retired and work on Mrmc the AppleTV Kodi app now.
To play back 4K@50/60hz and/or in 10-bit you also have to use an HDMI 2.0 cable since an HDMI v1.4 cable bundled with 99% of devices only support up to 4K@24/30hz in 8-bit and also set your tv to enhanced/deep color mode.
If your device supports auto frame-rate switching in Android Kodi or in CoreELEC/LibreELEC then the video will play correctly otherwise it will be downscaled. If you use an expensive tv then the tv will sometimes also do it's own upscaling again to improve things.
It would be interesting to know which devices support true 4K(4K@50/60hz) and which ones only support basic 4K(4K@23.976/24/25hz) with downscaling occurring in 4K@50/60hz because some of the horizontal 3840 lines have to be stretched because some are skipped to compensate for the weak CPU/VPU in S905x devices.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apart from the Nvidia Shield and Xiaomi Mi box, 99% of other Certified AndroidTV S905x devices don't support auto frame-rate switching, so all your 1080p/4K@23.976hz videos will play back at 60hz instead. This will result in audio and video becoming out of sync. Some people also call this stuttering then the video might freeze for 0.5-1 second and then resume again to get the audio in sync, happens about 3-4 times in an average movie of 1.5 hours.
Using a device with auto frame-rate switching or an Android media player with LibreELEC/CoreELEC support(which Certified AndroidTV devices don't support) then audio and video will play perfectly in sync and video playback will be much smoother.
If someone has a lot of 1080p/4K@23.976 or 1080p/4K@29.97 content and not using LibreELEC/CoreELEC or an Android device with Kodi auto frame-rate switching, you are missing out a lot on smooth video playback especially on a 4K tv.
If your tv has a 120hz instead of 60hz panel then it also helps a lot to reduce this stuttering.
I actually researched this when I saw the original article. The box they are pushing is inferior to the mibox, and the mibox is more affordable. Youtube reviews confirmed.
Dolby
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I researched as well- how did you get to your conclusion though ?
Dolby
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So much false information in that post, I wouldn't even know where to start correcting you
After the 3rd review comparing the mibox/shield and the unit they're flogging, highlighting the faults and differences and coming to the conclusion that, budget wise and not used for gaming, the mibox outshines this unit, I drew the conclusion that this isn't in any way better than the mibox I already I own (I was shopping for upgrades)
Dolby
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What are they though ?
Very interesting information this Thanks. I'm using the H96 max plus at the moment. I'm not concerned about any streaming. Only use it for media playback. So far no issues with anything specially with 4k videos. I have also noticed that Kodi can not handle 4k videos well on this machine. The audio is out of synch from the video. The standard media player on the machine does the job well. I have to say that the picture quality on 4k is spectacular. The image is crisp clear, almost 3d like. Really amazing.
joshuatree
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A Chromecast always just works.
Dolby
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It's also very wrong information, unfortunately.
SeRpEnT
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Stop being cryptic and give us the real facts. I am eager to learn.
Ironmanajm
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Heard lots of good thinks from MiBox???
Dolby
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It's all in the other thread.
And there is just so much wrong there and he can't answer any questions?
He says the 99% of HDMI cables are HDMI1.4 spec instead of HDMI2.0 spec ... but you actually don't get 'spec' cables, but rather speed or bandwidth (10Gbps / 18Gbps). I've yet to come across the incorrect cable placed in an HDMI 2.0 device box. So I'm really unsure of where he gets these stats ?
He says the only S905X device that can do true 4K (actually, UHD) is a Xiaomi Mi. Despite a few other S905X boxes reporting it's a UHD stream ... despite Netflix displaying 'UltraHD' under the title .... despite Netflix displaying the resolution when queried .... despite the Netflix certification process / certificate issued to service providers around the world.
There's a reason why both Google and Netflix test a device and approve it.
I also asked him why the Mi S is the only S905X that does 'real 4k' - because I really am curious.
Also, why is Netflix reporting UHD?
And my Samsung TV signal info?
And the certificates they issue globally?
Why does it display HDR?
Is everything falsified ?
Last edited:
Takkies
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Takkies
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That just Nology being themselves. Thanks for sharing
Dolby
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I am pretty surprised.
I love streaming devices ... had my Showcentre 200 / TViX / Xbox / Mi / HP server / H7000 TV / KU 7000 TV / Q7F TV and plenty of other devices. I've seen a number of people recommending the Mi - but no one can tell me why they recommend?