HomerJ Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) Bringing up an oldish thread.. Recently got a CuBox i2-eX and am running OpenELEC 5 and so far it does everything very well. http://www.solid-run.com/cuboxtv/ Reasonably priced, too. Thanks mate. This looks great. Cheaper than a NUC and runs XBMC/Kodi. I think I'll buy one to try out as I wanting to get a media player in 3 bedrooms here.Edit: hang on... So it doesn't support decoding DTS-HDMA, Dolby TrueHD etc so no good for my media then. Need to fire off am email. I'm really impressed with XBMC/Kodi and 3rd party apps for it. (Only gripe is I'd like to have a bit more control over movie poster art it auto downloads). Edited January 16, 2015 by HomerJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K1LL3M Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) (Only gripe is I'd like to have a bit more control over movie poster art it auto downloads).One word ... Ember....full control over movie arthttp://wiki.embermediamanager.org/index.php?title=Main_Page Separately if we are reviving an old thread, take a look at the "Open Hour Chameleon" streamer; An Android based XBMC streamer from the people who bought you the Popcorn Hour, and only $149 USD http://www.cloudmedia.com/products/open-hour/chameleon Edited January 16, 2015 by K1LL3M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grb1503561862 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) Thanks mate. This looks great. Cheaper than a NUC and runs XBMC/Kodi. I think I'll buy one to try out as I wanting to get a media player in 3 bedrooms here. Edit: hang on... So it doesn't support decoding DTS-HDMA, Dolby TrueHD etc so no good for my media then. Need to fire off am email. I'm really impressed with XBMC/Kodi and 3rd party apps for it. (Only gripe is I'd like to have a bit more control over movie poster art it auto downloads). It supports HD audio bitstreaming over HDMI, but I don't think it can decode HD audio and output PCM. Edited January 16, 2015 by grb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomerJ Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Thanks for the info/links The Ember media app looks ok. I might have a play. Hasn't been updated since 2013 though. The real issue for me is Kodi stores the posters in its database instead of using my existing poster art, or I don't know yet how to do it... The Chameleon media player looks promising but still in development. Seems it doesn't do HD audio pass through or decoding and also no 23.976Hz frame rate. Almost everything is 23.976... Sounds like these will be fixed but they have been discussing thee fixes for a few months and nothing resolved, yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomerJ Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) It doesn't decode HD audio, but it will bitstream it just fine over HDMI. Why would that be no good? Two older HDMI TVs I have in other rooms can't decode HD audio. The NUC and Mede8er can decode HD 5.1 to stereo LPCM for such TVs.Bitstream is fine for a home Theater setup for sure. I'm looking for another cheaper solution for standard TVs. I tested a new 2014 Samsung TV for my father in a store this week and even that won't play DTS-HDMA only stanard DTS. wouldn't even read the core from the HDMA either. I had to buy him a horrible WDTV that would down convert to LPCM. I hate those things... Edited January 16, 2015 by HomerJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grb1503561862 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I should also mention I originally ordered from solid-run.com but their shipping estimate was 3+ weeks so I got a refund and ordered from gpio.com.au instead. http://www.gpio.com.au/product-category/cubox-i/cubox-i-starter-kits/ They had $20 off most of these until recently, and free express post shipping. Arrived next day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grb1503561862 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Two older HDMI TVs I have in other rooms can't decode HD audio. The NUC and Mede8er can decode HD 5.1 to stereo LPCM for such TVs. Bitstream is fine for a home Theater setup for sure. I'm looking for another cheaper solution for standard TVs. I tested a new 2014 Samsung TV for my father in a store this week and even that won't play DTS-HDMA only stared DTS. wouldn't even read the core from the HDMA either. I had to buy him a horrible WDTV that would down convert to LPCM. I hate those things... Right. In that case I believe it will just decode DTS core and output PCM. Don't think the difference would be noticable using TV speakers anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomerJ Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Right. In that case I believe it will just decode DTS core and output PCM. Don't think the difference would be noticable using TV speakers anyway Thanks. If you get a chance could you please try DTS-HDMA and see if it does down convert and play as stereo on a non-DTS TV. Is that easy enough for you to try? If not I will contact the sales guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grb1503561862 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Thanks. If you get a chance could you please try DTS-HDMA and see if it does down convert and play as stereo on a non-DTS TV. Is that easy enough for you to try? If not I will contact the sales guys. Very easy. I set Kodi's audio settings to 2.0 channel output and unchecked the options for "DTS/DTS-MA/TrueHD capable receiver" etc. and it was decoding DTS and sending 2 channel PCM to my receiver. My receiver shows on its display what audio stream is being received so the CuBox was definitely doing the right thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K1LL3M Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) Thanks for the info/links The Ember media app looks ok. I might have a play. Hasn't been updated since 2013 though. The real issue for me is Kodi stores the posters in its database instead of using my existing poster art, or I don't know yet how to do it... The Chameleon media player looks promising but still in development. Seems it doesn't do HD audio pass through or decoding and also no 23.976Hz frame rate. Almost everything is 23.976... Sounds like these will be fixed but they have been discussing thee fixes for a few months and nothing resolved, yet. All up to you, howeverEmber is still being developed, they are working on next release (available in beta) and the current release works fine and is updated when necessary (twice last last year when they changed scraper sites api setup) Ember lets you load your own art work that is already stored and lets you rescape stuff already obtained. I dont have open hour but did ask the questions when considering purchasing and was advised it does passthrough HD audio (it doesnt decode it) and do 24p. Edited January 18, 2015 by K1LL3M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgdownload Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 The real issue for me is Kodi stores the posters in its database instead of using my existing poster art, or I don't know yet how to do it... Using your own art work just needs the associated files to be correctly named. You can start here Regards Peter Gillespie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomerJ Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) Using your own art work just needs the associated files to be correctly named. You can start here Thanks Peter. Looks like I need to delete my thumb cache to resolve the issue I'm having (although I suspect the issue I have was originally caused by an early Kodi beta). I guess a developer decided the file name should be a CRC of the folder name which seemed like a good idea at the time but doesn't help the user at all. Why not use the movie name or original folder name after all we can use very long file names in modern operating systems. Edited January 18, 2015 by HomerJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomerJ Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 All up to you, however Ember is still being developed, they are working on next release (available in beta) and the current release works fine and is updated when necessary (twice last last year when they changed scraper sites api setup) Ember lets you load your own art work that is already stored and lets you rescape stuff already obtained. I dont have open hour but did ask the questions when considering purchasing and was advised it does passthrough HD audio (it doesnt decode it) and do 24p. Thanks for the follow up K1LL3M. I will give Ember a go and keep my eye on the OpenHour player. It does look interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomerJ Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Very easy. I set Kodi's audio settings to 2.0 channel output and unchecked the options for "DTS/DTS-MA/TrueHD capable receiver" etc. and it was decoding DTS and sending 2 channel PCM to my receiver. My receiver shows on its display what audio stream is being received so the CuBox was definitely doing the right thing. Thanks. That's good news! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grb1503561862 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Thanks. That's good news!No probs. Anything else that would be useful to test let me know.I'm really happy with the cubox so far, will probably grab a couple of quad core i4 boxes for media players in the new house in the next little while. I need to sus out the CEC situation, too, because the plan is to have these boxes in my comms rack and using one remote for TV/kodi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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