MXIII Android or openelec?

[darkmast3r]

I have a MXIII 2G/8G running android kodi and works quite well. Shut down from kodi is slow but that's my only complaint. It runs my bluray iso's and dvd iso's from within kodi great, as well as running add ons, ect.

What benefits would I have if I installed openelec only? Would I still be able to do everything I do know including power down via remote?

[darkmast3r]

wow - over 80 views and no replies. Can no one advise me if it's worth flashing my box with openelec?

[Ichijoe]

wow - over 80 views and no replies. Can no one advise me if it's worth flashing my box with openelec?

The only "Benefit" off the top of my head would be TVHeadend. with which you could then attach a torrid number of USB DVB Devices to said Device to watch & record Live TV with. IF you know what Linux VDR is, and what it does. Then you'd have more of an idea what OpenELEC was capable of.

The flip side to this of course is that you'd have to give up running Android APKs. Since OpenELEC is pretty much ARM Linux, so no Games, Emulators (as such..) or other Apps like say Showbox for example.

Of course with Sat>IP on the rise... (Again it would help if you came here from a VDR perspective...), you really don't need OpenELEC a such, since XBMC / Kodi, can do this much already. e.g. Simple IPTV Protocol.

Which Ones better kinda depends upon what your exact needs are.
Since I'm more of a Google Music fanboi, and love my Maryland Radio streaming Apps... I tend to side, on the side of Android for now. Plus having a DVB-C (Cable) > IP(TV) in the form of a Fritzbox Repeater to at least cover the FTA Channels. Which is all I need for at the Moment. I'm not exactly feeling the need to push on just yet.

That and the constanly broken AP-6181 WI-Fi Drivers I'm always having deal with in OpenELEC. I'm not going to say its still a valid argument. As I wouldn't know it. I haven't dealt with OpenELEC in some time now. 'cause I value Google Music more so then testing a possibly broken OpenELEC, and so wasting another "Device" on Google Play.

FYI if you are a Google Music user on the MXIII (or possibly any other Android TV Box...)
Every time you flush, your Data Partition, you are in effect creating a new device. (note you can only have up to 10 Devices connected to any GMusic Account at any One time. The kick to the crotch however comes in the form that since last August. You can now only deactivate ONLY FOUR DEVICES with-in a 365 Day Period!)

Upshot is if you have that "Testing Bug" then DO NOT INSTALL GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC!

[darkmast3r]

Thanks for the response Ichijoe. I did decide to give it a go but blu ray playback was pretty bad for some reason. Very slow using hardware or software enabled. I then tried finless 2.1 but found my memory showing 55/60% at idle. I did a fresh install of the stock firmware and everything is running well again.

I'm wondering how blu ray playback would be on a chrome box.

[ChrisG8]

Thanks for the response Ichijoe. I did decide to give it a go but blu ray playback was pretty bad for some reason. Very slow using hardware or software enabled. I then tried finless 2.1 but found my memory showing 55/60% at idle. I did a fresh install of the stock firmware and everything is running well again.

I'm wondering how blu ray playback would be on a chrome box.

I have a Chromebox and although I don't have any files to test, I am fairly certain it can't play Dolby Digital or DTS running the Chrome OS. Changing to Windows or OpenElec probably solves that problem but I have no experience. That information is available online I am sure, this forum doesn't cover much of anything with the Chromebox.

[giglife]

darkmast3r - what rom did you flash the S82 ?

[Ichijoe]

Sadly I don't have any Blueray rips to test as such. Not actually owning any BlueRay or a Player with which to rip them with.
But, as to DTS, and DD5.1 (as thats all my Decoder ~ca 2004), is capable of. I find that the SPDIF.-Out is more then enough to get that much working. Otherwise I kinda fail to see the point in Software Decoding sans the Speakers. Otherwise I'm sure that the LPCM though the HDMI Cable to the Decoder would work just as well...

On that topic, did you remember to set the Passthough Option in XBMC/Kodi?
Otherwise it cant pass the Signal though to the Decoder to be decoded... duh!

[darkmast3r]

Hi Giglife. I flashed with openelec from here http://amlinux.ru/image/5.0.3/, also tried 5.0.5 but blu ray playback was really bad. Then tried bob's finless 2.1 from this thread which showed the high memory but looking at the posts in that thread it seems I am not the only one with that issue.

Regarding the chrome box I may have to search around for my answer. It does do digital audio from hdmi, that I do know, I just want to be able to play all my formats without issues or frame problems.