Which version of Kodi/XBMC works best on the Vega S89-H nowdays?

[blunden]

I've been using the XBMC version that shipped with one of the recent updates but recently I've started having issues with it. Plugins have stopped working (presumably because they no longer support the old version of XBMC that I'm using) and in the last few days I've also had issues with scanning folders for movies (it no longer successfully matches them and pulls down the cover etc. from TheMovieDb). Figuring I'd give a newer version of Kodi a try, do you guys have any recommendations?

Do the official Kodi builds work well with this box now or should I still be looking for custom builds from this forum?

[jimac]

I am using the latest version of TVMC, which seems to be working well.

[blunden]

I am using the latest version of TVMC, which seems to be working well.

On which Vega S89-H firmware version?

So far:

Kodi 15.0 beta2 (the version on the Play Store): Seemingly fails to use hw decoding of video. Movies are laggy and unwatchable.
SPMC 14.2 (latest release on the Play Store): Movies play with audio but no video unless I disable amcodec. Then it acts as Kodi 15.0.

EDIT: I figured it might be an issue with my older firmware so I updated to 112K4. That solved the playback issues in Kodi 15.0 beta2.

[markedman]

My probably less than useful response, since I don't know that exact box, BUT the one that seems to work better than all others for so many Android boxes is SPMC 13.4. Not a pre-configured version, but Koying really gets the video right, and so may other versions, including the official ones do not. Weird as it seems, that version seems better than Koyings 14.2 version, that frankly seems so close to the official build, I can't see the point of it.
The official versions are perfect for Windows installs, and perhaps Mac, Linux based PC's as well.
But Android boxes are "fussy", although they are making great strides, and very quickly to correct that.,Anyway, it works well on anything S802 Amlogic.RK3188, and others. Seems fine on S805 as well, but you do need to defeat the Amcodec video accerator then. At least on the couple I plalyed with.
I'm wondering how long before any Gotham based build will stay supported? They seemed eager to kill off frodo, and that worked great I thought. We'll see....

[blunden]

My probably less than useful response, since I don't know that exact box, BUT the one that seems to work better than all others for so many Android boxes is SPMC 13.4. Not a pre-configured version, but Koying really gets the video right, and so may other versions, including the official ones do not. Weird as it seems, that version seems better than Koyings 14.2 version, that frankly seems so close to the official build, I can't see the point of it.
The official versions are perfect for Windows installs, and perhaps Mac, Linux based PC's as well.
But Android boxes are "fussy", although they are making great strides, and very quickly to correct that.,Anyway, it works well on anything S802 Amlogic.RK3188, and others. Seems fine on S805 as well, but you do need to defeat the Amcodec video accerator then. At least on the couple I plalyed with.
I'm wondering how long before any Gotham based build will stay supported? They seemed eager to kill off frodo, and that worked great I thought. We'll see....

While your response my night now be about my specific device, it does sort of confirm my conclusion from my edited post above. Basically, all the previous playback issues in the official XBMC/Kodi builds are due to firmware issues, not because of Kodi. The custom Kodi versions just include workarounds for the firmware issues.

[Joffa]

I finally got fed up with my xbmc addons failing due to no longer being supported so I uninstalled the oman xbmc as packaged with Finless 2.1 (111k4) rom and installed the latest Kodi 16.1 from playstore.
With amcodec vid codec only disabled all appears to be working fine, and long dead addons now have fresh support.
My box is standard S89, not the H version.

[blunden]

I finally got fed up with my xbmc addons failing due to no longer being supported so I uninstalled the oman xbmc as packaged with Finless 2.1 (111k4) rom and installed the latest Kodi 16.1 from playstore.
With amcodec vid codec only disabled all appears to be working fine, and long dead addons now have fresh support.
My box is standard S89, not the H version.

If you update to the latest firmware 112k4 or something based on it you should get basically everything working (besides true 24p), including automatic refresh rate switching. I did not have to disable amcodec or any other form of hardware acceleration after upgrading the firmware. Very recently I've had problems with crashes in the Retrospect add-on though but that seems to be related to Kodi 16.x, not the firmware as it was working great for about a year. Streaming content over SMB still works perfectly.

I got tired of being stuck on Android 4.4.2 and therefore left out of the Android TV experience however so I recently bought an Nvidia Shield TV. I still plan to use the Tronsmart as a media player I can bring with me on vacation or during weeks when I work for customers out of town though.

[rcooke]

I'm getting good results in Canada with Finless ROM 2.1, Kodi 16.1 and latest Titanium wizard from Daily Updates. Sometimes you have to run the wizard twice, or re-boot twice. Then its fine. I think this is an artifact or side effect of the deep changes and tweaks its doing to poor Kodi!

I tweaked the default layout to have USTV now (free account) to get Network channels that my antenna has trouble with in the Winter (Channel 7 ABC for example)

I also have Kodimaster build on another device (Geek box TV) but I think I have a firmware problem to fix on it since I cant get it to work right.