I have been hacking HTPCs/consoles/etc for 20 years and I’ve tried just about everything. I have always been partial to xbmc/Kodi, but with the rise of cloud drives and such, a client/server model made more sense and so my Veros collected dust for a few months while I had a go at Plex on the Pi and AppleTV.
I am now back on the Vero (a 4k in the living room and a 2 in the bedroom). After using the Pi/AppleTV exclusively I noticed that the picture quality on the Veros is far superior. Whatever you-all are doing, you’re doing it better than the Pi–which is understandable given it’s price–but also at least as good and, in my opinion, better than a 4th-gen AppleTV. It is actually so much better that my wife commented un-prompted that the TV suddenly looks much better.
I got a Harmony remote to put the stereo, projector, etc. all under one remote (and to get rid of the awful AppleTV remote) but found myself keeping the Vero remote out of the drawer. You can feel the position with your fingers, the buttons give haptic feedback (in the form of an old-fashion click), it’s fast and it does not require line-of-site.
These days I’m too busy with kids and work and whatnot to spend weekends compiling from source to get everything just the way I like it, but I don’t think I could do better than OSMC (which I’m using with Emby now). Resurrecting the Veros was as easy as using rsync to restore the ~/.kodi folder.
The Veros also play nice with all my HDMI devices. The projector, in particular, is incredibly picky about the order in which devices are powered on and inputs are selected, but the Vero always manages to negotiate a connection. Even the AppleTV fails miserably at HDMI negotiation. The Vero also doesn’t steal inputs!
Anyway, for those who are on the fence or wonder why they should pay more when a Pi is so cheap; there is a very noticeable difference in the picture-quality that is worth the money. (If you are outputting via an expensive home theater setup with a fancy TV/projector.) The OSMC skin isn’t my favorite, but that is an easy fix and OSMC itself gets noticeably better with time–the interface is snappier than before, it rarely crashes, it handles dodgy video files that didn’t use to play (and that sometimes won’t play on anything else) and it outputs 7.1 channel HD audio.
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I couldn’t agree more.
Your certainly paying a premium, but the osmc software and especially the support is easily worth it.
I’ve managed to bork my box after just a few days (entirely my own fault it looks like!)
But Sam has been nothing but responsive when I’ve queried VC1 support and returning my box to get re-flashed. In the past I probably would have had to just write it off.
So I’m busy trying to convince some friends to go the Vero 4k route rather than an el cheapo ebay box. Being less technically minded than I am it’ll work out much better for them.
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The support alone is by far what convinced me to buy the Vero 4K.
It’s the same reason why I never bought something outside EU without a proper warranty.
I, as most people, need to know that everything I buy will be supported in case something goes wrong. I know that the price you pay for the Vero 4K can be disappointing at first glance but it’s really little when you see how much effort Sam and his guys put into helping people solve their problems. No other manufacturer gives you this kind of support. And I’m not talking about warranty here, I’m talking about the direct channel customers can use to reach someone that can help them when something goes sideways.
When you go and buy one of those cheap boxes out there you have to prey that nothing goes wrong, because you’ll be alone. True, there are many forums where you can seek help, but you won’t be able to talk to the manufacturers, rest assured.
I think that the reason why Sam managed to make OSMC become what it is today is both his incredible entrepreneur skills and the great support he and all the mods and devs give to everyone that uses OSMC.
I have been very lucky so far because I didn’t experience any problems so far with my Vero 4K, but I know for sure that when I’ll bump into something I’ll post here and friends will come and help. Yes, friends, because this community is something you rarely see in the internet. I was speechless when I first saw Sam telling a guy that he could phone him to better explain his problem. He really cares about his customers, and that’s something that is far more valuable and rare these days, and something that people should take into account when choosing between a Vero and any other box.
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Yes, the support too! You can pretty much debug an issue in real-time on a Sunday afternoon on these forums.
I spent a good year or two trying to get a xbmc-based HTPC up and running on an Android box. I went through at least four different boxes from three different companies at various stages of maturity. All three had community forums, but they were 90% people asking for support and a bunch of “me too” replies. Every so often a dev would say “we’re working on it” and that was about it.
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The funny thing is that this level of support can also have drawbacks.
Sometimes people bump into a problem which is not caused by a bug but by a security measure, and they would usually complain that it’s the former because something doesn’t work and it’s easier that way.
I’ve just finished reading a thread which shows how much effort is put into understanding people’s problems even when they are so frustrated that something doesn’t work and find something else to blame instead of following advices.
So if you, that are reading this thread, find yourself in that kind of situation, please understand that Sam and his guys want to help you, they do. So please follow their advice instead of thinking they want to ignore you like every other manufacturer does when you need help!
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I had a problem yesterday and while the support was quick and I am sure those who posted were doing as best they could some of the posts went into great detail about Linux system changes that was a really a long way around to solve my problem (and did not work) - but today I was given the easy way to fix the problem 2m and it was all done.
So the Vero gets my vote 8/10 if it did source direct for all video formats then the score would be 10/10
I agree that most problems here are somewhat user related and not an actual issue with the device. But many users do not have the knowledge to realize that… that is why it is important we have an active forum, where users can help other users, so Sam can work on further improving the Vero.
I myself can say that the Vero has easily replaced my nvidia Shield TV, simply because it is more reliable. That is what I desire most, a media player that never crashes and plays everything. The Vero needs some work on some seldom used codecs but it the most stable and reliable media player I ever had. So from my perspective, unless Sam fcks up that reliability, the Vero is outstanding and gets better with every month.
I just joined here after putting OSMC on 1st Gen Apple TV.
Nothing install but wanted an Apple Linux after returning all my leased MacBook Air and Mini after 3 year attempt to make a video based world.
Also replaced iPhone 5s with Moto Z Play to get to the development mods.
I was looking at Shield TV but you steered me to the Vero 4K for less function
in Android and more Linux.
BUT…
USA Dollar now 1.3 so it will cost $142 roughly so I will hack a while and see if rate of exchange improves.
I will also say thanks to Sam for this effort and wished I knew him when I started XBMC on the 1st gen many years ago.
It became less and less usable and when HDTV lost HDMI after 10 years I replaced with Insignia 32 inch Smart ROKU TV.
Now I see 4K dropping in price so may wait until 2018 to build 4K man cave in garage studio for 360 video and VR experience.
I am watching Go-Dome to see if that can be applied with Vero 4K on projector.
See mirror at http://www.go-dome.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Newt2-3-4-CLOUDS.jpeg
Again thanks again to being here.
Lee T. Davy
Cool Games and Event Video
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