Hello,
Just ordered a Vero 4K but noticed some reviews online about the ethernet port not being gigabit.
ALl my content is housed in a Synology NAS which gets streamed over gigabit Ethernet to my ShieldTV. It handles h265 10 bit content fine.
Does anyone have any experience of streaming this kind of content to the Vero 4k? Are there any issues. I really don’t want to start copying files to the vero locally, that’s a huge step backwards
thanks
Every file with average Bitrate below 90 MBit should play fine when using nfs/smb and mounting via fstab and buffermode set respectively.
This is pretty much every 4K UHD rip.
Sam
thanks
You should be fine unless you having streams with very high bitrate (like all streams together approaching 90ish Mbits).
If you are having issues on your network you can just use a compatible 1000Mbps USB dongle (though tops out around 300bmps because USB 2.0 ports), which shoudln’t cause issues as you do not have any local storage attached to the Vero. Also wireless AC is an option if you have a stable one at your place that (hit or miss as always). But except very few titles there should be no issue from a pure bandwidth point of view.
For setting up SMB properly on Synology and the Vero 4K look here (or opt for NFS if that suits your usage case more):
Great, thanks for the info. I’ve ordered a linksys USB ethernet dongle just to be sure.
Is there any benefit to adding NFS shares to the fstab also? Instead of via kodi. Or is just smb that benefits from fstab mount?
Yes – if you do this, you won’t need the adapter.
Hey OP,
I just received my Vero 4K today so have not tested yet, but this week I was testing high bit rate stuff (60GB HEVC movie) from my Nvidia Shield/SPMC and I did not know at the time but the wire connection was at 100Mbps (because of a bad cable from the router to the switch!) and there was buffering in this specific movie. Other HEVC movies at ~20GB were running fine.
So when I switched the bad network cable to a good one, and I could reach speeds of ~50MB/s through the switch (still far from that gigabit eh!) and there was no buffering anymore from my Nvidia Shield.
Luckily I have a USB3/gigabit connector already, so I’ll be using that on the Vero 4K. Bottom line is YES, definitely get and use the adapter, because it might come in handy in some circumstances with high bit rate stuff.
EDIT: Just read about the other solution of mounting through fstab. It might work but I definitely prefer to have a real gigabit connection than having to fiddle with the OS. The connector is only CAD$20 so worth it for me.
The next update improves buffering significantly.
This may negate the need for an adapter.
For streaming high bitrate content, we still recommend using fstab when possible. Unfortunately Kodi’s SMB implementation is archaic. A faster link speed won’t change this.
Sam
The reason why I still suggest that gigabit adapter is because you never know if sometimes, something else could be running on your device that requires some bandwidth, or something on your network might temporaily degrade the overall transfer speed. With 100Mbps, even with tweaks to the OS, fstab etc, will always be very close to the limit with high bit rate. For $20, you get peace of mind and never have to worry about this. Of course it’s just my opinion.
Other devices won’t lower the link speed between Vero 4K and the switch / router.
It won’t hurt – but we don’t want people to feel it’s a necessity or be put off by Vero 4K’s current LAN capabilities.
I understand the situation you’re in and I’m not trying to put the Vero 4K down, I’m actually a big fan. I’m just not sure telling people that they should use fstab for mounting drives is really a good thing overall as it makes it look more complicated than it should. I personally want a device that works with most of my use cases out of the box. The Vero 4K is an amazing device but I feel you should not be afraid of suggesting a USB/gigabit adapter for people who use very high bit rate stuff, I don’t see it as a weakness. Adding 20 pounds to the price of the Vero 4K just for 5% of users doesn’t make business sense, especially that it’s not as if the Vero 4K had 50% profit margin 
Anyway thanks again for the good work and a great device, can’t wait to try it over the holidays. Will report back!
Agreed. It looks like v18 has big changes with how Kodi will handle SMB. We have debated using Kodi’s GUI for mounting shares, but actually using kernel based (like fstab) mounts behind the scenes.
Sam
NFS has less overhead cause less features and can help if you having network bandwidth issues and need to squeeze out a bit more bandwidth if you really need to. But it’s no magic pill.
Honestly if you have a wired setup to a NAS I would blindly grab a dongle regardless how you I set it up in the end. Doesn’t hurt and they are cheap anyway.
It’s not like it is required at all to stream 4K content. But more network bandwidth never hurts… I personally run a full wireless setup for my streaming needs.
I’ve ordered a ethernet dongle anyway. I just want an easy life with the wife. I sold the idea to her about the vero 4k purchase as a much better experience. If a £10 dongle does that then count me in. Just hope my 4k arrives before Christmas
I am currently watching one episode of DARK season 1 on my Vero 4K. It’s 2160p/HEVC/HDR. It works flawlessly. You would not need the dongle for this one, but I need it need for my 60GB movie I was testinig. The sound would go off at times and other weird effects. As soon as I switched to gigabit, everything was OK. But it was the only source video that was causing problems, everything else worked fine without the dongle. By the way, I admit that the stuff I’m watching so far on the Vero 4K are torrents, but I actually have a 4K Netflix subscription (and Blu-ray versions of most movies I’m watching) but I still prefer to have these files locally and use Kodi.
Well I’m happy. 4k arrived today, dongle attached on network via NFS shares in osmc. All my 2160p content I’ve thrown at it works. I can skip around on the time line too. No buffering or slow downs. I’m very happy.
Question: how do I know the output is 4k. On the shield my TV would recognise the 2160p signal vs the Gui 1080p. But with the 4k the TV still remains in 1080p
Do you have refresh rate switching enabled ?
Great tip. Thanks