OSMC Vero V Review

thanks for the link. I installed https://ftp.fau.de/osmc/osmc/download//installers/diskimages/OSMC_TGT_vero3_20201227.img.gz on a spare 4K, and my goodness, what an improvement on interlaced MPEG2. I see now why @angry.sardine has kept pushing on this. Much better than the current image for the V. It’s not ideal for me to run a K18.9 box given I have a shared database, but the current OSMC on a Pi 3 is delivering similar MPEG2 performance to 18.9 on a V4K, so between them they’ll cover my MPEG2 playback needs pending an update for the V or 4K.

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It’s nice to have at least one person agreeing with me. :smiling_face_with_tear:

The lack of diagonal filtering since the change to the 4.9 kernel doesn’t just affect MPEG2, incidentally, it affects VC-1 and h.264 as well; but when the source is 1080i rather than SD, the effect isn’t quite so in-your-face obvious.

To be fair, the deinterlacing quality with software decoding (on the 4K+ and I assume also on the V) is much closer to what you used to get in hardware with the 3.14 kernel, although software decoding does occasionally produce other issues.

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“£149 is the introductory price. That’s what we will allow customers to place an order at. Then, when we have to, we reserve the right to / may need to raise the price.”

Hope you don’t raise the price, rather do sales at lower prices.

Got my Vero V from PiShop.us today, updated the f/w, and did several tests, comparing with my 4K+, Fire Cube 3, and Zidoo Z9X (and Pro). Overall, I’m happy with V… it’s snappier than 4K+, but not by as much a big factor as I’d expected. Still, I’ll take the performance boost over 4K+. Guess I’ve become spoiled with Cube 3’s performance, which is even better than Shield TV Pro’s. Cube 3 does everything + premium streaming, just not 3D MVC. All HDR formats, HD/object-based audio passthrough, and it’s fast/powerful.

With Vero V, 3D MVC and ISO’s seem to work very well; tried several random titles. 3D ISO seeking & chapter skips are no longer laggy like with 4K+. Didn’t get a chance to check (yet) if macroblocking issues still exist w/‘Avatar’, ‘Gravity’, ‘Ready Player One’ & ‘A Christmas Carol’ like w/4K+. Has anyone?

So, why am I saying don’t raise the price, and in fact consider lowering it?! Other than 3D, most S905X4 boxes with CoreELEC will perform as well as V for 1/4 the price, and a couple will even support Dolby Vision (which V doesn’t) for $50 or so less than V. For 3D, I could just as well keep Zidoo Z9X or Z9X pro, or even Dune Real Vision HD Plus, for a bit more and get 3D + all HDR formats + VS10 engine. So, Vero’s V value prop isn’t as good in comparison. Having said this, I’m considering keeping just my Fire Cube 3 for most videos, and Vero V mostly for 3D, and getting rid of my Zidoo’s. But, for others, it could be not worth springing for V because of the price in comparison to what they’re getting with a cheap S905X4 box w/CoreELEC or a Zidoo/Dune, especially if 3D isn’t a factor. Other than 3D (which is a big deal for me, but probably not many others), V doesn’t provide any added value IMHO over a cheap S905X4 box w/CoreELEC.

Unfortunately yes, it still exists. The decoder firmware is either the same or has the same issue :frowning: .

To be very honest - I have never seen a product on the market which such return on investment over years (and I’m speaking 5+ here). The OSMC Team really does an amazing job and is providing the best support in the industry. All the big players bring out a new version of their money making device and forget about the old ones. And that only makes me move to OSMC.

Only thing I miss now is a better UI for Netflix running on it and the possibility to OOTB add a device through bluetooth to listen to my music (phone or whatever).

@sam_nazarko, will this be addressed in future batches?

Maybe I’m dense, but what exactly is the issue with the underside of the Vero V and why is there a concern about a side of the player that isn’t normally on public display?

How can we improve the BT experience? Can you detail how you would like it to work?

It looks like this:

It should look like this:

Wow, the things people concern themselves with. :grin:

The location of the feet are dictated by where the screws under them are located to hold the unit together. The circuit board is located above where you moved the hole to so that change would require a major redesign for both the case and the motherboard. That would be a lot of faff just so a couple people could feel better knowing they have symmetrical feet on their media player.

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Well, like with any Bluetooth device (Car, loudspeaker).
You connect to the Vero (seen as bluetooth device), and playback music through it - which the vero sends to the audio out.

:slight_smile: Thx. …

You’ve seen this, right?

Note you can’t make Vero discoverable and pair from your phone, you need to pair from Vero.

Thatś the point. it should be discoverable by the phone,

Well we could add that, but I’ve never thought it would be useful. You would still have to turn discoverable on at one device and pair from the other device. What am I missing?

Once you’ve paired and each device trusts the other, you just connect from the phone like you would with a BT speaker.

Cool. Never realized it worked like that. Will test it out :slight_smile:

£149 is the absolute lowest price we will ever sell the device at. It will increase.

If you want to keep buying cheap boxes and running CoreELEC then you can do so… but that becomes quite expensive when you have to do it every year. The hardware will have inconsistent and unreliable parts that are frequently chopped and changed and when CoreELEC decide that device isn’t the flavour of the month, they soon deprecate support.

That’s not CE’s fault — they do what they can. But if you run CE on a supported, branded SBC, you’ll find that it’s a similar price to Vero, albeit with non existent support obligations and a less integrated experience.

There’s a lot more coming to OSMC and Vero and that requires investment to achieve. I won’t lower the price to sell more units at a cost of poor support for the customer.

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet

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Definitely understand your point, and @Smurphy’s. My point was price/value of V (essentially a little over $200) compared to options out there. To me at least, if not for 3D, it would be another story.

Options usually become way more expensive if they are short lived. And “China stuff” usually is a “one hit wonder” lasting a short season. Before the Vero devices, I changed Raspberry PI’s and other devices on a per year base. Now, I have 3 Vero 4 and one Vero V (Not counting the very old Vero 2 I have and still using in the basement). Thing is - they just work, they are open, you can do whatever you want with the device as you can access the CLI at any time, and there is still updates for these pieces. That IMHO is priceless!

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Door to door - the Vero V is currently $180 inclusive of delivery and customs fees from our store. Over an expected five years of support (60 months) that equates to $3 a month or 10 cents a day on average.

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Again, understand both your points. On China devices, Vero V is one as well, just with better software and great support. Still have several S912, S922 and S905X4 China boxes working reliably well with CoreELEC :). No 3D MVC of course, but rest, yes.

For me, Vero V is worth it just for 3D out of a pure Kodi expereince. May sell my Zidoo boxes as I rely on Fire Cube 3 for all 4K HDR formats being supported and more everyday use.

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