OSMC Vero V Review

Help and Support Vero V
130

I’m consistently refreshing the store page to see when it shows up! I will be buying as soon as it does given the stellar experience I’ve had with the 4K+ and the superlative support from OSMC.

131

Dude. First, chill. Second, autocorrect and spell check are your friends.

This device is a media player. You only need enough bandwidth to reliably play media. 4K UHD Blu-ray’s currently represent the worst-case scenario for bandwidth requirements. None of them require anything above 200Mbit/sec (most require vastly less). Future codecs are likely to shrink this requirement, not expand it.

You’re making muchado about nothing. If you somehow can imagine a bizarre scenario where you need more bandwidth, use the Ethernet cable; that’s what it’s there for. However, unless you’re trying to stream uncompressed video (which would be stupid on any kind of WiFi), the provided WiFi is more than enough for anything that is available now or in the projected future.

2 Likes
132

What about temperature by demanding videos?

I had some cases where the 4k+ got quite warm during playback

Thx

133

You would have to disable hardware decoding and play a high resolution file for this to become an issue. The cooling is a bit better than the 4K as the heatsink is now at the top instead of the bottom and the heat spreader has a bit more surface area than the old design.

2 Likes
134

Is anyone ever going to answer my questions about how the Vero V’s deinterlacing compares to the 4K’s, whether it fixes the problem of 25fps videos stuttering when output at 50Hz, and whether there are any improvements to upscaling? If you’re expecting me to make a decision about buying one, I need to know stuff like this! I’d also like to know what the current resolution limits are on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, etc. (I realise these could change without warning).

135

I’ve not spent a lot of time comparing 4k output with V output. Too many other things to do. I’ve certainly not noticed any regressions with those BBC title clips. One specific datapoint though - I did compare the V’s upscaling of live SDTV with that on my Philips OLED and it’s as least as good as the TV.

1 Like
136

I’ll be testing all that on delivery day. To my pleasant surprise, OSMC Kodi 20.2 on an old Pi 3 supports hardware accelerated playback of both h264 and VC-1 with GUI option for disabling deinterlacing. I think this was broken in 19.x, and I had kept one around with K18. So I’ll be looking at progressive 50i content to see how they compare. I’m hopeful that the Vero V will at least manage perfect 25p for VC-1. Remains to be seen how the default performs for that and h264. The Pi will be my benchmark as I can get perfect 25p for both codecs when deinterlacing is disabled for appropriate content.

137

Here are some test clips that I use, @ac16161 .

Things to look for:

  • 480i_60_deinterlace_test_fixed and 1080i_deinterlace_test: try playing them with software decoding and deinterlacing set to Off to see what they should look like. (They’re mpeg2 480i/60 and VC-1 1080i/60 respectively). Then compare to what you get with hardware decoding and (in the latter case) deinterlacing set to Auto.

  • The Bleak House extract is one of those irritating BBC titles that has been standards-converted to 60Hz. It should play at 60Hz and as if it were field-interlaced; look for signs of combing, e.g. on candle flames.

(All other clips are 50Hz).

  • The Cranford extract is 1080i/50 VC-1. It starts as 25p and then switches to 50i for the credits. Look for shimmering in Jonathan Pryce’s eyebrows or combing in the credits.

  • The Earthshock bit is mpeg2 (576i/50) and switches repeatedly between frame-interlaced for the outdoor scenes and field-interlaced for the underground or indoor sections. Watch for combing in the studio shots.

  • Little Dorrit “entering credits” is similar to the Cranford piece - 25p transitioning to 50i. 1080i/50 VC-1.

  • Little Dorrit “piano extract” is a basic test for something that’s frame-interlaced - watch for the gold box on the side of the piano and the reflections along the edges of the piano cabinet, see if there’s any stair-stepping. 1080i/50 VC-1.

  • The Luther clip is 1080i/50 h.264 - watch for shimmering on the folders and the phone on Luther’s desk.

  • The Peaky Blinders clip is h.264 - watch for a moire-like pattern in the brick wall in the background.

  • The Planet Earth clip is a good one for showing the stutter that happens when a 25fps video is played at 50Hz. To see what it should look like, set deinterlacing to Off and change output mode to 1080p/25Hz. (You may need to restart the video). Note how smooth the camera motion is. Then try playing it with deinterlacing set to Auto and the output mode set to 1080p/50Hz - see if the motion is equally smooth. (It’s worth playing this a few times - the Vero 4K stutters about 50% of the time).

  • The Sherlock clip is 1080i/50 h.264. Watch the pattern in Mycroft’s grey suit from about 00:30 onwards.

  • The Eleventh Hour is another 25p transitioning to 50i VC-1 clip, except that the actual credits are field-interlaced, but are displayed over a frame-interlaced background.

  • The Timeflight clip is a good one for showing the lack of diagonal filtering. Try playing it in software with deinterlacing set to Deinterlace. Then try playing it in hardware: watch for the row of dark pixels at the top left flickering, and for ugly jaggies on the TARDIS control console at about 00:12 and 00:35.

4 Likes
138

I’ve downloaded this and will store it on our server’s test clips section for future use.

1 Like
139

Looks like we’re both fans of Dr Who and Sherlock. I’ve never looked that closely at deinterlacing performance for SD field-interlaced content such as the Timeflight clip, though I’m watching the growing collection of HD upscales in my main system to benefit from the new surround mixes where available, so I’ll be looking at those with interest to see how they compare with my Panny DP-UB820, and will also take a look at a few of your examples (my own go-to scene for VC-1 is the first 10mins of Time of Angels).

140

i’m not a huge fan of the grey sides. i had chosen for a full black box like the vero 4K. . it’s now kinda like a iptv-box.

1 Like
141

That clip is designed to highlight the absence of diagonal filtering - a problem that also affects 1080i material, but isn’t quite so easy to spot. It’s a pet niggle of mine, in that it used to be correctly enabled on the Vero 4K under the 3.14 kernel, but hasn’t worked since the switch to 4.9.

1 Like
142

Can anyone confirm that the V is not affected by the CEC issue described in HDMI-CEC seems to stop working after a couple of hours - #228 by ptodic?

143

I haven’t run across any yet and I’m running it into a Denon AVR connected to an LG TV. These two devices seems to be among the most frequently reported to behave badly with the Vero 4K/4K+. I don’t remember seeing any CEC issues reported in team testing by anyone else either.

I’m not much of a fan of the black and grey look either because to my eyes it tends to look a bit cheap, but honestly in person it looks quite a bit different than it does on some of the pictures I’ve seen. The grey part in person looks closer to a sandblasted aluminum in appearance than a shiney neutral grey. In any event, I am happy to report that in my testing the color scheme seems to have a negligible impact on the performance and reliability of this new media player.

2 Likes
144

There are more photos at Vero - OSMC which will give you a better view.

145

Been signed up to the newsletter since I joined the forum after getting the 4k+. Don’t seem to recall getting any though. I can’t see an option to say don’t send it or anything in my profile. Can you check I’m on the list as signed up again after first hearing about the V so wondering if it’s done to that it something?

146

When did you sign up to the Newsletter?
I haven’t sent an email for a few months.

Sam

147

When I joined 968 days ago profile says, then again after thinking I couldn’t recall seeing any, could be wrong though getting old and dafter, and again after first mention to V orders would go the newsletter recipients first.

148

If you haven’t received a newsletter in over three years, I don’t think you are subscribed.

Try subscribe again with another email

Sam

149

I’ve been refreshing the store all day nor received an email with a link to purchase.
Have any emails been sent out?
TIA