Questions about Vero4k before buy

Hello,
I am almost sure to buy Vero 4k, but wanna to ask few things:

  1. Is there correct support of displaying external *.sub or *.srt subtitles (with same name as video files), or integrated in mp4 or mkv files, with central european or eastern european alphabet encoding?

  2. Can Vero 4k send audio output to both, HDMI and Toslink connectors at once, or it is required to set audio out to particular output? So far, on my old HTPC, I have two accounts in KODI, each with different settings of audio out - Toslink optical or HDMI. Depending from what I want to watch, I will log into that account.

  3. I want to connect and external HDD, where my media files will be. I plan to connect it also to windows PC, for transferring files to playback on Vero 4k. It is okay to have it formatted to NTFS? Or another filesystem is needed, as Vero 4k runs on linux?

  4. Can I assign a static IP address when I connect Vero 4k by Wifi? I dont plan to use LAN cable, just wifi only.

  5. Can be audio files played from the iPhone through Vero 4k’s bluetooth?

Thanks

Yes, see Kodi Subtitle capabilities https://kodi.wiki/view/Subtitles

I think yes, but @grahamh may know better

Yes, the Vero can read/write NTFS

Yes

Yes, the Vero supports a2dp but it is in testing stage and functionality may change till it is in stable stage.

Yes – audio via SPDIF and HDMI is default; but there is a mute HDMI option for those that want optical out only. So ideally you’d set channels to 2.0; enable AC3 and Dolby Digital passthrough and things would work smoothly.

The disk should automatically br visible once it’s plugged in.
NTFS is usable, but doesn’t always deliver the best performance, so if you were running things like a torrent client on Vero 4K, I’d suggest a different filesystem. Streaming will be acceptable.

Quite – this is a work in progress but we are regularly improving it.

Do let us know if you have any questions

So, if I getting it right, when I set it this way, it will send mp3 stereo to HDMI and AC3 5.1 or DTS to SPDIF?

I want just to watch videos, listen to internet radios or mp3 and viewing photos.
If it will work with NTFS with sufficient performance, its just fine.

I assume the problem is with underlying Linux NTFS drivers. Because of this, the performance is lower, but sufficient to playback. I have encountered this on OpenELEC in my HTPC. With NTFS, HDD can write only 30-40MB/s, reading was normally at 80-90. After I format it to ext3, all speeds was OK, at 80-90MB/s.

You have to set channels to 2.0 to get kodi to transcode 5.1 into an AC3 stream, which is then sent simultaneously to HDMI and S/PDIF.

If you set channels to 5.1, you will get 5.1 PCM via HDMI and front channels only on S/PDIF.

Correct. We use FUSE (a userspace implementation) for NTFS, which has its performance penalties.

I have two NTFS formatted HDD’s connected to my Vero 4K for my UHD content,
for playback at least they perform perfectly, the odd very high bitrate UHD movies that wouldn’t play back from my server via the ethernet connection are spot on via the NTFS hard drives.

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As far as I know, this is a thing with every such Linux distro fight with. Nothing better exist so far (except formatting the drive to ext filesystems), so we must live with it.
But as long as it is sufficient ho playback 1080p content, its fine. And when it handles also UHD content, its even better :slight_smile:

Regarding that audio settings, its not what I exactly wanted. But it is not a big problem, I will set it like I have it so far…
One user account in KODI for output via HDMI (regardless if stereo or 5.1) and second one for output via SPDIF.

Can someone tell, how fluent and fast is KODI GUI? My current HTPC is Athlon 5350 AM1 socket, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 120GB SSD for system. It have no problem with lags, stuttering…the only place where it stutters is when playing music while browsing files, and running milkdrop visualisation on background.

Milkdrop / ProjectM don’t work on GLES platforms, such as Vero 4K. See ProjectM visualization.

Otherwise the GUI should be snappy.

Until about 18 months ago I ran an almost identical HTPC (mine had 4GB RAM though), running the default Estuary skin my Vero 4K is as snappy (if not more so) as the Athlon 5350 was.
I did use the high powered Aeon Madnox skin on the Athlon but that was because I never liked Confluence, since Estuary became the default skin which I really like all my Kodi devices run that, so I’m not sure how the Vero would run with a high powered skin but I’d guess it would be ok as my several years ago Ion based HTPC managed Aeon Nox just fine which was before the two skin devs split and Aeon Nox was a high performance skin

hmm, then, its possible to listen to mp3 or internet radio, with tv off? Will vero 4k handle it normally and will continue playback without any display?
I use those visualisations running on my tv, so I will avoid plasma tv problems with still picture (surely will know what i mean :slight_smile: ) Snappy GUI for a while, when I pause, stop or change music track is no issue.

I am currently using mimic skin on that HTPC and it works fluent, without lags :slight_smile:

I don’t know that skin but I should add my ripped media library has been built up over a decade or so and currently stands at around 1200 movies, over 100 TV shows and god knows how much music, which the GUI is handling without missing a beat

Oh, thats quite huge one…I am copying only few movies and tv series which i want to watch. the rest in on my stored backup drives. Considering your size of library, there will be no problem with mine :slight_smile:

yes

Madnox is OK I believe. A few users are using it.

@shiro35 you seem an experienced Kodi user so I’m sure you know this already but…….
No two Kodi users and installs are alike and its not a consumer ready all singing all dancing out of the box appliance with a certain amount of user input needed to get it working how you want.
I have been using the software since I first soldered an Xecutor 3 chip into my original Xbox and the software was known as xbmp, I knew before ordering my Vero 4K I would run into some issues, but I have to say its the closest Kodi device I have used to a consumer ready product.
@sam_nazarko and a few other members here have been mightily quick to help out on those few issues I’ve had, I would thoroughly recommend a Vero 4K to anyone with a smattering of Kodi experience, the owner and community make it one of my favourite tech purchases for many a year :slight_smile:

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Sure, I understand. I have used Mediaportal before and using KODI since its been XBMC v12 or 13. I just rather ask in advance for important things, so I then know what its need to do. And so far, Vero 4k looks like the most out-of-the-box ready device with KODI, amongst the other boxes :slight_smile: