Vero V - Thoughts after a week

Feature Requests
1

Hello!

First I’d like to congratulate Sam and the team on OSMC and the Vero V. Truly a wonderful product.

I thought I’d share some thoughts I had on the user experience after a week as a first-time Kodi user via the Vero V. There’s a lot here and I know a lot of these are ailments cured by scouring forums and learning, so pardon if this comes across as at all entitled.

FYI - The HDMI CEC section is the most critical “flaw” identified in these notes. That one almost lead to me investigating a return :frowning:

  • Have a dialogue walkthrough of OSMC remote functions

    • Took me 2 days to realize the OSMC skin had alternate Views instead of the default list

  • Have a dialogue walkthrough of connecting to your first source and establishing its content type

    • Took me a day to realize the “Videos” menu section > storage file browser wasn’t the intended way to browse movies

  • New OSMC-specific GUI Sounds? :face_vomiting:

    • i.e. when selecting OSMC skin instead of Embruary - change to nicer default GUI sounds

    • Doing a bunch of navigation in quick succession only emits the occasional GUI sound

      • Gives the impression the device is slow

  • Suggested Default Views

    • Movies - Wide low info

    • TV Show - Wide Low Info

      • Season Select - Wide Low

        • Episode has no view options (which frankly is ok because the default one is good)

  • Add ClearLogo to OSMC Skin

    • Add to browsing views and player OSD

  • Add Media Flag Icons to OSMC Skin

    • Add to browsing views and player OSD

  • Navigating the video OSD feels abnormally unresponsive relative to the rest of the OS

  • Default CEC Settings (The Big One)

    • Disable anything that might request connected HDMI device to change input

      • Also disable these commands while editing settings

      • The Vero kicks my Soundbar into it’s eARC input seemingly for any reason you could possibly imagine

      • Made the initial setup incredibly frustrating/made me consider returning

      • Replace “ok” with “apply” if “ok” is actually applying settings and hitting the back button is discarding

      • Specify if/when reboot is required

    • Connected to HDMI Device + HDMI Port Number frequently disappears from CEC settings

      • Showed after I cycled through settings difficulty levels

      • Disappeared again after reboot :thinking:

    • Definitions for CEC settings

      • There is some mighty confusing verbiage here

    • upon initiating playback - lose signal/CEC input change

      • Refresh rate adjustment failure?

      • Possibly fixed by a CEC reset via unplugging at mains

  • Reconsider “Basic/Advanced/Expert” Settings Visibility

    • I assume this is the default Kodi structure? A lot of “Basic” settings are hidden behind “Expert”

      • OSMC skin could have it’s own curated/organization of settings options?

  • Rethink the action bar at the Bottom of screen

    • Only way to navigate to a menu at the bottom of the screen with remote is to navigate right?

  • Overscan Recognition

    • Vero V > Samsung Q990D > Samsung S90D

    • TV’s “Auto” overscan recognition not compatible with Vero V

      • Setting it to “On” instead of “Auto” works

  • Why is Marcelveldt’s repository a manual install?

    • Up Next is a major QOL enhancement - should be included?

      • Is it not included here because it’s not included in Kodi? (pardon my ignorance)

    • What exactly is skin helper? “Recommended” suggests I should install it, but it doesn’t exactly tell me why

  • Music Compatibility?

    • Set Content - only option is “Music Videos” not “Music” with OSMC skin

    • Skipping when playing back any music (FLAC)

  • Player OSD - “Set Default for All Media”

    • Allow option for TV Shows “Set default for this show”

      • Is this the way it works when you don’t select set default and just hit OK?

  • Settings > Media > Videos > Select first unwatched TV Show Season/Episode”

    • This should be default for any show that’s “in progress”

    • It goes to the most recent season, but you have to select the season to get to the most recent episode

      • Should just go straight to most recent episode

  • Widget Artwork - Poster not available?

    • Videos > Pre-configured widgets > Movies > Recently Played Movies

      • JK - it shows up after watching something

3 Likes
2

You’ve had a busy week! Much of the above is what we all experienced on first contact with Kodi.

Some useful suggestions though, thank you.

2 Likes
3

While I don’t agree with your default settings, it would be really nice to have the Vero V act like other streaming devices. Wake/Sleep and then CEC that turns on/off connected devices with other options available.

I’d agree there’s some things with the Vero V they should do to take it beyond just a device that has Kodi running with the OSMC skin. A few addons installed like Up Next and the recommended addons. Just install them if you’re recommending them and it’s your device. More settings having default items set, like refresh rate switching and passthrough audio set would make it easier for new device owners to have more “correct” settings from the jump instead of them also spending an hour configuring it properly because Kodi.

2 Likes