Android hardware

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For most high-definition videos (1080p or higher resolution), hardware video decoding is necessary for smooth video playback on Android devices. And this article contains a list of SoC chipset hardware, (SoC stands for "System on a Chip" which contain the CPU plus GPU and VPU circuits combination, and is also known as a "chipset"), as on Android platforms this SoC chipset is what can playback common video codecs smoothly using Kodi.

The fact is, while some devices might be able to smoothly decode standard-definition videos and even some 720p or higher resolution videos using only software video decoding with raw CPU compute power, offloading a large part of video decoding tasks to an integrated VPU (Video Processor Unit) that is optimized specifically for this job is considered essential for most Android devices to be able to smoothly playback high definition videos.

Basic requirements

Stop hand.png It is highly recommended for users to not make any hardware purchases in anticipation of running Kodi on Android without first researching the device you want to buy. Before you do buy, make sure multiple people have verified that it works! If in doubt, do not buy any hardware!
  • Kodi v17 and later requires Android 5.0 or higher.
  • x86 (Intel) or a NEON-compatible ARM-processor, (for example: Nvidia Tegra 3 and newer are fully supported by Kodi, while Tegra 2 and older are not).
  • The main aim for the Android port of Kodi is to foremost target media-players/set-top-boxes/sticks that connect to a large screen television and uses a standard remote control as its main interface device, (that is the same market as for HTPC).

How do I know what chipset I have?

There are so many out there so it can something be difficult to find out, but these are some good websites for looking up the SoC (System on a Chip) chipset used in your Android hardware device:

Also as a reference you can compare different SoC (System on a Chip) chipset specifications on system-on-a-chip.findthebest.com as well as in http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GT7I4P8MDlfYvRaL9Wv0NplQJryl54pO_6-9P3g7Fvk/

Compatible chipsets

These specific mass-market hardware SoC chipsets listed below should be capable at least partial hardware accelerated video decoding support for the more popular video codecs in the latest official Kodi builds for Android. However understand that for some devices you might first need to upgrade the hardware firmware image on the device to achieve smooth playback at 1080p or higher resolution. Please contact your hardware manufacturer support for an updated system update firmware and apply that upgrade image before installing Kodi.

Editor note: Please only list devices that are able to play at least one of the five most popular video codecs under the "hardware video decoding" columns in Full HD (1080p) resolution. Codecs that are less commonly used are currently not listed here.[1]

A " Yes " mark indicates that SoC (System-on-a-Chip) chipset should be able to hardware decode those codecs at least 1080p.
Chip
manufacturer
SoC chipset Examples of Android media players and development boards using these SoC chipsets with Kodi support Hardware video decoding Notes
H.264 MPEG-2 VC-1 / WMV 9 HEVC [2] (H.265) VP9
ALi M3773 Uyesee L100T2 Maybe[3] ? ? ? ? [4]
Allwinner A31 / A31s / A33 Justop Quadro, Mele A1000G/M8/M9, Measy B4K/U4K, VidOn Box, VidOn.me AV200 Maybe[4] ? ? No No [4]
Allwinner A80 / A83T Tronsmart Draco AW80, Rikomagic MK80 Maybe[4] ? ? No No [4]
Allwinner H3 / H8 Orange Pi 2, Orange Pi Plus, Inphic i8 Maybe[4] ? ? ?[3] ? [4][5]
Allwinner A64 / H64 Nobel64 Development Board Maybe[4] ? ? ?[3] ? [4][5]
Broadcom BCM2836 Raspberry Pi 2 (2015) ?[4] ?[4] ?[4] No No
Broadcom BCM28145 / BCM28155 Amazon Fire TV Stick (2014) Yes Yes ? No No
Broadcom BCM7250 / BCM7252 / BCM72502 Smart Labs SML-482, Freebox Mini 4K Maybe[4] ? ? ?[3] ? [4][5]
Amlogic AML8726-M1 / AML8726-M3 / AML8726-M6 / AML8726-MX / AML8726-MXS / AML8726-MXL Pivos XIOS DS/XS, GameStick (by PlayJam), Geniatech ATV1220/ATV520/ATV1610, MyGica ATV420/ATV500/ATV1610, JynxBox M1/M6, Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2, WeTek Play Yes Yes Yes No No
Amlogic S801 / M802 / S802 / M802 (formerly AML8726-M8) Geniatech ATV582 / MyGica ATV582, Minix Neo X8/X8-H, Eny Technology ES8, Tronsmart Vega S89/S89-H, Beelink S82/S82H/M8, XiaoMi Mi Box Pro/Enhanced (third-generation XiaoMi Mi Box) Yes Yes Yes No No
Amlogic S805 / M805 / S806 / M806 / S812 Eny Technology EM9/M8S/M8C/EM6Q-MXQ, Geniatech ATV585/ATV1810 / MyGica ATV585/ATV1810, Minix NEO X6 /X8-H Plus, Ugoos S85, Sumvision Cyclone X4, Xtreamer Wonder, ODROID-C1 Yes Yes Yes Yes ? [5]
Amlogic S905 / S912 ? ? ? ? ?
Freescale i.MX 6 series (i.MX6 / i.MX6S / i.MX6SL / i.MX6D / i.MX6DL / i.MX6Q) SolidRun CuBox-i, SolidRun HummingBoard, UDOO Neo/Duo/Quad, Wandboard Solo/Dual/Quad No[3] No[3] No[3] No No [3]
HiSilicon Hi3798C / Hi3798M HiMedia H7-II/M3/Q5-IV/Q10-IV Maybe[4] ?[3] ?[3] ?[3] ? [3][5]
Intel Atom E3815 / E3825 Intel MinnowBoard MAX Development Board Maybe[4] ? ? No No
Intel Atom x3 / x5 / x7 (x3-C3130 / x3-C3230RK / x3-C3440 / x5-8300 / x5-8500 / x7-8700) Maybe ? ? ? ?
Intel Atom Z3530 / Z3560 / Z3580 / Z3735 Google Nexus Player, Minix Neo Z64 Yes No No No No
Intel Celeron N3000 / N3050 / N3150, and Pentium N3700 Maybe ? ? ? ?
MediaTek MTK6589 / MT6589 / MT6589T / MT6589M Maybe[4] ? ? No No [4]
MediaTek MT8685 / MT8685A / MT8685B UTStarcom MT8685/MC8685A/MC8685B, Xiaomi Mi Box Mini Maybe[4] ? ? ?[3] ? [4][5]
MStar MSO9180 / MSO9180D1R / MSO9810 Kaiboer F5/Q6/C9-M, MeLE V10/X2000, UyeSee T1H, Xtreamer Prodigy, Zidoo X9 Yes Yes ? ?[3] ? [5]
Nvidia Tegra 3 OUYA Yes No No No No
Nvidia Tegra 4 / Tegra 4i / Tegra 4s ZTE FunBox, Mad Catz M.O.J.O., NanoTech Nuvola NP-1 / NP-C / NP-H1, UTStarcom MC8768, Google ADT-1 (Android TV Developer Kit), Nvidia SHIELD Portable Yes Yes
(CPU)
? No No
Nvidia Tegra K1 (TK1) Unuiga Game PC U1, Snail Games OBox, UTStarcom MC8718, Nvidia SHIELD Tablet Yes Yes
(CPU)
? No No
Nvidia Tegra X1 (TX1) Nvidia SHIELD Console Yes Yes
(CPU)
? ?[3] ? [5]
Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 DragonBoard 410c Nobel64 Development Board ? ? ? No No
Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Amazon Fire TV (2014), Compulab Utilite2 Yes Yes ? No No
Qualcomm Snapdragon 610 / 615 Maybe[4] ? ? ?[3] ? [5]
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 / 801 / 805 Razor Forge TV Maybe[4] ? ? No No
Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 / 810 Maybe[4] ? ? ?[3] ? [5]
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Yes ? ? No No
Realtek 1195 (RTD1195) No[3] No[3] No[3] ?[3] ? [4][5]
Rockchip RK3066 Imito MX1/MX2, Minix NeoG4/X5, MK808/802, Ugoos UG802/UG007 Yes ? No No No
Rockchip RK3188 Jesurun DX05, Minix X7, MK802IV, MK809III, MK902, Ugoos UG007B, Tronsmart T428/MK908, CS968, CR11s, J22, GM282, LT88, T-R42, CS919-II, K-R42, CS918, MK888 Yes Yes
(CPU)
? No No [6]
Rockchip RK3036 / RK3126 / RK3128 Eny Technology EKB318 Yes ? ? Yes ? [5]
Rockchip RK3036 / RK3126 / RK3128 / RK3288 Firefly-RK3288, ChipSpark PopMetal, Uyesee G1H, Nagrace HPH NT-V6, Eny Technology EKB328, Kingnovel R6/K-R68, Beelink R28, Ugoos UT3/UM3, Rikomagic MK902 II, Measy B4S, CloudMedia OpenHour, CloudnetGo CR12/CR13CR16, Tronsmart Orion R28, Youku Box K1, Unuiga Game Box 19-6R Yes Yes
(CPU)
? Yes ? [5]
Rockchip RK3368 Maybe ? ? ?[3] ? [5]
Samsung Exynos 3 Single (formerly Exynos 3110) Yes ? ? No No
Samsung Exynos 4 Dual/Quad series (formerly Exynos 4210 / 4212 /4412) ODROID-U3/U2/X2 Yes Yes
(CPU)
Yes
(CPU)
No No
Samsung Exynos 5 Hexa/Octa series (Exynos 5260 / 5410/ 5420 / 5422) ODROID-XU/XU2, ODROID-XU3/XU3 Lite, Arndale Octa Yes Yes
(CPU)
Yes
(CPU)
No No
Samsung Exynos 7 Octa series (Exynos 7410 / 7420) Maybe ? ? ? ?
Texas Instruments OMAP4430 / OMAP4440 / OMAP5430 / OMAP5432 Yes ? ? No No

Common codecs currently without hardware decoding in Kodi

Videos encoded with these codecs can only be played back in Kodi using software video decoding using CPU, meaning no decoding tasks are offloaded to optimized VPU or GPU hardware. Many videos may still play back just fine at standard definition resolutions, while others might have severe issues with playback.

As platforms with faster CPUs come out for Android software video decoding using CPU will get better, but do not expect miracles from the average Android box. It still all can depend on how demanding the decoding of that particular video encoding is or how high resolution it uses, and how powerful the CPU is.

  • H.264 Hi10P - No hardware decoders for Hi10P (High 10 Profile, also known 10-bit H.264) currently exist for any ARM hardware. Most H.264 Hi10P videos will not play smoothly as most ARM CPUs are just not powerful enough to software decode it fast enough.
  • H.264 MVC - No open source software decoder or hardware decoding for MVC (Multiview Video Coding) stereoscopic 3D video decoding currently exist for Kodi on any platform. Kodi relies on FFmpeg for software demuxing and decoding, so Kodi have to wait for FFmpeg to first add software decoding support of MVC for H.264, and for hardware decoding Kodi relies on the SoC chipset hardware manufacturer to add support for this to their SDK (Software Developer Kits) and for the media player box manufacturers to implement that into their firmware images.
  • H.265 MVC (HEVC MVC) - No open source software decoder or hardware decoding for MVC (Multiview Video Coding) stereoscopic 3D video decoding currently exist for Kodi on any platform. Kodi relies on FFmpeg for software demuxing and decoding, so Kodi have to wait for FFmpeg to first add software decoding support of MVC for H.265 (HEVC), and for hardware decoding Kodi relies on the SoC chipset hardware manufacturer to add support for this to their SDK (Software Developer Kits) and for the media player box manufacturers to implement that into their firmware images.
  • RealVideo/RMVB (RV 8/9/10) - There is currently no support in Kodi for RealVideo hardware video decoding, though software decoding of RMVB videos is possible via FFmpeg but can struggle with high definition sources on older or low-end hardware.
  • VP8 (WebM v1 video) and VP9 (WebM v2 video) - There is currently no support in Kodi for VP8 hardware video decoding, though software decoding of VP8 videos is possible via FFmpeg but can struggle with high definition sources on older or low-end hardware. Most hardware manufacturers have not even implemented API support for VP8 decoding in the firmware images of Android for their devices, and this is despite the fact that the WebM project licenses VP8 hardware accelerators (RTL IP) to semiconductor companies for 1080p encoding and decoding at zero cost. Nvidia and Rockchip and a few other less known companies does however provide hardware decoding of VP8 in their SoCs, for Tegra 4 and RK29xx respectivly. ARM, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm as well as ZiiLABS, ST-Ericsson, and Huawei have all announced upcoming support for hardware acceleration of the WebM format and VP8/VP9 codecs. Intel have also let its intention known that they will add hardware-based acceleration for WebM and VP8/VP9 codecs in its future Atom-based chips if the format gains popularity.

Notes

  1. Such as VP8 (WebM v1), Xiph Theora (VP3/Ogg), On2 TrueMotion VP6, and RealVideo/RMVB (RV 8/9/10)
  2. Hardware accelerated decode of HEVC (H.265) encoded video should include both 8-bit and 10-bit decoding support of HEVC. This will ensure maximum compatibility for any video playback capabilities on the platforms listed in the table. Some hardware only feature 8-but support and can therefor not properly decode the additional 10-bit information, thus should not be listed here. Example of hardware only capable of accelerated decode of 8-bit HEVC is Intel 4th Generation Intel Core Processors with HD graphics 5000/4600/4400, Iris graphics 5100, Iris Pro graphics 5200, you can read more about that here: http://communities.intel.com/thread/59216
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 While this hardware does support hardware video decoding for most common codecs, there is not yet official implementation for its VPU offloading in Kodi on Android. There is no ETA on when of if Kodi will add official support for it on Android, so recommendation is not to buy one if you main reason for will will be using Kodi on Android.
  4. 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 There are mixed reports about reliability of hardware video decoding support in official Kodi on these SoCs. Until users can reliably confirm hardware video decoding, do not assume that is will work as it you would normally expect.
  5. 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 HEVC (H.265) support in any versions of Kodi should be considered slightly experimental.
  6. Some devices might need an updated firmware system update image from the hardware manufacturer for smooth 1080p playback.

Device specific info

Here are a few device-specific guides/help areas that the community has provided.

Emblem-important-yellow.png NOTICE:
These are community maintained pages and should not be seen as an endorsement of any specific type of hardware.