The anime thread sequel (it's still not as good as the Manga though),

Hey Guys, small aside I figured I'd mention the Fire TV Cube 2 is currently on sale in a few places for £70, and with the Fritsch FireTV Build of Kodi, with few minor quirks on audio passthrough, it's happily playing every series I'd backed up from disc with no issues, including the ones I tried Hi10p out on, in everything from 480-1080p with no issues; which given it was over a decade or so, are in various degrees of re-encode, file format (both different audio and video) etc.

Everything I'd stored as FLAC is getting converted on fly to DD+, and everything with basic DD or DTS plays pass through. DTS-MA/DolbyTHD seem to get down converted to DTS/DD+ (one of the quirks I mentioned, that and DTS passthrough audio seems to keep playing for a second after pausing/take a moment to catch up on skip, as though there's a buffer somewhere but its really no big deal), but that is no major loss given the bitrates DTS/DD+ formats can hit.

In years gone by I'd always ended up having to have a small HTPC to handle these via software/brute force, as media streamers etc just weren't up to the job (I went through a few trying to find one that just worked), and even just a year or two ago, nothing handled Hi10p very well, but now it appears its quite doable and quite cheaply, so much so that I am thinking of getting rid of the small NUC I had in my lounge as a media streamer, as I never used it as a PC, and all in a 15W cube unit...aka small, power efficient, cool and quiet.

Figured I'd give a friendly headsup, as I'm guessing I am not the only one who's got a HTPC to handle backups and the VOD services, and was incredibly pleasantly surprised to see the Fire Cube 'just handle it'. The Fire Sticks are better than they used to be, but they're not at that level yet, the Cube though is 'next level' so to speak, and a few benchmarks I've seen seem to put it at about comfortably twice the speed of the sticks, even the 2020 ones. :)

It also supports the usual Amazon, Netflix, Crunchyroll, Disney+ etc apps. Quite a nice device for the price and thought this info might appeal to some of you guys, as pretty sure a few of you have mentioned backing up your physical collections to media servers a few times. :) I realise in this era of VOD that's maybe less relevant than it used to be, but still nice to have a disc/local copy sometimes!

That Kodi Build for Fire devices is found here (look for Fritschfiretv):
/test-builds/android/arm/ (kodi.tv)
 
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I've tried a few different things, and with anime in particular I think it's more complicated than regular live action stuff, mainly because of subtitles.

My setup is Synology DS1815+ NAS as the server. Nvidia Shield TV as clients.

Plex - Shields run Android TV plex client. This client can't handle substation alpha subtitles (.ass format) without transcoding, or removing all formatting.

Emby - Android TV client isn't free. This also doesn't handle substation alpha subtitles properly. It removes formatting to allow direct play.

Emby server with KODI + Embuary client - This does seem to handle more or less anything I throw at it. The main downsides are that you need to configure each client individually, but Emby does store watched status data. Client also can't easily handle switching to season/show/preference etc.

Jellyfin - A spin off from Emby using open source. It's not there yet though, can't play HDR stuff properly without disabling transcode. When doing that, can't play stuff that requires transcoding at all. Maybe in the future this will be better.

Plex is actually my favourite client but the lack of sub support means I can't use it properly. KODI is the best player in terms of client support, and is preferred over Plex for that reason alone.

Nothing perfect out there though, especially if you want to sync watched status between multiple devices.
 
Yeah I know from previous experience Kodi handles media playback well, given enough processing power under the hood, and no issues with subs on anything I've tested so far, hence why I figured I'd mentioned the Fire Cube on sale; as its far cheaper than other media players I've tried in the past whilst on sale; and unlike those, it seems to 'just work'. If I had audio passthrough disabled, some of the quirks I mentioned would probably be gone also. Goes without saying its also way cheaper than building your average HTPC.

Genuinely surprised at just how well it 'just works' though, as you say anime can be demanding for various reasons, and genuinely considering getting rid of the HTPC that I have in the lounge.
In the past I always ended up ditching streamer units as they would struggle on subs, or they'd struggle with more demanding video codecs they couldn't handle in hardware etc; this unit just seems to handle anything I've thrown at it in 1080p with no issues whatsoever. Playback seems exceptionally smooth, no issues there, doesn't stutter or seem to drop frames once going; occasionally slight initial stutter as I open a video whilst it waits for the server to feed it via Wifi but once a video is loaded and buffered, works perfectly.

My files are just stored on an old low power i3-2100 based server, running OpenMediaVault and Samba shares across a number of hard drives, nothing fancy, but doesn't need to be anything more, and the shares and contained files are accessible by virtually any modern OS. Uses onboard GPU, no DGPU fitted and the CPU is rarely that heavily loaded so expect the whole thing uses 75-100W tops most of the time including the drives connected to it. These days I'd be able to get a more power economical CPU/Mobo (or device) to run it that'd be just as fast no doubt (something like an Athlon 200GE); but by the time I've gone out and spent out there, it kinda defeats any economic benefit of the power savings! :)

The headend has always been the more headache and wallet-ache inducing side of the equation :)

The Fire Cube/Fritschfiretv-build Kodi combo seems like a good solution for anyone in a similar solution, and at 15W, it doesn't need anything more than a wall wart, so would also be quite easy to carry around, or fit into a caravan or the likes; as long as you have something you can bring the media along with you on. Either way, nice to finally have a cost effective, viable alternative to a full-on HTPC head unit :)
 
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Personally I've gone through various setups over the last 15 years. For a long time I was using 2010 Mac Minis running as Plex clients and server but I retired them a couple of years ago because they were just getting to old (they are now running a kubernetes cluster under Ubuntu). I did try running Plex directly on a NAS but that had too many performance issues.

Now I run a mixture of a Dell 3040 micro PC running OpenPHT and Amazon Fire 4K sticks running Plex. Backend is Plex running on Ubuntu under VMWare (on a HP gen8 Microserver with upgraded ram and CPU) accessing data across several QNAP NASes.
I use OpenPHT on the Dell, despite it not being developed and lacking now some newer features, because I much prefer it's interface particularly with longer series (not necessarily anime). I quite strongly dislike the current Plex interface with its lack of common sense and dumbed downness compared with what it had in the past.

Of course for physical media I have two Samsung 4k Blu-ray players multiregion chipped.

I can't say I have any subtitle issues with Plex at the moment. Also I have no performance issues with the 4k fire sticks which would make me want to go for the cube or justify its extra cost. Yes it's discounted at the moment, but so is the 4k stick and with the latter being under £30 it's a steal.
 
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The new 2020 fire sticks are as powerful as the 4k one and even cheaper (albeit 1gb ram Vs 1.5, cube has 2), and by contrast the cube is a lot snappier. From previous experience I like having some overhead for scenarios where video decoding and subs might get a little excessive and result in dropped frames.

When used side by side the fire sticks and the cube are on a noticeably different level, plus the wife likes it essentially has an echo dot built in also. :)
They are all steals though and well worth a look. The cube has just offered peace of mind and handled everything the sticks couldn't previously.
 
To be honest ... i wouldn't waste the money on the cube ... it is twice the price. Having a built in echo dot is not a selling point for me as firstly I have either an echo or an echo dot in the same room as them already but most importantly secondly the fire sticks are on the main network whilst the echo's are on the IOT network which is too band width limited for streaming etc.
 
Nabeshogun said:
I never thought about people going to these lengths to watch things rather than just using a computer, or maybe a TV plugged into a computer, haha.
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I have a TV in the lounge and another in the main bedroom. My pc is in the study. Unfortunately using my pc to watch things on the TV is not possible.

As such central media server running on my NAS with a client for each TV is a requirement.
 
Why would i want to watch something on one of my computers when i could sit comfortably on the sofa, or lie on the bed, and watch something streamed to the televisions. Also the PC's pull more power than everything needed to view via streaming combined and the plex setup allows me to stream to anywhere I have an internet connection.
 
memyselfandi said:
Personally I've gone through various setups over the last 15 years. For a long time I was using 2010 Mac Minis running as Plex clients and server but I retired them a couple of years ago because they were just getting to old (they are now running a kubernetes cluster under Ubuntu). I did try running Plex directly on a NAS but that had too many performance issues.

Now I run a mixture of a Dell 3040 micro PC running OpenPHT and Amazon Fire 4K sticks running Plex. Backend is Plex running on Ubuntu under VMWare (on a HP gen8 Microserver with upgraded ram and CPU) accessing data across several QNAP NASes.
I use OpenPHT on the Dell, despite it not being developed and lacking now some newer features, because I much prefer it's interface particularly with longer series (not necessarily anime). I quite strongly dislike the current Plex interface with its lack of common sense and dumbed downness compared with what it had in the past.

Of course for physical media I have two Samsung 4k Blu-ray players multiregion chipped.

I can't say I have any subtitle issues with Plex at the moment. Also I have no performance issues with the 4k fire sticks which would make me want to go for the cube or justify its extra cost. Yes it's discounted at the moment, but so is the 4k stick and with the latter being under £30 it's a steal.
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If your Plex server is powerful enough, and depending on the client you use, subtitles may be fine. Plex running on my NAS would play them OK but would also force everything to transcode. Having a more powerful server would lessen the impact of this.

I mentioned to my friend about my sub issues and he said his was fine, but what he hadn't realised was that his client was stripping all of the formatting, colours etc from the substation alpha subtitles. You still get the text but not the fonts/colours/correct layout.

Using KODI as the client has solved this particular problem, and I can now direct play subtitles properly the vast majority of the time.

Are you 100% sure your client isn't stripping formatting from the subs?
 
memyselfandi said:
To be honest ... i wouldn't waste the money on the cube ... it is twice the price. Having a built in echo dot is not a selling point for me as firstly I have either an echo or an echo dot in the same room as them already but most importantly secondly the fire sticks are on the main network whilst the echo's are on the IOT network which is too band width limited for streaming etc.
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Yeah in your scenario that makes sense, horses for courses, if the fire sticks cover your needs then of course no reason to spend more, for me there was a decent reason for the cube, both more power and wife pleasing (plus there was no echo in the room), throw on top low power consumption compared to previous kit, win all round. It is of course a fair chunk more than the sticks :)

We are getting some interesting playback discussion now also :)

@Nabe - as Memyselfandi already said, why would I want to watch in my study/work room, when I can watch in more comfort on my lounge with a much bigger screen (which probably has a better picture), 5.1 system etc :)
 
I opted for another shield as I had one before, and I wanted a consistent playback experience if nothing else.

The primary reason I got a shield originally was for full codec support, at least more or less. At the time I got my first one it was one of the only ones capable of doing atmos, trueHD, HDR etc.

How do the fire sticks/cube handle these?
 
Atmos, DD(+), DTS they can passthrough, DDTHD and DTS MA they reencode to DD+/DTS (or PCM) dependant on your config.

Worth checking the spec sheets as they vary a bit. 4k stick and the cube can both do HDR, the plain sticks dont from memory. Edit: Tell a lie, they may have added HDR to the new 2020 stick as think it uses the revised version of the same chipset in the 4k.

Judging from performance and other specs of the cube I suspect lack of HD Audio is a licensing thing (why pay for it when it's not used by any VOD) rather actual lack of hardware.
 
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So physical client/device aside, KODI does seem to be pretty good as a player. It's more or less capable of direct playing anything I throw at it.

But I haven't really worked out how to use the interface fully yet. As my backend is Emby, the KODI + Emuary plugin effectively sync the database down from the central server.

There's quite a few options on how to manage the library and the screens, but I don't seem to have options for marking things as watched from the KODI side of things, and my "next up" episode list doesn't seem to autoplay the following episodes.

In summary:

Plex client isn't great because it has no transcode subs but otherwise I prefer the interface.

KODI client isn't great because it's not directly able to do as much with the library side of things, but otherwise seems to be the superior player.

I don't know if you have found the same as me, but I had to enable frame rate switching in KODI on stop/start, otherwise it would skip frames on video playback due to 3:2 pulldown.

Also for some reason audio playback by default does not pass through things like dolby/DTS/atmos, had to enable those in the KODI options as well.
 
memyselfandi said:
I'm playing back quite happily in Plex with subtitles and no transcoding, server is definitely not doing any transcoding at all
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Not all subtitles will, but the formatted ones require transcode usually via plex client. In my experience with anime, it would require transcode with 80%+ or more of whatever I tried on it.

For example this is Promare at around 41:57 mark.

Plex client has to disable all formatting to direct play:

wJY86oRh.jpg


KODI can direct play with correct formatting on:

WLxSePhh.jpg


Notice how different they look, it's because Plex has stripped out all of the format data.

If you set subtitle mode = automatic in Plex client then it will likely transcode but look like the KODI version. If you set subtitle mode = burn in image only then it will direct play but it will look like the first screenshot.

Plex client for windows does not transcode for subs as it seems to work differently.
 
memyselfandi said:
Yes I know ... I'm not new to this like you seem to think
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Sorry I am not trying to say you are, but I spent quite a while looking at it.

If your plex is playing the subtitles with proper formatting and no transcode I'd like to know how it is.

Is the fire stick using a different version of the plex client that does support subs properly?

Your experience with plex and subs runs counter to my own so there must be an explanation to that.
 
Back on topic for some anime stuff, as of this moment I have completed or nearly completed some more shows, so I'm shortlisting next things to watch. Welcome opinions on what I should start next.

I try and do at least 3-5 shows concurrently, with one slot being reserved for a longer show.

Finished:

RE:Zero - I thought this was a great show all in and I've really enjoyed trying to figure it out, but despite it's popularity it's not my favourite isekai. That title still belongs to Overlord currently.
Monogatari - This is currently my #1 anime of all time 10/10.
Brynhildr in the Darkness - This felt like a poor mans Elfen Lied to me, so I don't think I'd recommend it. It's fairly short though. OP2 song is really good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRvAQ0HweOU&ab_channel=CrunchyrollCollection

Finishing:

ReLIFE - 2 episodes left, probably finish tomorrow. This has been pretty interesting so far! Enjoying it on the whole but it's not top drawer to me. Solid 7/10 so far.

Continuing:

That time I got reincarnated as a slime - onto episode 8 or so I think? It hasn't cemented itself in my mind as being truly great yet, but I think I'll reserve judgement until I've seen some more of it, as the pace seems to be picking up a bit.

Slots:

Long slot 1 - Monogatari => Probably either Hunter x Hunter or My Hero Academia
Short slot 1 - That time I got reincarnated as a slime => Probably switch to The Rising of the Shield Hero
Short slot 2 - ReLIFE => Ending soon for open slot
Short slot 3 - open
Short slot 4 - open

Short slot short list:
  • Assassination Classroom
  • Devilman Crybaby
  • ERASED
  • Fate/Zero
  • Kaguya-sama: Love is War
  • A Place Further Than the Universe
  • Violet Evergarden
Of the 7 items above, and bearing in mind I do like mixing up content/setting a bit, what 3 would you guys pick?
 
I've not finished all of it but Violet Evergreen isn't a bad watch and Fate shows are always stylised at the least. Had also heard Devilman was decent bit not seen it.
 
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