How to find the best Kodi Box

Kodi is one of the best ways to stream your huge library of movies and TV shows in a beautiful, TV-friendly interface. But there is no “official” Kodi set-top box, and it can be difficult to figure out which hardware is best for an open-source media set. Here are some of your best options.

Best: OSMC’s Vero 4K

I’ve been a Kodi user for almost ten years, and I’ve run it on multiple devices. I have a large library of high-quality Blu-ray discs, many of which are 4K/HDR, and nothing I’ve used, nothing, no less than 4K Vero 4K.

While plenty of set-top boxes can run Kodi, the Vero 4K (and its latest version, the Vero 4K+) is one of the few built specifically for Kodi. Developed by Sam Nazarko, Vero runs OSMC, a Linux-based operating system with a modified version of Kodi at its heart. Unlike vanilla Kodi, it has HDR support, automatic updates, many popular remotes (not just in Box), and a few exclusive add-ons. Of course, you can also use any of the regular Kodi add-ons out there, although it doesn’t come with any pre-installed.

Compact hardware fits everything in a small box that you can put anywhere. You can add additional storage via a Micro SD card or USB hard drive, play any format under the sun (including high-resolution audio formats like DTS:X and Dolby Atmos), and it will switch between standard and 4K/HDR content gracefully. It doesn’t have Dolby Vision, although Dolby Vision video will play fine when using HDR10.

The other big downside, for now, is that Vero isn’t designed to run any other apps, though Netflix and Amazon Video support will appear as third-party add-ons in the next release by Kodi. Either way, it’s fine for me. Kodi runs significantly better on Linux than on Android, and on computers after years of dissatisfaction, I’ve given up on the “one Box to rule them all” mentality. I have a Vero 4K running Kodi flawlessly with a Roku Stick for all my streaming services. Everything works.

Nazarko also promises five years of software support for Vero, releasing monthly updates with bug fixes, performance and stability improvements, and new features. He’s also very responsive on the OSMC support forum and continuously improves Vero 4K compatibility and picture quality for different setups and edge cases. It may not be the “official” Kodi set-top box.

Other Kodi-Ready Boxes

Of course, there are many other Kodi Boxes on the market. But in my experience, it’s not quite as simple as saying, “use this for X, use this for Y.” Every setup is different, and different quirks may show up to different people. What works perfectly on one person’s setup may not work for another, depending on the equipment in your home theater, the videos you’re playing, and how you deliver those videos to Kodi. Furthermore, many “Box Kodi” you will find have lots of pirated add-ons, have terrible support, and are constantly coming and going from the market.

Unlike Vero 4K, none of the Boxes below are designed specifically for Kodi, but you can install Kodi one way or another. If Vero doesn’t appeal to you, it might be worth giving one of these a shot.

Nvidia Shield TV

You can get an Android TV box for a bit more money ($180)—now, the Android TV Box allows more than just Kodi. The Nvidia Shield TV can stream from all your favorite services (Netflix, Hulu, Sling), play video games, cast videos with built-in Chromecast functionality, even use your voice with Google Assistant.

Here’s a caveat: Android’s version of Kodi isn’t as perfect as OSMC and other Linux-based versions, so there are some quirks. First, its hardware acceleration isn’t nearly as good, and in my experience, 4K video and 1080p bitrate are best played from an external drive rather than over the network from the NAS.

Second, HDR support isn’t quite “there,” causing some color accuracy issues in SDR video unless you manually change the settings every time you go back and forth between HDR and SDR. But for a Box that does pretty much anything, it’s solid, as long as you’re not one to be fussy about image quality. My advice: try Shield in your setup to see if it works for you, as it may depend on what types of videos you have and how you watch them.

Minix NEO U9-HOUSE

Slightly cheaper than the Nvidia Shield, the $140 Minix NEO U9-H runs Android, not Android TV, but Android 6.0 Marshmallow practically means the interface isn’t quite as remote-friendly. But, it also means you can install anything from the Google Play Store, making it pretty versatile.

Plus, its SD card slot lets you dual-boot LibreELEC, another Linux-based Kodi distro that offers a better experience than the Kodi Android app (and can handle both 4K and HDR). That means, like the Nvidia Shield, you can get Kodi and streaming apps like Netflix on the same Box; it just takes a little extra DIY effort to kick those two things up and get everything going the way you want.

Xiaomi Mi Box

Moving down the price chain, the Xiaomi Mi Box costs just $85. It runs Android TV, like Shield, so that you can get Kodi plus all your streaming apps, but don’t expect the world to be at this price. It doesn’t have Ethernet, so it’s not ideal for streaming high-bitrate Blu-ray streams over the network. It claims to support HDR, but that’s only through an Android beta update, which means your mileage may vary. You may find things get more complicated as you lower the price.

Amazon Fire TV

Amazon’s latest Fire TV has hardware nearly identical to the Mi Box, albeit with Amazon’s slightly more locked-down OS on board. That means it has the same downside. Sure, it’s cheap, and you can load Kodi on it, but don’t expect great performance, especially at 4K.

Apple TV

The Apple TV is an odd bird. It can run a heavily modified version of Kodi called MrMC, has a different interface, and cannot install add-ons due to App Store restrictions. But, while it doesn’t have the same versatility as Kodi, it has some of the best performance and picture quality, especially at 4K HDR of any Box here, with (hopefully) hope) is less troublesome. You get all the other streaming apps that Apple TV offers, which is a big bonus. Without the add-ons, the Apple TV would be a surprisingly close contender for the best Kodi Box you can buy.

DIY option

These aren’t the only options out there, but they’re the ones worth looking at. Others have even bigger downsides. For example, the Raspberry Pi is very cheap but slow and can’t play anything over 1080p very well. The ODroid C2 is a similar DIY board that can handle 4K but not HDR. While much more powerful, even home-built PCs have limited HDR support that is absent for Kodi. In theory, various super cheap Android Boxes can handle Kodi but are riskier in actual usability.