Tvheadend

Generally cheap and performance don't quite go together...

I'm currently using a Xiaomi Mi Box 4K ($116 NZD from aliexpress including the USB>Ethernet adapter). It runs Android TV 6.0 and does Netflix, YouTube, TVH live channels (using native tv application for Android TV) and it will run Kodi. Its rather underpowered for kodi so I use SPMC which works better. SPMC It appears to upscale SD to 1080p fine and deinterlace SD channels 'OK' but not HD channels if you need that; Kodi just doesn't work as well... SPMC is a fork of kodi by the original Android coder for Kodi.

The Mi Box is still on Android 6 and doesn't appear to be getting any further updates so it doesn't get the Live Channels DVR updates which enables pause, skipping and recordings.

I've got an nVidia Shield on order ($301 NZD) and this will absolutely run Kodi fine along with other things. Its currently on Android TV 7 so has all the DVR updates and the TVH live channels app does work for network recordings, streaming etc... only limitations are that its not able to show upcoming recordings that you've set as Google have not exposed their API/database for this.

I haven't tried the fire products so cannot say anything on them.

I have tested many different devices trough the years but none nearly as good as my Nvidia Shield.
Kodi runs great as a front end for TVH, I run netflix spotify youtube and some other apps in the native android tv.

Thanks for the replies.

I understand the relationship between cheap and performance, it's something I struggle with though!

The fire TV hardware seems quite capable of decent performance, but doesn't quite cut it with the TVH plugin using Kodi. SPMC is not something I was aware of, but I'll look into it. Netflix on the Android platform appears to be a bit of a lottery, but the Mi box 4k was one of my options. It's only my familiy's recent interest in Netflix which has caused this problem, up until then the pi3 was all I needed.

I'll be rebuilding my server soon, so will revisit this problem after that, until then it will just have to be 2 separate devices.

I am at the point now where I need to think about replacing my frontend hardware with something which will work!

I have tried SPMC on the firestick, but it simply cant handle the HD channels.

The shield appears to be a little overkill for my needs, but looks to be the only option if I want just the one device unfortunately.

The Xiaomi Mi Box (4K) I found was ok with SPMC to run HD channels (for me its from Sky NZ). The interface wasn't at the later Android TV setup as the Sheild is but it was fine. Kodi wasn't fast at all though...

I'd recommend the Sheild if you want more than just SPMC/Netflix etc., otherwsie the Mi Box is fine... Note that SPMC appears to not being updated to v18 as the owner has been adding his fixes back in to Kodi main branch... so the mi box might struggle with Kodi v18 as it does with v17 at the moment.

The main problem I believe is the de-interlacing. If I thought the Mi box could cope, I'd buy one, but it appears to be a problem with most Android based frontends, even the shield in some people's experience.

I'm now looking into having the server transcode for the Android clients, but my up to date TVH 4.0.9-16 does not appear to have transcoding options.

SPMC + deinterlacing appeared fine, all the Sky NZ sport channels are 1080i, on the mibox but Kodi + interlacing wasn't.

on the shield kodi + deinterlacing is a little dodgy as kodi doesn't ahve the android fixes that where in SPMC.

I'd recommend the sheild over the mi box having had both (and I've now got two of the shield TVs).

It's odd, as even when the picture is breaking up during playback of HD content (when viewing on the fire stick), none of the CPU cores are exceeding 20-30% load.

SPMC does appear to do a better job of displaying SD content though.

Sorry for the late response, but I was struggling with the same question for quite some time and maybe my experience helps someone. The plan was to find one device which supports Kodi/TVH, Netflix and Amazon Video and it seems like there is no Gadget out there which can do this. From my findings, I would suggest one of these four options:

1) If you do not need Amazon, just wait for Kodi v18 as it has native Netflix support. You can also use the Alpha Version of Leia already, but be aware that your family probably doesn't like to be Alpha testers and that a version shift may have negative consequences... (trust me, I know what I'm talking about ;-) )
2) Use two devices - one for Kodi (e.g. RPi or Odroid C2) and another for Apps (e.g. Amazon Fire TV or Mi Box).
3) Build or buy a HTPC on Windows 10 Basis. It'll do it all, but when it comes to remote control it can be a mess.
4) If you are patient and can live with some drawbacks - go for a XBox One S. XBox status thread: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=326228

Personally, I decided for option 2) with an Odroid C2 and a XBox One S. The XBox basically can do it all and is made for use with a TV. MS just released the XBox One X, so there is a good chance to get it for a good price. It's just a matter of time, when the Kodi devs solve the problems and Leia becomes stable. While development is still in progress, I stick to the C2 with LibreELEC for TV and use the XBox for Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, Twitch and additionally can start a game when I'd like to (man, it's a console!).

If you prefer to buy a Mi Box 4k be warned that Xiaomi's support and update politics is just AWFUL. The box is still running on Android 6 and the latest security patch is several months old. It feels like they unofficially dropped this box. There is also the WETEK Play 2, an Android box which runs Kodi and the Google Playstore, but since they modified the Android OS it's not an Option for me (same with Fire TVs).

Two solutions worth thinking about if you want DRM services like Netflix or Amazon Prime, and want full quality, and don't want to have to flip between Android and LibreElec (which things like the Wetek Hub or Wetek Play2 would need you to do )

1. For UHD - nVidia Shield TV or Apple TV 4K. The Shield TV will run Kodi, the Shield TV and Apple TV 4K will run MrMC (*). The SPMC dev is now working on MrMC, and SPMC is EOL-ed I think.

2. For HD - Apple TV 4 with MrMC.

The only downside of the Apple TV 4 is that the deinterlacing is done in software - and on the ATV4 I think that means Bob (or this may be out of date). Think the ATV4K has enough CPU for YADIF 2x though.

I think there are also non-Kodi TV Headend clients available for both tvOS and Android TV too.

(The ATV4/4K doesn't do DTS:X or Dolby Atmos - and HD Audio is output as PCM multichannel. However the ATV4/4K have automatic frame rate switching across the OS (including Netflix and Amazon Prime) and HDR/SDR and Rec 2020/Rec 709 gamut switching on the 4K. The nVidia Shield TV handles HD Audio and frame rate switches OK, but doesn't switch between Rec 2020 and Rec 709 gamuts (though does correctly output HDR/SDR EOTF flags). There is a not-terrible Rec 709 to Rec 2020 gamut conversion in the Shield TV - but it's not perfect.)

(*) For a long time MrMC had no support for Python add-ons (but did have PVR binaries). However since a change to the Apple App Store rules, interpreted code is now allowable in certain circumstances, and AIUI Python add-ons may now (or soon) be supported.