We hope you've had a good Easter. We've been working hard to improve OSMC for all platforms and keep things running smoothly.

We've also finalised our support for Kodi v21 and this will be the final release of Kodi v20, with test builds for Kodi v21 being made available on the forums in the coming days before an anticipated release in May.

The end of 2023 was also busy for us, with the announcement of Vero V, our fifth iteration of our flagship device. We're happy to announce significant playback improvements to the device in this update.

Vero 4K / 4K + and V users will now experience perfect AV sync playback after several months of hard work.

Vero V users can now enjoy Dolby Vision compatible Profile 5 tonemapping with output to HDR and SDR. If you've ever played content that looks magenta and green, this is because it doesn't have a fallback layer. Vero V will now tonemap this and output it in the best possible format for your display.

This is the first step in our efforts to support UHD content and Dolby Vision content provided by streaming services such as Netflix which does not have a fallback layer. Many thanks to those that tested this on our forums and reported positive feedback.

Here's what's new:

Kodi v20.5

Kodi v20.5 (Nexus) is now available as standard on OSMC, and release details can be found here.

On the OSMC side, we've made some changes to keep everything running smoothly. Here's what's new:

Bug fixes

• Fix a network issue in My OSMC
• Vero 4K / 4K +: fix an issue where using the 'toothpick' recovery method can render an existing installation unbootable
• My OSMC: fix an issue which could cause a build up of backup files in the Kodi user data directory
• Fixed CEC issues on Vero 4K / 4K +
• Fixed a number of issues with the OSMC skin

Improving the user experience

• Vero V: added Dolby Vision Profile 5 colourspace conversion support. Previously playing content that was Profile 5 (did not have a fallback layer) would result in purple and green colours
• Improved CPU governor performance on all devices
• Improved PTS handling on Vero 4K / 4K + and Vero V
• Improved playback performance and synchronisation on Vero 4K/4K+/V
• My OSMC: Changing settings for updates; backup or restore no longer requires a reboot to take effect.
• Vero V: improved Bluetooth range and performance when using A2DP audio
• Vero 4K / 4K + / V: improve support for VESA reduced blanking modes used, eg, by Dell monitors

Miscellaneous

• Vero 4K/4K+/V: add support for specific Ortek keyboard
• Updated translations

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on X, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.

Vero V is our latest and greatest flagship and the best way to enjoy OSMC. To celebrate the significant milestones in this update, we're offering Vero V at a discount for a limited period of time. Grab yours today

We hope you've had a good Christmas and New Year. We've been working hard to improve OSMC for all platforms and keep things running smoothly. The end of 2023 was also busy for us, with the announcement of Vero V, our fifth iteration of our flagship device.

Here's what's new:

Kodi v20.3

Kodi v20.3 (Nexus) is now available as standard on OSMC, and release details can be found here.

On the OSMC side, we've made some changes to keep everything running smoothly. Here's what's new:

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue which prevented some hot fixes from being applied via My OSMC
• Fix a bug on Vero 4K / 4K + / V which could result in 4K video being displayed in only a quarter of the screen
• Fixed an issue where DLNA window may be blank using the OSMC skin
• Fixed an issue with picture quality on Vero 4K / 4K + when playing progressive material that was introduced in the December 2023 update

Improving the user experience

• Vero V: support 1360x768p output
• Vero 4K / 4K + / V: improved VNC server performance
• Vero 4K / 4K + / V: allow a user to manually configure HDR capabilities. This allows outputting HDR signals in situations where the display supports HDR but the AVR does not support it
• Vero 4K / 4K + / V: allow contrast and brightness adjustments for HLG and HDR10+.
• CEC: set OSMC as the device name
• CEC: do not suspend the device when the display is turned off
• Support the Digital Clock Screensaver font on the OSMC Skin
• Vero V: implement options to output HDR as SDR or BT2020SDR
• Reduced log spam introduced by Vero V's WiFi driver

Miscellaneous

• Updated translations

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on X, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.

Vero V is our latest and greatest flagship and the best way to enjoy OSMC.

Merry Christmas!

The OSMC team would like to wish you a Merry Christmas. We hope you're enjoying the festive break and watching lots of TV with OSMC.

Eat well, drink well and take care and see you in the New Year!

Best wishes

Team OSMC

Last month, we launched Vero V, our fifth iteration of our flagship device. We've been working tirelessly to ship our new device and the best way to enjoy OSMC as promptly as possible.

Doesn't look too bad, does it?

However, we've also been very busy improving OSMC and have a lot to announce in time for Christmas.

Here's what's new:

Bug fixes

• Fix an issue on Vero 4K / 4K + and V where the kernel may not install properly during an update where there is CMA memory pressure
• Fix an HSBS issue on Vero 4K / 4K +
• Fix non-working playback of MJPEG material on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Fix an issue that prevented skipping 3D ISO material on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Fix a Samba issue where share name cannot be same as username
• Fix an issue where users could not see a picture on Vero 4K / 4K + / V when the TV reports an invalid timing mode.
• Vero 4K / 4K + / V: fixed issues with BTRFS filesystem
• OSMC Skin: Fix focus cover animation in wide views
• OSMC Skin: Fix media flags transition glitch
• OSMC Skin: Fix radio button control text width
• OSMC Skin: Fix behaviour when the correct view type or content type is not yet ready (especially related to addons loading new pages)

Improving the user experience

• Add support for improved remote dongle on OSMC Vero V
• Improve MESA packaging on Raspberry Pi so that packages depending on upstream libraries can be installed again
• Add support for true 4K UI on Vero V to allow viewing of photos in higher resolution
• Added support for Blu-Ray BD-J menus. Users need to install the Java Runtime Environment from OSMC's App Store.
• Improved 3D MVC playback on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Improved My OSMC logging explanations
• Support external remote dongle on Vero V
• Update and improve translations
• Improved deinterlacing on Vero 4K and Vero V
• Add support for GLESv3 on Vero V
• Add Pluto TV PVR Kodi add-on
• Improved support for DVI displays on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• OSMC Skin: Add new setting to adjust select action of album, TV show and movie set main menu widgets
• OSMC Skin: Add consistent reminder icons for PVR reminder feature introduced in Kodi Nexus
• OSMC Skin: Add genre colours to TV and radio guide
• OSMC Skin: Improve live TV and radio related localisations
• OSMC Skin: Improve pre-playback behaviour of now playing information section in the top right corner of each window/dialog
• OSMC Skin: Improve consistency between PVR windows and dialogs (feature parity as well as cosmetic appearance)
• OSMC Skin: Improve media flags behaviour during window transitions and when encountering edge cases
• OSMC Skin: Improve progress feedback of confirm dialog as well as the extended progress notification
• Made a VNC Server available for Vero 4K / 4K + and Vero V via the My OSMC App Store.
• Install cron scheduler by default on new installations -- this can be still controlled via the App Store

Miscellaneous

• Reduce filesystem footprint by stripping system libraries in default system path
• Updated Buildroot environment to 2018.11 so Raspberry Pi 5 can be supported shortly
• Updated Blu-Ray library (libbluray) for better compatibility
• Improved kernel build process when running consecutive builds
• When building filesystems, clean the log file on build as well as clean target
• Unify ConnMan preferences file with /etc/osmc/prefs.d directory convention.
• Allow systemd-timesyncd to be installed in place of NTP
• Clean up old TCP kernel vulnerability mitigations

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on X, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.

Vero V is our latest and greatest flagship and you can still order it in time for Christmas delivery worldwide.

Today, after half a decade of constant work and some interruptions to the supply chain due to a global pandemic, we're happy to share our new device, Vero V, with you.

We began the work on our fifth flagship, aptly named Vero V, in 2018, with hardware starting from a completely blank slate. Over these five years, we've been rapidly iterating on the device's hardware and software, keeping it in sync with the newer SoCs solutions that were released along the way.

Improvements

Vero V features a number of improvements over its predecessor, Vero 4K +. Firstly, we've gone with a completely new case design. This new design allows us to integrate better thermal dissipation, dedicated antennas for WiFi and Bluetooth for improved performance, and embed the remote controller's RF receiver inside the case.

On the hardware side, Vero V features a new and improved CPU which delivers a faster system and smoother experience. This is particularly noticeable when using some more demanding Kodi add-ons. This is also complemented by an updated GPU to provide better graphics and UI performance, which is essential when running more intense skins.

In terms of connectivity, we have now added a USB3 port which is capable of providing 0.9A output which should be sufficient for powering almost all external hard drives. We've also improved analogue audio output by changing the pinout. We've updated the WiFi implementation and due to a newer chip and SDIO bus improvements, users can enjoy speeds of up to 833Mbps over WiFi.

In terms of storage, Vero V features 4GB RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage to accomodate ever growing media libraries. The eMMC storage is significantly faster (10x) than the previous implementation on Vero 4K / 4K +.

When it comes to playback, Vero V will not disappoint. Vero V features over five years of continued refinement and improvement with the intention of serving your TV needs for the next ten. The new device features an improved HDR tonemapping system for HDR to SDR conversion as well as support for next generation video codecs such as AV-1. Vero V also supports a trusted video pathway with HDCP2.2 and Widevine L1 support (initially for industrial customers).

Some things stay the same

However, new hardware from scratch doesn't mean that everything changes. Some things stay the same. Vero V features the same software stack as Vero 4K / 4K +, so migrating over should be easy with no unexpected surprises when doing so. Support for Frame Packed 3D MVC stays, as does support for other formats. If it plays on a Vero 4K / 4K +, it will play on your Vero V.

Furthermore, we remain committed to supporting Vero 4K / 4K+ and we are still supporting it seven years after release, well beyond the guaranteed period of updates.

Thank you

We are grateful to all of those in the team who tested this device in advance as well as to everyone that contributed to making the Vero V the great device that it is.

On sale today

Vero V goes on sale today for £149 with free international shipping with an estimated 3-5 day delivery. With that said, we anticipate some slight delays due to very high demand. We also have a number of resellers for those that prefer to purchase from a local reseller.

Grab yours today here

Today, Raspberry Pi announced the release of Raspberry Pi 5, the latest iteration of their small board computer.

The new Raspberry Pi features a faster processor, faster RAM and improved GPU as well as a number of other improvements.

From a multimedia and OSMC perspective, not much has changed. In terms of playback, we don't gain anything in hardware on Raspberry Pi 5. Pi 5 can still support HEVC decode at 60fps as it does on Raspberry Pi 4, but Raspberry Pi 5 no longer offers accelerated H264 decode.

However, software decode should be possible for other formats at 1080p. This has the potential to generate a fair bit of heat however, so an active cooling solution may be needed. Raspberry Pi sell an official heatsink and fan kit that is compatible with the official case.

OSMC are grateful to have received an advance unit some time ago from Raspberry Pi. We started work on bringing up the new Raspberry Pi immediately. There is not a significant amount of work needed to bring up this device, so we anticipate having a compatible release shortly. We updated the target installer to handle newer kernels (6.1 is needed for Pi 5); have added support for Raspberry Pi 5's new GPU to our MESA packages and now only need to produce an updated kernel with Pi 5 support.

As a result, we will soon move Raspberry Pi users to the 6.1 kernel and will make a test thread available when this occurs. Raspberry Pi 4 users will be able to upgrade to a Raspberry Pi 5 by simply ensuring their OSMC installation is fully up to date and then migrating the SD card.

There will however be some significant changes to Raspberry Pi support in the near future. We have not yet updated OSMC's Debian release to Debian 12 (Bookworm) yet. When we do so, we will be changing to a complete 64-bit environment (both userland and kernel).

As a result, we'll be dropping support for Raspberry Pi 2 which does not support this. We then plan to have a single Raspberry Pi image for all remaining supported Raspberry Pi models. As a result of this architectural change, it will be necessary to reinstall OSMC when updating to the new version when we release it. Currently we do not have a firm schedule of when this will occur as we are also mindful of getting Pi 5 support out first and also tracking Kodi v21 which is starting to mature.

Last month, we released OSMC's July update, with support for our new flagship device, Vero V which will be launched very soon.

Since then, we've been working hard on a number of bug fixes and improvements for all platforms.

Here's what's new:

Bug fixes

• Fixed issues with CEC on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Fixed an issue on Vero V which prevented the full eMMC size from being available
• Fixed an A/V sync issue on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Fixed an issue that prevented the OSMC Scope Skin from being enabled without further configuration
• Fix an issue that caused a blurry UI when the resolution was set to 4K on Vero V.
• OSMC Skin: fix watched indicator background in wide and wall views
• OSMC Skin: episodes image to properly react to hide thumbs for unwatched episode setting

Improving the user experience

• Improve graphics performance for Raspberry Pi
• Disabled persistent journalling to reduce wear on system storage
• Updated translations
• Improved EDID logging on Raspberry Pi
• OSMC Skin: add composer info to fullscreen music playback window and music info dialog
• OSMC Skin: rework seek indicator and button behaviour

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.

Last month, we made Kodi v20.1 available for all supported OSMC devices. As mentioned before, all devices supported by OSMC on Kodi v19 remain supported for Kodi v20.

Since then, we've been working hard on a number of bug fixes as well as improving support for our soon to be released new version of our flagship device: Vero V.

Here's what's new:

Kodi v20.2

Kodi v20.2 (Nexus) is now available as standard on OSMC, and release details can be found here. The most prominent fix is a long standing E-AC3 bug, which was first reported here.

On the OSMC side, we've made a number of changes:

Bug fixes

• Fix an issue that prevented connecting to WiFi via My OSMC on new installations
• Fix some playback issues with SMB shares on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Fix PGS subtitle width and height calculations when playing 3D SBS / TAB clips on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Fix aspect ratio for rendering text subtitles when playing 3D SBS / TAB clips on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Fix an issue on Vero 4K / 4K + / V which resulted in the warning message when switching to a 4K resolution from not displaying properly
• Fix an intermittent blank screen when exiting Kodi on Vero 4K / 4K + and V that could result in no display being visible when updating
• Fix GPU hang on Raspberry Pi 2/3 / 3 + under certain conditions
• Fixed an issue which prevented add-ons from the official Kodi add-on repository from updating correctly

Improving the user experience

• Re-introduced pvr.sledovanitv.cz PVR add-on for all platforms which was broken before
• Respect configurable 3D subtitle depth when using PGS subtitles on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Respect vertical subtitle position from the video calibration dialog when playing 3D content on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Ensure that the complete system journal is uploaded via the My OSMC log uploader
• Removed log spam in OSMC video whitelisting logic for all platforms
• Improved OSD behaviour for Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Add support for netfilter bridge on Raspberry Pi 4 / 400
• Added support for Hauppauge 955Q tuner on Vero 4K / 4K + / V
• Fixed missing play button from the full screen information window in the OSMC skin

Miscellaneous

• Added support for OSMC Vero V
• Build system: generate a build log when creating filesystems to make dependency tracking easier
• Updated Raspberry Pi firmware
• Updated Raspberry Pi kernel to 5.15.92

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.

We've been very busy behind the scenes and we're now happy to announce the availability Kodi v20 for all OSMC supported devices. All devices supported by OSMC on Kodi v19 remain supported for Kodi v20. It took time and effort to release this update as a stable release and ensure that the user experiences stays at the high level that you would expect from OSMC.

Kodi v20.1

Kodi v20.1 (Nexus) is now available as standard on OSMC, and release details can be found here.

On the OSMC side, we've made some light changes to keep everything running smoothly:

Bug fixes

• Fix an issue when connecting to AP hotspots that are configured for WPA2 and WPA3 on Vero 4K / 4K +
• Fix an issue on Raspberry Pi 4 / 400 that prevented older kernels from being automatically purged when not neded.
• Vero 4K / 4K +: fix possible kernel panic issue
• Apply missing fix for wireless preseeding that was meant to be included in the previous update. This properly fixes configuring WiFi via the desktop installers on the Download page.

Improving the user experience

• Add option to display height and width of a video independent of resolution in the OSMC skin

Miscellaneous

• Translation improvements

New hardware

This Summer, we plan to introduce an updated version of our flagship device Vero. This new and improved model will replace the Vero 4K + and we will be announcing further information about the new device soon.

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.

We hope that you had a good Easter.

We are introducing a final update to our existing Kodi v19.5 release to improve stability and give users that wish to stay on this version of Kodi for some time an improved stable and supported platform.

Very shortly, we'll announce the availability of Kodi v20.1 test builds on our forums.

Kodi v20.1 test builds are now available on our forums.

Here's what's new:

Bug fixes

• Fix an issue where Wi-Fi preseeding via the OSMC installer did not work and prevented further Wi-Fi connections from being established.
• Fix BD 3D ISO freezing issue on Vero 4K / 4K +
• Vero 4K +: Make L/R eye switch work in mono display

Improving the user experience

• Improved DNS caching performance and enabled DNS proxying with ConnMan
• Warn user if they upload a log file via My OSMC that is too large instead of giving a technical error
• Inform Vero users to re-pair their OSMC remotes when booting on a new install
• General OSMC skin improvements

Miscellaneous

• Save space by preventing manual pages from being installed for new packages
• Improved translations. Learn how to get involved here.
• Add support for custom splash screen branding for OEM vendors

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.

We hope that you had a good Christmas and New Year.

Our first update of the year brings Kodi v19.5, which is the final version of Kodi 19.x (Matrix). We are now working on preparing Kodi v20 (Nexus) for OSMC users. This update brings the last stable version of Kodi v19 with a few improvements to improve the upgrade process.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue where the macOS installer did not run as expected unless it was in a specific directory

Improving the user experience

• Moonlight is now supported on Vero 4K / 4K + after a number of years of requests. Sadly however, the NVIDIA Gamestream project has been discontinued, however it looks like it will live on in the open source community. OSMC supplied Moonlight developers with hardware and decoding knowledge to help get things finally supported on Vero 4K / 4K +. You can learn more about our collaboration here.
• Added composite video output support for Raspberry Pi
• Label partitions for new installations so we can support Pi booting exclusively from USB in the future without the need for an SD card
• Updated Vero 4K / 4K + whitelisting logic for a better experience
• Support EDID decoding in Vero 4K / 4K + logs using the edid-decode utility
• Reinstated Linux installer support for OSMC using AppImage
• Updated macOS installer to support versions of macOS and support M1/M2 hardware
• Vero 4K / 4K +: added 3D SBS/TAB flip eye support
• APT updates are now served exclusively over HTTPS
• Added support for newer Hauppage DualHD tuners on Vero 4K / 4K +

Miscellaneous

• Updated Raspberry Pi firmware
• Added USB_IP modules for Vero 4K / 4K + customer
• Ready other infrastructure for HTTPS based updates

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.

Update: 23rd January 2023 - work has commenced to fix the issue at Royal Mail and some international items that were posted previously are in transit again. We hope to resume postage for orders from Monday, 30th January. We will keep this post updated.

Update: 30th January 2023 - we have resumed shipping international parcels such as Vero 4K + and expect to clear our backlog by Thursday, 2nd February. Unfortunately we are still unable to post envelopes and large letters yet, but expect to be able to do so shortly.

Update: 6th February 2023 - we have resumed all international shipping services. There may be a delay of a few delays while Royal Mail process their backlog. Thanks for your understanding.

Update: 7th February 2023 - the issue has now been solved and we have shipped all outstanding orders and continue to process orders normally.

On 11th January Royal Mail announced that they had suffered from a cyber incident that has prevented them from exporting goods outside of the UK.

As Royal Mail are our primary shipping partner for B2C shipments, customers are affected.

We continue to receive information from Royal Mail but they have not stated when this will be resolved. As a result, we are unable to ship items internationally at this time.

International customers can continue to place orders, but we cannot guarantee a dispatch date until further notice. For those that have placed an order:

• You can contact us if you wish to cancel your order for a full refund
• You can enquire as to whether your order has already been dispatched
• You can contact us if you would like us to make alternative delivery arrangements

Domestic (UK) orders will be dispatched as usual with the normal delivery timeframes.

We will update this post as we receive more information.

Thank you for your understanding

Merry Christmas!

The OSMC team would like to wish you a Merry Christmas. We hope you're enjoying the festive break and watching lots of TV with OSMC.

We're readying a small update to keep things running smoothly and will release this in the next few days with Kodi v19.5. We are already working hard on the impending Kodi v20 release.

In the interim: eat well, drink well and take care.

Best wishes

Team OSMC

Last month, we released our September update with Debian Bullseye as well as a number of improvements in the process.

It was a significant update, and despite the extensive testing, issues were reported and we've worked hard to get them solved and roll them up promptly. We planned to release this update on Sunday, but we experienced some infrastructure issues that prevented this.

Here's what's new:

Bug fixes

• Fix CEC issues with some TV/AVR setups on Vero 4K +
• Fix an issue which prevented Docker from working properly on Vero 4K / 4K +
• Fix an issue where a green screen could occur when seeking through HEVC material on Vero 4K / 4K +
• Fix an issue with HLG playback on Vero 4K /4K +

Improving the user experience

• Vero 4K / 4K+: reinstate 2560x1080 (VESA) and 1920x1200 video modes
• Vero 4K / 4K+: reinstate support for Hauppage HD tuners
• Update OSMC time service to not use third party servers for time synchronisation
• Numerous skin fixes and improvements
• Vero 4K / 4K+: improve refresh rate adjustment behaviour (reverted on 07/11)

Miscellaneous

• Improved Docker out of box experience on Vero 4K / 4K+ and Raspberry Pi

OSMC manufacturing update and longevity changes

We've announced some updates regarding the manufacturing and support of Vero 4K / 4K +. We are extending support for Vero 4K / 4K +, however due to cost increases, we will be increasing our prices in the near future.

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

It's been a while since we announced the launch of Vero 4K +, and we've got some news (good and bad).

When we launched Vero 4K + in 2018, we chose to upgrade the platform in a specific way that would guarantee longevity, judiciously choosing the SoC to implement the improvements. We wanted to ensure that Vero 4K and Vero 4K + users would experience long term support and timely response to issues. After all, Vero customers keep the OSMC project running.

Since 2017, we've maintained the Vero 4K/4K+ platform reliably, delivering consistent updates that improve stability and performance and along the way, we've been ensuring that we track Debian and Kodi releases in the process.

We've also offered OSMC on Raspberry Pi in this period, and we'll continue to do so. We want to keep up our track record, stay true to our roots, and most importantly, continue to support and promote open source software.

A Vero 4K running OSMC from February 2017 is very different from a Vero 4K running OSMC's October 2022 release. A Vero 4K purchased over five years ago can now enjoy:

• The latest Kodi version (17.6 on release, 19.4 now).
• HD and multi-channel audio improvements
• Support for HDR10+ and HLG
• HDR to SDR tonemapping support
• Improved Bluetooth support
• 3D MVC Frame Packed output
• Operating system updates and security fixes
• A lot more...

If you purchased a Vero 4K on launch in February 2017, then your device will have cost you less than £1.65 a month. This is based on 60 months of ownership, with the device purchased at £99 where we promised 5 years of support, due to expire in February 2022.

Your device, as of writing, is still supported and maintained. As you've likely noticed, we have extended support for the device and give it our utmost attention, with substantial video stack improvements during this period.

This isn't changing.

But what's changing is the price of our flagship device.

Our price hasn't increased since 2017, even when we launched the new Vero 4K + with Gigabit Ethernet.

Technology typically operates in a deflationary environment. Prices go down, and performance goes up. However, the last few years have been an exception. We've faced a number of challenges:

• Semi-conductor shortages - with the spot price of RAM, eMMC and SoCs rising substantially.
• Increased shipping costs - both from our manufacturers and to our customers.
• Increased energy and packaging material costs - the cost of a cardboard box, or environmentally friendly void fill that we use, has doubled.

Out of respect to our customers, we've held our prices. We've held them because we hoped that these increases would be temporary, and with everything else going up, we wanted to proudly hold our prices for as long as we could.

This is no longer sustainable. Our hand is forced and to guarantee OSMC's future we need to increase this cost.

As a result, from Tuesday 6th December* - the price of Vero 4K + will be increased to £129. So while we'd like to announce a Black Friday deal or offer a discount as we have done so previously, we will not be able to do so. Effectively in announcing our price increase, we are offering our discount to customers now.

OSMC will stay committed to providing long term support for its products. We stand firmly behind our devices, as well as others. In the past, we have provided strong support for devices that we don't even manufacture, such as the original Apple TV -- which we supported for almost a decade after the last official update. When we control the software and the hardware -- as we do with Vero -- we can achieve so much more.

OSMC will continue to support Vero 4K/4K+ and Kodi v20 (Nexus) support is guaranteed. We are also working on upstream kernel support (with thanks to Christian Hewitt for original upstream DTS commits) to ensure that the device has a very long life and will be supported by modern Linux kernels.

Thanks for your understanding and support

* - the 6th December date is based approximately on current stock and order volume. This will be brought forward if the batch ships out faster.

In May, we released test builds of Debian Bullseye for all supported OSMC devices. For the next four months, we've been working hard on a number of improvements and fixes to ensure that OSMC is released on the latest version of Debian with the best experience possible.

We are still shipping Kodi v19.4, as a 19.5 point release has not yet been finalised. However we have updated the version we ship to the latest commit on the Kodi Matrix branch.

Update: some users of the official Plex add-on have reported some issues. A solution has been made available here.

Here's what's new:

Debian changes

There are some significant changes to the Debian base as a result of this upgrade, which we would like to highlight here:

• The default and only Python interpreter is Python 3.x. Previously, we included Python 2 as this was needed for the Samba server package. As a result, a significant amount of space is saved on the root filesystem and initial installation. If you have your own scripts which use Python 2, you’ll need to upgrade these to use Python 3.
• New installations of OSMC will contain the usrmerge package. This means that /{bin,sbin,lib}/ directories become symbolic links to /usr/{bin,sbin,lib}/. Debian 12 (Bookworm) will only support the merged usr-root filesystem layout.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue which caused some devices (notably FLIRC) to behave badly and have repeat presses.
• Fixed an issue which could cause green screens when playing HEVC content on Vero 4K/4K+
• Fixed an issue when pairing and remembering devices that used a Bluetooth PIN
• Fixed an issue which could cause exFAT formatted drives to be mounted with prohibitive permissions
• Fix CRDA configuration in My OSMC so that it now works as expected
• Fixed an issue playing VP9 content on Vero 4K/4K+
• Fixed an issue where seeking could cause a green screen on Vero 4K/4K+
• Fixed an issue where there can be a single green pixel in the top corner on Vero 4K/4K+ during playback
• Fixed an issue where some Bluetooth devices would not automatically reconnect
• Fixed a number of issues which could cause problems with CEC on Vero 4K/4K+
• Fixed an issue which prevented Raspberry Pi Model 3A+ from booting

Improving the user experience

• Added support for HD audio passthrough on Raspberry Pi 4 / 400
• Improved VC-1 playback quality on Vero 4K/4K+
• Updated Vero 4K/4K+ to new video stack with a number of playback improvements
• Improved tethering logging in My OSMC
• Added a Disconnect option in My OSMC's Bluetooth settings window
• Home screen adjustments and minor improvements for the OSMC skin
• Remove EDID 3D parsing limitation, improving 3D compatibility for some projectors with Vero 4K/4K+.
• Disabled interlaced mode selection on Vero 4K/4K+, so that they cannot be selected in Kodi which can lead to a suboptimal experience
• Backported support for CIFS3 support to Vero 4K/4K+
• Mask sensitive information when generating logs via My OSMC
• Prevent a user from changing in to Windowed mode in Kodi which may cause them to lose the screen
• Improve the TTY terminal by allowing a user a longer time to login
• Improve the TTY terminal by using a larger, more readable font.
• Reduce log size in My OSMC by limiting system journal output
• Add support for retreiving EDID in logs on Raspberry Pi
• Optimise video thumbnails in Kodi to reduce size significantly without a noticeable reduction in quality
• Added ZRAM kernel support for Raspberry Pi models
• Added SCSI Generic kernel support for Vero 4K/4K+
• Warn a user if they try and set a GUI resolution above 1080p on Vero 4K/4K+
• Improve detection of frame rate for specific streams on Vero 4K/4K+
• Re-worked right-eye first detection to improve playback of some MVC content on Vero 4K/4K+
• Refactored amcodec video decoder for Vero 4K/4K+ with a number of improvements

Miscellaneous

• Re-factor My OSMC with numerous improvements
• Updated website URL in MOTD
• Ensured that default password check can also handle the yescrypt hash which is now used by default
• Updated Transmission torrent client to version 3.0.0

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

You may also wish to check out our Store, which offers a wide variety of high quality products which will help you get the best of OSMC.