MKV vs ISO

That's right. Only RPU so it's like MEL, no EL. Only 2x streaming boxes will play FEL mkv.

1. Ugoos AM6b+ running CoreElec - By far the best choice. CoreElec is also very stable/optimized at this point so the player experience and speed is faster than the Z9X Pro with RTD1619BPD chipset

2. Chromecast w GTV - Has a bug so EL is out of sync with BL. Also audio passthrough is nerfed

Technically the Gen 2 Fire TV also running CoreElec can play FEL mkv. But there are extra steps in unlocking the bootloader and no ethernet port so Am6b+ is a much better choice.

All others: Zidoo, Dune, Shield Pro, Fire Gen3, R_volution, Homatics, you name it will discard the FEL and "fallback" to MEL, so just the RPU is processed (the dynamic metadata).

For me, I will not watch anything without FEL anymore because we have streaming players now that can play it. Discarding the EL is too much of a compromise when there are roughly 300 FEL films and growing weekly. There are minimal to huge differences compared to reference disk players. For now, only the Am6b+ is capable of matching a disk player 1-to-1, down to the colorimetry flags.

 

I looked on the CoreElec site for frame packed 3D but did not find anything. Does CoreElec play frame packed 3D? The R_volution 8K and Dune 8K does not so sticking with my Zidoo UHD5000 for now. As a projector user DV is not that important to me.

 

Don't know about CoreElec but LibreELEC does on Raspberry Pi. Native support for Kodi, very easy to install, pleasure to work with and 3D frame packed ISO support.