Status

The state of the USB stick release, from the project's own testing.

What works

GraphicsOpenGL ES and Metal work.
Hardware video decodingHEVC, VP9 and H.264 in 1080p and 4K. HDR10 also works for HEVC and VP9.
Video mode switchingThe output switches between SDR and HDR and between refresh rates.
SDR to HDRSDR content can be shown in an HDR video mode.
Video planeDecoded frames are sent straight to the display.
HDMI videoPicture goes to the TV over HDMI.
Multichannel audioE-AC-3 is decoded and sent to the TV as multichannel PCM over HDMI.
Wi-FiWi-Fi connection works and has the expected speed.
BluetoothPair a Bluetooth remote in Settings.
HDMI-CECCEC TX/RX works. Remote inputs from TV work and sleep commands from tvOS.
Sleep modeThe box goes to sleep and wakes again.
CPU and GPU schedulingScheduling and throttling for the CPU and the GPU.

Tested apps

Kodi
YouTube
Minecraft: Apple TV Edition

What is laggy or broken

Home screenNot broken, but a bit laggy. The box has a 1-core GPU, compared to the 12-core GPU of the A10X.
Video under an overlayVideo playing while an overlay is on top of it may be laggy. This is the case for Apple's Aerial screensaver.
Resizing videoThere may be glitches while a playing video runs its resize animation. It can be seen in YouTube when you open its settings.

What will not work

FairPlay and FairPlay StreamingProtected video does not play.
Apple sign-inIt requires a key from the SEP of a real Apple device, which cannot be extracted.
AirPlay
Dolby VisionIt could technically work, but it has not been tested: no Dolby Vision TV was available.
AV1The original Apple TV 4K only has software decoding. It could maybe be worked around, but apps do not expect AV1 on the box.