[K_A_D]

Hi,

I have been using a Popcorn box with YAMJ until now but it is looking very dated next to Kodi. I would like to upgrade, but I'm hoping someone can answer some questions before I spend the money.

My setup will be :

QNAP NAS ------(CAT6)------ Kodi Box ------(HDMI)----- Denon Amp -------(HDMI)------- TV

From reading the forums the consensus seems to be that it is better to avoid the Android boxes which are available as they may not actually perform as advertised and may have limited support. Is this the case?

The cheapest option to get a Kodi device would appear to be the Raspberry Pi B+.

The questions I have are:

1. Is the Pi really up to the job of running Kodi at 1080p without any lag?
2. Can the Pi cope with streaming content (BD ISOs & MKV) from the NAS?
3. Can the Pi cope with streaming quality feeds from the internet (YouTube, etc)?
4. My amp can do all the audio decoding required, so can the Pi do audio passthrough (including Dolby HD audio)?
5. I assume that the Kodi database is saved locally on the micro-SD card. Is this fast enough for navigation, or can I install Kodi on a USB stick?

Sorry, for all the questions but I want to get the best value for money.

I guess my thinking is, if the Pi can run Kodi at full speed, play all the content and costs around £45 for the starter kit, why would you spend extra money to buy the other hardware (assuming you are only going to run Kodi on it, and not other apps)? What would I miss out on just spending £45 on the Pi that I would get if I spent ~£100 on one of the Android boxes or ~£200 on a Chromebox?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

Cheers, K.

[wrxtasy]

Hiya,

1. I really don't know where people get the idea about lag on the RPi. Maybe older version versions of Openelec and slow SD cards caused issues in the past. Maybe a lot of people did not bother Overclocking. I really don't know, but let me assure you an Overclocked and properly setup RPi definately does not lag. Openelec 5.0 was a nice Kodi GUI interface speed increase, library import speed is now pretty quick as well.

2. Yes it can. I would advise using the NFS protocol as it's less taxing on the CPU. You really have to make sure you also buy the dirt cheap mpeg2 & VC-1 licences if you want some BD ISO's to play. A very interesting thread on this subject is here:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1893739

3. Yes all streams will work fine, they may be a little slow to initialise due to CPU constraints, but everything will play fine.

4. No, I cannot phrase it any better - explanation by Popcornmix...

The hardware on Pi cannot handle 8 channel PCM @ 192kHz.
Unfortunately that is the transport configuration used by DTS-HD MA and TrueHD.

What does work is:
5.1 DTS and AC3 passthrough
8 channel 24-bit PCM at 48kHz
2 channel 24-bit PCM at 192kHz

(assuming your receiver supports that)

http://forum.osmc.tv/showthread.php?tid=...#pid102125

5. Read speeds on the RPi with a Fast Class 10 microSDHC cards these days are as quick as a Fast USB. It is recommended all Metadata scraping is done externally and all media stored correctly in separate folders. Overclocking and using NFS and this proper setup results in fast Kodi Library navigation. A massive thread here on the subject:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1890502

[Rickt1962]

I found some Android boxes with remotes that come preloaded with XBMC for a lesser price then Pi
I found this box that even has TV tuner built in and runs XBMC VIGICA C70

[K_A_D]

Hi wrxtasy,

Thank you very much for the comprehensive reply to all my questions! You have provided some excellent information.

It sounds like what your are saying is that the Pi is an excellent Kodi box, and the only thing I would gain by spending more money for an Android box is potentially HD Audio passthrough.

I guess that's not really worth the extra cash.

I really appreciate your fast response.

Cheers, K.

---

Hi Rickt1962,

I'd appreciate any links you have to cheap Android boxes which are better spec than the Pi and are cheaper if you can find them!

All the Android boxes were £80+.

Thanks, K.

[calev]

5. Read speeds on the RPi with a Fast Class 10 microSDHC cards these days are as quick as a Fast USB. It is recommended all Metadata scraping is done externally and all media stored correctly in separate folders. Overclocking and using NFS and this proper setup results in fast Kodi Library navigation. A massive thread here on the subject:

Or you could just get a chromebox and not have to worry about any of that.

What would I miss out on just spending £45 on the Pi that I would get if I spent ~£100 on one of the Android boxes or ~£200 on a Chromebox?

My chromebox was significantly less than that. The rpi does run pretty well but everything runs better on a chromebox. It cost more.
Here are a few things I like more about my chrombox than my RPI,
1. usb ports that provide plenty of power. they are usb 3.0 thats really nice. with a overclocked pi I stick something in and sometimes it shuts off or reboots. Mabye the b+ is better about this.
2. Gigabite Ethernet. Transferring file across computers goes really fast. This is my favorite.
3. It can run any skin.
4. no overclock head aches.
5. All addons run. Including a web browser in Openelec.
6. It comes with wifi, bluetooth storage all in one package.
7. I can run other stuff than just basic xbmc but you don't care about that.


Things my PI does better that I notice
1. CEC
2. Noiseless

[K_A_D]

Hi calev,

Thanks for your feedback.

I can understand that the Chromebox is going to be a nicer package - you get what you pay for after all. I've had another look and the cheapest I've seen the Chromebox is £150, but is it £100 better than the Pi? http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/pa...598242.htm

I guess not having the overclocking headaches would be nice though.

Cheers, K.

[Rickt1962]

Just android box http://www.amazon.com/Pigflytech-generat...words=xbmc

And one with a Satellite tuner just hook up a 36" Dish to it ! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MP62XYI/ref=...rds=Vigica

[calev]

Hi calev,

Thanks for your feedback.

I can understand that the Chromebox is going to be a nicer package - you get what you pay for after all. I've had another look and the cheapest I've seen the Chromebox is £150, but is it £100 better than the Pi? http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/pa...598242.htm

I guess not having the overclocking headaches would be nice though.

Cheers, K.

Yes,it definitely is. It really runs much better. Heres one example. Say you have an addon that streams but its going to slow to watch, so you hit the context key and hit download, a pi is gona be to taxed to do much while downloading but a chromebox wont even be able to tell the difference. Or a friend comes over with a movie on a stick. You put it in and hit copy, the pi will take forever and a day to copy this movie and will suck up 80 to 90 percent of the cpu usage just copying. For a secondary bed room box its hard to justify more than a pi but for your main tv I would spend the extra £100 and get a box that is really capable.

[wrxtasy]

It sounds like what your are saying is that the Pi is an excellent Kodi box, and the only thing I would gain by spending more money for an Android box is potentially HD Audio passthrough.

Be very careful with Android boxes and HD Audio passthrough. As an example the Android based Amazon Fire TV cannot do HD audio passthrough.
You really have to do you research otherwise you WILL get burnt with an Android box and unstable firmware.
Video display modes, deinterlacing and refresh rate switching are superior on media devices that are NOT Android based.

In fact as it looks like you are in the UK and PAL TV land, I would not recommend any Android based box at all if you want video playback refresh rate flexibility and picture quality. The Wetek Play may be worth a look however.

[noggin]

The Pi copes far better with actual video playback than most Android boxes :

1. It auto refresh-rate switches - which is important in Europe if you watch European streaming TV services (iPlayer etc.), European DVDs, and some European Blu-rays (particularly TV shows) which are 50Hz. With the Pi (and Chromebox) you can configure Kodi to dynamically switch to the best refresh rate of the media you are playing (50Hz, 59.94/60Hz, 23.976/24Hz) Standard Android doesn't allow this - and the Android boxes that have hacked solutions that do tie you in to specific builds of Kodi. On Android you often have to go in to the Device Settings to change the output refresh rate (leaving Kodi) and even then some boxes don't support 50Hz or 24Hz and are stuck at 60Hz (which means juddery replay of European stuff, and movies if you have a 24p display that would otherwise not have 3:2 judder).

2. It de-interlaces. If you watch any native interlaced content - Live / Recorded TV from a backend, DVD or Blu-ray releases of native interlaced stuff (classic TV, entertainment shows etc.) then the Pi will de-interlace it whereas the Android boxes won't.

3. Multichannel PCM. The Pi will output 8 channel PCM (at 48KHz - which allows HD Audio if you have decoded to PCM or FLAC offline), DD and DTS bitsreamed audio with no problems at all. Most Android boxes are limited to PCM 2.0 (i.e. stereo) or DD/DTS (and configuring for DD/DTS isn't always that easy)

The Chromebox outperforms the Pi in all areas but price. The Pi may have a slightly slower UI than Android boxes, but the quality of video replay is definitely better than most Android boxes - particularly on interlaced stuff. Of course with decent Android boxes you get stuff like Netflix, Amazon video etc.

[joelbaby]

1. Is the Pi really up to the job of running Kodi at 1080p without any lag?

The Pi can play 1080p videos, but it will not run all Kodi skins very quickly. If you are a fan of Aeon Nox, then get a faster alternative to a Pi to enjoy a more responsive interface. Also the Pi has no in-built Infra red sensor.

[Milhouse]

Also the Pi has no in-built Infra red sensor.

That's because it supports CEC and doesn't typically need an IR sensor - just use your existing TV remote to control Kodi.

[Rickt1962]

Also the Pi has no in-built Infra red sensor.

That's because it supports CEC and doesn't typically need an IR sensor - just use your existing TV remote to control Kodi.

Depends on what TV My Pi on my Vizio the cec craps out after awhile get hdmi error then have to use my smart phone as a remote unless I want to get up and reboot both.

[wrxtasy]

This will give you an idea if your RPi will talk to your TV over HDMI CEC:

http://libcec.pulse-eight.com/vendor/support