[islandmix]

A ton of questions... and i read the sticky and still not sure...

I bought the chromebox last year when it came out and i am satisfied but all my friends are asking me... "WHAT BOX SHOULD I BUY"... and i see all these clones out there and i am not sure what to suggest other than the chromebox

most of them simply want to use the VIDEO ADDON to stream some content and that's about it.. but what specs should they look for if they simply want to stream content?

What do they need to look out for when comparing CPU, GPU and RAM? Does RAM even matter for these boxes?

Here are specs of a high end box that i have been suggesting... but not sure what helps with what... does 4K need good GPU or CPU? What makes a box 4K compatible?

CPU: Amlogic S802 Quad-Core 2.0GHz
GPU: Octo-Core Mali-450 GPU
RAM/DDR: 2 GB

Is a simple DUAL CORE good enough? My brother got a dual core "COBALT" which seems to work just fine for him too..

[islandmix]

Any thoughts on this one?

[noggin]

Actually the one thing you don't list is probably most important - the VPU (which in some cases is part of the GPU, but not always). The VPU is what decodes the H264, VC-1, MPEG2 etc. video - and proper open source support for it is what is required. The Mali handles the UI - but not the actual hardware acceleration of video decoding (which, like the GPU, varies between ARM SoCs and isn't tied to the GPU)

[Hannes The Hun]

since when is an integrated ARM box a high-end box? go and search for users writing their experiences with similar ARM boxes, your thread implies that you'd want to configure an x86 system which you are clearly not.

[islandmix]

Umm... where did i mention x86?

Since you seem to have knowledge of the topic, why not help other NOOBS reading this thread and provide some input on CPU, RAM and GPU based on the usage scenario that i have described...

I am sure there are other high end boxes ... my aquintances are just looking at the boxes readily available to them which are usually some M5 or M8 strains... but want to filter through the weeds and narrow in on CPU, RAM and GPU..

[noggin]

I think the point being made is that CPU, GPU and RAM are really specs you associate more with x86 platforms where you can chose which GPU, CPU and RAM you have in a box independently. (i.e. you can build an HTPC where you spec your GPU card, your CPU model and the amount of RAM separately)

For ARM SoC based solutions you usually don't have that much choice - you get a fixed RAM, CPU and GPU.

[islandmix]

Ok.. then i should've left the prefix indicating i am noob at this process.. along with others in my shoes..

Most of my friends are looking at the ARM Soc based solutions... where you have S812, S802 and various quad, dual and octa core processors... so when they are faced with these options... what makes an ARM able to do 4K?

i read a few of the ARM Soc posts... some complain about getting bricks but that isn't the norm... i still don't see posts about performance and what specs make things work better if simply streaming video

[wrxtasy]

Big Tip.

The Amlogic family of SOC are getting a lot of love and support from both the Kodi and OpenElec teams at the moment due to WETEK being a Kodi sponsor.

I run an RPi2 and a ODROID-C1, and actually now prefer the OC1 due to its speed and superior deinterlacing capabilities and support for H265 video decoding. H265 decoding of video will be supported from within Kodi when v15 aka Isengard hits. At the moment it is only available via Android or Isengard versions of Kodibuntu.

The MK808b Plus also has the same Amlogic S805 and Mali 450GPU as the OC1 and would be another good cheap buy.
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=94268

If you want 4K, then get something with an Amlogic S812 SOC.
http://www.amlogic.com/product03.htm

W.

[eskro]

Just for streaming video addons then,

Amazon FireTV or the OUYA does that just fine for android box's at $100.

add to that also the Raspberry Pi2 at $35 which does this fine too running OpenELEC on it.

[Mark142]

I don't want to be a pain on this but it bugs me when people mention the Pi as $35 cost compared to say Android box for $100.
You're not truly comparing like for like. The android boxes which I am including the amazon fire stick in, are all in one solutions. e.g. it actually comes in a case and has all the leads necessary to plug and play. The Pi is just a motherboard for $35.

If people are looking at options they might not have all the necessary parts to make it a complete set eg PSU, Case, SD Card, HDMI lead and even an ethernet cable or wifi dongle. I'm sure if you stripped out the motherboard of the generic M8 android boxes and sold it just like that the cost would be less than $100. So when comparing the true cost I always consider the cost of sd card, a GOOD psu, HDMI cable, case and wifi as these are the bare minimum you would get with any android box . The cost then is more than $35.

Despite all this I would still choose the raspberry pi over any generic android box unless you specifically want certain Android apps like netflix for example but for just Kodi go for the Pi.

[noggin]

I don't want to be a pain on this but it bugs me when people mention the Pi as $35 cost compared to say Android box for $100.
You're not truly comparing like for like. The android boxes which I am including the amazon fire stick in, are all in one solutions. e.g. it actually comes in a case and has all the leads necessary to plug and play. The Pi is just a motherboard for $35.

If people are looking at options they might not have all the necessary parts to make it a complete set eg PSU, Case, SD Card, HDMI lead and even an ethernet cable or wifi dongle. I'm sure if you stripped out the motherboard of the generic M8 android boxes and sold it just like that the cost would be less than $100. So when comparing the true cost I always consider the cost of sd card, a GOOD psu, HDMI cable, case and wifi as these are the bare minimum you would get with any android box . The cost then is more than $35.

Despite all this I would still choose the raspberry pi over any generic android box unless you specifically want certain Android apps like netflix for example but for just Kodi go for the Pi.

Conversely - if you already have a Pi B+ and are upgrading to the Pi 2 you only have to pay for the $35 board replacement. That's not an option when upgrading Android and other all-in-one solutions.

Absolutlely I take the point that the Pi and Pi 2 aren't £30 standalone computers. However many of us had all the bits we needed other than a £5 case, and if you want a start-from-scratch set-up you are only looking at around £15 for a case, PSU and SD card if you shop around.

As you say - for a pure Kodi experience, the Pi 2 is a major winner of Android solutions for many of us. (Refresh rate switching, Proper 23.976 & 59.94Hz support, high quality audio support, decent de-interlacing, and now 3D MVC within Kodi)

[Topken]

The Fire TV Stick is a great video addon streaming device and at $39 comes with everything needed including a very simple bluetooth remote.And would handle streaming using the video addons perfectly.

[tvp49]

I bought a firestick at first offer and side loaded XBMC just before KODI came out. It works great, only firestick app I have found to smoothly find,load and play all of the content on my SMB shares and DLNA system. If I just run XBMC all goes well, but even if I "force STOP" it, mixing it with some set of other official firestick apps will cause errors induced by low memory. So every few weeks I need to power cycle the firestick. The time to get flaky or refuse to load an app is variable and not worth debugging yet, but I can see that XBMC uses the most memory and cache of any app I have loaded. I also run XBMC on my MAC OSX 10.10.3 and Windows 7 laptops without any interaction issues at all.