[danik56]

Which model is better to run Kodi with OPENELEC? is the HD graphics engine same in both these models ?

[wrxtasy]

The Zotac BI320 is Intel Haswell microarchitecture and the GPU contains 10 Execution Units.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7007/intel...erspective

The Zotac ID18 is Ivy Bridge microarchitecture and the GPU contains 6 EU's.
It is two one Intel generation behind the Haswell BI320.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5773/intel...erspective

Buy the most powerful GPU you can for a Kodi multimedia player, that being the Haswell in the BI320.
Also be aware there is a 24p (23.976fps) refresh rate sync bug in Ivy Bridge. This was finally fixed with Haswell Microarchitecture.

[Topken]

Have to correct you on one thing there wrxtasy Ivy Bridge is 1 generation behind Haswell not 2. IT goes sandy then ivy then haswell then broadwell in that order.

[wrxtasy]

Ha Ha, yes two many bloody Bridges !
Its no wonder Intel changed their naming conventions.
Fixed.

---

An even better idea than the Zotac BI320 would be the new Intel Braswell equipped MSI Cubi mini-desktops

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=223406

these will give you Hybrid HEVC decoding when running Windows.

[Matt Devo]

An even better idea than the Zotac BI320 would be the new Intel Braswell equipped MSI Cubi mini-desktops

you mean Broadwell

[wrxtasy]

Giving up, beer drinking time - bloody Intel names

[danik56]

How about I3-4010U, is it good enough to run Kodi player ?

[wrxtasy]

Easily, its actually complete overkill if your just running a Kodi media player . Especially OpenElec Kodi which runs happily on a 900Mhz RPi2.

- If I was spending serious coin and wanted to future proof a Kodi device somewhat, so you don't have to upgrade again within the next year. I would wait until next month.
Intel will be releasing Skylake microarchitecture in June that will have full HEVC hardware decoding built in.
HEVC is the video codec of the future. Very good quality for 1080p and 4K video.

[danik56]

So for those without the new hardware, will there be a software solution to decode HEVC content ?

[DocG]

So for those without the new hardware, will there be a software solution to decode HEVC content ?

There is, just don't expect to play back high bitrate 4K content.

[wrxtasy]

Expect to pay lots of money to even get the ability to software decode medium to high bitrate HEVC video, when in less than a month very capable Hardware will do the job at a cheaper price easily.

At the moment for example a $35 ODROID-C1 decodes HEVC video in Hardware easily.
I would not be buying a NUC just for use as a Kodi media player, there are far cheaper solutions that do the job very well.

[danik56]

I was talking about those of us who already own NUCs and ZOTACs without the HEVC capable hardware. I don't see too many 4K sources out there to justify replacing the existing hardware with the
new one right away. Obviously it makes sense to wait a month for someone looking to buy a new device.

[wrxtasy]

Ah, sorry.
Intel i3 / i5 / i7 NUC's are already be able to decode HEVC using Kodi via ffmpeg/software. 1080p - HEVC decoding at a low to low / medium bitrates.

The 900Mhz RPi2 can currently handle about 1.2Mbs 720p HEVC software decoding.
Chromeboxes likely a wee bit more. No much more tho.

A bunch of sample HEVC links in this post:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1771810