[Draghmar]

The link you've provided ships from Korea from what I understand so remember that your country can add tax to the price. In my country price = item price + shipping price.
Check this link if you haven't already: http://www.hardkernel.com/main/distributor.php

[Mufimufin]

Yes, I will have to pay VAT + toll like this. Thanks for the link. It seems that in country nearby they have it for 52,09 EUR without VAT.

What about those accessories?

[wrxtasy]

Really all that is needed is:

- a Case (Black Recommended)
- usb-DC Power Cable or you can use any old usb-->micro usb cable you have around (you need a good quality, thick one)
- WiFi Module 4 recommended if you need that as I know it works. I know of an AC WiFi one thats Plug n Play as well.
- Remote, although you can use built in HDMI CEC control. Its a little bit slower though, still very usable.
- eMMC Flash card if you want speed and are doing a lot of R/W operations like when running Ubuntu.

The LibreELEC / Kodi Jarvis image I distribute has a lot more Kodi functionality than the regular Ubuntu image. There is comprehensive HDMI CEC control for AVR's and a whole bunch of Kodi bug fixes.

AMLogic devices consume little power, quite a bit less than comparable RPi's. As such you can get away with powering a C2 with just a usb Phone Charger. Like all ARM (RPi, Core, C2's) devices you will need an externally powered usb Hub or an externally power Hard Drive, as ARM devices cannot reliably supply enough power for HDD operations.

[nickr]

I am becoming quite interested in this C2. It may need to be added to my toy collection.

[Mufimufin]

Is that WiFi module capable of playing 4K videos? I will probably stick with 1 Gbps ethernet (there is no "wireless" HDMI anyway so there will be some cables), but its good to know if there is such reliable option.

What storage do you use with C2? Are there only external hard drives or someone have different solution? I can imagine that 1,5 Tb WD external hard drive is going to be full very soon and we are slowly getting back to some reasonable priced NAS. Should I create a new thread for that?

As asked before do you guys know if C2 box can run Ubuntu with the same results like with Android (4K playing, etc.)? I prefer Linux, because I can install other apps that are not present on Android platform, but if there are any known issues with Linux comparing to Android I might save some time by moving to Android right away and say goodbye to my Linux CRON based apps. However from wrxtasy mentioned it seems that it should work with Linux just fine. The reason why I ask is because I am still currious whether this box can run something like this http://flawless-server.com/ and play 4K videos or that is simply too much and I should not bother before I get my hands on proper Intel NUC box.

[OlivierQC]

But, I recall @wesk05 posting somewhere that Kodi is far from being able to support HDR. HiMedia Q10 Pro can do 4K and 4:2:0, with HDR.

What happens when you play the HDR10 demo clips in Kodi 17/SPMC 16.3 on the Q10 Pro? Since it looks like @OlivierQC is the only one with an HDR10 TV and Q10 Pro, he may be the one who can test this.

@wesk05,

I will try to do this evening.

HDR10 demo ( Exodus,Pie, fire by fox) with kodi 17 ( without himedia wrapper) / Q10 pro / Sony X93C

[noggin]

As asked before do you guys know if C2 box can run Ubuntu with the same results like with Android (4K playing, etc.)? I prefer Linux, because I can install other apps that are not present on Android platform, but if there are any known issues with Linux comparing to Android I might save some time by moving to Android right away and say goodbye to my Linux CRON based apps. However from wrxtasy mentioned it seems that it should work with Linux just fine. The reason why I ask is because I am still currious whether this box can run something like this http://flawless-server.com/ and play 4K videos or that is simply too much and I should not bother before I get my hands on proper Intel NUC box.

Most of us using the C2 are using LibreElec builds, which are Linux-based, rather than Android. LibreElec has add-on functionality for much of the stuff you'd use in Linux, but it isn't using a repo-based update system like apt... There is an Ubuntu build for the C2, but the Ubuntu+Kodi option is nowhere near as optimised as the LibreElec system. LibreElec (and OpenElec) are designed with Read Only system file systems for additional robustness as 'appliances', so although they shouldn't be shut down by pulling power, they are more likely to survive intact in those situations than a general read/write based Linux system. (There is R/W area for user data in LE/OE which also allows stuff like additional DVB firmware, config files etc. to be located and used)

I'd probably treat any ARM Kodi box purely as a Kodi player (though TV Headend back-end duties are very light so would probably be OK) - and wouldn't run other general stuff on it, nor would I try combining it with NAS duties.

[wrxtasy]

Yes Noggin is right, even though there are a bunch of Linux images and distributions the the S905 C2 I would not be using it as a server and Kodi media player running on Ubuntu at the same time.
Choose one or the other but not both.
Have a look over on the HardKernel forums for the various Linux distributions, the guys over there can answer questions in more depth regarding stand alone server duties.

[Mufimufin]

Ok, so you guys both basically confirm that I will need some server for those backend apps (e.g. Plex Server, Sonarr, Sabnzbd, Couchpotato) with lots of hard drive space and this C2 + LibreElec (or OpenElec) will be pure 4K HTPC (Kodi + PlexBMC) and nothing else.

I have raised some questions regarding NAS here as I am still not sure whether I should look for NAS or Linux custom server build like I have now at home - http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2332697 . I will be grateful for any tips like I have received here.

[raidflex]

I have been very happy with my Freenas build which I have a Kodi MySQL DB and a Plex server running on.

I have been running it for a number of years now and have about 25TB of space.

Sent from my SM-G935V

[Mufimufin]

Ok, so we have one more person who that uses custom build server NAS. :-) Can anyone who had both compare, please?

I have mentioned all here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2332697 and I do not want to snow this HTPC ticket with NAS / server related questions.

[faugusztin]

Hi,

i am wondering what path should i take.

Currently i have a Broadwell i3 NUC (NUC5i3MYHE), which has two DP++ capable outputs. It can do 4k30 as it is.

I would want to have something capable of 4k60 (thus HDMI 2.0) with CEC support (because it is annoying to put the NUC to sleep manually or even on timer, because then it shuts down when i don't want to; on my N2930 box with same CEC adapter i set it up exactly as i wanted to work).
My current choice would be to keep the NUC, add Pulse Eight CEC adapter (ideally the USB one for future compatibility if i move away from this NUC) for HDMI-CEC and one Club3D CAC-1170 (miniDP to HDMI 2.0 active adapter) (or CAC-1070 + miniDP->DP adapter before that, as this would be good if i decided to move the Kodi task to my Skylake based server (which cannot do Kodi right now because of Proxmox having only older Intel GPU driver) to get HDMI 2.0 output from one of those mini DisplayPort outputs. The issue with this choice is that it costs 80€ as it is, while using something relatively overpowered for the intended use.

Is there a good alternative to this setup before i splash out the money on it ?

[noggin]

Ok, so we have one more person who that uses custom build server NAS. :-) Can anyone who had both compare, please?

I have mentioned all here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2332697 and I do not want to snow this HTPC ticket with NAS / server related questions.

I use unRAID and have done for 8 or so years. It's migrated twice, so I'm on my third set of hardware (migrated drives twice too), but with the original licence key and USB flash drive. Absolutely love it. It just works.

DIY Sempron for first gen, now Celeron Ivy Bridge for second gen. Large tower case with two drive cages.

[nickr]

I simply use a tower computer that has lots of space for disks and sata ports. It runs Ubuntu, because that is by far the easiest way to get mythtv. It also runs couch potato, sick beard, sabnzbd, rtorrent and various other bits and pieces. I don't like the idea of being locked into one vendors NAS operating system so prefer a straight Ubuntu solution. Others will have different views and experiences.

[Mufimufin]

I use custom Linux build at home and I am happy with it, but I am kind of interested whether neightbors grass is not greener than mine. In other words I need someone to tell me that I should not waste time on locked NAS boxes and rather build my own custom NAS like I did before and be happy with it.

Perhaps there are some (non bla bla bullshit blah bla) comparisons? If so then please shoot, I have tried to Google but I always got some discussions with personal preferences, but no real comparison with advantages and disadvatanges.

NAS can have for e.g. lower energy consumption (and other advantages) than custom desktop hardware build. Since we are discussing it here I will try to copy&paste my thoughts from that other thread which got somehow stucked.

*********

Here it is:

As a person who never had any NAS I am thinking about buying one for a new place vs new low power custom Linux server build.

My requirements are that this should be capable to deliver 4K content to my HTPC, have low energy consumption (24/7), download the data and be extendable when it comes to hard drive space. I will probably start with at least 6 Tb and need an option to expand later.

Am I supposed to mount for e.g. Synology NAS as a hard drive in Linux so that it can be used by Plex Server and my (ODroid C2 based, Intel NUC later) HTPC can save the data and play them using Kodi + PlexBMC? If not then is this behaving as a network device?

Perhaps my thinking is wrong because I have always had custom build server with Linux + Plex Server in one (http://flawless-server.com/) and separate HTPC. In such case is Plex Server supposed to run on NAS as well?

Does any of you guys had/currently have both NAS and custom Linux server build with such requirements? I would be interested in some comparison when it comes to energy consumption, possible problems (I had almost none with my current custom build), price and overall suitability. The main reason I can imagine I will buy dedicated NAS for is that this should work out of the box (less work on my end), be more quiet, cheaper and have lower energy consumption comparing to custom desktop server build. I do not necessarily need to mirror my data in case of hard drive failure as there will be nothing important on such pure media NAS. I am only affraid that this might bring other restrictions I am not aware of from the Linux world.

It is worth mentioning that I am about to buy Intel NUC with Kaby Lake as ODroid C2 replacement after its release at the end of this year. Perhaps this can serve as both HTPC+NAS? Not sure about hard drive options, I guess that it is possible that I will still need that NAS/custom Linux server.