[giangi72]

Hi all,

a long time ago I created an
HTPC having ASUS E45M1-I Deluxe a miniITX motherboard having AMD Dual-Core E-450 and integrated AMD Radeon HD 6320
It cost me a lot of money (motherboard, ram, aluminium case, ssd hard disk, mce reciever, ...)
PRO: very very stylish
CONs: very expensive

some time ago I assembled a
RPI
and it cost me less money (RPI, case, SD card, mce reciever and remote)
PRO: cost about 50$
CONs: hugly to see and not very responsive

few days ago I bought an
Android tv box
GPU: Mali-450
CPU: Amlogic S905 2.0GHz,Quad Core
RAM: 2G ROM: 16G
Decoder Format: H.264,H.265
Video format: 1080P,4K,4K x 2K,AVI,DAT,H.264,H.265,MOV,MP4,MPEG,RM,WMV
WIFI: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth: Bluetooth4.0
Interface: HDMI,LAN,Micro SD Card Slot,SPDIF,USB2.0
PRO: cost less than 50$, it is able to play HD movies (tested) and also 4K (not tested by me)
CONs: nothing at all
When I recieved it I only had to uninstall kodi and reinstall it again to remove rubbish add-ons, and install a Startup Manager to load kodi at startup

My only interest is to see movies (SD and HD, maybe in future 4K), listen music and view photos.

The question is:
Why should I spent so much money to buy an HTPC or a RPI?
Why not simply buy an android tv box?

[katsup]

It sounds like you already have all 3, you can compare your experience with each. From my understanding, a lot of people that buy Android want paid streaming apps as well.

Note that the RPI can be mounted behind a TV to avoid the "hugly" and the newer RPI 3 is much more responsive than the first, but it will not do 4K well.

[giangi72]

Yes, I already have all 3.
I forgot one of the most important points: kodi must use the cabled network, not WiFi
For my needs, its seems to me that all the 3 systems are comparable but:
HTPC is expensive
RPI have performance issues
Android TV? Low price, great performances and very easy to set up

So the question is: why buy an HTPC or a RPI that cost more of an android tv?
Is there something that I'm not able to understand?

[joelbaby]

RPI 1 had performance issues. RPi2 and RPi3 are fine.

Android TV? Low price, poor support from chinese clone manufacturers. Good luck getting drivers to work for USB hardware.

Odroid C2 is a good choice for performance. Rpi3 is a good choice for large community of users. Also on RPI you have a computer, you can multiboot into Linux, Retropie (gaming), and other software.

[giangi72]

RPI 1 had performance issues. RPi2 and RPi3 are fine.

My RPI is RPI2 and it has performance issues too.
I read RPI3 is good but has thermal issues.
I also have RPI for retropie and another one for asterisk and they are good for that but not for kodi.

Android TV? Low price, poor support from chinese clone manufacturers. Good luck getting drivers to work for USB hardware.

Support for what? USB hardware for what? The model I bought has bluetooth too and is able to use wireless usb keyboard/air mouse, so what else do you need?

Odroid C2 is a good choice for performance. Rpi3 is a good choice for large community of users. Also on RPI you have a computer, you can multiboot into Linux, Retropie (gaming), and other software.

Only the Odroid board costs 40$ excluding taxes, shipping costs ad custom duties. It is not a valid alternative.

[deaded]

giangi72, I think it's a good question. I'm interested to hear what non android uses have to say. My only thought is that Android is not really being developed anymore by Kodi; they have no programmer for the Android branch. That would be a big reason to stay away from that specific platform, imho.

[magister]

Some of the Android boxes have codec issues. Even the well supported fire TV is not perfect mpeg2 wise. Pi2 is pretty solid. And I do not feel it is that sluggish. I also have a shield and a fire TV 2.

Sent from my XT1064

[TheShoe]

my RPI2 is fine. it's hardly sluggish and paired with the iOS kodi remote app who cares about the kodi interface

my mac mini running windows 10 boot camp is better. seems color output has less banding and it should be able to decode 4K video

both play 3D mvc perfectly now as well as all my HD audio though the pi caps out at 5.1 96/24 whilst my mac mini can output 7.1 192/24. but i have no audio at that resolution

i think the RPi 2/3 are the best bang for the buck overall. small, cheap, playback is near perfect for 1080p and supports hardware 3d mvc. can hide it anywhere (behind tv, velcro the box to the tv)

i'v been messing with the mac mini and bootcamp for a while but will go back to the pi. i have better uses for the mini and windows just makes me feel dirty. at least with osx i get 'nix, although apple basterdized nix to be sure

[Ned Scott]

RPI 1 had performance issues. RPi2 and RPi3 are fine.

My RPI is RPI2 and it has performance issues too.
I read RPI3 is good but has thermal issues.
I also have RPI for retropie and another one for asterisk and they are good for that but not for kodi.

I've never had any issues on my RPi 2. Of course, it's possible to load up a heavy skin and lots of background scripts, but you can also do the same to any Android box. If one doesn't need Android apps, then RPi 2/3 is the way to go, hands down.

Also, don't believe in the heat hype. There is no heat issue with RPi 3.

[giangi72]

Also, don't believe in the heat hype. There is no heat issue with RPi 3.

Are you sure about that? I remember I read about that.
Anyway the android box is definitely simpler to configure, the RPI is not for anyone.
My 2 cents.

[noggin]

RPI 1 had performance issues. RPi2 and RPi3 are fine.

My RPI is RPI2 and it has performance issues too.
I read RPI3 is good but has thermal issues.

There's a lot of misinformation about this.

There are no major thermal issues with the Pi 3 for general Kodi use if you are playing MPEG2, VC-1 or H264/AVC or MVC with with the required licences using VPU decode. If you are playing H265/HEVC then you may want to look at putting a small heatsink on the main SoC to assist in heat dissipation as the CPU+GPU decode is more power hungry.

I also have RPI for retropie and another one for asterisk and they are good for that but not for kodi.

I seriously disagree. The Pi 3 is a brilliant Kodi platform - snappy, fluid GUI and for MPEG2, VC-1 (including interlaced VC-1 unlike much more expensive Intel boxes running Linux) and H264/AVC + MVC 3D it's a brilliant little box, plus you get HD Audio decoded losslessly to PCM multichannel and decent deinterlacing (3D MVC Frame Packed Output, HD Audio and decent deinterlacing are things you struggle to find on many Android boxes).

I really wouldn't dismiss the Pi 3 - unless you are looking for UHD or HEVC (and the Pi3 can do some HEVC so even then with a heatsink it might be suitable)

[rykios]

giangi72 i understand what you say... exactly. See, i was in the same situation.
Now i have a fantastic aluminium HTPC case in my living room, housing the interior of a KI plus S2-T2

For just over 50 euro i have DVB-T aerial TV receiver, DVB-S2 SAT TV receiver, full PVR service running, and, an ultra-fast media player
Have not tested myself 4K content as i dont have any such files in my library, and i dont care fot 4K at the moment, people say its OK

TIP: If you only need the box as a media player, remove android completely, and try Openelec (available for several s905 devices)

[noggin]

Also, don't believe in the heat hype. There is no heat issue with RPi 3.

Are you sure about that? I remember I read about that.

Yes. The original reports are that if you hammer the more powerful CPU it throttles. If you put a small heatsink on it goes away. For video playback using the VPU - this won't be an issue. If you play HEVC (which is CPU+GPU not VPU) then a small heatsink may be a good idea, particularly if you live in a hot climate.

Anyway the android box is definitely simpler to configure, the RPI is not for anyone.
My 2 cents.

Possibly - though with a few exceptions Android doesn't perform as well as Libre/OpenELec - and that is often trickier to installed on boxes designed for Android than it is for a Pi.

I've tried both - and there is no doubt that the Pi 3 (and to be honest the Pi 2 before it) delivers better picture and sound quality across a range of content than many Android boxes. You also get frequent updates from both the Pi Foundation and the Kodi devs that are optimised for the Pi platform. Good luck with that on most Android platforms. What you get when you buy the box is often all you'll ever get in firmware terms... (Wetek, nVidia, Amazon and Google are the exceptions to this)

[Ned Scott]

Also, don't believe in the heat hype. There is no heat issue with RPi 3.

Are you sure about that? I remember I read about that.
Anyway the android box is definitely simpler to configure, the RPI is not for anyone.
My 2 cents.

Until you have to update Android. BTW, Kodi v17 will require Android 5.0 or higher, and most of these boxes come with Android 4.x.

[wrxtasy]

There are three trains of thought here when making a potential purchase:

a) Cost.
b) Will if be a relatively trouble free device with decent support going forward.
c) Actual A/V playback requirements.

If a Newb buys one of these cheap AML Boxes and it meets all their requirements and you will throw it away inside a year and buy again, then that is fine.

BUT be prepared to discover a bunch of hidden nasty surprises as you drill deeper into the Kodi A/V system on these cheap devices, doubly especially when running Android and particularly when Kodi Krypton is released. You are on your own with no support for Android.

SO, comparing these three different types of devices is basically useless unless a list of specific Audio and Video Codec playback requirements are listed alongside. Each has different strengths and weaknesses.

And yes a Kodi device running a lean and mean Linux OS like LibreELEC works very on a AML S905. I have two of them and know very well what makes them tick and how to fix bugs.