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I am deciding on getting a small device for running kodi, I am not sure if I should go with an Android box or just the linux install?
How many cores should the CPU & GPU have?
and How much Ram?
I will just be using it for my music & video library & the standard add-ons, nothing major
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2016-07-17, 11:44
(This post was last modified: 2016-07-17, 11:44 by Tinwarble.)
The first thing you have to decide is whether you want a Kodi only box or if you're needing an "all in one" box, something that will not only run Kodi but that can play from streaming services like Netflix.
Then you need to decide on what type of files you want it to play, 3D, HEVC, etc. and what type of audio you need to to support.
All that is going to be more important than the CPU/GPU or how much RAM a device has.
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My question should have been more direct.
will KODI take advantage of multiple core CPUs if it is loaded as the boot OS?
or will it run the same if it is used as an App on an Android box
say its a 2ghz quad core s905
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Not really, especially when you start talking ARM - System on a Chip (SoC) devices that combine the CPU, GPU and VPU together.
As an example on an AMLogic S905 device the GPU and VPU do nearly all the Audio and Graphics work for drawing the Kodi user interface, decoding and playback. The CPU is way down the list of considerations and actually does very little when you are watching something. (idles at about 5%)
Needs to play 3D games get a expensive, fast GPU capable box. Need to do a lot of decryption, compression, compiling, etc, get an expensive fast Multicore CPU.
Need to deinterlace TV content, thats the VPU's job.
Basically a 2GB AMLogic S905 device, especially one with eMMC, running LibreELEC Kodi would give even an Intel box a good run for its money and even surpass it in many respects when it comes to 4K HEVC and HDMI 2.0. Personally I would stay away from Android for what you want to do.
If you need 3D, get an Intel Box for the best Picture Quality. Android Apps the main priority - then its the nVIDIA Shield. See the Sticky thread.
