[Soli]

Just upgraded from 2955U Chromebox to a thin mini itx fanless Haswell i3 3.4ghz with multithreading. It's a little bigger than the chromebox but it's silent. I hope it will software decode hevc 4k@24fps at reasonable bitrates. (I know it won't do 50/60). Will report over the weekend.

[teki4u]

I was really tempted to get the Intel NUC Pentium N3700, because comparing N3700 vs 2955U CPUs at cpubenchmark.net shows the N3700 is superior with a Passmark of 1882 vs 1457 of the 2955U, BUT after watching few videos and reading some more comments I'm back to 0.
On the other hand skylake i3 6100U 2.30Ghz CPU is superior than the Kaby Lake i3 7100U 2.40Ghz, so apart of the hevc 10bit hw decoding of Kaby Lake that i might use i dont see why to go for the MSI Mini Pc with that chip IMO, also no HDMI 2.0 yet. What a big mess Intel!
Do you guys think the i3 6100U 2.30Ghz could software decode 1080p hevc 10bit @24 or upto @30 fps decently? If yes then my search is over. @fritsch i need your expertise please.

Enviado desde mi Moto X vía Tapatalk!

[Soli]

Not 100% sure but you need dual core of at least 3ghz to decode 10bit hevc 4k24, so my guess is no. I'll report later how my 3,4ghz haswell i3 fares

[Matt Devo]

I was really tempted to get the Intel NUC Pentium N3700, because comparing N3700 vs 2955U CPUs at cpubenchmark.net shows the N3700 is superior with a Passmark of 1882 vs 1457 of the 2955U, BUT after watching few videos and reading some more comments I'm back to 0.
On the other hand skylake i3 6100U 2.30Ghz CPU is superior than the Kaby Lake i3 7100U 2.40Ghz, so apart of the hevc 10bit hw decoding of Kaby Lake that i might use i dont see why to go for the MSI Mini Pc with that chip IMO, also no HDMI 2.0 yet. What a big mess Intel!
Do you guys think the i3 6100U 2.30Ghz could software decode 1080p hevc 10bit @24 or upto @30 fps decently? If yes then my search is over. @fritsch i need your expertise please.

Enviado desde mi Moto X vía Tapatalk!

The 2955U is significantly faster than the N3700, CPU-wise.
the i3-7100U is slightly faster than the i3-6100U, and adds 10-bit HEVC
the i3-6100U should handle most 1080p HEVC 10-bit @ 24/30fps, but no chance for anything 4K

[teki4u]

I was really tempted to get the Intel NUC Pentium N3700, because comparing N3700 vs 2955U CPUs at cpubenchmark.net shows the N3700 is superior with a Passmark of 1882 vs 1457 of the 2955U, BUT after watching few videos and reading some more comments I'm back to 0.
On the other hand skylake i3 6100U 2.30Ghz CPU is superior than the Kaby Lake i3 7100U 2.40Ghz, so apart of the hevc 10bit hw decoding of Kaby Lake that i might use i dont see why to go for the MSI Mini Pc with that chip IMO, also no HDMI 2.0 yet. What a big mess Intel!
Do you guys think the i3 6100U 2.30Ghz could software decode 1080p hevc 10bit @24 or upto @30 fps decently? If yes then my search is over. @fritsch i need your expertise please.

Enviado desde mi Moto X vía Tapatalk!

The 2955U is significantly faster than the N3700, CPU-wise.
the i3-7100U is slightly faster than the i3-6100U, and adds 10-bit HEVC
the i3-6100U should handle most 1080p HEVC 10-bit @ 24/30fps, but no chance for anything 4K

Thanks, i found a video in youtube comparing both 6100U and 7100U playing a 4k UHD video test file and the 6100U stutters alot but im only interested in upto 1080p playback, couldn't find a video demonstrating what i want but found this instead:


Enviado desde mi Moto X vía Tapatalk!

[Matt Devo]

Thanks, i found a video in youtube comparing both 6100U and 7100U playing a 4k UHD video test file and the 6100U stutters alot but im only interested in upto 1080p playback, couldn't find a video demonstrating what i want but found this instead:

the problem is that there isn't one single HEVC 10-bit encoding profile, and the low CPU usage reported is only valid under Windows, where Intel's drivers offload part of the decoding to the GPU. Although it's unlikely that 1080p HEVC 10-bit would be problematic, it's possible, and I'd probably wait for a KBL option to come into your budget so you don't have to worry about 1080p or 4K HEVC 10-bit, period.

[teki4u]

Thanks, i found a video in youtube comparing both 6100U and 7100U playing a 4k UHD video test file and the 6100U stutters alot but im only interested in upto 1080p playback, couldn't find a video demonstrating what i want but found this instead:

the problem is that there isn't one single HEVC 10-bit encoding profile, and the low CPU usage reported is only valid under Windows, where Intel's drivers offload part of the decoding to the GPU. Although it's unlikely that 1080p HEVC 10-bit would be problematic, it's possible, and I'd probably wait for a KBL option to come into your budget so you don't have to worry about 1080p or 4K HEVC 10-bit, period.

Ok, then i think i'll wait. Thank you.

[Soli]

I3 haswell 3.4ghz playing jellyfish 4k/10bit/hevc/120mbs 29.97fps: no go

[Matt Devo]

I3 haswell 3.4ghz playing jellyfish 4k/10bit/hevc/120mbs 29.97fps: no go

well that' to be expected =P I think 1080p/HEVC main10 is likely the limit for a 15w TDP dual core CPU

[piotrasd]

Intel Celeron J3455 and Pentium J4205 HW HEVC 10bit done by FernetMenta and Fristch and working perfect in KODI
15% load CPU when you watch 4k channel and 35% load GPU



LiveTV - DVB-S2 (tvheadend) Hotbird 4k HDR




mini-itx mainboard 80-110eur from Asrock J3455-itx, J4205-itx or

Intel NUC on J3455 -245eur
http://geizhals.de/intel-nuc-kit-nuc6cay...45579.html

[Soli]

I3 haswell 3.4ghz playing jellyfish 4k/10bit/hevc/120mbs 29.97fps: no go

well that' to be expected =P I think 1080p/HEVC main10 is likely the limit for a 15w TDP dual core CPU

This was a desktop cpu with 54w tdp. Anyways, I haven't tried 4k/24fps hevc with "real life" bitrates...maybe..?

I did get some sort of deal on this used pc, and the i3 cpu will probably go to my desktop pc where it will replace a pentium g3258. And selling the Chromebox will also net a little $$, so the price difference wasn't that bad. The absolute silence was worth it. But If I had to buy a *new* PC, I'd no doubt wait for kaby lake. .

[Matt Devo]

I just picked up an i7-4600U Chromebox off ebay (w/8GB RAM and 128GB SSD) for $200, I'll give that a try with some 1080p HEVC material and see how it compares to the Celeron 2955U so at least you'll know whether to consider sw-based playback at all

while the i7-4600U definitely handles 1080p HEVC a lot better than the Celeron 2955U, there are still a fair amount of dropped frames on occasion that are noticeable w/o the stats visible. This was under Windows, will test under LE soon and edit this post

Edit: Windows performance seems improved significantly with a fresh install and Kodi 17 b7. No stuttering or dropped frames on any 1080p/24,30 HEVC material I've tested, and BBB at 1080p/60 seems fine as well.

LE 7.90.010 (also Kodi 17 b7) has no performance issues either, with overall lower CPU/RAM usage than windows when playing the same test clips.