[Kiicki]

I have been considering getting a Raspberry Pi 3 but the lack of H265 support kinda bothers me. I don't care for 4K as I don't even have the TV for it, but I do have my own content that is in H265. I'm using H265 more and more these days, and I kinda need it.

I'm not looking for something really expensive which is why I'm looking for a Pi 3 alternative. I live in Norway and we got a $40 customs limit when buying from another country, so I kinda need to avoid that. Unless we have that product in our country, the customs limit doesn't apply.

I have heard that "Asus Tinker Board" is a good replacement for Pi 3 but that it doesn't work that well with Kodi? Think it lacks of proper graphics driver which is kinda sad as a big company like Asus released this. It should work flawlessly on Android but not sure how great Kodi is on it. The positive thing about this one is that it's actually available in my country. Con would be that it wouldn't work as good as it should be. Screen tear seems to be the problem and that just blows. Unless owners of this machine haven't figured out how to install and apply the graphics driver, but it would be too silly if that was the case.

[DarrenHill]

Thread moved to hardware

[wrxtasy]

@Kiicki,

NOK 350 / USD $40 limit...

What you want is a dirt cheap 8/10bit 1080p H265 decode capable AMLogic Android S905(x) box from somewhere like Gearbest or Aliexpress. Even a basic 1GB RAM / 8GB ROM ones is all you need. If needing WiFi - 5GHz is better than 2.4GHz.

Then to avoid busting the Customs limit buy a Samsung EVO(+) or Sandisk UHS-1 Class 10 microSDHC card (and Adapter) locally, and flash LibreELEC Kodi Krypton to it. If you have one already then even better - you can actually flash LibreELEC Kodi to faster internal S905(x) storage too.

The LibreELEC v8.0 image you flash is found here:
https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread-2156.html

And the SD card LE flashing Software is found here:
https://libreelec.tv/downloads/

There is really good LibreELEC support for these AML S905 boxes, a whole bunch of us are using them because LibreELEC Kodi works really well and they are the best bang for the buck going around. Faster than a RPi3 too.

[gurabli]

Isn't Odroid C2 the best possible way to go? I'm fully satisfied with it and I was using Intel which really rocks.

[trogggy]

Isn't Odroid C2 the best possible way to go? I'm fully satisfied with it and I was using Intel which really rocks.

If there was a 'best' solution the hardware section here would be very short.
C2 looks great - it's in a different price bracket to the cheapo chinese stuff though.

[gurabli]

Isn't Odroid C2 the best possible way to go? I'm fully satisfied with it and I was using Intel which really rocks.

If there was a 'best' solution the hardware section here would be very short.
C2 looks great - it's in a different price bracket to the cheapo chinese stuff though.

Well, for proper (8 bit output) H265 playback the C2 is excellent. And the price is around EUR 50 in EU. Sure, you need a 2A PSU and a case, which is EUR 20, but this matches an RPi3 kit price. If you don't mind the speed of the mSD card, then you don't need eMMC which is more expensive. I got it recently, and it blows away the Rpi2/3 on all fronts, except 3D.
I do agree that "best" is not the most appropriate expression however.

Still, don't really see a better price/performance contender to C2 if one doesn't need full Ntefilx, Prime, etc streaming. I always read that the dirt cheap Android boxes around there are just a source of all kind of trouble, while they do cost around USD 40 (+ customs), what do you gain if it doesn't work? Yes, its cheaper, but doesn't do the job. To me it is like it doesn't exist at all.

[trogggy]

Isn't Odroid C2 the best possible way to go? I'm fully satisfied with it and I was using Intel which really rocks.

If there was a 'best' solution the hardware section here would be very short.
C2 looks great - it's in a different price bracket to the cheapo chinese stuff though.

Well, for proper (8 bit output) H265 playback the C2 is excellent. And the price is around EUR 50 in EU. Sure, you need a 2A PSU and a case, which is EUR 20, but this matches an RPi3 kit price. If you don't mind the speed of the mSD card, then you don't need eMMC which is more expensive. I got it recently, and it blows away the Rpi2/3 on all fronts, except 3D.
I do agree that "best" is not the most appropriate expression however.

Still, don't really see a better price/performance contender to C2 if one doesn't need full Ntefilx, Prime, etc streaming. I always read that the dirt cheap Android boxes around there are just a source of all kind of trouble, while they do cost around USD 40 (+ customs), what do you gain if it doesn't work? Yes, its cheaper, but doesn't do the job. To me it is like it doesn't exist at all.

My Beelink Mini MXiii's cost me around £25 each delivered.
No sd card needed. No case needed. No power supply needed. No remote needed (although I use a Harmony).
I doubt there's much if anything between one of those and a C2 running libreelec (if you put a decent sd card in the C2 or splash another 20Euros on nand).
The C2 is the safer but more expensive option (not that you can buy a mini mxiii now - but there are equivalents).

Edit: Just to be clear - the Beelinks are running libreelec.

[infinity85]

Well, for proper (8 bit output) H265 playback the C2 is excellent. And the price is around EUR 50 in EU. Sure, you need a 2A PSU and a case, which is EUR 20, but this matches an RPi3 kit price. If you don't mind the speed of the mSD card, then you don't need eMMC which is more expensive. I got it recently, and it blows away the Rpi2/3 on all fronts, except 3D.
I do agree that "best" is not the most appropriate expression however.

Still, don't really see a better price/performance contender to C2 if one doesn't need full Ntefilx, Prime, etc streaming. I always read that the dirt cheap Android boxes around there are just a source of all kind of trouble, while they do cost around USD 40 (+ customs), what do you gain if it doesn't work? Yes, its cheaper, but doesn't do the job. To me it is like it doesn't exist at all.

The OP asks for a device below 40$ customs. Wrxtasy named the best option Kiicki could get for this price.

The C2 is around 60€ in EU now (price increase last couple of weeks). So not only above 40, but also with additional customs. The by wrxtasy proposed thread @Forum.libreelec.tv puts a good light onto these cheap boxes. I think if one would read the discussion, he would quickly be able to distinguish good and bad devices and choose the good boxes for their cheap price. The only downside would be the slow shipping (about 4 weeks), if ordering directly from china. I'm not sure, but gearbest may have a warehouse in UK, so shipping might be faster then.

[gurabli]

OK, sorry. I just wanted to help as a new C2 user who is really satisfied. Indeed, the C2 price did increase.

[infinity85]

OK, sorry. I just wanted to help as a new C2 user who is really satisfied. Indeed, the C2 price did increase.

A "sorry" is unnecessary , there was nothing wrong with what you said

[infinity85]

My Beelink Mini MXiii's cost me around £25 each delivered.
No sd card needed. No case needed. No power supply needed. No remote needed (although I use a Harmony).
I doubt there's much if anything between one of those and a C2 running libreelec (if you put a decent sd card in the C2 or splash another 20Euros on nand).
The C2 is the safer but more expensive option (not that you can buy a mini mxiii now - but there are equivalents).

Edit: Just to be clear - the Beelinks are running libreelec.

Interesting!
The product names are a bit confusing...
is it this one: Beelink MiniMXIII TV Box 1000M LAN - UK PLUG BLACK
or this one: Beelink Mini MXIII II TV Box 2GB/32GB Android 6.0 Amlogic S905X Quad Core WiFi 2.4G+5.8G Set Top TV Box

Where do you order yours for the mentioned price?

[trogggy]

My Beelink Mini MXiii's cost me around £25 each delivered.
No sd card needed. No case needed. No power supply needed. No remote needed (although I use a Harmony).
I doubt there's much if anything between one of those and a C2 running libreelec (if you put a decent sd card in the C2 or splash another 20Euros on nand).
The C2 is the safer but more expensive option (not that you can buy a mini mxiii now - but there are equivalents).

Edit: Just to be clear - the Beelinks are running libreelec.

Interesting!
The product names are a bit confusing...
is it this one: Beelink MiniMXIII TV Box 1000M LAN - UK PLUG BLACK
or this one: Beelink Mini MXIII II TV Box 2GB/32GB Android 6.0 Amlogic S905X Quad Core WiFi 2.4G+5.8G Set Top TV Box

Where do you order yours for the mentioned price?

The ones I have are Beelink mini mxiii. Those are S905 boxes, have gigabit lan, come with lollipop.
The others are mini mxiii 2 (or something like that!) - they're S905X chips, have 100mbit lan, come with marshmallow.
I bought from ebay (direct ftom China) - giving links is pointless 'cos they're long since oos - and any links (including the ones in your post) to these boxes are probably banned here.
In any case I wouldn't buy the cheapest - I'd read the libreelec forum threads, see what sounds good and take a gamble.
One thing I would say - I have the impression that the Beelinks (and probably other branded boxes but I've been more interested in those) have consistent hardware. Buy a generic 'mxiii' and you don't know what you're getting - eg people have bought 2 'identical' boxes from the same supplier and found they had different wifi chips.

Edit: just checked - first box was just under £25 - last May. Second was £33 (November). Shocking price rise!!!

[alexeiyo]

I have been considering getting a Raspberry Pi 3 but the lack of H265 support kinda bothers me. I don't care for 4K as I don't even have the TV for it, but I do have my own content that is in H265. I'm using H265 more and more these days, and I kinda need it.

I'm not looking for something really expensive which is why I'm looking for a Pi 3 alternative. I live in Norway and we got a $40 customs limit when buying from another country, so I kinda need to avoid that. Unless we have that product in our country, the customs limit doesn't apply.

I have heard that "Asus Tinker Board" is a good replacement for Pi 3 but that it doesn't work that well with Kodi? Think it lacks of proper graphics driver which is kinda sad as a big company like Asus released this. It should work flawlessly on Android but not sure how great Kodi is on it. The positive thing about this one is that it's actually available in my country. Con would be that it wouldn't work as good as it should be. Screen tear seems to be the problem and that just blows. Unless owners of this machine haven't figured out how to install and apply the graphics driver, but it would be too silly if that was the case.

Hi.
I'd rather go for s905x devices. s905x vs s905 adds h.265 video codec support and HDR 10bit as well. And these two features are great.
s912 chipset is not currently so well supported by LibreElec and basically overkill for KODI.
Personally, I own and use, daily, Khadas VIM (s905x) box with 2GB RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage.
The device works great with LibreElec. It plays 4k/UHD video smoothly too. HDR mode works (in KODI 17.1) as well. The box has Bluetooth and supports the newest AC WiFi protocol (2.4/5.8GHz). HDMI 2.0 with CEC support is there too.
Have paid for it USD58.
LibreElec is installed into the internal storage.
But not all these cheap boxes are created equal. While they all share the same specs video-wise, there could be some issues with some boxes.
One of the examples I personally dealt with is box called Sunwell T95x (2GB/8GB). The manufacturer used a WiFi chip (9082xs) which doesn't (currently) have Linux driver for it. So it works well, except WiFi.
There are some other devices with similar hardware incompatibility issues.
From the other hand there are several really good and cheap options which are stable and fully supported.
For example X96 or Beelink Beelink MINI MXIII II. There are more, of course. These can be had for $40--$55 with 2GB of RAM and 16 or 32GB of local storage.
Don't hesitate to install LibreElec into internal storage of device (instead of Android). This will give even more responsive system and much better I/O performance.
In any way LibreElec is more stable and responsive system then Android.

[trogggy]

s905x vs s905 adds h.265 video codec support

News to me.

[noggin]

I'd rather go for s905x devices. s905x vs s905 adds h.265 video codec support and HDR 10bit as well. And these two features are great.

Not correct.

The S905 has H265 decode for 8 and 10 bit content. I'm happily playing 2160/50p and 59.94p (i.e. UHD) H265 stuff on three S905 devices (C2, Wetek Hub and Mini MX)

You are right that the S905X adds HDR support. However the S905 has GigE, the S905X only has 100Mbs Ethernet.