[Penbrock]

I have Kodi running on 3 TV in our home.
1) Bed room 1. Rasp Pi 4 4g with OpenElec - Seems to work good
2) Bed room 2. Rasp Pi 3 1g with OSMC - works well but needs to be rebooted a few times a day
3)Living Room. PC, dual core, 8g with Ubuntu and Kodi (18.6) - Works good most of the time but has issues locking up changing live(streaming) channels
         
I want to replace the Living room unit with something that will work better. I see some pre-loaded boxes out there. Most of them are on that site you have to "wish" they work when you get them.

Is it better to stay with a Pi 4/4 or try one of those boxes?

Our network;
(2) NAS boxes with movies and TV shows
(1) HDHome run for local stations
Sling addon for streaming non-broadcast TV live
NO 4K TV's as of yet and no plans for any if that makes a difference

[graysky]

PC, dual core, 8g with Ubuntu and Kodi (18.6) - Works good most of the time but has issues locking up changing live(streaming) channels
         
I want to replace the Living room unit with something that will work better.

You haven't given any info to help understand why it's locking up changing live channels.  You likely do not need to replace it at all.

[Penbrock]

PC, dual core, 8g with Ubuntu and Kodi (18.6) - Works good most of the time but has issues locking up changing live(streaming) channels
         
I want to replace the Living room unit with something that will work better.

You haven't given any info to help understand why it's locking up changing live channels.  You likely do not need to replace it at all. 

I was going to trouble shoot it but with it's old age, and the wife doesn't like a PC next to the TV in "her" living room I thought now is a good time to upgrade.

[graysky]

I was going to trouble shoot it but with it's old age, and the wife doesn't like a PC next to the TV in "her" living room I thought now is a good time to upgrade. 

OK.

1) Bed room 1. Rasp Pi 4 4g with OpenElec - Seems to work good

Replicate that if your old PC isn't used for other server things.

[Penbrock]

I was going to trouble shoot it but with it's old age, and the wife doesn't like a PC next to the TV in "her" living room I thought now is a good time to upgrade. 

OK.

1) Bed room 1. Rasp Pi 4 4g with OpenElec - Seems to work good

Replicate that if your old PC isn't used for other server things. 

OK thanks, so you think those pre loaded boxes are no better then a Pi 4?

[graysky]

OK thanks, so you think those pre loaded boxes are no better then a Pi 4?

Dude, a pi4 is a pi4 is a pi4.  Pre-loaded sounds like horse shit to me.  You're asking for backdoors.  Use a trusted source for your OS and configure it yourself... if you're already running a functional image on your "bedroom 1" machine, why not just copy that uSD card and call it good.

[mcelliott]

I'd agree with that. Even though LibreElec on RPi4 doesn't fully exploit the potential of the hardware yet, it's still stable. My experience (RPi 2, RPi3, RPi4) is that you won't get a more stable Kodi box. I've tried the Android Kodi boxes, and didn't enjoy.