[PKOneTwo]

FireTV 4K. It can do everything I used (besides DTS-HD, TrueHD passthrough), but I don't care too much as we can losslessly decode them. I invested a lot of time to get the A/V Sync on Android fixed up properly and now it's fine for me.

Edit: Carefully check my signature before you buy anything and think about it. If you want to use a Firetv 4K for 1080i h264 livetv, it will just suck, so be warned. Also if you have a shitty wireless ac network, you won't be happy. I use mine with an entire AVM mesh network and get > 250 Mbit/s with real life testing, therefore I have zero issues with my NFS shares. Avoid SMB on Android anyways.

I have to admit, i thought about the FireTV 4K before i bought the 4k stick.
I do also have AVM Mesh network, but i do use cable as much as possible and my files are stored in my network on a seperate system (SMB and NFS shares).

My intention is: to have kodi as a player for video files in h.264 and h.265 up to 4k resolution + to build and maintain a library for shows and movies.
I do not care much about passthrough any longer, just use my TV Speakers and sometimes my stereo system. Therefore only downmixing in my case and stereo sound.
I think i will send the J4005 back and use the 1007U for a bit longer (as of right now i mostly have 1080p H.264 files)

If you would compare the speed and decoding quality: which system would come near it? like Kodi on a i3 10th Gen? or even i3 7th gen?

[fritsch]

I have this one: Fire TV Stick 4K Ultra HD

Most network adapters for this stick are limited to 100 Mbit/s - which is far slower than what I achieve via AC WLAN.

For the rest:
As said above I only ran kodi in 1080p50 back at intel times. My primary use-case back then was 1080i50 livetv via DVB-C, therefore the VAAPI MCDI was what I used most. In detail I used a J4205 Apollo Lake and was happy with it, Was a passive system (pico psu) and SSD, combined with 4 GB RAM. Besides the hdmi 2.0 lspcon sucked hard until it got some fw updates.

If you run kodi's gui in 1080p - all of the above will do.

In fact: I never ever had a core i3 or something higher for kodi. I went:
AMD E350 (got me into kodi, we developed the long dead XVBA with it)
J1900 Celeron (needed it, cause it was cheap and we developed VAAPI postprocessing with it)
Zotac Celeron 1007U Zbox (we used it for performant implementation of GPU2CPU copy with ffmpeg's yadif as intel's deinterlacing sucked hard at this time)
Celeron 1820T Haswell (needed it for MCDI deinterlacing)
Asrock J3105 (needed it for HEVC 8 bit development)
Asrock J4205 (needed it for HEVC 10 bit development)

With those I developed the 200 rule :-) Never ever invest more than 200 $ / € as technology changes too fast.

I contributed to Android since a very long time, but many don't know - blindly - I just wrote the code without possibility to test it :-). When I moved and family extended, I went for the easy way with FireTV 4K above. The first Android box I got myself.

[PKOneTwo]

I have this one: Fire TV Stick 4K Ultra HD

That is exactly the one i have as well. But Kodi gui for example did not run well on my 2nd generation FireTv (last one before this 4K).
This is the reason i didn't try it since then. Do you have right now Kodi for Android running on it? and the gui with 60fps? and librarries as well?
----------------------
I also have a limit. Honestly my limit is about 200 (with RAM and SSD). Fortunately, i already have a SSD (if a new box would come in).
----------------------
Would you in my shoes (no HDR since no content and TV not bright enough) and alsmost only h.264 (maybe change in the future when more h.265 being used) still use the 1007U or go for the J5005?
J4005 is even slower (although newer) then your 4205!
----------------------
PS: maybe this is a bit nostalgic, but anyway:
back than i asked you about best picture quality + performance i could get out of the intel GPU (1007U iGPU, ivy bridge)
I wrote this xorg.conf: i looked into my /var/log/Xorg.0.log and saw, that almost everything is the same as in the xorg.conf (although i am NOT using it right now)
The difference is that libreelec is using DRI2 and COMPOSITE as an extension is loaded but nothing else done with it.
Since i don't really know the development or well enough what DRI and COMPOSITE would do, here i ask you: what would your xorg.conf would be with the 1007u?
This is my advancedsettings.xml!

[smp1]

J4005 NUC is not a great buy IMO. Overpriced and actively cooled.

For the same money (or even cheaper) you can build a more powerful, passively cooled box with Asrock J4105B-ITX board + small ITX case.
 

xorg.conf 

LibreELEC will drop X11 in the near future (it is already gone in some test builds).

[PKOneTwo]

J4005 NUC is not a great buy IMO. Overpriced and actively cooled.

For the same money (or even cheaper) you can build a more powerful, passively cooled box with Asrock J4105B-ITX board + small ITX case.
 

xorg.conf 

LibreELEC will drop X11 in the near future (it is already gone in some test builds).  

PSU + Mini ITX Case (cheapest) + ASrock J4105B = cost more/same as NUC with J5005 (which is a better SoC then the J4105). And the PSU here is not fanless and case isn't elegant as the NUC.
But, there is one good side: in the future only Mainboard and (maybe) RAM has to be changed, not case and PSU

[smp1]

PSU + Mini ITX Case (cheapest) + ASrock J4105B = cost more/same as NUC with J5005 (which is a better SoC then the J4105). And the PSU here is not fanless and case isn't elegant as the NUC.

Here's what I bought:
Asrock J4105B-ITX (~€70)
A smallest ITX case I could find is Powerman ME-100 (205x185x55mm). It includes an external 60W power adapter + PicoPSU. (~€40)
2x2GB DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM. (~€20). Actually, one 2Gb stick in single channel is enough for LE. I bought a second one because it was super cheap.
I already had a 16Gb SSD lying around which is enough for LE.

[PKOneTwo]

PSU + Mini ITX Case (cheapest) + ASrock J4105B = cost more/same as NUC with J5005 (which is a better SoC then the J4105). And the PSU here is not fanless and case isn't elegant as the NUC.

Here's what I bought:
Asrock J4105B-ITX (~€70)
A smallest ITX case I could find is Powerman ME-100 (205x185x55mm). It includes an external 60W power adapter + PicoPSU. (~€40)
2x2GB DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM. (~€20). Actually, one 2Gb stick in single channel is enough for LE. I bought a second one because it was super cheap.
I already had a 16Gb SSD lying around which is enough for LE. 

In Germany chepeast ITX Case 25€ + PicoPSU 45€ + PSU external 20€ + 4GB 20€, Asrock Board 80€ = 190€ <=> NUC 170€ (J5005)...

I had the NUC with J4005 here and the menu of Kodi wasn't really fluid in 4K resolution.
I doubt the J5005 with 8Gb will be abolut fluid.
right now i am still using the 1007U celeron Ivy Bridge in a barebone. 1080P is max output sadly, but TV does a good upscaling job.

I thought i couldm update the hardfware and go for a better one (with h.265, 4k, enough power for fluid menu and maybe HDR in the future).
but seems the gemine lake SoCs aren't the best match for this task

[josh4trunks]

The reason I like building my own is the ability to use mostly standard swap-able parts. I am fine with my HTPC being a little larger if it can use a standard 3-prong cable instead of having a specific power brick. If my wife or kid unplugs stuff, it might be a hassle to figure out which dongle goes where without me.

I have built several systems for myself + family using the SilverStone ST30SF PSU. It is fanless under a certain temperature which I doubt I could even hit without a GPU. I then get a mini-itx case that supports an SFX PSU (favorite is Silverstone ML05/ML06). Get cheapest RAM/SSD I can find and now have a completely fanless system without a power brick.
It probably isn't the cheapest route but I like that it's fanless and how I can easily replace parts that break.

[fab233]

 There is no HDR on apollo/gemini lake. 

Yes, looks like Intel failed again
Intel confirmed that they do not plan to support HDR processing workflows in Gemini Lake... 

  People, don't panic. You are all quoting one single source regarding missing HDR support on Gemini Lake. This is what I think about that:

1. The statement came from a random guy who is talking about "HDR processing workflows". It's not even clear what that means. Maybe he mixed up "HDR videos" with "HDR photo workflows" (which will of course suck on low-end CPUs such as Gemini Lake).
   
2. There is no actual proof that HDR will not be supported
   
3. Datasheets & iGPU specs tell a different story. In fact the Gemini Lake GPUs have the same microarcitecture as the Kaby Lake GPUs (which is Gen9.5). They even have the benefit of Gen10 display connections, which means native HDMI 2.0 for us. Furthermore, if you look at the specs, you'll see that the UHD Graphics 605 from the Pentium silver models has support for decoding HEVC@4K@10bit and VP9@4K@10bit.
   

You can have a look at the actual facts here:

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/uhd_graphics/605
https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/micro...dmont_plus
https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/micro...res/gen9.5

Although nobody was able to actually try HDR support on Gemini Lake yet I would still suppose that it should be working. As it was said earlier, as long as the hardware is able to decode the material, HDR should be working. And Gemini Lake most certainly is capable of 4K decoding with 10bpc, both for HEVC and VP9. Of course we need support from the OS and the driver to hand over the HDR metadata to the display (once per movie, as we are not talking about dynamic HDR here), but compared to decoding this is a minor software-only thing.

- direx 

Just to say that you direx were absolutely right in your analysis.
Indeed GLK allows you to send a UHD HDR & Atmos stream over HDMI.
Working as PoC by "Smp" on alpha mod of LibreELEC + Kodi apha dev (see forum.libreelec.tv/thread/13738-intel-true-10bits-hevc-hdr-support).
Not yet working on Windows as even later Intel drivers does'nt transmit to OS any existing 10b/12b 4:2:2 YCbCr Adv Color space in configuration, yet only a 8b SDR... So so so bad, intel crap.

[smp1]

@fritsch :

1.) i read you have a Samsung TV as well (RU 7100 series with a 60Hz panel):

• do have any explanation why we have to turn on UHD mode so we can get 60hz on 4k resolution? I don't have to do that with the fireTv 4k, for example!?!
  

@fritsch 
@PKOneTwo 

Can any of you guys confirm that your Gemini Lake box has no HDMI signal issue when "UHD mode" (I believe it's called "Input Signal Plus" in the menu) is enabled on Samsung RU**** series TV?

With 2018 Samsung TVs (NU series) it just gives "no signal", which is a known issue.

[fritsch]

I cannot confirm. I neither have a gemine lake, nor such a Samsung :-) sorry.

[smp1]

Yeah, PKOneTwo's post was a bit confusing, I suppose he's the one who has that RU7100 TV