2015-03-02, 19:57
(2015-03-02, 16:26)wrxtasy Wrote: If I were starting out again and did not need HD Audio or 4K video at up to 30fps video I would get the perfectly capable RPi2.
Its the budget option for a perfect Kodi box. A remote is not even needed is you have a modern HDMI CEC TV.
Supplement that with a dirt cheap Android MK808B plus just for HEVC (h265) video playback and Netflix etc.
An overclocked RPi2 can do 720p / h265 video at up to approx 1.3Mbps during my testing which is good enough for TV rips. Slight improvements are coming down the pipe for ARM software decode of HEVC using ffmpeg in Kodi.
Got cash to splash then get a Chromebox or one of its derivatives. Deinterlaced video will be slightly better quality than the RPi2 and you get HD audio. Again get the MK808B plus for HEVC.
Actually the Chromebox's CPU can probably play back more HEVC than a perfectly configured MK808B Plus. At least that is what my testing is showing me.
Otherwise I 100% agree with all of that. If you want a Kodi box and you can't afford a Chromebox then the solution is a Pi 2.