[fritsch]

One has working, optimized Software (Pi), the other one is at the beginning.

[el_Salmon]

But... what about Odroid C1?
http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/02/02/r...omparison/

Odroid C1 in Europe is more expensive than RPi 2: 44€ versus 31€
Odroid C1 doesn't support HDMI-CEC but RPi 2 does.
Odroid C1 needs a special DC power supply but RPi 2 uses an standard Micro-USB.
Odroid C1 lacks OpenELEC or Kodi official builds.

For the most common media center uses, I think RPi 2 is enough.

[Ned Scott]

But... what about Odroid C1?
http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/02/02/r...omparison/

That's still a fantastic device. Raw power wise, they are very close, and ODROID-C1 gives you H.265 video playback. However, the Pi2 will likely have better software support for Kodi-specific OSes (I have no idea about Android). I think the average use would be happy with ether device.

[pecinko]

Guys since I can't test myself, 3 questions regarding this beast performance if I may:

1. Does FANART and textures benefit from increased memory?
2. What about rendering GUI in 1080? I suppose that won't be a problem anymore?
3. Do Python scripts benefit from 4core CPU? E.g. Widgets script or similar that are pulling DB info for home shelf items.

Thanks.

[popcornmix]

Q1. Is it still the case that the kodi library read/writes perform faster on an ext4 formatted USB flash drive as opposed to being accessed via the storage partition on a class 10 SD card?

Even on Pi1 USB storage is not necessary better. An sdcard, with good random access 4K read/write performance (e.g. NOOBS card) tends to perform as well as USB, and is simpler to set up.

Q2. When accessing network file shares mapped as video sources in Kodi (i.e. not mounted first via fstab), will I get better performance from NFS or SMB? (my file server is a linux box and I have both protocols available to serve)

NFS is a better protocol for streaming than SMB, mostly due to higher CPU usage required when using SMB.
The faster CPU on Pi 2 will probably mean that SMB is okay for BluRay bitrates. However if you have a choice I'd still choose NFS.

[popcornmix]

1. Does FANART and textures benefit from increased memory?

To be honest it is rare to exhaust memory on a 512M Pi.
On a Pi1 we do by default allocate 128M to GPU on a 512M Pi, and heavier skins may need that to be increased.
I suspect Pi2 will default to 256M GPU so no manual change will be needed.

If you intend to run other processes on the Pi2, like DVB backend, or torrents, mysql etc, then the extra memory would be useful.

2. What about rendering GUI in 1080? I suppose that won't be a problem anymore?

A 512M Pi1 renders gui at 1080p anyway - only the old 256M Pi defaults to 720p GUI.

3. Do Python scripts benefit from 4core CPU? E.g. Widgets script or similar that are pulling DB info for home shelf items.

Main benefit is the python scripts / database lookups can run on a different core to the main GUI, so Kodi remains responsive when other stuff is going on.
Also the python script is likely to get a whole core, rather than what's left after the Kodi GUI processing/housekeeping is done (which often is consuming 20-30% of cpu).
Python scripts can be multithreaded, so may benefit more.

[MediaPi]

It took some time to optimise code for Pi1. Pi2 is backwards compatible to Pi1 so you could argue where now in the next phase in extending the performance. but how much room is there for optimisation on the new SOC?

will it be a sharp increase?

[adr3nal1n]

Q1. Is it still the case that the kodi library read/writes perform faster on an ext4 formatted USB flash drive as opposed to being accessed via the storage partition on a class 10 SD card?

Even on Pi1 USB storage is not necessary better. An sdcard, with good random access 4K read/write performance (e.g. NOOBS card) tends to perform as well as USB, and is simpler to set up.

Q2. When accessing network file shares mapped as video sources in Kodi (i.e. not mounted first via fstab), will I get better performance from NFS or SMB? (my file server is a linux box and I have both protocols available to serve)

NFS is a better protocol for streaming than SMB, mostly due to higher CPU usage required when using SMB.
The faster CPU on Pi 2 will probably mean that SMB is okay for BluRay bitrates. However if you have a choice I'd still choose NFS.

Thanks for the feedback popcornmix and for all your continued work on this project.

[da-anda]

It took some time to optimise code for Pi1. Pi2 is backwards compatible to Pi1 so you could argue where now in the next phase in extending the performance. but how much room is there for optimisation on the new SOC?

will it be a sharp increase?

I think multithreading wise there is still room for improvements - along with other things that can be improved for low power devices in general

[MediaPi]

thanks da-anda, looking forqard to it

[da-anda]

that doesn't mean it's not running fast as is right now - but things can always be improved. Also, with audio DSP hitting mainline soon (hopefully) there will be a new challenge to make most common ADSP addons (like equalizer, ...) work well on low power devices like the PI using any form of acceleration they can get

[doveman2]

Might the extra CPU power allow for better deinterlacing or could that only be done by a better GPU?

[PeaceMkr]

Is there a need for the licenses to play mpeg2 on Raspberry Pi 2?
Dont find any informations about that..

[Warez]

Is the Leopold .Unofficial Raspberry Pi configuration addon working on the Pi2?

[popcornmix]

Is there a need for the licenses to play mpeg2 on Raspberry Pi 2?
Dont find any informations about that..

MPEG-2 and VC-1 licences work exactly like they do on Pi 1.
Pi 2 can handle dvd playback without a licence using software decode, but you'll need it for 1080p.