START HERE - Pick the Right Kodi Box (updated Dec 2020)
Hi everyone. I've been reading over the forums for the last few days and could use some help. I'm going to be building my first unRAID server soon and could use some help picking out a media player to use with Kodi. This will be my first time using Kodi so I'm not super familiar with all the ends and outs. Any way, I'll give a quick rundown of my current setup and what I am trying to achieve with this new setup.

So for the next 6-12 months I'm going to be staying at my in laws. I'm currently using an old HTPC running windows 7 and Mediabrowser 2 hooked up to my older Samsung HDTV (LN46C530) to watch my media in the bedroom. A good amount of my media is in 480p/720p/1080p in h264. I do have a mix of MPEG4, and some MPEG2, MPEG1 and a few WMV files. As far as audio its a mix of DTS (5.1 & a few 7s), AC3, AAC, MP3 and a few VORBIS mixed in. Maybe a few others I haven't seen.

As I said I will be hosting all of my media on my new unRAID server. Since WiFi is spotty at best in this bedroom, I will be hooking the media player up to the server via an ethernet switch. So I will need to have an ethernet connection on the media player but a WiFi option would be nice for down the road. I will probably end up using a powerline adapter to supply the internet connection to the server.

For this KODI box, I want something that I can boot straight into KODI (via libreELEC?). I need something that will be able to "downmix" the audio files from 5.1 ect to stereo. It would also be a plus if I was able to "boost" the central channel of the audio so the voices aren't so low on these files. I'm looking for something that has low power consumption but snappy when browsing a decent size media library. I don't need netflix or amazon prime ect.

Also looking for something with a decent remote. I do have anynet+ on my TV but have never used it. I would be fine with buying a third party remote. I just need something that would make it easy for my wife to browse the media and if needed to easily switch on/off subtitles and switch audio tracks.

I was looking at the RPi3, the ODROID C2 or the WeTek Hub. I would also be open to other suggestions. I would like to stay around or under $100 if possible. Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.


Messages In This Thread
The right box for me - by tyem - 2016-01-13, 15:29
Jesus Box - by kellyvb - 2016-03-04, 20:18
Thanks for the Help! - by jmc15john - 2016-11-09, 16:44
Jarvis crashes and wipes - by gotthis2000 - 2017-01-10, 22:14
RE: Jarvis crashes and wipes - by nickr - 2017-01-10, 22:58
T95Z Plus Android TV Box - by gooner1971 - 2017-03-17, 13:04
RE: START HERE - Pick the Right Kodi Box (updated March 2017) - by ghostofsparta - 2017-03-31, 20:03
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