2019-02-12, 03:30
Follow that Intel Graphics 500 link and have a look at all the video compression standards that the G P U's in the Apollo Lake Intel hardware supports.
The only video content you might find unsupported is non standard 1080p 10bit h264 aka Hi10P Anime which needs CPU Software decoding on Intel.
You do not need a powerful CPU package to hardware decode video which is the main job of a Kodi media player.
I fact the C P U is hardly used, you are not running a Windows Desktop PC number crunching a Spreadsheet or use it as a software compiling machine.
In fact, if you are running the lean and mean, minimal Linux based LibreELEC OS - it hardly requires any hardware resource at all, apart from a decent GPU. You are not running a hardware demanding, bloated Windows OS.
Ask @fritsch over in the Apollo Lake thread how well his Apollo setup works for LibreELEC Kodi.
Recent Intel / AMD hardware will definitely have a snappier Kodi user interface vs dirt cheap ARM Chipsets when using Kodi. They have faster Single (CPU) threaded Python Addon and Skins performance. The more powerful Intel AMD hardware, the faster Skins and Addon performance will be.
The other point to make is there is a new video compression standard inbound and I suspect a whole bunch of us will need another hardware refresh again then once that standard enters the mainstream. It's called AV1 (click)
My 2.7GHz i5 Intel Mac currently struggles to CPU software decode test YouTube test AV1 content.
EDIT: Intel Announces CPU-Encoder for the Next-generation AV1 Codec (click)
Intel Apollo Lake onwards will be more stable vs Rockchip for LibreELEC, simply because Rockchip is transitioning to a new v5.x Linux Kernel this year.
Rockchip will be better bang for the buck and would satisfy 99% of 1080p SDR Kodi media player users, especially once it gets HD audio passthrough support. It's pretty snappy & stable for me running LibreELEC Leia on a v4.4 Kernel.
My RK3399 development board can CPU software decode any 1080p content I throw at it, inc h264 Bluray Rips and low bitrate 10bit HEVC - I do not know what the equivalent Intel hardware is for that sort of CPU decode performance.
I don't not want to do CPU software decoding with RK3399 because the GPU easily hardware decodes a wider range of (4K) content, inc. Hi10P.
In the end the question is - how fast is fast enough - for any sort of hardware when used as a daily Kodi media player ?
Recent ARM multicore CPU's & powerful GPU's like you find in the Apple TV 4K, AMLogic S912's and RK3399's are fast enough for me personally for the price paid. ARM Chipset based NVIDIA Shield owners are not complaining either.
Other "power (Intel) users" will disagree !
The only video content you might find unsupported is non standard 1080p 10bit h264 aka Hi10P Anime which needs CPU Software decoding on Intel.
You do not need a powerful CPU package to hardware decode video which is the main job of a Kodi media player.
I fact the C P U is hardly used, you are not running a Windows Desktop PC number crunching a Spreadsheet or use it as a software compiling machine.
In fact, if you are running the lean and mean, minimal Linux based LibreELEC OS - it hardly requires any hardware resource at all, apart from a decent GPU. You are not running a hardware demanding, bloated Windows OS.
Ask @fritsch over in the Apollo Lake thread how well his Apollo setup works for LibreELEC Kodi.
Recent Intel / AMD hardware will definitely have a snappier Kodi user interface vs dirt cheap ARM Chipsets when using Kodi. They have faster Single (CPU) threaded Python Addon and Skins performance. The more powerful Intel AMD hardware, the faster Skins and Addon performance will be.
The other point to make is there is a new video compression standard inbound and I suspect a whole bunch of us will need another hardware refresh again then once that standard enters the mainstream. It's called AV1 (click)
My 2.7GHz i5 Intel Mac currently struggles to CPU software decode test YouTube test AV1 content.
EDIT: Intel Announces CPU-Encoder for the Next-generation AV1 Codec (click)
Intel Apollo Lake onwards will be more stable vs Rockchip for LibreELEC, simply because Rockchip is transitioning to a new v5.x Linux Kernel this year.
Rockchip will be better bang for the buck and would satisfy 99% of 1080p SDR Kodi media player users, especially once it gets HD audio passthrough support. It's pretty snappy & stable for me running LibreELEC Leia on a v4.4 Kernel.
My RK3399 development board can CPU software decode any 1080p content I throw at it, inc h264 Bluray Rips and low bitrate 10bit HEVC - I do not know what the equivalent Intel hardware is for that sort of CPU decode performance.
I don't not want to do CPU software decoding with RK3399 because the GPU easily hardware decodes a wider range of (4K) content, inc. Hi10P.
In the end the question is - how fast is fast enough - for any sort of hardware when used as a daily Kodi media player ?
Recent ARM multicore CPU's & powerful GPU's like you find in the Apple TV 4K, AMLogic S912's and RK3399's are fast enough for me personally for the price paid. ARM Chipset based NVIDIA Shield owners are not complaining either.
Other "power (Intel) users" will disagree !
