[dasmanul]

I'm looking for some suitable hardware to run Kodi on as a media player connected to a CRT TV. Main purpose would be watching german DVB-T2 which is H.265-encoded. I tried a Raspberry Pi 3 but it seems like it's not up to the decoding task. So I need something that provides both H.265 hardware decoding and a composite out. I'd very much prefer Linux over Android as an OS as I'm far more at home there.

Initial research let me consider the Orange Pi line but I've since learned that their Allwinner chips are not well supported in Kodi.So, any suggestions? The new Libre computer board seems like it meets the specs, but it's very new and I don't know how well supported it is. I'd be grateful for any advice on this!

Thanks in advance!

Manuel

[doug]

Have you tried a Milhouse LibreELEC testbuild with the RPi3? It'll have better hevc decoding than Kodi 17.6. It won't be perfect with really high bitrate files but it works really well.

[Klojum]

A bit of overclocking also helps the RPi2/3 on hevc decoding.

[dasmanul]

Have you tried a Milhouse LibreELEC testbuild with the RPi3?

 Not yet but I'll give it a try, thanks for the hint! I've only tried OSMC so far.
 

A bit of overclocking also helps the RPi2/3 on hevc decoding.

 I'll test that out as well, thank you!

Assuming the only way to get this to work on the Pi 3 is to use some form of LibreElec, I'd still be interested in suggestions for SBCs/whatever other hardware that is capable of playing back H.265 inside a full-blown Linux installation.

[wrxtasy]

I'm looking for some suitable hardware to run Kodi on as a media player connected to a CRT TV. Main purpose would be watching german DVB-T2 which is H.265-encoded. I tried a Raspberry Pi 3 but it seems like it's not up to the decoding task. So I need something that provides both H.265 hardware decoding and a composite out. I'd very much prefer Linux over Android as an OS as I'm far more at home there.

A nice rule to follow is buy what developers are using in their own personal setups:

The AML S912 K III Pro does all you want and has a CVBS (composite) A/V port:

https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/10301-...#post79261

http://www.videostrong.com/S912/43.html

As a bonus on the Android side of things you will also get 1080p Netflix due to included L1 DRM and HDCP 1.x

The question is how well it's CVBS output works - personally I would ask the knowledgable Tuner - LibreELEC developer @afl1 how good it is.

Would be a far snappier setup vs a RPi3.

---

If you do not need an inbuilt tuner then cheaper AMLogic S905 / S905X / S912 hardware can be bought - the trick is finding one with working CVBS output.

Start a thread on the AMLogic LibreELEC forums in that case and see if someone has a already working setup:
https://forum.libreelec.tv/board/38-amlogic/

[doug]

OSMC will work too, but use a testbuild with Kodi 18.

[nickr]

I'm looking for some suitable hardware to run Kodi on as a media player connected to a CRT TV. Main purpose would be watching german DVB-T2 which is H.265-encoded. I tried a Raspberry Pi 3 but it seems like it's not up to the decoding task. So I need something that provides both H.265 hardware decoding and a composite out. I'd very much prefer Linux over Android as an OS as I'm far more at home there.

A nice rule to follow is buy what developers are using in their own personal setups:

The AML S912 K III Pro does all you want and has a CVBS (composite) A/V port:

https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/10301-...#post79261

http://www.videostrong.com/S912/43.html

As a bonus on the Android side of things you will also get 1080p Netflix due to included L1 DRM and HDCP 1.x

The question is how well it's CVBS output works - personally I would ask the knowledgable Tuner - LibreELEC developer @afl1 how good it is.

Would be a far snappier setup vs a RPi3.

---

If you do not need an inbuilt tuner then cheaper AMLogic S905 / S905X / S912 hardware can be bought - the trick is finding one with working CVBS output.

Start a thread on the AMLogic LibreELEC forums in that case and see if someone has a already working setup:
https://forum.libreelec.tv/board/38-amlogic/ 

1080p netflix is not much use if composite is used

[dasmanul]

The AML S912 K III Pro does all you want and has a CVBS (composite) A/V port:

Doesn't look too bad. Just for my understanding: Is this an Android only device or does it run some kind of Linux as well?

As I plan to install the TV backend onto a separate machine, I don't need an inbuilt tuner, but I guess it wouldn't hurt either.

If you do not need an inbuilt tuner then cheaper AMLogic S905 / S905X / S912 hardware can be bought - the trick is finding one with working CVBS output.

Start a thread on the AMLogic LibreELEC forums in that case and see if someone has a already working setup:
https://forum.libreelec.tv/board/38-amlogic/

Thanks for the pointer, I'll ask there as well. S905X brings the libre board back into play...

OSMC will work too, but use a testbuild with Kodi 18.

I have actually used on of those before and reverted because the only skin I found that's usable on PAL wasn't compatible. At that time, I still had issues with my network and the backend, so I'll give that another try. A skin problem should be solvable:

Thanks again for all the help!

[wrxtasy]

Doesn't look too bad. Just for my understanding: Is this an Android only device or does it run some kind of Linux as well?

[HOWTO + FAQ] Install (LibreELEC) community builds on S905/S905D/S905W/S905X/S912 device (click)

[8.2.2.3] LibreELEC 8.2 for S912

And be aware you need to read this POST (click) about a possible H/W issue if considering the K III Pro:

[dasmanul]

Update: I tried the newest experimental OSMC build – even with overclocking the Pi to the point of instability, TV was unwatchable. So I definitely need another device.

[noggin]

1080p netflix is not much use if composite is used  

May still look a lot better than 480p Netflix even if you are using a composite 480i NTSC or 576i PAL output...

Netflix at 480p is pretty heavily compressed and will potentially have a lot more compression artefacts, whereas 720p and 1080p Netflix will have fewer artefacts, and those that are present will probably be filtered out by the downscale. Only caveat is that poor-quality downscaling will introduce interline twitter and spatial alias artefacts potentially.

It's the same reason that a 1080i Blu-ray looks nicer on a 576i SD TV than a 576i DVD...