Has anyone tested the ~$35 Atomic Pi (Intel-based, NOT ARM-based) with Kodi?
#1
I just found out about this thing yesterday, unfortunately it apparently sold out in about half an hour on Amazon, but can still be ordered from the manufacturer's site:

Atomic Pi



Manufacturer's specs are:
 
  • Genuine Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad core with 2M Cache. Runs up to 1.92GHz with a 480MHz GPU. Eats RPi for dessert. Beats some desktops.
  • Loaded with memory: 2GB DDR3L-1600, 16GB eMMC, SD slot for adding more – up to 256GB
  • Full HDMI port with Intel HD Graphics & primary audio out
  • USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports
  • Fast dual band WiFI b/g/n/ac 2.4 & 5GHz WiFi RT5572 IPX connectors on board
  • Bluetooth 4.0 CR8510
  • Gigabit hardwired RJ45 Ethernet RTL8111G
  • 9-axis inertial navigation sensor with compass BNO055
  • Secondary XMOS audio output with class-D power amp.
  • TTL serial debug and expansion serial ports up to 3.6Mbps
  • Real time clock & battery
  • JST style connectors on top and a 26-pin header for power & GPIO below.
  • Runs on 5V. Typically 4-15 watts.
  • Legitimate licensed BIOS boots from SD, USB, or Ethernet. Linux comes preloaded… Yes, it’ll run Win10 32 or 64.
  • Large full breakout shield available with screw terminals for easy wiring, or order just the CPU and provide your own wiring.
  • Well documented – more specs here.

A page with more links to information on this device, including mentions of a couple of minor drawbacks, can be found here.  Most of the available videos focus on gaming and such, but I haven't seen anything posted yet about how well it would work with Kodi.  Since it will run either Ubuntu Linux or Windows, I have to think that Kodi would run on it, and since it has better hardware specs than a Raspberry Pi (which some people do use to run Kodi, and which costs about the same price) I just wonder how well it would do with types of video that are problematic on a Raspberry Pi.  Just looking at the specs, I have to think that if nothing else this thing would make a great PVR backend machine (assuming you connect an external hard drive to the USB 3.0 port, of course) and for around 35 bucks (plus power supply, and a case if anyone ever makes one) you really can't beat the price.  What I don't know is whether if you run Kodi on it there's any chance at all it would be able to play high bandwidth videos smoothly, such as those encoded in 4:2:2 (most systems cannot decode that in hardware and therefore fall back to software decoding, and it causes playback issues), or 4K or higher videos.

I suppose it's only a matter of time before someone tests one of these with Kodi and if you do, I for one would be very interested to know what the results are.  Unfortunately I also suppose that getting your hands on one of these is going to be like trying to obtain an original Raspberry Pi during the first few months they were on the market, unless it turns out that they have some glaring deficiency, or people are just so put off by the non-standard method of connecting the power to the thing.
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#2
It's an antiquated device from a video playback point of view. HDMI 1.4, no hardware HEVC decoding (except 8-bit which isn't used).
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#3
(2019-05-02, 23:00)Luke M Wrote: It's an antiquated device from a video playback point of view. HDMI 1.4, no hardware HEVC decoding (except 8-bit which isn't used).

I agree, you are talking ancient 2016 era Cherry Trail Graphics decode capabilities.
See this https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2706482 and the links contained within.

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#4
(2019-05-03, 01:08)wrxtasy Wrote:
(2019-05-02, 23:00)Luke M Wrote: It's an antiquated device from a video playback point of view. HDMI 1.4, no hardware HEVC decoding (except 8-bit which isn't used).

I agree, you are talking ancient 2016 era Cherry Trail Graphics decode capabilities.
See this https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2706482 and the links contained within.   
Well I guess my question is, how does this board compare to a Raspberry Pi model 3B+?  I understand that for $35 you're not going to get exceptional graphics performance, but there are people out there running Kodi on a Raspberry Pi and I just wonder if this would be a better choice for those folks, at nearly the same price (assuming you can actually get one).

My suspicion is these would really work well for a dedicated PVR backend system and/or media server, for example running something like Tvheadend or MediaPortal or a Mythbuntu backend, etc. provided you don't do a lot of (or any) transcoding.  If you are just receiving the bytes from an antenna or satellite dish (via a tuner card or device) and saving them off to a hard drive as a .ts file then I'd think this would be more than adequate for that purpose, provided that the throughput to an external hard drive connected to a USB port is adequate.  It may also be adequate for something like a Kodi system for a kid's room, depending on the encoding of the content they are watching.  But I'm not under any delusion that it will replace a high end HTPC system costing a few hundred dollars.  My real question is whether it would be better than a Raspberry Pi.
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#5
(2019-05-03, 01:08)wrxtasy Wrote:
(2019-05-02, 23:00)Luke M Wrote: It's an antiquated device from a video playback point of view. HDMI 1.4, no hardware HEVC decoding (except 8-bit which isn't used).

I agree, you are talking ancient 2016 era Cherry Trail Graphics decode capabilities.
See this https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2706482 and the links contained within. 
Could some optimizations to the codec maybe help for better software decoding on these atom cpu's?
https://software.intel.com/en-us/article...-platforms
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#6
Found here another page about these optimizations: https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/806...ng-an-H-HE

I've ordered this board, when I've received it I'll take a look at it and report
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#7
(2019-05-03, 03:44)birdwatcher Wrote:
(2019-05-03, 01:08)wrxtasy Wrote:
(2019-05-02, 23:00)Luke M Wrote: It's an antiquated device from a video playback point of view. HDMI 1.4, no hardware HEVC decoding (except 8-bit which isn't used).

I agree, you are talking ancient 2016 era Cherry Trail Graphics decode capabilities.
See this https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2706482 and the links contained within.      
Well I guess my question is, how does this board compare to a Raspberry Pi model 3B+?  I understand that for $35 you're not going to get exceptional graphics performance, but there are people out there running Kodi on a Raspberry Pi and I just wonder if this would be a better choice for those folks, at nearly the same price (assuming you can actually get one).

My suspicion is these would really work well for a dedicated PVR backend system and/or media server, for example running something like Tvheadend or MediaPortal or a Mythbuntu backend, etc. provided you don't do a lot of (or any) transcoding.  If you are just receiving the bytes from an antenna or satellite dish (via a tuner card or device) and saving them off to a hard drive as a .ts file then I'd think this would be more than adequate for that purpose, provided that the throughput to an external hard drive connected to a USB port is adequate.  It may also be adequate for something like a Kodi system for a kid's room, depending on the encoding of the content they are watching.  But I'm not under any delusion that it will replace a high end HTPC system costing a few hundred dollars.  My real question is whether it would be better than a Raspberry Pi.   

For a PVR/File server backend USB 3.0 and (presumably proper) GigE are both improvements.

In frontend terms 8-bit HEVC has one significant use case - DVB-T2 in Germany and the Netherlands.  There they are using HEVC 8-bit 1080p50 now I believe.  The Cherry Trail may well be a better choice for that content than a Pi 3B+ (where I think you have to overclock hard to stand a chance of getting 1080p50 HEVC to decode?)
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Has anyone tested the ~$35 Atomic Pi (Intel-based, NOT ARM-based) with Kodi?0