[xRaymne]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this kind of question. If not my apologies. 

I had a question regarding hardware requirements for a new media player based on my video playback needs; I'll be as detailed a possible with my setup, so some information might be redundant.

Recently my brother and I upgraded our TV's to the LG C9 OLED model. Very happy ofcourse we became aware our current media players are out dated and not suited for UHD playback. 
Regarding HDR, I personally have very little knowledge but would like to have the ability to mess around and optimise for best HDR use. 

We currently have a Synology NAS (DS1815+) as our storage solution on which we have a media library. Movies are located on a Expansion bay connected via eSATA to our base unit in a SHR setup.

I plan to continue to use LibreELEC as my OS for KODI. (however I'm open to change if some of you have great experiences/benefits with a different OS).
We connect our media players to our NAS with the NFS protocol on a Cat5e LAN network.

We plan on streaming UHD content to our media players from our NAS. 

Now I'm researching various new/different models of the media player I currently have (ZOTAC) and came across this one: ZBOX BI329   
I currently have a few Samsung 860 EVO SSD's laying around which are probably overkill and have nothing to do with streaming through NFS, but they are collecting dust. 

The main questions revolves around CPU/GPU/RAM; regarding my needs for UHD/HDR playback I'm really not sure which requirements are needed/recommended. 
I've read that CPU won't be much of a problem (Celeron N4100) and that 4GB 1300 MHz (recommended sticks of 2x 2GB and not 1x 4GB) should be fine aswell. 
The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 600 however I'm not so sure of.
Hence my question if I'm at all going about it the right way or if you guys have some tips/suggestion on hardware which would suit my needs better.

Almost forgot about my Audio needs, I'm far from a audiophile and generally don't care that much. I'm still using my Logitech Z-5500 5.1 system, which I presume is veryyyy much outdated at this point. However if you guys have some great suggestions that would open up a new world for me, by all means lay it on me. 

Would appreciate if some of you would chime in with some suggestions/tips. 

Thanks guys,

Ray

[hdmkv]

Are you open to a standalone media player vs. a PC? If so, see the stickied threads in this section of the forum... plenty of choices for 4K HDR.

[wrxtasy]

Hey guys,

Gday, Welcome to the Kodi forums !

Recently my brother and I upgraded our TV's to the LG C9 OLED model. Very happy of course we became aware our current media players are out dated and not suited for UHD playback. 
Regarding HDR, I personally have very little knowledge but would like to have the ability to mess around and optimise for best HDR use.

Which means a Linux flavour of Kodi. ie LibreELEC, OSMC or CoreELEC Kodi - something capable of 4K HDR.

I plan to continue to use LibreELEC as my OS for KODI. (however I'm open to change if some of you have great experiences/benefits with a different OS).
We connect our media players to our NAS with the NFS protocol on a Cat5e LAN network.

Yes you will have to be open to change, because at this present point in time LibreELEC is not going to give you Kodi v18 Leia - 4K HDR.

You would have to wait till likely sometime like mid, possibly late 2020 till Kodi v19 Matrix rolls around for stable Linux Intel/AMD HDR.

At this point in time - personally I suggest a CoreELEC Edition - ODROID N2.
It's fast, (16GB eMMC) recommended and will give you 4K HDR Kodi Leia & HD audio passthrough, in a quality hardware setup.

Also recommended is a nice wireless MINIX A2 lite Keyboard remote, because Kodi Keyboard shortcuts come in real handy after long term Kodi usage.
See the following 4K HDR https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332180

We plan on streaming UHD content to our media players from our NAS. 

I currently have a few Samsung 860 EVO SSD's laying around which are probably overkill and have nothing to do with streaming through NFS, but they are collecting dust. 

Suggestion, stick 'em in a cheap DIY - NAS setup like the affordable ODROID HC2:
https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h...cloud-two/

Or a SATA3 > USB3 enclosure.

You could possibly even buy all the ODROID gear at the same time.

W.

[xRaymne]

Hey guys,

Gday, Welcome to the Kodi forums !

Recently my brother and I upgraded our TV's to the LG C9 OLED model. Very happy of course we became aware our current media players are out dated and not suited for UHD playback. 
Regarding HDR, I personally have very little knowledge but would like to have the ability to mess around and optimise for best HDR use.

Which means a Linux flavour of Kodi. ie LibreELEC, OSMC or CoreELEC Kodi - something capable of 4K HDR.

I plan to continue to use LibreELEC as my OS for KODI. (however I'm open to change if some of you have great experiences/benefits with a different OS).
We connect our media players to our NAS with the NFS protocol on a Cat5e LAN network.

Yes you will have to be open to change, because at this present point in time LibreELEC is not going to give you Kodi v18 Leia - 4K HDR.

You would have to wait till likely sometime like mid, possibly late 2020 till Kodi v19 Matrix rolls around for stable Linux Intel/AMD HDR.

At this point in time - personally I suggest a CoreELEC Edition - ODROID N2.
It's fast, (16GB eMMC) recommended and will give you 4K HDR Kodi Leia & HD audio passthrough, in a quality hardware setup.

Also recommended is a nice wireless MINIX A2 lite Keyboard remote, because Kodi Keyboard shortcuts come in real handy after long term Kodi usage.
See the following 4K HDR https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332180

We plan on streaming UHD content to our media players from our NAS. 

I currently have a few Samsung 860 EVO SSD's laying around which are probably overkill and have nothing to do with streaming through NFS, but they are collecting dust. 

Suggestion, stick 'em in a cheap DIY - NAS setup like the affordable ODROID HC2:
https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h...cloud-two/

Or a SATA3 > USB3 enclosure.

You could possibly even buy all the ODROID gear at the same time.

W. 

Really helpful information and tips, thank you. Wandered around the forum a bit aswell and took a look at your stickied guide for the best hardware choices as also suggested by @hdmkv . 

I think I'm going for the NVIDIA Shield. Apart from Kodi Leia, Android TV has got it's benefits for me aswell. The only thing I'm going to be testing is if a 860 EVO SATA3 > USB3 as internal storage for the Shield will work faster than the NAND 16GB it comes with out-of-the box. 

Again thanks for the tips and your great guide!

Ray

PS. do you know if it's still not "safe" to update to android 9.0 on Shield? or has that HDR issue been resolved?

[wrxtasy]

Hey guys,

Gday, Welcome to the Kodi forums !

Recently my brother and I upgraded our TV's to the LG C9 OLED model. Very happy of course we became aware our current media players are out dated and not suited for UHD playback. 
Regarding HDR, I personally have very little knowledge but would like to have the ability to mess around and optimise for best HDR use.

Which means a Linux flavour of Kodi. ie LibreELEC, OSMC or CoreELEC Kodi - something capable of 4K HDR.

I plan to continue to use LibreELEC as my OS for KODI. (however I'm open to change if some of you have great experiences/benefits with a different OS).
We connect our media players to our NAS with the NFS protocol on a Cat5e LAN network.

Yes you will have to be open to change, because at this present point in time LibreELEC is not going to give you Kodi v18 Leia - 4K HDR.

You would have to wait till likely sometime like mid, possibly late 2020 till Kodi v19 Matrix rolls around for stable Linux Intel/AMD HDR.

At this point in time - personally I suggest a CoreELEC Edition - ODROID N2.
It's fast, (16GB eMMC) recommended and will give you 4K HDR Kodi Leia & HD audio passthrough, in a quality hardware setup.

Also recommended is a nice wireless MINIX A2 lite Keyboard remote, because Kodi Keyboard shortcuts come in real handy after long term Kodi usage.
See the following 4K HDR https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332180

We plan on streaming UHD content to our media players from our NAS. 

I currently have a few Samsung 860 EVO SSD's laying around which are probably overkill and have nothing to do with streaming through NFS, but they are collecting dust. 

Suggestion, stick 'em in a cheap DIY - NAS setup like the affordable ODROID HC2:
https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h...cloud-two/

Or a SATA3 > USB3 enclosure.

You could possibly even buy all the ODROID gear at the same time.

W. 

Really helpful information and tips, thank you. Wandered around the forum a bit aswell and took a look at your stickied guide for the best hardware choices as also suggested by @hdmkv . 

I think I'm going for the NVIDIA Shield. Apart from Kodi Leia, Android TV has got it's benefits for me aswell. The only thing I'm going to be testing is if a 860 EVO SATA3 > USB3 as internal storage for the Shield will work faster than the NAND 16GB it comes with out-of-the box. 

Again thanks for the tips and your great guide!

Ray

PS. do you know if it's still not "safe" to update to android 9.0 on Shield? or has that HDR issue been resolved?

No idea. The new Nvidia forums are the most useless POS of an update I have ever seen a Tech company roll out.
It impossible to search or easily find info now.

There is a Hotfix thread somewhere that tries to fix various ongoing Firmware problems, including the ongoing buggy SDR / HDR auto colorspace switching.

Personally I try and avoid Google Android everything, because there are always issues with every major Google OS update it seems.

PS. there are a bunch of rumors that new Nvidia Hardware might be released this year.

[wesk05]

or has that HDR issue been resolved? 

Match color space issue has been fixed with the latest hotfix. I do want to point out the launcher will always be in Rec. 709 color space (gamut) even if you select a Rec. 2020 option in the settings. I was told (privately) that this is by design.

[lightsout]

 

Also recommended is a nice wireless MINIX A2 lite Keyboard remote, because Kodi Keyboard shortcuts come in real handy after long term Kodi usage.
See the following 4K HDR https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332180

 

  

Sorry to highjack the thread, I have an N2 and have recently taken up the advice to buy this remote. When you talk about Kodi shortcuts are you referring to the stock 
setup or should I be looking into a way to program this remote?

[wrxtasy]

 

Also recommended is a nice wireless MINIX A2 lite Keyboard remote, because Kodi Keyboard shortcuts come in real handy after long term Kodi usage.
See the following 4K HDR https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332180

 

  

Sorry to highjack the thread, I have an N2 and have recently taken up the advice to buy this remote. When you talk about Kodi shortcuts are you referring to the stock 
setup or should I be looking into a way to program this remote?

Kodi Keyboard shortcuts:

https://kodi.wiki/view/Keyboard_controls

[lightsout]

Also recommended is a nice wireless MINIX A2 lite Keyboard remote, because Kodi Keyboard shortcuts come in real handy after long term Kodi usage.
See the following 4K HDR https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332180
  

Sorry to highjack the thread, I have an N2 and have recently taken up the advice to buy this remote. When you talk about Kodi shortcuts are you referring to the stock 
setup or should I be looking into a way to program this remote?

Kodi Keyboard shortcuts:

https://kodi.wiki/view/Keyboard_controls

Facepalm. Yes because it has the keyboard on the back. Thanks man. Need to get some of these down.