[ahmedashed]

Hi Kodi peeps, I wanted your advice/wisdom about fastest hardware to run Kodi without any issues/slow down, here are my experiences so far so you understand what I have already tried:

Firstly I bought a random Chinese Ali express android box, it was alright but I could not use any of the legitimate apps (widevine) without resolution issues, like prime, bbc iplayer etc so sold it

Secondly I got the Firestick 4k max, decent speed in using Kodi including addons loading relatively quick but lagged with anime videos due to their complicated ASS subtitles and only 32bit Kodi so

I got the Nvidia tv shield pro 2019 16GB however I felt there was diminishing returns, the anime video I tested across both the firestick and Shield lagged less but was still noticeable, any addon/widget I'd use was still not comparable to my PC in terms of loading speed

PC specs:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
16GB RAM
GTX 1060 6GB

All were tested using ethernet and the same internet speed and yet any file/addon that needed streaming was noticeably faster on my PC. I would literally copy my kodi build to my PC to compare to make it fair. I am currently thinking maybe it is an android issue

So my question is, what can I get/build to achieve or comparable performance to my PC but have the same portability of being able to pack it in my bag and connect it to a TV. Am I to start looking at NUC PCs for example? Ideally in a perfect world I wanted something around the budget of the Shield Pro but any advice/suggestions are appreciated regardless.

Thank you very much

[Raitsa]

Android boxes ranked with precision here:
https://bit.ly/3rsV2i7

Shield is still the king, I have never watched any anime but everything has been smooth as butter on my 3 Shields.

[ahmedashed]

Android boxes ranked with precision here:
https://bit.ly/3rsV2i7

Shield is still the king, I have never watched any anime but everything has been smooth as butter on my 3 Shields.

I appreciate the list, thank you, but because the shield is the king as you say, I don't think I'll find what I'm looking for in the android space. Thanks anyways.

[jbinkley60]

My fastest running Kodi is an Intel NUC model NUC 8i7BEH with an SSD.  I run LibreElec on it.  No issues and extremely stable.  The Shield may be king of the Android boxes but there are lots of reported software issues by a number of Shield users.   My NUC is faster than my PC with regards to playing videos, going through menus etc..  One test I use is how fast it can do a daily sync with my Mezzmo addon.  This stresses both disk and memory:

PC

2022-07-15 00:05:14.700 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo sync beginning.
2022-07-15 00:05:14.727 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo daily sync process flag set.
2022-07-15 00:05:18.230 T:17632  NOTICE: Kodi database Mezzmo data cleared.
2022-07-15 00:05:18.637 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo duplicate logging is enabled.
2022-07-15 00:05:23.812 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo checkDBpath parent path added: 5 http://192.168.0.34:53168/
2022-07-15 00:10:48.341 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo total Kodi DB record count: 16750
2022-07-15 00:10:48.368 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo total Mezzmo record count: 17038
2022-07-15 00:10:48.427 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo total movie trailer count: 6901
2022-07-15 00:10:53.042 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo database reindex and vacuum complete.
2022-07-15 00:10:53.072 T:17632  NOTICE: Mezzmo sync completed. 17038 videos in 5m 38s checked.


Intel NUC

2022-07-15 00:18:20.133 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo sync beginning.
2022-07-15 00:18:20.147 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo daily sync process flag set.
2022-07-15 00:18:21.591 T:19797    INFO <general>: Kodi database Mezzmo data cleared.
2022-07-15 00:18:21.654 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo duplicate logging is enabled.
2022-07-15 00:18:26.212 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo checkDBpath parent path added: 9 http://192.168.0.34:53168/
2022-07-15 00:21:19.526 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo total Kodi DB record count: 16750
2022-07-15 00:21:19.534 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo total Mezzmo record count: 17038
2022-07-15 00:21:19.555 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo total movie trailer count: 6901
2022-07-15 00:21:20.795 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo database reindex and vacuum complete.
2022-07-15 00:21:20.831 T:19797    INFO <general>: Mezzmo sync completed. 17038 videos in 3m 0s checked.

Less expensive but solid performance and reliable are the Vero 4K+ units.  I have 3 of them which I have 0 problems with.  They aren't the fastest but solid performers.  They take 12 minutes to do a daily sync and a Raspberry Pi 4 takes 36 minutes.

There are also a number of other threads in the Kodi forums comparing hardware.   


Jeff

[ahmedashed]

Thank you very much for this, I will definitely take a look!

[ontap]

Can I ask , what remote do you use with the NUC ?

[Raitsa]

With https://flirc.tv/ you can use any remote you want, old or new.

[Klojum]

There are also a number of other threads in the Kodi forums comparing hardware.

Single tests can be so deceiving. And PC and NUC devices are both x86 hardware, yet different hardware components can lead to different outcomes obviously.
"My NUC is faster than my PC".. Your comparison of "a PC" and a NUC here is useless. Faster hardware is faster.

A PC can be a speed monster, the Nvidia Shield has a pretty good video chip from 2015 but a crappy CPU. Comparing it to a PC should be done on video performance, not on raw power.
OP is complaining about transfer speeds in his current setup, and you are advertising with a UPnP local database indexing comparison? Apples and oranges I say.

[ahmedashed]

There are also a number of other threads in the Kodi forums comparing hardware.

Single tests can be so deceiving. And PC and NUC devices are both x86 hardware, yet different hardware components can lead to different outcomes obviously.
"My NUC is faster than my PC".. Your comparison of "a PC" and a NUC here is useless. Faster hardware is faster.

A PC can be a speed monster, the Nvidia Shield has a pretty good video chip from 2015 but a crappy CPU. Comparing it to a PC should be done on video performance, not on raw power.
OP is complaining about transfer speeds in his current setup, and you are advertising with a UPnP local database indexing comparison? Apples and oranges I say.

I see what you are saying that's why I was thinking of leaving the android based box space anyways and sticking x86 as again I was kind of comparing apples and oranges. I thought there is something limiting the decoding of high quality h265 anime files subtitles on the Nvidia shield that my PC is not experiencing and that's what I am trying to find in a device, without losing the portability or hitting extremely expensive budget. After browsing I think I might have found a sweet spot with the beelink ser4: AMD Ryzen 7 3750H with Radeon RX Vega 10 1400MHZ iGPU, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD (directly from chinese website rather than resellers is roughly £311)

[JamesX]

A good combination would be Libreelec on Linux running on PC, but alas Linux Kodi builds didn´t yet found itself on HDR... and what we have today are a bunch of buggy builds by people that don`t really know what they are doing (well, what can you expect from hobbyists offering something for free?)

Alternatively, a minimal Windows machine booting directly into Kodi is what I found to be the current best combination... leaving far behind the laughably bad performance of anything Android (including the ¨ohh, so good¨ Shield from 3 years ago). Yes, Android media boxes will play movies/media very well... but suck at everything else, including network folder browsing, indexing, archive manipulation and whatnot. Some people like Kodi being that slow... I just can`t stand it.

My current Kodi machine is a Ryzen 5600g. It´s sort of middle ground between power and cost. Won`t allow the MadVR fancier stuff, but it runs the official standard Kodi very well. I guess those Ryzen 37xx machines will run it just as well.

As for the anime subtitles, do you care to say what anime/file are you talking about? I could test it for you if you want.

[jbinkley60]

We could have a lot of fun debating how to compare hardware performance and such but I typically look at 4 things when choosing my platform, performance (for the functions I am doing), suitability (can it do what I want now and in the future), stability/support (I don't want to spend a lot of my time keeping it running) and price/value.   One of the differentiators I found was whether I was dedicating my box to be a streamer or not and whether just for Kodi or also the plethora of streaming apps.  I originally tried the Android route for an all in one solution for Kodi and streaming.  It was early on for the streaming apps but I finally gave up and went with separate boxes for streaming vs. Kodi and I've never looked back at that decision.  My maintenance time is near zero which keeps the household happy.  I went with Roku for online streaming and some of the devices listed earlier for Kodi with either Windows or LibreElec as the underlying platform.  I only mention this as you haven't said if you want to use your choice for anything else or not.  If it is dedicated to Kodi then I think you'll find yourself with more choices. 

You've mentioned H265 support, which is pretty standard for modern devices, but there are other things folks often want like HDR10, Dolby Vision and bitstream audio.  Again most are supported with modern platforms except Dolby Vision which is slowly coming along but may licensing may preclude full adoption.  The other item out there is AC4 audio.  I am primarily seeing it on ATSC 3.0 live broadcasting and PVR recordings of such.  Many folks, myself included, are pinning our hopes on FFMPEG officially supporting it in the future. 

Lastly, one thing you didn't mention with your choice of the Beelink is the OS you will run Kodi on.  That can play into support and hardware choices can limit certain OS combinations due to where driver support is for what hardware you choose.  I too would be happy to test on various platforms if you have any content which can be downloaded.


Good luck,

Jeff

[boboc]

laggedwith anime videos due to their complicated ASS subtitles

Subtitles rendering were completely reworked in Kodi v20. Maybe it's better now?

[crawfish]

Alternatively, a minimal Windows machine booting directly into Kodi is what I found to be the current best combination... leaving far behind the laughably bad performance of anything Android (including the ¨ohh, so good¨ Shield from 3 years ago). Yes, Android media boxes will play movies/media very well... but suck at everything else, including network folder browsing, indexing, archive manipulation and whatnot. Some people like Kodi being that slow... I just can`t stand it.

Compared to my PC with a 5800x and memories of my PC with i5 4670, the only difference I regularly notice on my Sony A80J TV is that entering Wall view for movies takes a fraction of a second longer to load thumbnails. Once in, scrolling is just as fast though. All my media is on a wirelessly networked Windows 10 PC, and it's not a small movie/TV library. I did move the entire .kodi folder to a USB3 SSD, but that was for space reasons, as my Thumbnails folder won't fit in internal storage, and moving the whole thing makes backups easier. So glad to be out of the PC for Kodi. No HDR issues, no random hourly split-second video stutters ISTR beginning with Kodi 17 or 18, etc.

[JamesX]

All my media is on a wirelessly networked Windows 10 PC, and it's not a small movie/TV library. I did move the entire .kodi folder to a USB3 SSD, but that was for space reasons, as my Thumbnails folder won't fit in internal storage, and moving the whole thing makes backups easier. So glad to be out of the PC for Kodi. No HDR issues, no random hourly split-second video stutters ISTR beginning with Kodi 17 or 18, etc.

Yeah PCs may suck as they aren`t as plug-n-play as other solutions. It`s the price you pay for going the power user route.

I currently have no real HDR issues (or you mean lack of Dolby Vision?) or stutters, maybe you didn`t take the time to figure out what was the problem (maybe it was the wifi?). Speaking of wifi... considering the TV has only the dated wifi 5 I wonder how well 80Gb BluRay ISOs and Java menus run on that TVs Kodi. Is using FF 8x (or 4x for that matter) even a option on big remuxes?

I get that everyone likes to think that their current setup is the best possible. I understand where you are coming from, but what mighty be great for your use cases maybe will be unacceptable for others whose demands far exceeds anything you ever needed from Kodi.

I certainly will never settle for what a TV manufacturer thinks is a good processor to run Android TV let alone run Kodi under Android and all of the implicit limitations. And library on wifi... jeez... even wifi 6 (which would be immensely better, but still) is a big thanks-but-no-thanks from me also. To each their own I guess.

[crawfish]

I currently have no real HDR issues (or you mean lack of Dolby Vision?) or stutters, maybe you didn`t take the time to figure out what was the problem (maybe it was the wifi?).

I haven't tried HDR on the PC for Kodi. I don't see how it could ever work better than the app running on the TV, which goes in and out of HDR instantaneously as needed, which was better than the Apple TV when I tried it. I don't know if the delay is a universal shortcoming of HDMI connections vs apps running on the TV, something peculiar to the ATV, or what. Concerning the "random hourly split-second video stutters ISTR beginning with Kodi 17 or 18" on the PC I mentioned, that was not HDR, it was using a wired connection, and it began several years ago with one of those two versions. Changing Kodi settings such as DXVA2, shaders, etc didn't help. I was using a GT 1030 for most if not all of that time.

Speaking of wifi... considering the TV has only the dated wifi 5 I wonder how well 80Gb BluRay ISOs and Java menus run on that TVs Kodi. Is using FF 8x (or 4x for that matter) even a option on big remuxes?

I use a USB3 network adapter/hub for wifi (AX), the SSD, and a Logitech unifying receiver. It performs the same as 1 Gbps wired on the PC; at least I've noticed no differences. PC to PC, I get sustained 110 MB/s file transfers between my wireless server and main PC wired to my router. It's all been a happy surprise.

FWIW, I've been using Kodi on PCs for 10+ years. I've experimented with things like Fire Stick 4Ks to try to escape various problems in Windows Kodi but eventually returned to the PC for performance reasons after the PC problems were fixed. I've been using Kodi on the A80J for 8 months, and I haven't once considered going back to Windows.