[izprtxqkft]

There seems to be a lot more mini pcs coming onto the market with the newest N100 CPU with Intel UHD Graphics so I decided to test one for Kodi use.
Here's a broad stroke with as much detail as I could think to gather, note that this was all done in under a 2 hour testing window and does not reflect long time usage.
Thanks to @calev who initially brought up the subject of these little PCs (not this one in particular)

Overall specs from Intel are here https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/...0-ghz.html

Testing Hardware
MinisForum UN100C
N100/8GB LPDDR5
Samsung Pro 970 512GB

OS/Kodi Version
Kodi (21.0-BETA2 (20.90.821) Git:87d2d6f84799224f5fe63a6bba3e973e84e18fef). Platform: Linux x86 64-bit
LibreELEC (community): nightly-20231218-865d980 12.0, kernel: Linux x86 64-bit version 6.6.7

Power Consumption (using original power brick)
Idle 6W
HEVC Playback 7.5-8w (video info #2 below)
8K AV1 Playback 11.5-12w (youtube demo below)

Connectivity
Ethernet, Gigabit
LAN Speed Test 1GB File average speed 101MB/s
Bluetooth for Remote Control usage is acceptable

Video, hardware accelerated decoding
AV1 up to 8K working, tested with an offline copy of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQUQM-KqIzE
(edit: more testing with 8K AV1 the system is showing it's weakness, this seems to be pushing the limit of it's capabilities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHSnz0bCaUk )
HEVC 10 bit working
AVC working
VC1 working
VP9 (untested)

Audio Passthrough Formats
DTS:X Passthrough working
TrueHD Atmos Passthrough working
EAC3 Atmos (undetermined)

All other audio formats seem to work while passthrough is enabled but with my hardware I can only definitively say those 3.

Playback
Refresh Rate Switching working
Auto AFR working
Auto Color Range not working, output always "RGB L 12b HDR" even on SDR content
* (Adjust display HDR mode On/Off no change)
Output HDR10 when playing back DV 7.6 (video info #1 below)
High Bitrate Video (~83Mbps) getting some slight audio stutters occasionally (video info #2 below)
No noticeable audio sync issues

Memory
Total 8GB, Used 1.7GB, Free 4.8GB
Idle CPU Temp 42C (~108F) with ambient 19C (~65F)
No significant temp change during playback (actually 1 degree C cooler)

Summary

Are these Mini PCs worth it in 2024?
- still debatable as it lacks Dolby Vision and costs more than an Android device that can do more than it can, even with CoreELEC
- Rocktek G2 with CoreELEC runs at a lower wattage (just 5w) and can do Dolby Vision but cannot do 8K AV1

Is it a waste of money?
- from these tests I don't believe so, if it suites your needs it is actually a really well performing CPU/iGPU combo

Is it better than a Raspberry Pi? Yes (but this is not an unbiased opinion)

Did you test under Windows?
- No, I am not a windows user

Did you test under a standard Linux Distro (Ubuntu/Debian)?
- No, I am not a Ubuntu user and I don't feel Debian is an HTPC OS

Is it going to replace any of my existing hardware?
- No

Is it going to get regular use?
- Maybe, undecided


Anything else, just ask I will see if I can find an answer.

Video Info #1

View Spoiler

 

Code:

Source The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies
Title 4K HEVC HDR
Codec HEVC
Profile Main 10
Level 153
Resolution3 840x2160
Aspect ratio 16:9
Interlaced No
Framerate 23.976025
Bitrate 55939 kbps
Bit depth 10 bit
Video range HDR
Video range type HDR10
DV title DV Profile 7.6
DV version major 1
DV version minor 0
DV profile 7
DV level 6
DV rpu preset flag1
DV el preset flag1
DV bl preset flag1
DV bl signal compatibility id6
Color space bt2020nc
Color transfer smpte2084
Color primaries bt2020
Pixel format yuv420p10le
Ref frames 1

Video Info #2

View Spoiler

 

Code:

Source John Wick Chapter 2
Title 4K HEVC HDR
Codec HEVC
Profile Main 10
Level 153
Resolution 3840x2160
Aspect ratio 16:9
Interlaced No
Framerate 23.976025
Bitrate 82562 kbps
Bit depth 10 bit
Video range HDR
Video range type HDR10
Color space bt2020nc
Color transfers mpte2084
Color primaries bt2020
Pixel format yuv420p10le
Ref frames 1

[smp1]

Did you check how it would handle high quality upscaling methods? 
e.g. SD->4K and HD->4K Spline36 optimized.

[calev]

4k h.264/5, and av1 for 135$ is a really good deal. A complete raspberry pi 5 build is about 105$ for the 4 gig model.

[izprtxqkft]

Did you check how it would handle high quality upscaling methods? 
e.g. SD->4K and HD->4K Spline36 optimized.

480p MPEG2 (DVD)

Hardware Accelerated and Software both working


HQ Scaling
Spline36, Spline36 Optimized working
- Spline36 system power usage jumps from 7w to 10w
- Spline36 Optimized power usage jumps from 7w to 8w
- No real difference with HW vs SW decoding other than power usage, CPU usage stayed under 10% on all cores no matter what.


Auto Resolution did not work on 480p, output remained "4K RGB L 12b HDR"

Admittedly, this was a targetted test as I had to copy a DVD specifically for this. Since I really don't have a baseline from other devices for comparison all I can say is that it didn't fail to do these.
Checked Lanzcos, Lanzcos Optimized and they had the same results that when turning them on some usage changed but nothing significant to report.

DVD Video Info

View Spoiler

Code:

Title 480p MPEG2VIDEO SDR
Codec MPEG2VIDEO
Profile Main
Level 8
Resolution 720x480
Aspect ratio 16:9
Interlaced No
Framerate 23.976099
Bitrate 6295 kbps
Bit depth 8 bit
Video range SDR
Video range type SDR
Pixel format yuv420p
Ref frames 1

[madmax2]

Did you check how it would handle high quality upscaling methods? 
e.g. SD->4K and HD->4K Spline36 optimized.

480p MPEG2 (DVD)

Hardware Accelerated and Software both working


HQ Scaling
Spline36, Spline36 Optimized working
- Spline36 system power usage jumps from 7w to 10w
- Spline36 Optimized power usage jumps from 7w to 8w
- No real difference with HW vs SW decoding other than power usage, CPU usage stayed under 10% on all cores no matter what.


Auto Resolution did not work on 480p, output remained "4K RGB L 12b HDR"

Admittedly, this was a targetted test as I had to copy a DVD specifically for this. Since I really don't have a baseline from other devices for comparison all I can say is that it didn't fail to do these.
Checked Lanzcos, Lanzcos Optimized and they had the same results that when turning them on some usage changed but nothing significant to report.

DVD Video Info

View Spoiler

 

Code:

Title 480p MPEG2VIDEO SDR
Codec MPEG2VIDEO
Profile Main
Level 8
Resolution 720x480
Aspect ratio 16:9
Interlaced No
Framerate 23.976099
Bitrate 6295 kbps
Bit depth 8 bit
Video range SDR
Video range type SDR
Pixel format yuv420p
Ref frames 1

do you have link for the mini pc you bought?

also

does your device work with hdmi-cec?

how well does bluetooth headphone/earbuds audio  work with your N100 mini pc (in terms of audio lag / audio delayed)?
you use a dongle or it has built in bluetooth?

are you using kodi in windows/linux or libreElec?

[izprtxqkft]

do you have link for the mini pc you bought?

https://www.google.com/search?q=MinisForum+UN100C

does your device work with hdmi-cec?

i don't use cec, my current setup does not have anything connected that allows this to work (n100 > hdmi switch -> soundbar -> tv), neither the soundbar remote or tv remote play/pause the pc when pressed, "CEC" is not listed under System->Input in Kodi
i do not think it's working

how well does bluetooth headphone/earbuds audio  work with your N100 mini pc (in terms of audio lag / audio delayed)?

i dont use bluetooth audio so not sure

you use a dongle or it has built in bluetooth?

built-in/came with it

are you using kodi in windows/linux or libreElec?

LibreELEC nightly

[madmax2]

i don't use cec, my current setup does not have anything connected that allows this to work (n100 > hdmi switch -> soundbar -> tv), neither the soundbar remote or tv remote play/pause the pc when pressed, "CEC" is not listed under System->Input in Kodi
i do not think it's working

oh that sucks if there is no hdmi-cec
so do you use phone app to navigate kodi or a wireless keyboard etc?

i like the convenience of using the tv remote for basic kodi media back.
 

i dont use bluetooth audio so not sure

do you have any bluetooth headphone or earbuds you can test for me?
 

LibreELEC nightly

so you are on the latest version?

do you install the windows build of LibreELEC?
can you provide of the image you use?


In terms of performance..

does it run smoothly
- 4k 10bit HEVC HDR videos
- 4K and 8K AV1 youtube videos

- not sure what other types of things worth testing..
but have you tried gaming, emulation or anything else on it besides libreELEC that you can tell me about it and how well it does it?

[izprtxqkft]

so do you use phone app to navigate kodi or a wireless keyboard etc?

sofabaton x1 universal remote connected via bluetooth, previously have used a harmony elite universal and it also works well with libreelec

so you are on the latest version?

yes

do you install the windows build of LibreELEC?

that's not a thing, libreelec is its own linux based operating system

can you provide of the image you use?

https://test.libreelec.tv/12.0/Generic/Generic/

does it run smoothly
- 4k 10bit HEVC HDR videos
- 4K and 8K AV1 youtube videos

yes very smoothly on all 4K content, HEVC, HEVC Main 10, AV1
8K AV1 pushed it to it's limit, the first video worked ok, the second just simply did not and just got severely sluggish (links in first post)
HDR, HDR10+ work fine, Dolby Vision is played on HDR10 fallback (because PCs don't have dolby vision licenses)
 

but have you tried gaming, emulation or anything else on it besides libreELEC that you can tell me about it and how well it does it?

only libreelec, no need for "other" functionality as i have full desktops that already perform their desired function
i have a raspberry pi 3b+ i use with retropie for emulation and it works fine, i expect anything will do emulation if that will (no playstation or game cube)
 

do you have any bluetooth headphone or earbuds you can test for me?

i probably still have some galaxy buds in a drawer somewhere, i'll see if i can track them down at some point and test it

[izprtxqkft]

this device has been migrated to "the shelf"

just not my kind of device as i am used to features on android instead of an htpc

not that i found anything specifically wrong with it, just doesn't suite my use

[calev]

I'm actually thinking of picking one of these up to use as a jellyfin server + nfs server to serve kodi.

It has a lot of encoding and decoding in hardware so that would make it great for jellyfin. I'm using a raspberry pi 4 now. It works great when streaming directly to kodi but if accessing a h.265 video in browser it has to transcode it to h.264 and sometimes can't keep up.

[izprtxqkft]

I'm actually thinking of picking one of these up to use as a jellyfin server + nfs server to serve kodi.

It has a lot of encoding and decoding in hardware so that would make it great for jellyfin. I'm using a raspberry pi 4 now. It works great when streaming directly to kodi but if accessing a h.265 video in browser it has to transcode it to h.264 and sometimes can't keep up.

that seems like a really good use case for it, and since it has the usb 3.2 ports any external enclosure that is usb3.2 should be great (look at mediasonic, been using their enclosures since 2018)
combined with nvme for the encoding cache

[calev]

Yeah I have a 4 bay usb 3.0 case on my rpi4. It works fine I would just like better decoding and encoding to keep the cpu usage down. I can't seem to find anything else in the 130$ or less price range for this. I don't need a full server build that would be like 600$ and huge.

[clarkss12]

I have an older mini PC that has 3 USB 3 ports.  I installed LibreELEC and connected 3 external powered hard drives.  I only use it as a "file server".   Works like a charm and keeps on ticking (ummm a watch commercial?).  I sometimes forget it is even there.

Edit: I forgot to mention, it also servers as my Tvheadend server.  I use a different, more powerful miniPC to run my PLEX and EMBY servers.

[madmax2]

I have an older mini PC that has 3 USB 3 ports.  I installed LibreELEC and connected 3 external powered hard drives.  I only use it as a "file server".   Works like a charm and keeps on ticking (ummm a watch commercial?).  I sometimes forget it is even there.

Edit: I forgot to mention, it also servers as my Tvheadend server.  I use a different, more powerful miniPC to run my PLEX and EMBY servers.

what model miniPC do you have?
price?

[calev]

There is a n100 device with a two drive nas bay for 209$ right now that looks really slick. Would be great for kodi or a nas. I can't find a review of that unit that really includes sound levels. I think i'm gonna pick this up around February. Will let everyone know how well it works.

https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-r1-...-512gb-ssd