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Pick the Right Kodi Box (UPDATED FEB 2015)
I'm looking for +/- 100$ box (lowest possible size and power consumption) to display my NAS stored media (up to 1080p so far, 4k later)
I have no need for a disk reader (cd/dvd/bray...), for local storage (hdd) nor for WiFi (especially since most ofthe time it s too slow for heavy files) if it can lower the price
I do not care about remote as I use my handheld devices with Yatse

I have been using a RpiB (with overclocked openelec) for some time now, pretty OK despite the need for lightweight skin and some videos partially/not working, mainly h265 and animated
Rsp2 will perform better with skins but it won't play heavy h265, 4K or animated as it can only do software decoding

I have been looking at this Intel NUC and at the Xtreamer Wonder
I haven't been able to find a comparison between Intel HD 5500 and Mali 450
About the Xtreamer, I fear that Android might make me lose a lot of power, maybe flash it with openelec...
Any opinion, if any of those is good ? Recommend something else ?

I am in France, where Amazon does not sell Amazon Fire TV, I would have to go through an intermediary
  • Raspberry Pi 3 - Libreelec 9.0.1
  • Odroid C2 - Libreelec 8.2.5 & Libreelec 9.0.1
Stay away from Xtreamer. Always flashy promotions, but terrible support.
[H]i-[d]eft [M]edia [K]een [V]ideosaurus
My Family Room Theater
So I live overseas however I have a friend in the US at the moment.

What would you guys recommend for XBMC/Kodi, I'm torn between the Amazon Fire TV, Amlogic S802/S805 (Minix X8/X8-H/X8-H Plus), Raspberry Pi 2, Xiaomi MiBox 3(?).

I have no intention on playing local content, the purpose of the box will be streaming.

It's a bit time sensitive me making the choice therefore I would really appreciate any advice you might have. Thanks!
(2015-02-03, 17:33)313Flex Wrote: So I live overseas however I have a friend in the US at the moment.

What would you guys recommend for XBMC/Kodi, I'm torn between the Amazon Fire TV, Amlogic S802/S805 (Minix X8/X8-H/X8-H Plus), Raspberry Pi 2, Xiaomi MiBox 3(?).

I have no intention on playing local content, the purpose of the box will be streaming.

It's a bit time sensitive me making the choice therefore I would really appreciate any advice you might have. Thanks!

What do you mean by streaming?

Here in the states that means Amazon/Netflix/Hulu/etc. But I know those often don't work internationally without a VPN. If those are your goal and you have some router VPN fanciness, get a FireTV.

If you are wanting to do plugin-style streaming (aka "pirate" sources) then you want a box with a fully supported setup and all the proper libraries, and optimally a good CPU. That is either a Pi 2 or something beyond a Pi 2 (like something with an Intel chip). Honestly I have had decent luck with my S805 board too, not NEAR Intel but as good as I can expect for like a fourth the power of a Chromebox.

If by streaming you mean you don't want to play off the HD but play off the network I would find the best S805 with a real antenna or ethernet that runs Openelec. None you listed will, so look for something like this:

http://www.enybox.com/En/product/html/?192.html

Or the Pi 2 would also work for that.

Seriously though, if you can afford it just get your friend to buy a Chromebox. It blows all of these away for anything but Netflix.

(2015-02-03, 18:51)poofyhairguy Wrote:
(2015-02-03, 17:33)313Flex Wrote: So I live overseas however I have a friend in the US at the moment.

What would you guys recommend for XBMC/Kodi, I'm torn between the Amazon Fire TV, Amlogic S802/S805 (Minix X8/X8-H/X8-H Plus), Raspberry Pi 2, Xiaomi MiBox 3(?).

I have no intention on playing local content, the purpose of the box will be streaming.

It's a bit time sensitive me making the choice therefore I would really appreciate any advice you might have. Thanks!

What do you mean by streaming?

Here in the states that means Amazon/Netflix/Hulu/etc. But I know those often don't work internationally without a VPN. If those are your goal and you have some router VPN fanciness, get a FireTV.

If you are wanting to do plugin-style streaming (aka "pirate" sources) then you want a box with a fully supported setup and all the proper libraries, and optimally a good CPU. That is either a Pi 2 or something beyond a Pi 2 (like something with an Intel chip). Honestly I have had decent luck with my S805 board too, not NEAR Intel but as good as I can expect for like a fourth the power of a Chromebox.

If by streaming you mean you don't want to play off the HD but play off the network I would find the best S805 with a real antenna or ethernet that runs Openelec. None you listed will, so look for something like this:

http://www.enybox.com/En/product/html/?192.html

Or the Pi 2 would also work for that.

Seriously though, if you can afford it just get your friend to buy a Chromebox. It blows all of these away for anything but Netflix.
I am also considering the Asus Chromebox currently and ready to checkout soon. However, do you think its not powerful enough to stream from online sources?
Primary Sony 85" X8500F LED, Yamaha RX-V685, Odroid N2 4GB running CoreElec 19.4 RC1 (Kodi Matrix), SVS 5.1 Sound
Secondary Panasonic 50" ST50 Plasma, Pioneer AV916, Asus Chromebox running LibreElec (Kodi Leia)
(2015-02-03, 18:51)poofyhairguy Wrote: What do you mean by streaming?

Here in the states that means Amazon/Netflix/Hulu/etc. But I know those often don't work internationally without a VPN. If those are your goal and you have some router VPN fanciness, get a FireTV.

If you are wanting to do plugin-style streaming (aka "pirate" sources) then you want a box with a fully supported setup and all the proper libraries, and optimally a good CPU. That is either a Pi 2 or something beyond a Pi 2 (like something with an Intel chip). Honestly I have had decent luck with my S805 board too, not NEAR Intel but as good as I can expect for like a fourth the power of a Chromebox.

If by streaming you mean you don't want to play off the HD but play off the network I would find the best S805 with a real antenna or ethernet that runs Openelec. None you listed will, so look for something like this:

http://www.enybox.com/En/product/html/?192.html

Or the Pi 2 would also work for that.

Seriously though, if you can afford it just get your friend to buy a Chromebox. It blows all of these away for anything but Netflix.

To be completely honest neither of these streaming services work where I live and setting up a VPN is an overhead in terms of both hardware (getting a fancy router) and financially (VPN services do cost around half the premium of the service). Additionally Netflix and these other services are in a "war" with VPN services as of late so investing on it long-term is not wise especially when there are 'free' services (albeit pirate) are available.

To keep it short I plan on streaming through these 'pirate' sources. Therefore I'm not sure between Amlogic and Pi 2, which would be better choice in this use case? Chromebox is out of my price range unfortunately.
(2015-02-03, 19:41)bym007 Wrote: I am also considering the Asus Chromebox currently and ready to checkout soon. However, do you think its not powerful enough to stream from online sources?

Website streaming? It should handle it easily. The Chromebox CPU is in another class compared to these other options. It is the BMW of Kodi boxes.

(2015-02-03, 19:43)313Flex Wrote: To keep it short I plan on streaming through these 'pirate' sources. Therefore I'm not sure between Amlogic and Pi 2, which would be better choice in this use case? Chromebox is out of my price range unfortunately.

I have had decent luck streaming with my Amlogic stick. I don't know if the Pi will be better though, the main holdup so far is not having that x86 Adobe Flash that something like a Chromebox can use.

I guess if I have to vote I vote Pi 2. It will have the best community support, which is your best shot of a best case scenario.

(2015-02-03, 08:48)poofyhairguy Wrote: Ok I did the full test. My mk808b plus didn't completely live up to spec but it did better than I expected. It can handle all the h264 I can throw at it.

Thanks a ton for trying it out man, appreciate it. Sounds like the device for me, shopping around for one to ship to Australia now.

What remote control do you use? Is there a standard popular one that people buy for these that uses Bluetooth or something?
For that stick I hooked it to my wireless iPazzport keyboard and my Bluetooth mouse. Anything USB or Bluetooth has worked so far for me so there are many options. Here is a good thread for ideas:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=209996

I like using the replacement Amazon Fire TV bluetooth remote on my MK808B Plus. Not sure how easy that would be to get in Australia, but here in the States it's only $15USD.

Also, there's an unofficial OpenELEC build that runs on this stick pretty well on the freaktab.com forums. Although it's nice to have access to Android apps.
@poofyhairguy

Just curious, have you tried using snapraid to protect stored media content? http://snapraid.sourceforge.net/

It's very good (and free of charge). I have a homebuilt HTPC containing 4 x 2TB Green HDDs, 1 disk of which holds the parity file to protect the content on the other 3 disks.

Note that the drives are not RAIDed (no striping of data or pooling). Each of the 3 data drives is a standalone volume (some use ext4, some XFS, depended on my preference at the time of filesystem creation) and the parity file is created on disk 4. So if at anytime you decide to ditch snapraid, you can just delete the parity file on disk 4 and re-purpose accordingly, the 3 other data disks are left untouched. Of course the other benefit is you can add parity to an existing setup without having to wipe everything to create a raid array.

Been running snapraid for a while now and I update the parity file once a week (it's enough for my use based on the volume of change that occurs in a week). It's already saved me a few times where I have mistakenly deleted files as I can do selective file, folder or whole disk restores from parity.

Just thought I'd mention it as it is a nice piece of free software.
Sorry if this was asked, but I didn't readily see it. Which is better/faster performance wise PC, Chromebook or Android FireTV or something totally different? FYI I currently have Kodi installed on THIS small factor desktop with a 256GB SSD running Windows 8.1, but I'd be willing to get a FireTV or Chromebook if the performance would be drastically better.

Thank you!
Looking to upgrade from a zotac id 41 plus which is an intel atom d525 with nvidia ion2 graphics on OE gotham

I use it for live tv with my hdhomerun on a wmc backend...so need deinterlacing
And
- 1080p mkv with hd audio passthrough to av receiver
- streaming iplayer and nbc sports live add ons

My current setup has a few problems i havent been able to resolve the last couple years...

The zotac has bad usb ports where i connect my usb ir receiver and i sometimes cant wake it from suspend until i repeatedly hit power toggle on my remote which really screws with my Harmony remotes activities.

Streaming videos such as bbc buffers a lot but is fine off my chromecast so its not my internet


Whats my best option and what extra benefits would i get from upgrading?

1. Asus chromebox - will deinterlacing live tv be better?
2. Nuc n2820...deinterlace is worse than my current zotac?
We just had a discussion about the best deinterlacing on various devices over here:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1909258

Conclusion, get a media device with a Intel Haswell GPU/VPU (2955U/2957U), these are:

- Chromebox
- Zotac BI320 (Chromebox + Optical and other extras)
- HP Steam Mini
- Gigabyte Brix GB-BXCEH-2955

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