Best box for Kodi setup

keano25

As above looking to set this up to run video playing aps etc.

Any recommendations on a box to get?

Want something reliable for watching on tv no play games on it or anything. Thanks

Johnboy1951

NUC running LibreElec.

degsie

What is 'exodus'?











Waits, then grabs popcorn....

EoinMcLovin

posted this in android devices forum
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252916

The Ritz

Mod Comment

keano25,

Please take note of the Stickey regarding Kodi, addons and TV services - discussion of these is not allowed here.


Mod Hat Off

I have run Kodi for movie and music libraries on a Minix Z83 running Windows 10 and on a Wetek box running Openelec - the Wetek box has the useful addition of twin satellite tuners. Both work perfectly, the Minix has the advantage of greater flexibility but is limited to 5.1 channels in sound and will not play 10bit 4k video.


Ritz.

The high horse brigade

The best box is probably the Nvidia Shield TV, but it's pricey if you're not into games. It runs android TV, does 4K, has a fast Nvidia processor, can be used as a Plex server and will be supported for a long time through Android and Nvidia updates

omb0wyn5ehpij9

The Ritz wrote: »

I have run Kodi for movie and music libraries on a Minix Z83 running Windows 10 and on a Wetek box running Openelec - the Wetek box has the useful addition of twin satellite tuners. Both work perfectly, the Minix has the advantage of greater flexibility but is limited to 5.1 channels in sound and will not play 10bit 4k video.

I've been looking for something like this for a while. I had decided on a mini PC from Novatech, but the price has gone up a lot since I began looking, and with the added cost of a Windows licence, it doesn't seem worth it.

My main uses would be:
- Netflix
- Watching downloaded movies
- Streaming sport
- Playing emulators (up to and including PS1 games)

Have you installed any game emulators on your Minix? Was it able to handle them?

The Ritz

BDJW,

I don't use the Minix for emulators - given that it can play full HD video without issue I don't think emulators up to the level you mention would cause a problem - there's an in depth review of the minix on avforums, that might give you more information.

Cheers,

Ritz

omb0wyn5ehpij9

The Ritz wrote: »

BDJW,

I don't use the Minix for emulators - given that it can play full HD video without issue I don't think emulators up to the level you mention would cause a problem - there's an in depth review of the minix on avforums, that might give you more information.

Cheers,

Ritz

Thanks, I'll try find that and see what people say! Did you get yours from Amazon?

The Ritz

BDJW,

Yip, Amazon. Here's a link to avforums review https://www.avforums.com/review/minix-neo-z83-4-mini-pc-review.13169

Ritz

keano25

That minix looks a cool box

beardybrewer

The high horse brigade wrote: »

The best box is probably the Nvidia Shield TV, but it's pricey if you're not into games. It runs android TV, does 4K, has a fast Nvidia processor, can be used as a Plex server and will be supported for a long time through Android and Nvidia updates

I'd agree with this and I don't use it for games at all. It's just a very powerful really fast Android TV box. This lets me use Kodi and Netflix together with the same remote which was what I was after. Had it for a year now and it's still a top rated box. It's built overkill for game capability which makes it screaming fast for the likes of Kodi/Netflix.

keano25

Leaning toward Nvidia Shield new model..

stimpson

+1 for the Shield. It really is nice piece of hardware. I use it to Stream games in 4K from my PC. Now that Plex will finally passthrough HD audio streams it may well be the last box I buy (I've had many over the years)

Software wise SPMC is worth looking at. It is a Kodi fork with more advanced features and was the only thing up to recently that would output 4K HDR and HD audio. Still compatible with Kodi plugins. I use it with KodiPlexConnect when Plex isn't doing the business.

keano25

stimpson wrote: »

+1 for the Shield. It really is nice piece of hardware. I use it to Stream games in 4K from my PC. Now that Plex will finally passthrough HD audio streams it may well be the last box I buy (I've had many over the years)

Software wise SPMC is worth looking at. It is a Kodi fork with more advanced features and was the only thing up to recently that would output 4K HDR and HD audio. Still computable with Kodi plugins. I use it with KodiPlexConnect when Plex isn't doing the business.

Can it be used as a Plex server?

The high horse brigade

keano25 wrote: »

Can it be used as a Plex server?

Yes, Plex was adapted to run transcoding on the GPU making it a very powerful Plex server. The Nvidia Tegra X1 is only a quad core CPU but has a 256 core GPU
http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-x1-processor.html

stimpson

keano25 wrote: »

Can it be used as a Plex server?

Yeah - server comes preinstalled. Just add a drive full of media.

I don't use it myself as I have a purpose built server.

keano25

stimpson wrote: »

Yeah - server comes preinstalled. Just add a drive full of media.

I don't use it myself as I have a purpose built server.

Out of interest what way did you build your server?

stimpson

keano25 wrote: »

Out of interest what way did you build your server?

I have a Lian Li PC-Q08 case which is a mini ITX case approx 12"x12"x8".

PSU is a 160W PicoPSU. This enables it to run with a single 14cm case fan and is almost silent (still need to work on that though)

CPU is an i7 5775k as it has a low TDP for a decent amount of grunt (which is necessary due to the PSU)

MB is Gigabyte H97N WIFI as it has 6 SATA III ports.

16 gigs of DDR3

I have a 480GB SSD and 5 WD Red drives (2x8TB, 2x3TB and one 2TB)

It's running unRAID from an internal USB stick. This means one 8TB drive is parity for the others and means one data drive can die without me losing any data and I have a total of 16TB of available storage (theoretical max of 32TB or 48TB if I put a proper PSU and SATA card in). The plan is to swap out the smaller drives for 8TB ones as needed.

If you're looking for storage I have 2x3TB WD reds and a WD MyBook Duo enclosure going begging

The high horse brigade

Similar, I have a 1U Dell R210 for Plex server and download box (Sonarr and Radarr) and a HP Proliant with 12TB storage as NAS. It's a big expense buying and running the gear yourself and in todays world there has come a cheaper better option so just today I setup a Google Suite business account with unlimited storage for €8 per month (after 14 day trial) and I plan to use this Google Drive with Plex Cloud to move completely to the Cloud. I will be renting a VPS (about a tenner pm) to run as a download box and sync my downloads from there to Google Drive. This will work out cheaper to run and leave me with a Plex server completely in the cloud not uploading from my own connection and without the hassle of managing the space

stimpson

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Similar, I have a 1U Dell R210 for Plex server and download box (Sonarr and Radarr) and a HP Proliant with 12TB storage as NAS. It's a big expense buying and running the gear yourself and in todays world there has come a cheaper better option so just today I setup a Google Suite business account with unlimited storage for €8 per month (after 14 day trial) and I plan to use this Google Drive with Plex Cloud to move completely to the Cloud. I will be renting a VPS (about a tenner pm) to run as a download box and sync my downloads from there to Google Drive. This will work out cheaper to run and leave me with a Plex server completely in the cloud not uploading from my own connection and without the hassle of managing the space

Have you a link to that offer? I had an N54L that went tits up last year and before I did this build I looked at cloud storage but couldn't find anything close to that. I think I was looking at €60 pm for 10 TB.

The high horse brigade

stimpson wrote: »

Have you a link to that offer? I had an N54L that went tits up last year and before I did this build I looked at cloud storage but couldn't find anything close to that. I think I was looking at €60 pm for 10 TB.

https://gsuite.google.com/driveforwork/

You need to jump through a few hoops, you need your own domain and a webserver, need to add a metadata line to html on the webserver, then i had to setup an email address on that domain and to point mx records to google. There is just one small catch, to have unlimited you're supposed to add 5 users it's supposed to be limited to 1TB for a single user but it's not enforced, plenty on the Plex sub on Reddit are getting unlimited with just one user. I've not really got to test this out yet, it's a wrk in progress and I'm still on the 14 day trial

From here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/47cln1/til_you_can_buy_an_unlimited_google_drive_account/d4i93zf/

stimpson

Here's a pic of the server before I close the case

keano25

Serious piece of kit.

keano25

Have ordered a 2017 Nvidia Shield

digiman

keano25 wrote: »

Have ordered a 2017 Nvidia Shield

Where can you order the 2017 version from that will deliver to Ireland?

Is there any Irish stores selling them?

The high horse brigade

digiman wrote: »

Where can you order the 2017 version from that will deliver to Ireland?

Is there any Irish stores selling them?

Use Parcel motel/parcel wizard/address pal. I got mine on Amazon

The high horse brigade

stimpson wrote: »

Have you a link to that offer? I had an N54L that went tits up last year and before I did this build I looked at cloud storage but couldn't find anything close to that. I think I was looking at €60 pm for 10 TB.

FYI, this is going very well for me, I have a very decent backfill of media built up. I have a Hetzner dedi server, i7 2600, 16GB ram, 2x 3TB sata, gigabit connection for €31 pm and my month doesn't end until the 5th June. I think I'll cancel on the 4th and just get an affordable VPS to keep the collection topped up with the latest releases for Plex cloud

Oat23

Are you encrypting everything uploaded to Google and decrypting them on the fly with stablebit or just uploading them clear?

Amazon have been known to ban accounts for copyright for uploading TV shows/movies unencrypted. I assumed Google would be the same.

The high horse brigade

Oat23 wrote: »

Are you encrypting everything uploaded to Google and decrypting them on the fly with stablebit or just uploading them clear?

Amazon have been known to ban accounts for copyright for uploading TV shows/movies unencrypted. I assumed Google would be the same.

Not encrypting as Google don't seem to care at all unlike Amazon. Plex Cloud does not support encryption anyway.

stimpson

I was reading last week where google were banning resold student accounts. What would worry me is that while they may not care now, they may change their mind in future and you could lose all your media.

The high horse brigade

stimpson wrote: »

I was reading last week where google were banning resold student accounts. What would worry me is that while they may not care now, they may change their mind in future and you could lose all your media.

They are closing the accounts being sold on ebay for 15 quid. Nobody with a personal domain has had their account closed. I've not turned off my Plex server or stopped downloading at home as I'm still testing the waters, not depending on it. Google are releasing an encryption tool, some on Reddit are beta testing, I'm hoping Plex adapt to support it.

The Ritz

Mod Comment


Happy to see an interesting discussion of media player/storage options etc. but please take note of the stickey at the top of the forums about copyright material etc - please do not let this topic stray into the area of obtaining/downloading movies/tv series from "unofficial" sources etc. - I don't want to see this thread bite the dust.

Thanks,

Ritz.

keano25

Got the shield. What an amazing piece of kit.

Oat23

keano25 wrote: »

Got the shield. What an amazing piece of kit.

Both myself and one of my mates were able to go from having 3 boxes to just the Shield as it could do everything we needed. Also got rid of the chromecast so the Shield replaced 4 pieces of tech for me. Great investment.

The shield & the Mi are the only android boxes to go for in my opinion. I couldn't be bothered messing around with the other ones running tablet android.

A lad asked me to buy a Mi for him online the other week, so I did. Went to give it to him and he said 'sorry I bought an android box with all the movies from someone for €100'. Poor form and his loss. Probably stuck with one of those €30 mxq ones with a crappy free 'build'. If he tried the official ATV box he'd regret that purchase. I was only charging him cost price (€85) for the Mi.

stimpson

I've been through a Mac Mini, a BluRay player with Plex app, another Mac Mini, an Apple TV, a Steam Box, a Humax Freesat box running custom firmware and a 2015 Shield.

Now it's just the new Shield (only bought to get the remote and new controller) and the XBox One. It really is a slick bit of kit. If Plex for XBox could pass through HD audio I might be tempted to get rid, but I'm not holding my breath.

Oat23

stimpson wrote: »

I've been through a Mac Mini, a BluRay player with Plex app, another Mac Mini, an Apple TV, a Steam Box, a Humax Freesat box running custom firmware and a 2015 Shield.

Now it's just the new Shield (only bought to get the remote and new controller) and the XBox One. It really is a slick bit of kit. If Plex for XBox could pass through HD audio I might be tempted to get rid, but I'm not holding my breath.

The ATV plex app is also my favourite out of all the ones I've tried (PS4, fire tv, rasplex, roku). So clean, fast and easy to use. Voice commands are great as well when you're too lazy to use the on-screen keyboard.

stimpson

Oat23 wrote: »

The ATV plex app is also my favourite out of all the ones I've tried (PS4, fire tv, rasplex, roku). So clean, fast and easy to use. Voice commands are great as well when you're too lazy to use the on-screen keyboard.

The lack of support for HD audio and 4K was the problem there. Apple have been dodgy on audio formats for a while. I remember my first Mac mini dropping g 5.1 support over optical after an OS upgrade. The fix was to copy a library from the old OS. Seems like they just did it to stop people using it.

Oat23

stimpson wrote: »

The lack of support for HD audio and 4K was the problem there. Apple have been dodgy on audio formats for a while. I remember my first Mac mini dropping g 5.1 support over optical after an OS upgrade. The fix was to copy a library from the old OS. Seems like they just did it to stop people using it.

Crap. I forgot ATV is what people call the apple tv! Never used apple myself.

I meant android TV

super_furry

keano25 wrote: »

Got the shield. What an amazing piece of kit.

If you're looking for a great all-in-one emulation solution for the Shield, I can't say enough good things about RetroX. Well worth the price.

Dravokivich

super_furry wrote: »

If you're looking for a great all-in-one emulation solution for the Shield, I can't say enough good things about RetroX. Well worth the price.

What price? They don't seem to have it listed anywhere.

stimpson

Oat23 wrote: »

Crap. I forgot ATV is what people call the apple tv! Never used apple myself.

I meant android TV

Ah. No arguments there!

super_furry

Dravokivich wrote: »

What price? They don't seem to have it listed anywhere.

$12.99. You buy it directly from them and get a key.

Oat23

super_furry wrote: »

$12.99. You buy it directly from them and get a key.

Looks like it's basically the Android version of Launchbox? Never heard of it but I might have to pick it up. Launchbox was well worth buying for me.

digiman

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Use Parcel motel/parcel wizard/address pal. I got mine on Amazon

Thanks, went with this. Ordered on Tuesday night and picked it up from Parcel Motel last night.

Had a quick play around with it and very impressed so far. Have a couple of .mkv files with Dolby Atmos on them and the sound would actually blow you away.

Only thing I noticed so far is that the Netflix app is not showing HDR titles anymore, I'm going to check out the HDMI cables to ensure everything is ok there but all in all extremely impressed so far. Used my S8 to setup everything and it was all pretty simple.

degsie

I see Nvidia are currently giving six months free plex-pass with the Shied. Ending June 24th.