Make your own Kodi Box

MrVestek

Sick of Android based Kodi boxes that don't perform so well?

You can make your own in 30 minutes or less using a Raspberry Pi3!

Here... let me show you how. :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP88C_s_bZ0

Wanderer78

MrVestek wrote:

You can make your own in 30 minutes or less using a Raspberry Pi3!

I know folks that have done this and it works a dream, thank you

MrVestek

Wanderer78 wrote: »

I know folks that have done this and it works a dream, thank you

You're welcome!

If you have any questions let me know.

wawaman

MrVestek wrote: »

You're welcome!

If you have any questions let me know.

Hi, just wondering how difficult this would be for a newbie? I have an android box but its getting very sluggish.

MrVestek

wawaman wrote: »

Hi, just wondering how difficult this would be for a newbie? I have an android box but its getting very sluggish.

Not difficult at all, in fact this entire series is built for beginners. I stay away from jargon and things like that.

Check out the first episode of Series 2 to get you started in preparing your SD card for booting up any OS (Kodi Included) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VmlfO7wL40

Once you're done with this you can move onto the tutorial mentioned above, which I'll link to again here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP88C_s_bZ0

Again if you have any questions just ask!

fiacha

How does the Pi3 handle HEVC ?

I have been using Kodi / Libreelec on a Pi2 for a long time and it has been painless. Only issue is it can't handle HEVC content without major stuttering.

MrVestek

fiacha wrote: »

How does the Pi3 handle HEVC ?

I have been using Kodi / Libreelec on a Pi2 for a long time and it has been painless. Only issue is it can't handle HEVC content without major stuttering.

There's no hardware support for HEVC decoding on Raspberry Pi so it'll still be decoded in software.

I haven't tried it myself as I stick to H.264 codecs myself as they have support int he hardware of the device.

The faster processor with a slight overclock may help but can't offer any first hand experience I'm afraid.

breadmond

I tried Libreelec on the pi3 when it first came out and found kodi to be very sluggish when navigating menus etc. Is it any better now or did I do something wrong in my setup? I've got an nvidia shield with stbemu now and the pi has been relegated to pihole duty but I still wonder if I did something wrong as I see people recommend the pi for a HTPC all the time

MrVestek

breadmond wrote: »

I tried Libreelec on the pi3 when it first came out and found kodi to be very sluggish when navigating menus etc. Is it any better now or did I do something wrong in my setup? I've got an nvidia shield with stbemu now and the pi has been relegated to pihole duty but I still wonder if I did something wrong as I see people recommend the pi for a HTPC all the time

It's always been fine for me.

I find that some images can be slower than others. Have you tried it with LibreElec?

Johnboy1951

breadmond wrote: »

I tried Libreelec on the pi3 when it first came out and found kodi to be very sluggish when navigating menus etc. Is it any better now or did I do something wrong in my setup? I've got an nvidia shield with stbemu now and the pi has been relegated to pihole duty but I still wonder if I did something wrong as I see people recommend the pi for a HTPC all the time

It is most likely dependent on the skin you used and how much graphical information you want to show on screen.

The Pi series are low powered devices and cognisance needs to be taken of that when deciding on what you want displayed.

Supercell

I've been using Kodi on various Pii's for years and have stuck with the "Amber" skin over Confluence and now Estuary. Its very fast and easy to navigate.
I particularly like the home screen which you can have several rows of movies/tv shows etc displayed at once at full screen width

SeamusFX

Anyone know about how much it would cost to make one of these?

Johnboy1951

SeamusFX wrote: »

Anyone know about how much it would cost to make one of these?

I moved from R-Pi to cheap Android AMLogic Android devices recently (about €40 including case & PSU etc.) and dual boot Android with CoreELEC which is on SD card.
It comes rooted and I upgraded Kodi to latest release.

CoreELEC used the Kodi Leia Alpha, and now Beta releases, and will have the Leia release as soon as it is available.

For my use-case (exclusively Kodi media player) the Android device is much cheaper.
Of course not all such devices will work equally well, so care has to be taken to purchase the more compatible device.