KODI Hardware with LibreELEC?

[stinger608]

So, I have an XBMC Mart box that runs KODI and I'd like to make another "small" system to run KODI on for a different TV.

Looking over some things it appears that LibreELEC might be the option for running a KODI box?

LibreELEC

Just enough OS for KODI

libreelec.tv

I'm just wondering what others feel on this option?

Also would like to know what everyone thinks a person would need for hardware?

I have some "old" parts that I'm wondering if these would work? I think I have an old HD5450 low profile video card and have a couple of mITX boards that have the permanent mounted CPU. Would something like this work?

All input will be very much appreciated.

 

[newtekie1]

How much power you need depends on what you are trying to watch. You don't really need much at all to watch 720p/1080p media, but 4k media does take some horsepower.

You don't really need a graphics card, the iGPU on a modern processor will be all you need.

 

[stinger608]

How much power you need depends on what you are trying to watch. You don't really need much at all to watch 720p/1080p media

Pretty much just going to be doing 1080 with it.

 

[stinger608]

Bump, still looking for any input.

 

[alexrose1uk]

Hey there, as above, you don't need a huge amount to run 1080p, especially if its a common, hardware-decodable file format.
As well as LibreElec, the other good 'just enough OS' installation of KODI always used to be OpenElec; I had good experiences with that in the past.

Ultimately, though it does depend on what file formats you want to decode. The inbuilt decoding on a modern Intel/AMD CPU (that have iGPU) will decode MOST file formats, but for slightly more esoteric things like some variants of HEVC or Hi10p, or weirdly encoded files, you may end up falling back to CPU as hardware support for those can be limited unless you are getting REALLY new stuff. For that, I would recommend a 'relatively' modern quad core and 4+GB of RAM.

As a guide line, I have a small ITX HTPC/bedroom gamer rig build using (from memory) the following:
Xeon E1240v3 (I think), roughly an i7-4770
8GB RAM
120GB SSD
1050ti low profile
270W PSU
Win 10

That has coped with EVERYTHING decoding wise I have thrown at it, plus some bedroom gaming duties etc so the wife can play things like Spyro in bed. As you're not after the gamer section, something modern and quadcore from Intel, or AMD (with the 5450 thrown in to cover display duties, unless you get something with GPU built in) would be perfect, with enough RAM and storage to cover OS/Decode needs.
One of the new AMD 4*** series APUs (4650/4750G) would be IDEAL if you want a system more general purpose, and frankly overkill, but they're a bit harder to get hold of and more pricey, as they're not sold direct to consumers; primarily only in prebuilt or via places like eBay.

Ultimately, if the files you will be playing are well supported; and hardware decodable, you will need less CPU horsepower; I always prefer something a bit more meaty to handle anything that CANNOT be decoded properly via GPU (as there are also always new codecs coming) and to offer more flexibility.

A FireTV cube at about £100 ($150ish I guess), with Kodi sideloaded has also almost played virtually everything I've thrown at it so far including Hi10p/HEVC so you have options at all price ranges, dependent how much you want left in the tank to support future developments.


Without knowing what those mITX boards are and what CPUs they have have mounted, it's hard to advise if they will be appropriate; as dependent on how old they are can vastly influence the core performance, and also what hardware decode support they feature.

 

[ebivan]

I have OpenELEC running on an Odroid N2. At the time this was the only affordable solution that could play 4k HDR files and put Atoms audiostreams through to my multichannel receiver. I guess I have had that thing running for almost trwo years now and I am very happy with it.
I have been a user of XBMC (now KODI) from the beginning. In 2005 I had it running on an original XBOX and after that on multiple HTPCs and SBCs.
If you are limited to 1080p in regular hardware decodable codecs, without HDR and Atmos, you can just use a cheap Raspberry Pi or any other supported SBC. Using x86 hardware is no longer necessary exept for very exotic codecs or if you want to use specialized software like madVR for quality enhancement or emulators to play games on for example.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I just shoved it on a RPi 4 1GB I was given, not had a chance to really try it out yet, but it seems to be running just fine.
Obviously very small and compact, the only downside being the micro HDMI ports.

 

[GreiverBlade]

i used a Rpi 3 with LibreElec and Kodi for quite some time (and it is still working fine at a friend home ) on WiFi for 1080p easy peasy and beat any HTPC for that unique purpose (and size also )
nowadays i still have a Odroid C2 with Kodi and co on it (but with a WiFi dongle hehe ... no integrated WiFi on that one but it was on par or above the Rpi3 albeit being same gen as the Rpi 2)


way cheaper than any cheap gpu also

although since you already have all hardware : experiment with it ... if a Rpi 3 can do it ... anything you have, can.

 

[stinger608]

I guess I should have stated what hardware I was going to use.

It's an AsRock Q1900-ITX mini ITX board/chip.

This one here: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q1900-ITX/

The one thing that kind of sucks, is it doesn't have a PCI-e that supports an external video card. I have a low profile HD5450 that I'd love to be able to put in it, however that isn't going to be able to happen.

Anyhow, with the responses I figured I'd better list the hardware.

Take a look at it @alexrose1uk and see what you think.

What do you think @ebivan ?

 

[alexrose1uk]

I would say that is probably a bit too anaemic and with too old an integrated GPU if I'm honest. It'll support basic h264, MPEG2 and VC1, but anything newer or anything off spec will be no good. Virtually anything available now, even an Athlon dual core would be leagues better.

The reason RPI and modern SOCS are better is simply put the ARM stuff has come along way and the integrated video decoders are more up to date.

Again though it depends on what you want to actually play. It's an ivy bridge era atom though so quite long in the tooth now and adjust your expectations accordingly.

 

[ebivan]

I have had the same J1900 Atom (different board though) running as a KODI HTPC. Worked fine. Up until HEVC got popular. As alexrose1uk said, the problem is, that there is no hardware decoder that can handle modern codecs (like HEVC/x265). In that case, Kodi will fall back to software decoding, which can be totally ok, depending on the codec and the specific video file but can be stuttering on another file.
So is the majority of your files is h264, your board will work fine. But if you are using streaming services that switched to h265 for example, you will have stuttering here and there.

Another point will be power efficiency, running a 10W Atom with an ATX PSU, 3.5" HDDs, maybe an external GPU, can easily consume 10-15x times the power of a SBC. So if its going to be running for 10h a day, and you live is a county with high electricity cost, you should think about investing 30 bucks for a SBC.

As for your graphics card, there are risers and PCIe extensions that would maybe allow you to connect the card to you mainboard.

 

[GreiverBlade]

I guess I should have stated what hardware I was going to use.

It's an AsRock Q1900-ITX mini ITX board/chip.

This one here: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q1900-ITX/

The one thing that kind of sucks, is it doesn't have a PCI-e that supports an external video card. I have a low profile HD5450 that I'd love to be able to put in it, however that isn't going to be able to happen.

Anyhow, with the responses I figured I'd better list the hardware.

Take a look at it @alexrose1uk and see what you think.

What do you think @ebivan ?

hardware decoding... hardware decoding... mmhhh maybe a Videocore IV is better than a Intel 7th gen igp ...

I would say that is probably a bit too anaemic and with too old an integrated GPU if I'm honest. It'll support basic h264, MPEG2 and VC1, but anything newer or anything off spec will be no good. Virtually anything available now, even an Athlon dual core would be leagues better.

The reason RPI and modern SOCS are better is simply put the ARM stuff has come along way and the integrated video decoders are more up to date.

Again though it depends on what you want to actually play. It's an ivy bridge era atom though so quite long in the tooth now and adjust your expectations accordingly.

ah yes ... indeed (well an Odroid C2 is also perfect for that)


@stinger608, get a SBC a nice box (like my KodiBox above) and be off the dilemma for a price under 50 moollah (replace with your own currency, provided you do not live where i do and a RPi3 is not 60$ for you as it is for me ) not a second hand 5450 tho

 

[TheLostSwede]

Got to say, the RPi 4 is pretty impressive, but it gets crazy hot as I have no heatsink on the SoC at the moment.
Also, 1GB of RAM is clearly not enough for some 4K content and it takes forever to browse large network shares, which I again think is a memory issue.
The system alone uses up about half of the available RAM. I guess there's a reason the RPi foundation knocked the 1GB model on the head.
Well, at last it was a freebie...