Advice Needed - Kodi Streaming

cunnas

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
6,312
Reaction score
1,132
Points
1,391
Age
43
Location
Newcastle
Hi all
I was just after a bit of advice really, I have messed around with various devices with my TV for Kodi streaming. I currently have a fairly decent laptop under the TV with Windows 10 installed. This is connected to the TV via HDMI and I stream movies from my main PC via Kodi. This works fine but to be honest, as the laptop is "good" and I use it for other things I'm constantly having to unplug and re-plug so it is a bit of a hassle.

I stream fairly big movies (16gb+), some 3D and also subscribe to a streaming site for sports which I also access via Kodi.

The question I have is, am I gaining anything from having a "good" laptop in terms of streaming/quality etc or would I get by with something a lot less powerful (such as an Android TV box or Open ELEC box)?

WRT to the quality of the movies, I don't want stutter etc and I don't get it now but I don't know if that is to do with the laptop quality or more to do with just the network connection?

Help and advice much appreciated - and also recommendations for laptop alternative if there is a better solution?

Edit - I should add, I don't need it for anything else other than the vanilla Kodi, not fussed on all the Kodi addons - I literally stream from my PC via Kodi
 
Last edited:
Budget is open depending on what's out there but I'm not after a hugely expensive make my own media centre.

Not entirely sure what hd audio is?

Laptop is good, i5, 8gb Ram and I assume a fairly standard, but decent gpu
 
Last edited:
My HTPC is a Phenom II X4, Radeon 6570, 4GB of RAM. No problem with any Blu-Ray rips, HD Audio. 4K might be an issue but suspect that'll be the 6570 more than anything else. People are using the Rasperry Pi and Pi2 as HTPCs... in fact I've just bought a Pi2 for use as a second HTPC in a bedroom.
 
So what are the benefits of having a beefed up media pc with a good cpu, ram and gpu over something like a pi or Android box? Apologies if that's a daft question....!
 
If you're just wanting to run Kodi with the default Confluence skin or something like Aeon Nox 5, streaming movies from a local source or a remote site, then a Pi 2 will do you just fine. If you want to run games emulators, play optical media like Blu-rays etc then you'll probably need something a little pricier. I spin up blu-rays and HD-DVDs on mine so I have a PC running Windows.

Pi 2 won't stutter with local 1080p material as long as your network connection is up to it. For remote streams, you'd need to factor in your internet speeds and the remote servers.
 
My HTPC is like richardb70s, plays emulated games, has a couple of harddrives, plays discs. With a Pi2 or android box you're limiting yourself to network shares/streaming.

Android boxes and the like didn't exist when I built my HTPCs, so the Pi2 is a new thing for me to try but various sites suggest they work well.
 
thanks both.

I like the idea of a good HTPC but think it might be a little overkill as I use my main PC for games and have a PS4 so it would never be used for that.

I also don't buy Blu Rays so it really would just be for local Kodi streaming and streaming (also using Kodi) from external places for sports.

So from what you are saying, the laptop I have in place is more than adequate for this but I could probably get by with something even less powerful such as an Android box or Pi 2 without losing any quality on 16GB+ movie (local) streams?
 
He audio is lossless audio, which you get on bluray. Usually Dolby true HD or DTS HD. If you have a decent sound system you'll benefit, if just using tv, you won't.
 
So from what you are saying, the laptop I have in place is more than adequate for this but I could probably get by with something even less powerful such as an Android box or Pi 2 without losing any quality on 16GB+ movie (local) streams?

Everything I've read says a Pi2 would be adequate - for the price of a Pi2 I was willing to experiment, if it turns out not to be the case I've got other uses for it. It seems the Pi2 would lose some audio bitstreaming but for my purposes it'll just be through TV speakers in a bedroom so not worried about that.

Sadly, I was informed yesterday evening that the Pi2 is going to be a Christmas present, so I won't be able to report on how it performs for a little while. :(
 
@cunnas, yes, the Pi 2 would be fine. Even a Pi model B (which my parents have) is fine for Kodi streaming, although it's a little slow to navigate. As mentioned above, if you need HD audio capabilities (i.e. bitstreaming True HD to an amp) then the Pi might not cut the mustard.

Otherwise grab yourself a Pi, a decent Class 10 microSD card, a Samsung phone charger and you're set. Stick OpenElec on, that's my recommendation.
 
again cheers all. I have a fairly modest setup with an LG soundbar and the sound I get through it is fine - not sure how techie it is but it works for me. If I had an amp/speaker setup I might look in to a better HTPC but for now I think my laptop is fine.

WRT to Android boxes, if I was to explore this rather than using my laptop - are they all much the same or are there any particular ones to go for/avoid?
 
If you just want Kodi, why mess around with Android, OpenElec is basically pure Kodi.

If you dont like the idea of a RPi2 (about £60 all in) Look at a Intel NUC (about £130 all in) which is a small form PC which can run Openelec
 
Just got a rpi2 in lounge but have my movies on a HTPC upstairs,
Just realised the rpi2 cannot take a portable USB drive locally connected....
With the rpi2 accessing the movies on the HTPC via network share it stutters on some bluray rips.
Have tried the HTPC with emby transcoding the movies to the rpi2 but the audio gets down mixed to AAC 2.0 low quality,

I wanted to get away from having the HTPC on all the time and,
get a media box that can play movies from a connected USB drive and get decent HD audio,
any ideas on a suitable media box?
 
If you just want Kodi, why mess around with Android, OpenElec is basically pure Kodi.

If you dont like the idea of a RPi2 (about £60 all in) Look at a Intel NUC (about £130 all in) which is a small form PC which can run Openelec
i can second this , i had the intel nuc running openelec ,( before building a htpc)
and was a good little bit of kit , it would handle streaming no problem at all , and you can buy a remote to go with it ,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Official-Xbox-360-Media-Remote/dp/B005F28GYU
works straight out of the box too .
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
Any recommendations for a nuc as there seem to be a few? Open elec have also released a box but might be overkill as it had a tv card which I don't need
 
I have the OpenElec Wetek box and its superb, but if you dont want the live TV then a NUC would be better
 
With the rpi2 accessing the movies on the HTPC via network share it stutters on some bluray rips.

Your experience does not entirely fill me with joy!

Can you elaborate on how your rips are stored? ISO/file structure, MKV?
From what I've read the VC-1 codec that some Blu-Rays use can cause problems at high bit-rates.
 
this is the one i used
Intel NUC Kit Celeron N2820 2.4GHz HDMI Barebone - Ebuyer
you need to add some ram
Kingston 4GB 1600MHz DDR3L Non-ECC CL11 SODIMM 1.35V - Ebuyer

and then just a usb drive/stick with about 8gb to run openelec
or you can add any 2.5 hdd or ssd if you want.

Thanks mate, the next question I have is what would this setup give me that I don#t currently get with my laptop? Will it be better/worse?

My laptop is a much higher spec than that and runs Windows with Kodi installed but my main gripe is having it plugged in to the TV, meaning it is a bit of a carry on having to constantly unplug/plug when I want the laptop with me. Will a NUC provide pretty much the same job - in terms of streaming quality, albeit, not running Windows?

Just trying to weigh up whether it is worth paying £150ish
 
Thanks mate, the next question I have is what would this setup give me that I don#t currently get with my laptop? Will it be better/worse?

My laptop is a much higher spec than that and runs Windows with Kodi installed but my main gripe is having it plugged in to the TV, meaning it is a bit of a carry on having to constantly unplug/plug when I want the laptop with me. Will a NUC provide pretty much the same job - in terms of streaming quality, albeit, not running Windows?

Just trying to weigh up whether it is worth paying £150ish
I can't see it been worse,

As it is only a barebones nuc , you can add what ever you want ( openelec/kodi , W7 or linux ) when i got mine i was just using it for openlec/kodi ,
which did a very good job , i just installed openlec on to usb 3 flash drive , added the repositories i needed and was up up and running in no time .
how ever i did install a copy of windows 7 as i was wanting to do more with the NUC *

but if your just wanting to run kodi , then this is a nice little box to do it with
just sit it next or under your tv use the remote i give above , and sit back and enjoy
every now again i would add some other repositories using my usb keyboard ( which is lot easier than using the remote )
but other than that i hardly touch it , just turn it on and watched what ever i was going to watch , movies or tv shows , all work brilliantly . so much simpler than plugging a pc or laptop into my amp/tv

* how ever i will say this , i did have a problem running W7 , ( i think it was some thing to do with the nuc's firmware or something can't remember ) , but W7 would run the nuc's cpu at 100% all of the time, so made it useless when trying to do anything , so if your thinking about putting w7 onto in , i would look at an i3 version of a nuc ,
but it would run kodi perfectly fine , never had any problems when using it .
 
With the rpi2 accessing the movies on the HTPC via network share it stutters on some bluray rips.

Is it via SMB? Might be worth doing a "top" command on the Pi while it's playing these particular rips, see what's happening on the CPU.
 
There is an update to the NUC Celeron it's now a N2830. I have been running one for 6 months with 4GB memory and a 64Gb SSD using OPENelec and Kodi. I normally use it to stream movies/music from my HP N40L server. As it has built in IR I just used an old Harmony remote which works well.
 
If built-in IR remote support is important, then the Intel 4th or 5th Gen NUCs, or the ASRock Beebox barebone units are good options (although relatively expensive when RAM, storage and OS are added). the N3000 based BeeBox is also fanless. If you want a low-cost unit "ready to run", and don't mind not having IR built-in, then there are a number of Intel Z3735F based units available which are around the £100 mark, with Windwos 8.1/Windows 10 licence, RAM and Storage included, for example, the Sumvision Cyclone Mini Micro unit.
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
I think I'm getting a bit confused with all these different types of boxes. I think it will be overkill but ideally I want an HTPC which can be upgraded. By that I mean something I can add a GPU card to - perhaps not full size as I don't want a HUGE box but I want something perhaps a little bigger than a NUC - hope that makes sense?

Is a small form factor PC the way to go?
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom