Raspberry Pi 3 B+ VS Wetek Play 2 (and other S905 devices)

1st Official Post

    Hi,

    How good does the Rpi 3 B+ perform against the Wetek Play 2 or any other S905 device?

    Is the hardware on RPI 3 B+ enough for playing heavy videos?

    I own both, and about from the GUI being a bit slower on a RPi3 B+ there really isn't much difference in regards to 1080p playback, though I find the RPi more pleasant to use in the fact that 'it just works' and every setting does what it's supposed to.

    Obviously for anything 4K you're SOL with an RPi, but a WeTek Play 2 doesn't output HDR (it'll decode it however) so it's not perfect with that either.

    Quote from Klojum

    How heavy are your videos? 10 kgs.. 25 kgs..? ;)

    The RPi can play videos upto 1080p, some Wetek devices go up to 4K,10 bit, etcetera...

    So what is 'heavy' by your standards?

    Haha, good one! =)

    With "heavy" I mostly mean 1080p (at a high bitrate). I dont play any 4K videos, yet....

    My question in general is how well does the RPI perform? Is it smooth, or is ut just a cheap device for watching movies but sometimes lags.

    Quote from Da Flex

    Some stream providers (Netflix) use software decoding, which will work at lower resolutions only (720p / HD-Ready). Other providers (Amazon Video) use hardware decoding, which needs less performance and runs at 1080p / Full-HD.

    If you need EVERYTHING at Full-HD or better, buy the Nvidia Shield TV.

    Is it possible to install LibreElec on Nvidia Shiled?

    • Official Post
    Quote from bhd1

    Is it possible to install LibreElec on Nvidia Shiled?

    Kodi itself runs fine on a Nvidia Shield.

    Quote from bhd1

    With "heavy" I mostly mean 1080p (at a high bitrate). I dont play any 4K videos, yet....

    A RPI3B+ should do most if not all h.264 1080p videos. H.265/HEVC is another story, then there are limits.

    If you know the bit rates are "high", how high are they? Give examples with exact data/numbers.

    Quote from Klojum

    Kodi itself runs fine on a Nvidia Shield.

    A RPI3B+ should do most if not all h.264 1080p videos. H.265/HEVC is another story, then there are limits.

    If you know the bit rates are "high", how high are they? Give examples with exact data/numbers.

    h264 1080p

    Bitrate: 10 000 Kbps+


    How well does the Nvidia Shield perform if using it as a PLEX client on Android and PLEX client in Kodi?

    I have tried some Android boxes and tried PLEX client on top of Android, and the server needs to transcode, even on a S905 device.

    My Wetek Core running PLEX client on Kodi (LibreElec) is Direct Playing.

    So, it seems like LibreElec (Kodi) is awesome and way better than running Kodi or PLEX client on top of Android!

    Quote from Iridium

    If you want to run HEVC (x265) videos then you'd be better off with a S9* device as these usually have hardware decoding for HEVC. (Last time I looked the Wetek Play 2 was out of stock).

    Yes, I checked Weteks site now, there are no box for sale.

    There is a message saying:

    STAY TUNED

    WE ARE WORKING ON SOMETHING NEW!

    I wonder what that is ....

    • Official Post
    Quote from bhd1

    Is it possible to install LibreElec on Nvidia Shiled?

    No, but you can use the Kodi app for Android TV, which runs on Nvidia Shield TV. Remember, "Android TV" and "Android" are a bit different. Read the Nvidia Shield TV reviews at Amazon for Kodi and Plex user experience.

    To my knowledge (by reading reviews at Amazon Germany), they run very good. I run LibreELEC on a Raspi 3B+, and when I switch from 720p to 1080p GUI mode, GUI animations are not smooth anymore.

    Thank you all for your replies. I will look into this further.

    I have one more question regarding S912 devices.

    If you happen to know, can someone tell me which S912 device works best with LibreElec?

    Budget is not a problem!

    • Official Post
    Quote from bhd1

    If you happen to know, can someone tell me which S912 device works best with LibreElec?

    Why do you want LibreELEC so much? That's just a frontend for Kodi. The Nvidia Shield TV has the best software support, no need to try S912 boxes with unknown or bad support.

    What's your use case scenario? Netflix, Amazon Video, stored files...?

    Quote from Da Flex

    Why do you want LibreELEC so much? That's just a frontend for Kodi. The Nvidia Shield TV has the best software support, no need to try S912 boxes with unknown or bad support.

    What's your use case scenario? Netflix, Amazon Video, stored files...?

    The reason why I want LibreElec is becuase of Kodi and the ability to passthrough dts audio. A while ago I had difficulties finding a device that was able to do that smoothly, until I got the Wetec Core and LibreElec.

    My use case scenario is mostly stored files (1080p high quality) and PLEX (locally).

    I use my LG Smart TV for Netflix and Chromecast for YouTube.

    I have no problem combining all these use case scenario in one powerful box.

    The thing that attracts me the most to S9 devices is because they have a spdif optical output (for dts passthrough). My receiver doesn't support HDMI.

    If the Nvidia Shield can meet all the demands above, I will buy one right now!

    • Official Post

    Buy one! To my research, the Nvidia Shield TV does all this.

    Even DTS passthrough: Nvidia Shield NO DTS passthrough KODI problem SOLVED