LE as Kodi/web browser/SteamLink platform?

1st Official Post

    Hello, LibreELEC crowd!

    TL;DR - Is LE suitable for Intel platform if I want, in addition to Kodi, also a web browser experience for video/streaming sites and SteamLink - or is Windows 10 a better option?

    I see that there is Chome plugin and something like SteamLink plugin, but are they "production" quality or rather barely working hacks?

    I currently have Minix U9-H with Android 6 that failed my expectations as a Kodi box. Too weak for/too many issues with video/streaming web sites (100% legitimate, like pilot.wp.pl), Kodi 18 has some issues with older MPEG2 based codecs (sofware decoding must be used), problematic SteamLink client etc, etc.

    So, J3455-based Intel NUC (NUC6CAYH) is on order with HD 500 graphics (I don't think I'd ever need 10-bit VP9 or HDR support that come with HD6xx graphics). I expect frame rate switching and passthrough working (AC3/DTS mainly, anything else is OK with multichannel LPCM streaming).

    I use Kodi for a lot of old video stuff (like DivX) with little new material (no 4K, no HDR).

    Regards

    • Official Post

    LE has a browser which is semi-production ready. It works, but starting it requires Kodi to be stopped before it runs, and restarted after it closes. As Google frequently changes things that impact GPU hardware acceleration it has a history of only supporting software decoding at times (until someone fixes things). So it may or may not fulfil your needs for a browser. SteamLink is technically possible but requires a large number of hoops to be leapt through and is fragile at best. If those are major requirements a conventional distro (or Windows) would be better for you.