Long Time RPI User Considering Switch To Allwinner

    Back in about 2008 I had a lot of spare time to get into flashing custom firmware onto Western Digital media players, and figuring out how to use a third party tool to scrape movie info and store it locally. This was witchcraft to my family at the time, having a library of movies and tv shows they could browse through and start playing in seconds. I was proud of it, but after a year or so I came to hate the back-end work required to scrape info, resize images, and manage the file system.

    Then came my first Raspberry Pi Model B+ and OpenElec. After much more learning I got an effective replacement for my WD player working really well, and minus 90% of the back-end work! Over the years I gradually migrated through Pi models, and from OpenElec to LibreElec. Everything in 1080p I threw at it was perfect, it worked with my AV receiver and with my TV's remote. I found a better skin (Amber) and perfected my filesystem and on-screen setup.

    While things like AppleTV, smart TVs and streaming services have stormed the market (and I use them all to some degree), having close to a thousand movies and a hundred TV shows on tap even if the internet is slow or out (and all in one place, not distributed across multiple streaming services) is still our go-to method of media consumption.

    I want to keep this experience, but trying to enter the world of 4K and HDR with a Pi has been disappointing. I am basically hoping for the smooth-as-butter experience I currently have with 1080p to just be extended to cover 4K as well, but it feels like I'm back in 2008, tweaking and scripting and hacking to try and make things work well. Between the Pi 4 overheating, fan control and 4K playback issues, I'm kinda over it.

    It seems like Allwinner and Rockchip SOCs have matured and have decent community support, so I'm wondering if I jump ship now... I am OK with putting a board into a case, installing LE, configuring network/skin/sources/add-ons, etc; but beyond that I just want to connect my USB drives, have it work with my Sony TV's remote, and throw H.265/HEVC files at it and have them play smoothly. Most demanding 4K file will probably be 60p HDR, 20GB in size (for a 90 min movie).

    Looking forward to hearing your experiences and recommendations for boards or devices. Cheers :)

    I use a Flirc case in a semi-open space (small cabinet, behind a speaker-cloth screen) and play all kinds of media. I've not seen issues with RPi4 and cooling since the early pre-production boards which were toasty warm (and before the first flirc case samples shipped). I see no problems with HDR content either (no DV, but you won't get that on Allwinner either). I run a deliberately simple setup .. default skin, Gb Ethernet to a switch and all content on a Synology box in the Network because USB drives and cables everywhere are a pain in the arse. I have cables and AVR that will do 4K@60 but the only content I can find is test media so I don't bother enabling support and leave things in the default up-to 4K@30 mode. I avoide CEC as I have too many test boards hooked up and it's not reliable and missing things I care about. I have a simple BT remote which is good. RPi4 is the least drama device I own - I think minor changes to your setup solve most of the issues.

    I'll let others chime in with advice on Allwinner and RK devices.

    Quote from chewitt

    RPi4 is the least drama device I own - I think minor changes to your setup solve most of the issues.

    That's good to hear, if you think an RPi4 is as hassle-free as it gets, I'm happy to persist with it.

    I have an Argon One case which has a useless fan, I've given up on controlling it's speed based on temps. I started a thread here but it got way too complicated for me. It feels hot on the top but perhaps I'm worrying about nothing, apparently it's still one of the better cases for cooling even with the fan off.

    Also did not realise 10.0.2 was out, excited to try that on a fresh install and see how it goes :D

    Quote from symean

    I have an Argon One case which has a useless fan, I've given up on controlling it's speed based on temps. I started a thread here but it got way too complicated for me. It feels hot on the top but perhaps I'm worrying about nothing, apparently it's still one of the better cases for cooling even with the fan off.

    Read your thread. It has many new answers: Argon One Fan Control

    Quote from Da Flex

    Read your thread. It has many new answers: Argon One Fan Control

    I read through that yesterday evening and spent another hour trying to get it working properly, no luck. I did have it working at one stage ages ago and then a minor LE update broke it...that's too fragile for my liking.

    Thanks to all those trying to solve the problem, it just seems like available solutions are still complicated ones.

    Not LE's fault of course - a media player is just not something I want to spend time on like this any more. If it doesn't have a GUI or is as simple as installing and restarting, it ain't for me.

    I'll donate to anyone skilled enough to write a Kodi add-on that controls any fan based on RPi temps as long as it's connected to certain GPIO pins :)

    Cheers

    Quote from symean

    I read through that yesterday evening and spent another hour trying to get it working properly, no luck. I did have it working at one stage ages ago and then a minor LE update broke it...that's too fragile for my liking.

    Thanks to all those trying to solve the problem, it just seems like available solutions are still complicated ones.

    Not LE's fault of course - a media player is just not something I want to spend time on like this any more. If it doesn't have a GUI or is as simple as installing and restarting, it ain't for me.

    I'll donate to anyone skilled enough to write a Kodi add-on that controls any fan based on RPi temps as long as it's connected to certain GPIO pins :)

    Cheers

    i've an rpi 4 8gb in an Argon One case too, and for me it's also the most drama-free device i own. used this zip to get the fan control working. (i didn't go through your Argon One Fan Control post so apologies if someone already suggested this) i've set it up to turn on the fan at 65, 75 & 85 C but since i've not overclocked it, it never gets past 60C so the fan never spins. did do some tests hiking down the temp setting to make sure things were working cause i saw an error in kodi.log:

    Display Spoiler

    ERROR <general>: CPythonInvoker(12, /storage/.kodi/addons/script.service.argonforty-device/main.py): script didn't stop in 5 seconds - let's kill it

    everything works as expected though, so i chalked it up to a non-issue. the case feels warm to the touch but nothing concerning or unexpected. i've some dockers running. these can sometimes spike cpu use but nothing to worry about temperature-wise, and i can run 4k content without issues. haven't gotten the case ir receiver to work but i only spent about half an hour looking into it cause i have a lirc dongle that just works.

    Edited once, last by madalone (March 22, 2022 at 11:34 PM).

    Quote from madalone

    used this zip to get the fan control working

    Did you get it working with lower fan speeds at lower temps though? I just tried it again, and the temperature threshold works, but the fan is either on or off...setting it to 10% or 100% it spins the same...

    Quote from symean

    Did you get it working with lower fan speeds at lower temps though? I just tried it again, and the temperature threshold works, but the fan is either on or off...setting it to 10% or 100% it spins the same...

    yeah, when i tested i set 10% at 20C and i heard it low-key spin.

    Quote from Da Flex

    Check the GPIO pins.

    The fan is connected to a two pin connector on the Argon case's board which in turn connects to the GPIO pins (all of them, as the GPIO is also routed to the top of the case for access), so I can't tell which pins on the Pi it's physically connected to...

    I see. If I remember right, a fan needs 3 pins for variable fan speed, and 2 pins for single fan speed (on /off). So the theory is that the pin for speed control doesn't work. Consider to replace the fan.

    Quote from Da Flex

    I see. If I remember right, a fan needs 3 pins for variable fan speed, and 2 pins for single fan speed (on /off). So the theory is that the pin for speed control doesn't work. Consider to replace the fan.

    That's what I was wondering too, but even the newer Argon One V.2 case comes with a two wire fan.

    The case has a 2-pin connector for the fan and routes all GPIO for external access, so I can't easily use a 3-wire fan unless it's plugged in to the external GPIO pins and the wires are routed back inside somehow.

    Too much hassle for me! Sounds like the fool-proof generic solution is to find an LE add-on that controls any fan connected to certain GPIO pins, and then find a case that supports a fan and leaves the GPIO accessible.

    If the fan only has two wires, then they eventually use a trick to make a digital RPi pin analogue, because RPi only has digital pins. The trick is described here: Click!

    I would still try to replace the fan. It's a cheap thing.

    PS: It's also possible that they use a DAC to trigger the fan. Then also the DAC could be broken, but usually cheap fans are the issue.