NUC recommendation for 4k HDR, hi-def audio

Not a recommendation - but I have been happier with my NUC12WSKi7 <my current daily driver> than my NUC11PAHi7. Less audio issues - I mostly use passthrough via a Denon AVR. The NUC11 was my upgrade from the NUC6i5SYH. 4K/HDR - I can’t comment.

I recently revived my NUC8i3 after a few issue the last time I tried. Runing beautifully on Libreelec 11 nightly.

Hi heitbaum

Are the graphical teething issues fixed on the NUC11PAHi7?

Is the NUC12WSKi7 without teething issues?

Thanks a lot

Watching a movie on my “Intel(R) Client Systems NUC12WSKi7/NUC12WSBi7, BIOS WSADL357.0085.2022.0718.1739” 07/18/2022 now - very happy (it is our daily driver). With close to a LE11-nightly image.

My nuc11 is on my desk at the moment, need to find some time to do some testing on it.

I'm in a similar situation; been using an ancient AT3ION-NT-1 minit ITX board in a centre with a local hard drive and DVD player; its running out of steam playing mkv files. Once converted tp mp4 thy are fine, but any recent recomends for replacement mini board?

Quote from tim50stroud

its running out of steam playing mkv files

Thats likely not the root of that problem, a mkv is basically just some zip like container, mp4 too.

In the past mkv has proven a much more reliable compared to mp4 with basically no cpu usage (or even less) compared to mp4.

I'm only going by the fact that the cpu usuage is 95% + when playing mkv files and stutters, and 50% when playing .mp4 files fine. CPU is running at 1.7G, and overclocking to 2.1G improves it a bit

In the absence of any technical data to prove what you played (and whether that format is supported) .. we can only make blind guesses

Can something like this run LE smoothly or it will have driver issues?

Thinking it's time to update my RPi2 and looking for alternatives as RPi4 is bit scarce at the moment..

Quote from Mario77

Can something like this run LE smoothly or it will have driver issues?

Thinking it's time to update my RPi2 and looking for alternatives as RPi4 is bit scarce at the moment..

It'll run smooth but there are some limitations. It's only a HDMI 1.4 port so no 4k60 or HDR. It's also a Coffee Lake CPU so won't have hardware decode for the lastest video codecs.

Quote from Origin

Hi heitbaum

Are the graphical teething issues fixed on the NUC11PAHi7?

Is the NUC12WSKi7 without teething issues?

Thanks a lot

No, it's worse in le11/12. It seems there's not enough Intel HW out there (for obvious reasons, decent NUCs are way more expensive than the toy raspi's or amlogic devices).

IIRC A decent nuc is one that has an IR port (i3 is the smallest one, which raises the price bar above the pentiums, which would otherwise be sufficient)

Controlling KODI via CEC is just a pita.

I have tested out the current image for Legacy Generic PC on both the 8GB and 16GB versions of the Beelink U59 Pro with the 11th Gen N5105 processor and they have worked great. I have also been using the Beelink Mini S12 Pro with 16GB RAM and the 12th Gen N100 processor with no issues. They also seem to work well with the Wechip G20S and G40 remotes.

You can find both of these mini PCs on Amazon for less than the price of an Nvidia Shield Pro.

Intel Nucs have 2 or more video connections.

I use one for the tv , the other to a hd-audio capable receiver. The former is used 90% of the time, the latter on rare occasions I come across something worth listening to via 'real' audio systems.

This works in LE10.xx, but stopped working in 11.

In 11 there is no video output selection available, and if both are connected, it choses the 'wrong' one without offering o change it.

Also, probably unrelated to the above, watching a 4k uhd stream via the tvheadend client doesn't work in normal htsp streaming mode, I have to set the client option to stream via http, In this mode there is no timeshift available, a regression to the dark ages of live tv.

All this verified on 3 Nucs, a nuc5, a pentium 51xx, and a nuc11i3 (the latter being the one I would prefer, because it has a decent IR receiver)

Quote from joesmith

I have also been using the Beelink Mini S12 Pro with 16GB RAM and the 12th Gen N100 processor with no issues. They also seem to work well with the Wechip G20S and G40 remotes.

You can find both of these mini PCs on Amazon for less than the price of an Nvidia Shield Pro.

Indeed a very attractive alternative.

Does the Beelink S12 Pro you mentioned has any kind of issues with HDR switching, framerate switching, or any BT 2020 color space weirdness? I'm about to pull the trigger but just wanted to be sure about the capabilities of the box.

Quote from w46n3r

Indeed a very attractive alternative.

Does the Beelink S12 Pro you mentioned has any kind of issues with HDR switching, framerate switching, or any BT 2020 color space weirdness? I'm about to pull the trigger but just wanted to be sure about the capabilities of the box.

I recently bought a similar mini pc, the TRIGKEY G4 N100, and it's working great at the moment. My setup is:
1. Old Samsung TV that supports 4K, HDMI 2.0b, HDR, HDR10+, but NOT Dolby Vision

2. Onkyo AV receiver

3. TRIGKEY G4 N100 w/ LibreElec 12 nightly

4. Running Kodi at 4k / 23.976 fps. Resolution switching is disabled. Frame rate switching is enabled w/ 4sec delay.

LibreElec 11 was working decently - frame rate & HDR switching did work. However some HDR files had washed out colors and I determined it was happening for files with dolby vision - plex reported the video as "4K DoVi/HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)".

Upgrading to the latest LibreElec 12 nightly fixed the washed out colors. I'm not certain what exact change fixed it, perhaps some combination of Kodi 21/ linux kernel / ffmpeg 6 improved HDR support.

For reference, I previously had a SHIELD PRO 2019 that loved to randomly freeze / crash when playing 4K files. This mini pc is so much more powerful / stable than the SHIELD. I suspect any Intel N100 based mini pc will work just as well as the TRIGKEY.

Quote from w46n3r

Indeed a very attractive alternative.

Does the Beelink S12 Pro you mentioned has any kind of issues with HDR switching, framerate switching, or any BT 2020 color space weirdness? I'm about to pull the trigger but just wanted to be sure about the capabilities of the box.

I have a Beelink EQ12 (also a N100 SoC) and 11.0.3 does not play 10-bit VP9 HDR content from a mkv or mp4 correctly using hardware acceleration. No image is displayed from the video. AV1 and HEVC hardware acceleration seem to work okay. I need to try the LE 12 nightly and see if it resolves the issue.

Quote from Stereodude

I need to try the LE 12 nightly and see if it resolves the issue.

If not, share a log from the nightly...