RP2 as smooth as RP3 or RP4 for 1080p h264?

dolphin · August 31, 2023 at 9:29 AM

Hello guys.

I have an old Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and thought i could use it for LibreElec.

Is the RP2 as smooth as the RP3 or RP4 for 1080p h264 media?

The video files are saved on an external drive, and i have the licence keys for the VC1 codec if that matters.

Thanks.

**chewitt** · August 31, 2023 at 9:39 AM Best Answer

RPi2 (1GB) should be as smooth at H264 decoding/playback to RPi3/4; except for being slower at everything requiring CPU, e.g. navigating around the Kodi GUI (where RPi3 is quicker and RPi4 considerably quicker). The VC1 license won't help H264 (as different codec). If you only need offline media you might want to compare the older LE 9.2.x release with LE11.x as it's a little lighter and more optimised on older Pi hardware.

dolphin · August 31, 2023 at 10:10 AM

Thanks for your quick answer.

That's good news! I don't care that much about UI smoothness, as long the video playback is smooth.

I just found out about "tweaking" the config.txt file (Overclocking the CPU). But i guess that's more for the UI-speed than for the video playback, or is it worth looking into it?

**Da Flex** · September 1, 2023 at 2:19 AM

If you have a good cooling system, then tweaks are worth to try.

arvidb · September 1, 2023 at 9:25 PM

As someone who is currently running a RPi 2 with LE11, I can confirm everything that chewitt said. Playback of H.264 1080p@25Hz is flawless. (I haven't really tried higher frame rate videos.) And the GUI is noticeably laggy, but not unusably so. (And previous versions of LE was snappier.)

I haven't tried any overclocking.

Mario77 · September 2, 2023 at 1:53 AM

Still using my old Rpi2 on LE11.03...nothing to complain about...yes UI is bit slow using Aeon Nox Silvo but if you keep standard skin you ll have no issues..

dolphin · September 2, 2023 at 9:49 AM

Thanks for the answers.

I installed the older 9.2.8 version as chewitt proposed, and everything is working flawlessly as far as i can tell!

The UI feels snappy to me. Video playback is really smooth. My Raspberry case is rather slim, so i don't think there are enough cooling reserves for OC though.