Rpi2 vs Odroid C2

    I have tested both boxes with LE 7.0.2 and would like to share my experiences. Short summary: If sound and music have priority, use RPi, for video C2 is much better.

    HW limitations: RPi will never play HEVC/H.265 or 4k, but C2 video HW must quit out of video playback when changing audio settings.

    Software: C2 runs on a very old 3.14 kernel. This means limited HW and SW support. If something you need is not backported, you are out of luck. Devs have to apply loads of odd patches for the LE build.

    Remote control: C2 has an integrated IR receiver. Logitech has the 16 functions of the Odroid remote already preconfigured, mapping those should be enough. CEC is much more of a hassle, on an unmodified RPi depending on your TV you might be stuck with few commands available and will want to add an IR Receiver.

    TV tested with TVheadend: RPi will not easily switch channels from SD to HD. Need to start a movie in between. All other directions work.

    Stability: good for the RPi, acceptable for C2 with an automated nightly reboot.

    Sound: RPi fully supports multichannel PCM and all KODI sound features like stereo mixup. C2 lacks that and currently has some limited lossy AC3 transcoding workaround that might not be improved soon.

    Other uses: The RPi can use everything Debian offers, for the C2 you are stuck with Hardkernels offerings for the old kernel.

    Personal choice: I will get an TSOP4838 IR receiver for my RPi and use that for the time being. I will then wait for LE 8.0 and sell my C2 if multichannel PCM stays unsupported.

    Quote from jogger


    TV tested with TVheadend: RPi will not easily switch channels from SD to HD. Need to start a movie in between. All other directions work.

    Is the SD channel MPEG-2 (without a codec licence) and the HD channel H.264?
    There is a known issue with switching between hardware and software codecs without stopping. It has been fixed in Krypton:
    VideoPlayerVideo: Need to clear pictures before switching decoder by popcornmix · Pull Request #9861 · xbmc/xbmc · GitHub
    mmal_renderer: Use shared pointers to maintain the pool until the decoder has been destroyed by popcornmix · Pull Request #9975 · xbmc/xbmc · GitHub

    I'd be interested if you have the problem in a Milhouse nightly build.

    Quote from jogger


    CEC is much more of a hassle, on an unmodified RPi depending on your TV you might be stuck with few commands available and will want to add an IR Receiver.


    Do I understand it right that you have CEC problems only on a RPi? If you have problems on the C2 too, then tell me which.

    Raybuntu and me have made the CEC support for the C2, but we both have Samsung TVs and never got any problem. So we are interested in reports from problematic TVs.

    Gerald

    Quote from gdachs


    Do I understand it right that you have CEC problems only on a RPi? If you have problems on the C2 too, then tell me which.


    Common Problem for both: Audio playback pauses some seconds when switching off TV (behind a surround system). I suspect it´s because a different CEC ID is signalled (Samsung instead of Viera).

    I own a Panasonic Viera and very few of the keys available on the original remote are signalled through CEC. All other key presses are eaten by the TV. So I can control only the most basic functions KODI through CEC. This is no LE problem, neither RPi nor C2.

    Short update: I have to revise C2 stability to inacceptable after extended testing with TVheadend

    Rpi2 has played high-bitrate (12 Mbit H.264) satellite streams with no problems for months.

    C2 has audio sync problems after short periods of time, then audio dropouts and finally a black screen. If lucky, you can reboot using SSH.

    Quote from jogger


    HW limitations: RPi will never play HEVC/H.265

    Just to say this isn't true, as the RPi2/3 does support H.265.

    The RPi2 can play H.265 720p content without any issue, and with moderate overclocking can also playback H.265 1080p content (up to a bitrate of about 10Mbps). This actually makes a lot of H.265 1080 content quite playable on the RPi2. With the RPi3, it's usually not necessary to apply any type of overclock to achieve good H.265 1080p playback.

    Obviously 4K playback isn't possible.

    Quote from milhouse

    Just to say this isn't true, as the RPi2/3 does support H.265.

    The RPi2 can play H.265 720p content without any issue, and with moderate overclocking can also playback H.265 1080p content (up to a bitrate of about 10Mbps). This actually makes a lot of H.265 1080 content quite playable on the RPi2. With the RPi3, it's usually not necessary to apply any type of overclock to achieve good H.265 1080p playback.

    OK, I should have written "will not reliably play all H.265 content". I tried quite a few Handbrake encoded H.265 videos. With the recommended overclocking on RPi2 I observed stuttering, audio sync issues and artefacts at 2.5 Mbps and below. The point I am trying to make is you can´t put this into your living room and rely on enjoyable playback of an arbitrary H.265 source. So no "wife acceptance factor", for my wife "quite playable" is not enough.