Posts by Master One

  • Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

    Quote from Borygo77

    Can you post a link to vendor or message me prive where did you got it from please.

    Thanks for the hint with the current special offer at geekbuying. Their October Mega Sale, exclusive app price and New User coupon made it possible for me to purchase a second X96 Air with 4GB RAM / 64GB eMMC for just US $46.10 including shipping from Germany, which is even US $2.60 less than what I paid for the first unit on AliExpress.

    If someone else wants to make use of that bargain, it's still valid for the next 10 hours and can be found here.

    I've also ordered two WeChip G30 Air Mouse on AliExpress, the first one for US $8.49 and the second one for just US $6.49, both with free shipping from China. I'd say that's quite satisfying. :)

  • Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

    Quote from buzzmarshall

    Being as i still haven't spent any money on a s905x3 device i have not tried LE's master on them but do have a bud that has played around with LE Master and has Matrix working on them... outside of the typical Matrix issues he seems to like messing around with it.. he had a issue with wifi on his brand as it has a MT7668 on his device which i got going for him... other then that he likes that it was cheap and seems to work ok...

    So how did he manage to get LE Matrix to work on a S905X3 device? I could not find any info or image for that.

  • Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

    Quote from StaticallyLinked

    Congratulations! I have ordered a similar device myself but I'm still waiting for it to arrive. Could you share your impressions, especially about installing *ELEC on it, once you get it?

    The procedure to getting CoreELEC installed is super easy and explained in details here, but I'm really wondering if it is also possible to install LibreELEC Nightly (Matrix) on that device. I have read about the removal of vendor specific stuff from LibreELEC and there is no image to download, but with ARM now supporting the Open Source approach I have high hopes that it will be possible in the future. I mean, it can't be as easy as copying some missing files into a LibreELEC installation, can it?

  • Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

    Quote from StaticallyLinked

    if you really want AV1@4K, you want it to last you a long time and you can't wait - go with Intel (the beefier, the better), but if you want an Arm board with hw decoding - now is the worst moment to be buying. Devices are not out yet, so there is no official support, no mass adoption yet. If you're willing to spend so much money on an Intel board, why not buy a cheaper AV1less Arm board and upgrade when the time comes? Not to mention that those chips are much more power efficient than the intel ones.

    Although I really like the idea with a 11th Gen NUC, since it's unclear when they will actually be released (no mention on the Intel NUC Kits page yet), I'm not averse to going for a cheap (AV1less) ARM box in the meantime.

    So which one would you choose right now, that can be used with LibreELEC Nightly (Matrix) and supports 4K@60Hz / HDR?

  • Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

    buzzmarshall, thanks, an excellent summary of thoughts, which unfortunately makes my decision finding not any easier. :/

    In fact, this wants me go back to the idea to just run LibreELEC Generic x86_64 or any suitable Linux distribution with Kodi on top on some already available Intel hardware (like an Intel NUC) that's capable of software decoding AV1, or wait for Intel Panther Canyon NUC 11 Performance with Intel Core i5 or i7 Tiger Lake CPU that's capable of hardware decoding AV1.

    I'm not really in a hurry to make a purchase, because right now my laptop with Intel Core i7-10510U CPU will do as an intermediate solution, but a dedicated machine for the home cinema is desired in the long run. So a 11th Gen NUC may be my best bet right now.

    Considering the circumstances, CoreELEC obviously getting stuck on Kodi Leia (at least for the time being) is not what I have in mind anymore, and I just don't like the idea of using a vendor locked-in Android device.

    BTW Any idea which currently available (low power) Intel CPUs are capable of software decoding AV1 in 4K@60Hz? That would just be for getting an idea for what to start with.

  • Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

    Quote from StaticallyLinked

    I'd buy the "just enough" one and then upgrade when some new tech comes along (as mentioned earlier AV1 is on the horizon, among other things).

    I still haven't decided which way to go, I have tried to take a deeper look over the weekend, but the amount of info is just overwhelming.

    If it's true that Kodi devs removed all AMLogic specific code from Matrix, what does that mean for all the dedicated boxes and SBCs? Will they be stuck with Leia?

    My current favorite still is the ODROID N2+, but I'm not sure if that isn't a step back now that I have got to know Matrix from LibreELEC nightlies on my laptop.

    I've also looked into cheaper alternatives with AMLogic S905X3 and some Intel NUCs, as well as the ODROID H2+. A device with SPDIF out (like any of the Ugoos devices) would be nice, because then I could omit the HDMI audio extractor I am currently using.

    But maybe it's worth it to wait for the new AV1 capable AMLogic S905X4 devices?

    With the Ugoos X4 Cube with AMLogic S905X4 / Mali-G31MP2 / 2GB RAM / 16GB eMMC / SPDIF for expected less than 100 USD already around the corner, that device may be the most logical choice.

  • No luck with LibreELEC 9.2.4 on Intel i5-8250U and i7-10510U

    Quote from smp

    No idea. I suggested that build for troubleshooting purposes. FYI: X11 will be deprecated and replaced with GBM in future versions of Generic LibreELEC (probably after LE10).

    Doesn't seem to worth the hassle and the disadvantages, after all, the latest nightly has been working on said laptop, the problem with disappearing text could be solved by changing the font setting for the default skin to "Arial", and the non-functional WiFi is not a show stopper since I have connected the laptop by ethernet cable.

    But using that laptop in my home cinema setup is just a temporary solution anyway, looks like I'm going to order an ODROID N2+ for that.

  • No luck with LibreELEC 9.2.4 on Intel i5-8250U and i7-10510U

    smp, never heard of GBM before. Not sure what the benefits may be, because the Arch Linux Wiki page only lists lacking features:

    • Decreased software decoding performance due to a lack of PBO support in GLES.
    • Decreased high quality upscaling and upspacing performance due to missing PBOs.
    • In general, shaders for GLES are behind those for OpenGL.
    • No support for HDR, meaning wrong colors will be renders with GLES.
    • GBM has no accurate timing for a/v sync like X11 or Wayland do.

    And the catch with the experimental HDR patches working on Gemini Lake only, well that's only for a few Pentium Silver and Celerons from 2017, which I don't have.

    So is there supposed to be any benefit to running this on my i7-10510U laptop instead of the latest official nightly?

  • No luck with LibreELEC 9.2.4 on Intel i5-8250U and i7-10510U

    So yesterday's nightly has indeed worked with the following exceptions:

    1. I was not able to connect to my WiFi (when clicking on "Connect" in the WiFi dialog, no box for entering the password came up and nothing else happened).
    2. The GUI crashed and restarted a few times.
    3. The disappearing text problem occurred again, but not anymore after I switched the (default) theme font to "Arial".

    Is there a procedure for reporting bugs in nightlies? I know that the download page tells not to expect support but that feedback is welcome via the forum.

  • Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

    Quote from Klojum

    HDR comes in not one but many flavors, and afaict, different hardware manufacturers treat HDR differently.

    As a rule: don't try to buy the hardware that should last at least 5 years. there is no such thing. Technology goes fast. Two, three years ago HEVC was all the rage, now it's gonna be AV1, for which there is only scarce hw acc support right now.

    AFAIK my ViewSonic PX747-4K accepts a HDR10 signal, but doesn't do much with it, so there may not be any real benefits anyway, but it's nevertheless nice to know that it's possible. Still unclear if the mentioned problem with HDR is not a software or hardware issue concerning the selection of a suitable box for running LibreELEC.

    As for the hardware-selection, I think it's better to choose something more than appropriate now than to speculate to replace it in just a few years again.

    My equipment is not that spectacular, it really just comes down to 4K@60Hz (with HDR10 if possible) due to the used projector and digital 5.1 audio (AC3/DTS) due to the used audio system. Hopefully this will serve well for the years to come as I do not have any plans to upgrade anytime soon.

    It puzzles me that there is little to no information available on what current hardware would be best suitable for a dedicated LibreELEC machine, because people are obviously using LibreELEC and I can't be the only one having to decide on what to buy.

  • Current hardware recommendation for a dedicated LibreELEC box?

    Quote from powerarmour

    Not LibreELEC yet unfortunately.

    Sorry, but I don't know what that's supposed to mean.

    Quote from Klojum

    HDR is currently still the problem factor.

    What exactly is the problem with HDR?

    But I'm not hung-up on HDR as long as this is just a software issue that is going to be solved at some point in the future.

    The question really is now to choose a proper hardware. I'm currently looking into the Intel NUCs, but there are so many variations of them and there is always the catch that any of the Intel Graphics at least up to HD 620 do not support 4K@60Hz at the HDMI port, but only at the Display Port.

    Any idea which Intel NUC would be the cheapest to fulfill the mentioned requirements?

    And which SBC would be the most suitable (an ODROID or RPi4?)?

    At least the RPi4 is known to support 4K@60Hz, but on the downside none of the SBCs seem to be capable of doing hardware AES-NI, which is useful when OpenVPN is involved.

    I really whish there was a definite hardware recommendation for running LibreELEC.

  • Unable to get 4K@60Hz to work

    Quote from smp

    That's a passive adapter. You need an active DP to HDMI 2.0 adapter.

    I have already decided to return that adapter, as it really seems to be its fault for only being capable of 4K@30Hz and I have now my eye on the following two products, which are explicitly 4K@60Hz capable:

    In hope that this will fix the problem.