HTPC - Kodi box

K_C

K_C

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Any suggestions to build a half decent HTPC/Kodi Box from scratch? ...

No particular budget, only factor is low noise so not looking for big GPU with a big fan but still 4K if possible ??

Holy grail would be a totally ambient cooled rig if at all possible!
 
Soldato
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If you are not bothered about games then you cant go wrong with an Intel Nuc, the latest spec ones use Kabylake which has addition, off cpu encoding for 4K, even on the low end ones.

Another alternative would be a ShieldTV. They are supposed to be excellent in running Kodi. :)
 

K_C

K_C

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Nice little pc's the NUCs, there's a few little custom pre built boxes around but not many, fancy building my own though, hopefully with ambient cooling.
 
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If you are not bothered about games then you cant go wrong with an Intel Nuc, the latest spec ones use Kabylake which has addition, off cpu encoding for 4K, even on the low end ones.

Another alternative would be a ShieldTV. They are supposed to be excellent in running Kodi. :)
+1 on the Shield TV. If your aim is to just run Kodi, this would be the best solution :)
 
Soldato
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Yup, exactly the same here! Went from a Brix to 2x Firesticks!
The only time I have had an issue is when the internet was down, it wouldnt work... And that was the EXACT time we needed it, as we wanted to play home media rather than streaming.... Infrequent issue, but was enough to result in an grumpy 3 year old!
 
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I've used BeeBox and NUCs for Kodi and media playback around the house. The Beeboxes are my favourite as they have IR on the front with a little basic remote included in the box, also have both msata and 2.5mm sata.
 

maj

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Likes of NUC and shield overkill for just Kodi imo. An alternative to the Pi 3 is the Odroid C2. Better specs (supports 4K) and very similar price it just doesn't have the following or development that the Raspberry Pi foundation does. The choice of course is yours. Install something like LibreELEC and you're all set.
 
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So do you have an Odroid C2? Could you tell us how well it supports HDMI-CEC please?

The only reason I'm considering the Raspberry Pi 3 (other than the price) is that it has very good support for HDMI-CEC.
 

maj

maj

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So do you have an Odroid C2? Could you tell us how well it supports HDMI-CEC please?

The only reason I'm considering the Raspberry Pi 3 (other than the price) is that it has very good support for HDMI-CEC.

I don't sorry but I know there are people in the official Kodi thread on here that do who would be able to answer your question. I was all set to get one over the Pi 3 as the specs are so much better but in the end I ended up getting a Xiaomi Mi box as a test and have been pretty pleased so far.
 
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