I want to upgrade my Minix U1 running CoreElec to something newer and use the U1 elsewhere in the house. I have been doing some research and love the idea of the Odroid solution. I have read nothing but good things about them. I was wondering if the C4 is going to be sufficient for streaming 4K movies & TV shows running CoreElec. I did also look at a N2+ but could only get a 4GB version here in Canada which was quite a bit more expensive by the time you add a case & power supply.
I had also priced out a Khadas VIM3L which actually comes in a little cheaper than the C4 and it comes with a remote.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the best upgrade path
Any one of those will work fine. Note the the VIM3L has emmc and wifi, in addition to a remote, compared to the C4s lack of them.
With that said, I have a C4, and it’s wonderful.
Judging from other users’ feedback, I’d say you’ve narrowed your choices down to 3 really good ones. My daily drivers are an N2 and an N2+. I am extremely satisfied with their performance. My N2+ serves both as media player and an emulator. It does both tasks very well. I am able to stream 4k HDR content from my NAS without issue. That said, I am also able to stream most of my 4K content to my old S905x with almost no issues. If 4K is your highpoint, the C4 and VIM3L will do just fine.
I personally went for the 4GB N2s because I felt that with the slightly newer processor, I’d be less likely to have to upgrade as quickly. The giant heatsink is a nice touch too. I’ve seldom seen either device’s temperature rise above 36°C for any length of time.
I also live in Canada and have bought my Odroids through Ameridroid, though I live near the border and often work in the US. Pre-pandemic, I had my N2s sent to a US postage handler, as the shipping within the US was a lot cheaper. The higher price from the Canadian suppliers looks like it accounts for the duty costs of importing them.
Really appreciate it. I think I’m leaning towards the VIM3L just because it has the on board EMMC & Wifi. I won’t use Wifi as I have a gigabit Switch in media cabinet but it’s good to have. I have to say I have been pretty impressed how my Minix Neo U1 has held out over the years, Running CoreElec it’s never missed a beat and it does stream 4K content really well. It was paired with my 2014 55 inch Panasonic LED which is now in our family room in the basement and I’ll be putting it back on that TV once I get a new box.
I’ve actually been running Kodi 19 on the built in Chromecast with Google TV on my new 65 inch Sony and it actually runs surprising well, it has fairly decent hardware (Cortex A73 Quad Core & 3GB RAM) I just prefer a stand alone solution for running Kodi. I should thank all the devs who do such an amazing job with CoreElec
I am gonna say keep your hands away from Khadas. Odroids have a lot of benefits over Khadas. For one you have detqched emmc which makes it unbrickable.
Also we don’t rely on their u-boot. Recently Khadas is breaking stuff with their new ATV builds. So you here all the Ethernet issues are all due to their updates.
I would always buy C4 over a VIM3L. Yes I am a Hardkernel fan and the C1 was the first device that got me into development and create my LibreELEC Community builds. Also Hardkernel is active in our development. @tobetter is a Hardkernel employee and he helps our development and with other technical issue we face.
Yes you don’t have emmc included or a remote. The emmc I bought for the C2 is still compatible with newer odroid products. So I have used it in my C2 then the N2, then the C4 and now in the N2+. Meaning you buy it once and when you upgrade your odroid to a new model in the future you take it out of your old one. Remote is not high quality neither in the Odroid nor VIM, but CE supports almost every remote as IR or if you have CEC you use the TV remote.
Wifi is not recommended or stable enough for 4K streaming anyways. Always go for Ethernet. A case is not always required. My N2 is behind the soundbar. I still can use IR if I want but I use CEC and I don’t care about a case.
Great info, I literally just ordered the VIM3L then I saw your post lol. I’ll give it a go, I don’t plan on using it for anything else other than CoreElec. If there are any issues I’ll exchange it for the C4
The only thing with the VIM3L is that it needs cooling and the active fan they supply is noisy as hell (little squirrel cage fans always are) so you may have to modify the case/cooler if it proves to noisy for your living room. Khadas products are well built but the Odroids just seem more professionally built to my taste, and I have had both to compare. the N2 is certainly the gold standard in AMLogic boxes.
There are multiple reasons for why so many users are buying cheap boxes.
I think the Coreelec team could make a bigger effort in pointing out the differences and advantages of the more expensive but better supported Odroid boxes.
e.g. creating a specific Read only topic on the front page of the forum, listing CE compatible hardware options while showing advantages of the Odroid product.
It’s not obvious for newcomers what those Odroid boxes are, why they are so popular, how to get them, and what are those additional items, why they need them and what’s their purpose since they must be purchased as a package because Odroids are boards and not really “boxes” like every other self-contained product out there.
The cheap complete boxes are everywhere, slickly advertised and readily available with free or a very minimum cost of shipping.
A Hardkernel device, on the other hand, would cost you an arm and leg just for shipping costs if purchased directly from the manufacturer.
Why don’t they offer cheaper shipping options?
Why do they insist on using a fast but super expensive courier?
Why a pathetic 30-day warranty?
It seems they’re not really geared up for direct sales and instead are relying on their very few and exclusively contracted regional resellers that ship Odroid boxes locally (seems located in the U.S. and E.U. only) but charging even more than if purchased directly and still are frequently running out of stock for the most popular models.
There is no general recommended box. But some SBC’s are reference devices rather. It depends where you buy them. I buy my Odroids in Germany and I have a full 24 months warranty. Also shipping is like 5€. But I would also not buy from Korea directly.
I don’t have anything against cheap boxes but there is no guarantee it will work 100%.
I now have my VIM3L HTPC kit up and running with the latest CoreElec installed on the EMMC. It doesn’t have a fan but is passively cooled with a metal plate on the bottom of the case. It performs superbly and temps sit around 45 degrees Celsius.
I think I’m going to pick up a C4 for the TV in our bedroom. Can you add WiFi via a USB adapter ?
Sure you can. But as with every box wifi is not recommended, it’s not reliable enough. There are a bunch of supported usb wifi devices, doesn’t have to be the Hardkernel one. Choose something suppoted.
I run a N2 in the bedroom with the discontinued Odroid WiFi Module 5 and have no issues over 5ghz streaming 4K. Of course it depends on distance, type of router, and potential congestion how well it will work. Living room is a wired N2+ which is more optimal.
I’ve never seen 100GB video file, largest I’ve ever streamed is 90 but even that’s unusual. Files that large certainly need a wired connection or to be using dual band 5ghz and be close to the router and you may still experience some buffering over wireless.
Me neither but I heard of people using large files. 100G might have been me exaggerating still I think 40-60G might be realistic. Forgive my exaggeration.
And with files like that I heard about issues with 100MBit networks so I imagined it will cause wifi issues. I have faced wifi issues with much smaller home videos and it let me to the conclusion that wifi is just unreliable.
Great to see you here @rooted btw. Hope you and your family are save and healthy.