For $13 more the N2 will be faster than the C4.
The extra 2GB of Ram supplied with the C4 is of no use for CoreELEC running Kodi.
CoreELEC will not use the extra Ram in the C4.
Paying $13 more for the faster S922 N2 is your choice.
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So the video decoding won’t differ between the two only speed will? Seems the n2 would be the way to go in that case.
GPU performance
Odroid C4
Mali-G31 runs at 650MHz
Odroid N2
Mali-G52 runs at 846Mhz
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To be honest there are some minor differences in the video decoding capabilities between the two devices.
The C4 is better at converting HDR to SDR if you want to watch HDR content on an SDR display.
The N2 can software decode 1080p content with ease. This may be important if you plan on using a streaming addon that can’t use the hardware decoder.(usually only streaming services that use drm)
There are some others small differences as well, but these are the only two that you would encounter with real world content.
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It’s interesting to read that the C4 has better HDR to SDR tone mapping capabilities.
Does it do a good enough job such that it matches the quality of an equivalent 1080p non HDR video?
I gave up on HDR for my older 4K TV as it’s just not as good as a typical 1080p version of the same thing, so whilst I have so far not been tempted by the C4, having HDR to SDR working correctly might swing me.
Tonemapping can never be as good as a normal SDR mastered source.
Because of my problems with the HDR2SDR tone mapping with the N2 I will buy an Odroid-C4.
It will be available at end of May 2020 from pollin.de, I asked them. In Germany there are only 5 EUR shipping cost.
And I hope with the C4 there will be no thermal problems/throtteling like with cheap China-boxes.
Thermal design of my N2 is superb (about 40 degrees), but the C4 is another box…
The thermal design of the C4 is just as good, the heatsink is smaller than that of the N2 but it also has 2 less cores to cool and it certainly runs cooler than some of the cheap chinese boxes that just have a steel plate that doesn’t even make contact with the SoC.
yes, and I will have 4 USB3-ports, one for a Bluetooth dongle, so leaving 1-2 ports more than with cheap boxes. And GB-LAN…
And of course well supported by CE!
If you can’t wait till the end of May why don’t you look at a Khadas VIM3L. It uses a S905D3 chipset and with the HTPC kit comes complete with a heatsink and bottom plate for the case.
It’s a great little box which I currently run my second screen on and also fully supported by CoreELEC.
It has Bluetooth and WiFi onboard but only 2 USB ports. Only 1 of which is USB3.
- emmc + ir RC
The Vim3L has not got such a good thermal design which makes it inferior to the C4 in my opinion.
Shoog
This is good to hear that the C4 is just a slower N2.
I remember the XU4 being faster, but the C2 being better for media.
Fun fact, the Odroid C4 was the first S905X3 device that the team had available for bringing CoreELEC up on the S905X3 SoC 
.
Some of the Devs here was and still are using it as their primary device, it’s not really noticeably slower than the N2 as Kodi itself is not really resource intensive and HW video decoding is done in the VPU not the CPU.
If your after a cheap entry level SBC then this ticks the boxes, shipping and prices from Ameridroid is reasonable. The C4 is the successor to the C2, it wasn’t made to compete against the N2.
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What about if I’m using a heavy skin, I plan on using Arctic Zephyr 2. I’m debating between getting the N2 and the C4 for my new HDR tv.
Have you seen his new skin artic horizon? I’m using it on the N2 really digging it.
Hmmm. That makes me think you’re already playing with some S908X or S905X4.
It’s good to be part of the CE Team!!!
Just installed both Arctic Zephyr 2 and Arctic Horizon on my C4, both seem to perform fine. I’m a bit old school and still sue Confluence so may not be the best judge of skin performance.
What about wifi/network/usb speed in C4 vs N2? Is it the same, or N2 is better?
It’s not just about two more cores?