[Gonkulor]

I have KODI running on a FTV and I love it's smoothness and abilities. Because of this I cut my connection to Sat TV and a couple online payer services, withholding names but you can guess who they are. I would like to expand this interest into a few other rooms and share it with my neighbors as well.

Even though I have multiple netwoked computers scattered throughout the house, the serviceability of these has dwindled as they have technologically aged. My desire to perform upkeep on multiple computers has dropped as I have gotten older and those puters approach their serviceable upgrade life.

Now it's time to replace those puters with something more geared towards HTPC. Android like would be best so our tablets and smartphones could control them easier.

Some good current links to single board computers or the communities there-of would be great for me. Rasperry Pi is a good choice but is old now. Banana Pi looks to be promising but the community hasn't grown up around it yet. Intel makes a nice little SBC for around $100. Some of the boards have SATA some don't. I'm just wondering if anyone has any directional insight as to what direction would be safest to go for a couple years?

Best regards

[jknight2014]

Go for something based on the j1900 processor. mini itx. I like the ASRock q1900dc-itx.

install kodi on top of Ubuntu server and its very stable and future proof.

Pi is okay, but if you like snappy response it will be kind of annoying. I like having the big fancy aeon mq3 theme

[wrxtasy]

@Gonkular, list requirements
- 1080i de interlacing ?
- mpeg 2 ?
- 24p ?
- on the fly refresh rate switching ?
- Netflix, Hulu, Kodi all from the Home screen ?
- h265 decoding ?
- stable firmware, no Alpha testing ?
- 4K ?
- remote ?
- WiFi ?
- transcoding to smartphones, tablets ?

That will narrow the field somewhat.

Personally my opinion is don't upgrade until Intel release their Skylake microarchitecture that will decode h265 video in Hardware.
Plus more h265 content may actually be available then.
Boxes based on these will play anything and everything without the compromises you get with Android.

[jknight2014]

@Gonkular, list requirements
- 1080i de interlacing ?
- mpeg 2 ?
- 24p ?
- on the fly refresh rate switching ?
- Netflix, Hulu, Kodi all from the Home screen ?
- h265 decoding ?
- stable firmware, no Alpha testing ?
- 4K ?
- remote ?
- WiFi ?
- transcoding to smartphones, tablets ?

That will narrow the field somewhat.

Personally my opinion is don't upgrade until Intel release their Skylake microarchitecture that will decode h265 video in Hardware.
Plus more h265 content may actually be available then.
Boxes based on these will play anything and everything without the compromises you get with Android.

X2 Skylake will be an awesome platform for media centers.

[dmg-i4]

I use a Raspberry Pi And I find it satifactory for streaming movies and audio. But now that I have come across a new platform I am dying to try out. Because it packs more power than the raspberry/banana Pi.

I did have a Wolfson Audio for the Raspberry Pi but the software to get sound out of XBMC / Kodi is taking forever. So I purchased a Audio / Video splitter and everthing is good.

You can find the Humming boards here as I highly recommend this board for the extra puch in power.
http://www.solid-run.com

[wrxtasy]

If you want to play around with a few new options for not much coin on a cheap as board thats faster than a RPi I would get a ODROID-C1 for $35. Its going to be well supported by the looks of it as well.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=210987

Then that will tie you over till affordable Intel Skylake solutions pop up.

[ealltech]

Rasperry Pi is a good choice but is old now. Banana Pi looks to be promising but the community hasn't grown up around it yet. Graperain makes a nice little single board computer for around $70.

I use a Raspberry Pi And I find it satifactory for streaming movies and audio. But now that I have come across a new platform I am dying to try out. Because it packs more power than the raspberry/banana Pi.

[jknight2014]

I have been using 3 of odroids for over a year. They are awesome. I added them to the Kodi Wiki with instructions.

They are very fast. The interface is very fluid even with heavy skins. Video plays great. Very few issues, usually fixed with a reboot.

I also use emby as my media server with the Kodi Plugins. Also works great and leaves the odroids completely self contained.

http://kodi.wiki/view/ODROID