[pharcycle]

Apologies if has already been answered (I've searched but couldn't find anything about this specific model)

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the celeron based Chromebox 3 (N003U) and its performance in Kodi, ideally librelec although I guess the android app too if it works in ChromeOS?

I have an original celeron Chromebox which was probably my best overall kodi experience for a small device but replaced it with a Vero 4k (which is excellent apart from lack of Gbit NIC) and a Odroid C2 since I want to be able to able to have a single 4k source played back on a mix of 4k and 1080p displays.

How does it handle on the usual fare:

• 23.976Hz playback
  
• Framerate switching
  
• HVEC / H.265 playback
  
• Passthrough Audio (Dobly TrueHD / Atmos, DTS etc etc)
  
• HDR
  

At £250 it's expensive compared with the SoC devices but sometimes the extra grunt of the x86 helped on obscure movie codecs and other random functionality that relied on the CPU... but maybe at 4k if it doesn't have the hardware codec it would be too taxing anyway so perhaps that's no longer a relevant benefit. Either way curious as to how they perform and trying to avoid spending more money at the moment just to find out!
Cheers

[Matt Devo]

Apologies if has already been answered (I've searched but couldn't find anything about this specific model)

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the celeron based Chromebox 3 (N003U) and its performance in Kodi, ideally librelec although I guess the android app too if it works in ChromeOS?

I have an original celeron Chromebox which was probably my best overall kodi experience for a small device but replaced it with a Vero 4k (which is excellent apart from lack of Gbit NIC) and a Odroid C2 since I want to be able to able to have a single 4k source played back on a mix of 4k and 1080p displays.

How does it handle on the usual fare:

• 23.976Hz playback
  
• Framerate switching
  
• HVEC / H.265 playback
  
• Passthrough Audio (Dobly TrueHD / Atmos, DTS etc etc)
  
• HDR
  

At £250 it's expensive compared with the SoC devices but sometimes the extra grunt of the x86 helped on obscure movie codecs and other random functionality that relied on the CPU... but maybe at 4k if it doesn't have the hardware codec it would be too taxing anyway so perhaps that's no longer a relevant benefit. Either way curious as to how they perform and trying to avoid spending more money at the moment just to find out!
Cheers  

 I've not yet gotten around to adding info/instructions for the new Kabylake-based Chromeboxes, but generally speaking the same capabilities and limitations as the Kabylake/7th-gen NUCs (and other SFF boxes) apply:
 

• perfect playback of all h265/HEVC/VP9 content
  
• auto framerate switching works fine
  
• everything works via the HDMI 1.4 output, but limited to 4Kp30
  
• 4kp60 works via USB-C to DP/HDMI 2.0, but HD audio passthru problematic
  
• HDR support non-existent under Linux until Intel adds driver support
  

The Android app I've not tested, but expect the usual Android limitations apply, plus a few others.

[pharcycle]

Thanks for the feedback, looks to have a few issues so I guess it's not worth it when there are cheaper and more capable (strictly for media playback) devices available. I also hadn't spotted it's only HDMI 1.4 which I guess would limit any HDR availability even if the Intel drivers supported it?

[Matt Devo]

Thanks for the feedback, looks to have a few issues so I guess it's not worth it when there are cheaper and more capable (strictly for media playback) devices available. I also hadn't spotted it's only HDMI 1.4 which I guess would limit any HDR availability even if the Intel drivers supported it?

 you'd need to use a USB-C to HDMI 2.0 adapter (just be sure it uses DisplayPort Alt Mode), which would likely support HDR as long as the drivers do.  But I still think it will be a while before any Intel-based device has working HDR under Linux -- it just doesn't seem to be a priority for them.

[pharcycle]

Cool, cheers for the info

[noggin]

Thanks for the feedback, looks to have a few issues so I guess it's not worth it when there are cheaper and more capable (strictly for media playback) devices available. I also hadn't spotted it's only HDMI 1.4 which I guess would limit any HDR availability even if the Intel drivers supported it?

 you'd need to use a USB-C to HDMI 2.0 adapter, which would likely support HDR as long as the drivers do.  But I still think it will be a while before any Intel-based device has working HDR under Linux -- it just doesn't seem to be a priority for them.  

 Worth stressing that there are multiple USB-C display adaptors - some use DisplayLink over USB3.0 rather than HDMI Alternate mode or DisplayPort Alternate Mode (which stop the connector using USB data mode).  You need to be careful when selecting one.

[Matt Devo]

 Worth stressing that there are multiple USB-C display adaptors - some use DisplayLink over USB3.0 rather than HDMI Alternate mode or DisplayPort Alternate Mode (which stop the connector using USB data mode).  You need to be careful when selecting one. 

  
good point, edited my reply