Which Pi?

based on the need for video playback @4k I would suggest the Pi4B as being the best contender. the 2mb model might suffice but I generally plump for the 4mb if available but with my projects that is massive overkill. a model 3 might do it but why take the chance?

So, no hardware acceleration because that's only available on their own patched version of Chromium. This means that anything other than a Pi4 will struggle greatly with HD video in the browser and probably give a slideshow at best for 4k.

If a Pi won't cut it, look at tiny ex-corporate x86 desktops:

Theo

I guess I COULD rewrite the interface for chromium...

I tested my rPi4, as an HTPC, when I first got it, just after they came out. From memory, it could just about handle HD 1080p H264 playback, using KODI, and maybe VLC under Raspbian. At that time, hardware acceleration didn't work in Chromium, without which any YouTube playback was unwatchable. All in all, my rPi4 lasted a couple of days as an HTPC before it was repurposed as a NAS/headless server. Browser acceleration may now have made it useable, just, but I doubt it. My initial impression was so bad, I have never worked up any enthusiasm to re-test.

I have been using an Orange Pi 5 as an HTPC for 3 months. It is very useable, generally as a PC as well as just an HTPC, but the graphics drivers are buggy. It might crash/freeze once a day, but reboots in 20 seconds, so this is tolerable. Even without hardware acceleration, it might be ok for H264

The performance of the Orange Pi 5 is great, it is reported to work fine at 4k, I haven't tested it at 4K, but it plays HVEC, H265 video flawlessly at 2560x1440, using only a few % cpu, 2% cpu at 1080p. It will actually also play AV1 video at 2560x1440, which my Intel Core i5

Last week, I bought my mum a Beelink U95 based on Win11/Intel N5105 for her HTPC, it was £230, but it just works.

Why do you coax TVHeadEnd to do anything beyond forwarding TV encoded streams as it receives them?

Just for accuracy's sake, I'd suggest

s/mb/GB/g

Around 2-4MB of RAM is what my employer's VAX 11/750 had around

Am 14.03.2023 um 12:15 schrieb The Natural Philosopher:

I always bought the fastest computer I could afford. Never went wrong.

So I own a Raspi 400.

FW

I used a Pi3B with KODI for a while, and don't remember it struggling to handle HD (DVB-S2 tuner in another PC).

I have no idea. It was the only format that actually worked.

I think for the time being I will take my old celeron +Nvidia graphics gas guzzler and prove the software on it and when Pis get more available at sane prices, or I find a mini low energy pc, play with those

By chance, I actually have a Pi3B in front of me, PiOS, not KODI. Using VLC it played 720p H264, surprisingly well, apart from the mouse cursor got lost. It completely failed at 1080p H264 and HVEC.

The thing about KODI, is that the drivers, HW acceleration, are finely tuned to work, it is possible 1080p might work. That's OK, but I actually like having a proper desktop on my TV. PiOS doesn't all work by default, Chromium is not using HW acceleration, by default.

I would like to test the rPi4, but unfortunately it is busy running various services that I find difficult to do without, even temporarily.

I only have the one Pi and it would be handy to have another couple for experiments, but not at silly prices. In a way I tend to think the Pi4 has got too powerful for its original mission, if it needs active cooling ...

It used to be bad at introduction but they worked hard on the firmware (years ago) so now my always-on, sometimes actively used Pi 4 works perfectly fine with a passive cooling alu case. No thermal throttling.

I use a passive Aluminium Armour - Heatsink Case for Raspberry[1], and my

You don't always need a fan for a Pi4.

Jim

I thought it would be handy to have a spare rPi3B, so I bought one, a couple of weeks after that the massively superior rPi4 was released :-(.

I probably should have bought another rPi4, but Iv'e been putting it off, waiting for the rPi5. Maybe the trick is to buy a backup as soon as it becomes clear the current version is good.

Passive cooling is good enough.

Normal, CPU at 41 C. CPU at constant 15% from CCTV recorder.

Stress test for 3 hours using

$ stress-ng --cpu 4

Final temps CPU 61 C Case 43 C Ambient 14 C

CPU temperature 60 C was reached in approximately 20 minutes.