QQ Media Player NUC Buyers Club - Discussion

[HomerJAU]

You guys will be able to create reports of your Kodi music media with a new feature in MMH 9 coming soon. Save as PDF or Print, Export to Excel etc

 

[HomerJAU]

And thats the large NUC......

You get a big box too, Lot's of bubble wrap in there to pop

 

[Aging quadie]

For best performance in Windows mode you’d want an NVME SSD in a USB NVME adapter rated 20Gb/s. Both these can be found on Amazon. In US that’s about $65 or 70USD total I think. A 500GB NVME 4.0 M.2 SSD is min size for decent performance, the bigger the faster. The USB connection is the limiting factor for NVME drives unless you use the thunderbolt port.

EDIT: But in any case NVME SSDs out perform SATA SSD by a larger factor, and kill spinning HDDs by a mile. Don't even think about spinning HDDs if you are converting many BDA, BDV audio and video blu-rays.

Recommended Amazon product links, please!

 

[HomerJAU]

Recommended Amazon product links, please!

@Davey-J ran some items on Amazon CA past me today via PM and I checked them out and found the best NVME SSD usb adapter for performance.

Thunderbolt 3 is fastest for an external Windows on a NUC8s thunderbolt port, so find one that can do that, it’s faster than the most common 10Gb/s NVME Adapters you’ll see. They are way more expensive but if you want best performance for file conversions that’s the one if embarking on a heap of your releases.

He can post the links here, you can find them on the US site, if you want my opinion post here for all to see.

Users that do this should report how it goes too, please.

 

[Davey-J]

@Davey-J ran some items on Amazon CA past me today via PM and I checked them out and found the best NVME SSD usb adapter for performance.

Thunderbolt 3 is fastest for an external Windows on a NUC8s thunderbolt port, so find one that can do that, it’s faster than the most common 10Gb/s NVME Adapters you’ll see. They are way more expensive but if you want best performance for file conversions that’s the one if embarking on a heap of your releases.

He can post the links here, you can find them on the US site, if you want my opinion post here for all to see.

Users that do this should report how it goes too, please.

Here are the items I passed by @HomerJAU earlier; these are from Amazon Canada:
1 TB NVMe: https://a.co/d/dy59OE7
10 Gbps Adapter: https://a.co/d/0bs2W51
Or, if needed/recommended
40 Gbps Adapters:
https://a.co/d/1qfEUI5 or, https://www.amazon.ca/40Gbps-NVMe-Enclosure-Fan-Thunderbolt4/dp/B0CZ767YH6?tag=forumyield-20

Also for $20 Cdn here is the PS:
NUC Power Supply: https://a.co/d/3xRGWSC

If people with knowledge in these areas have other recommendations, please let me know.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[barfle]

@HomerJAU
No problem on the batteries, and you have my shipping address and phone #.

 

[sobi]

Yeh, keep yer batteries. I just reloaded my supply of AAs & AAAs from Costco!

 

[HomerJAU]

The 40Gb/s thunderbolt NVME SSD adapter for both Windows and Linux (LibreElec/Kodi) on your NUCs :
https://www.amazon.com/MAIWO-40Gbps-NVMe-Enclosure-Fan/dp/B0CZ767YH6

$56 USD if you want highest performance for media conversions.

You won’t get 40Gb/s but you will get > 10 offered in the cheap adapters.

 

[esimms86]

Second that. For all that I've been indulging anxieties and misgivings on this thread, I'm still excited about embarking on this project, and I really appreciate how @HomerJAU and @LuvMyQuad have responded with patient, cheerful, and often detailed answers. Don't mean to brown-nose, but you guys are busting your humps here--the very souls of magnanimity. (And between this and MMH, I don't know when Garry, in particular, finds time to sleep. Have y'all seen even just the manual for that baby? Holy cats!)

Garry takes advantage of the international dateline to squeeze in a few hours of sleep.

 

[esimms86]

Attention ALL NUC Buyers:

State of the Union:
This thread now joins Round Ones, Round Twos and some Late to the Parties into a single location for communication.

The initial separate Group PMs I started should only be used to keep your private info, PayPal details, email addresses, names etc to off the public forum. Everything else, post here.

Project Update:
All Intel NUCs are ordered and shipping to NY. Paul is about to be snowed under (literally, snow everywhere already)

All Remotes are ordered: I just got an email saying the first remote order (30, spares as backup for DOAs) has arrived and cleared customs at LAX and now heading to Paul. 2nd order has not shipped yet! I will contact the wholesaler in China today. The good news is actual delivery time is shorter than the quoted delivery time (for R1).

All NVME SSDs will be ordered today. We were trying to get better pricing ,but right now, that’s not going to happen. This is now the critical path blocker for R1 so we order.

I uploaded all the software/firmware for Paul last night (today in the US). Paul has can now build a NUC, when they arrive this week. I am documenting the procedure to update bios, set bios as we want it, update HDMI firmware, clone my a LibreElec (Linux) disc image, install the NVME SSD and a test run, pair a remote to each NUC. Paul and I will video chat and I will show what I do.

If a NUC is DOA, we return for a replacement/refund at this point.

The final LibreElec disc image will be ready in a couple days, there is still something I want to tweak, the one Paul has allows a test run and check on the first NUC. @leeting has already tested this Paul’s version.

Shipping: Paul will buy small boxes and bubble wrap to protect each NUC and Remote, we can then get pricing to ship out and send buyers shipping price for payments, via PayPal again.

ROUND ONES ONLY:
Please PM me your full shipping address, including name (and contact number, I presume USPS wants that?)

Do not post this detail here or on the initial buyer group PMs if you want privacy. PM me, I will compile list of shipping labels, and send to Paul to print and attach to your shipment. Only Paul and I will have that info. It will be destroyed once we receive your confirmed delivery notification.

Bad news here, I didn’t include the AAA batteries in our budget and as is now, we are *very* close to the wire. Are you guys ok if we don’t supply AAA batteries for the remotes? It needs two. I know it may be a little inconvenient but this will help us out.

User Documentation :
I will create another series of posts here to cover:
Initial setup (first use)
Getting Kodi to ‘scan’ (read) your tagged files into its music library (music database)
Then something to cover daily use (Kodi Playback), UI features etc

I may eventually do a how to customise UI but not now, sorry.

THX
Garry

Please, no batteries. We can all supply our own.

 

[bobtimms]

No batteries please.

 

[HomerJAU]

OK.

Confirmation: There will be no AAA batteries supplied by us. Users please supply your own (2 required)

 

[jefe1]

Will the remotes be paired with our NUCS when we get them? Or will we have to do that?

 

[HomerJAU]

Will the remotes be paired with our NUCS when we get them? Or will we have to do that?

They will be paired.

Add batteries, power on, the remotes will operate.

You all have the option to control your new Kodi NUC playback from any Apple or Android smart phone or tablet with free Kodi Remote apps on the appropriate platform's official 'App Store"

A very old example, but all I could find, This is 12 years old the latest app is much nicer. Of course it's touch screen not a mouse you use)

But this shows the power of Kodi's Music Library (database). Instant access to every album, track, Artist, Genre. Literally at your finger tips! You can throw away the remote control, sit in you backyard and play music via your Wi-Fi smart phone.

This is why you want you tag your music files ! You do a bit of hard work to tag. You reap the benefits for the rest of your life!

(excuse the reference, but who wants to do folder/file navigation in front of a PC screen, across multiple hard drives, when you can have this. Get it now?)



Come on, get into a new age of Media Players!! All this is free now you have a NUC and Kodi ready and waiting. Its easy!!

 

[LuvMyQuad]

For those who need to know, i just recieved one of the power supplies that was reccomended. The plug is 5.5mm as measured with a caliper

 

[HomerJAU]

I love engineers!!

 

[humprof]

You all have the option to control your new Kodi NUC playback from any Apple or Android smart phone or tablet with free Kodi Remote apps on the appropriate platform's official 'App Store"

A very old example, but all I could find, This is 12 years old the latest app is much nicer. Of course it's touch screen not a mouse you use)

But this shows the power of Kodi's Music Library (database). Instant access to every album, track, Artist, Genre. Literally at your finger tips! You can throw away the remote control, sit in you backyard and play music via your Wi-Fi smart phone.

This is why you want you tag your music files ! You do a bit of hard work to tag. You reap the benefits for the rest of your life!

I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of a guy, so I'll undoubtedly use the dedicated/paired remote and download the Android app, as a backup. (That said: I hate scrolling, and I hate tiny on-screen keyboards even more. So I'll be connecting a wireless keyboard and mouse, too.)

(excuse the reference, but who wants to do folder/file navigation in front of a PC screen, across multiple hard drives, when you can have this. Get it nowt?)

Me! I'm totally ready to enter the Age of Kodi-quarious, and I'm stoked to experience Kodi's super-duper database. (And I'm prepared to spread out what I now estimate will be a gazillion hours of tagging over several months, and build that database a little bit at a time.) So...Amen to your evangelical fire, and I don't mean (as Dave would say) piss in anyone's cornflakes. But I also actually love navigating and organizing folders & files. So for me, it'll be both/and, not either/or!

 

[steelydave]

If you have an android device Kore remote is free and awesome. I posted about it way back in 2018 when I was first setting up my NUC to run Kodi.

It has a really simple intuitive interface that looks like Kodi itself, and you get all the artwork displayed and the ability to do things like initiating a scan for new media in your library, which is really handy because you can do it from the comfort of your bed and let it run overnight without having to have any kind of monitor/display on.

 

[HomerJAU]

But I also actually love navigating and organizing folders & files. So for me, it'll be both/and, not either/or!

You answered my rhetoric question! Of course, some want to do that.

 

[HomerJAU]

You answered my rhetoric question! Of course, some want to do that.

Less now than before, is my guess.