Special QQ Edition Kodi Media Player (coming soon): Help Required

[Davey-J]

I would be very interested as well; I am in the process of trying to sort out which media player to use, and the Kodi/NUC combo is the way I’d like to go.

All the work you is very much appreciated, thanks for all of your effort and sharing!

Dave

 

[barfle]

This is appealing to me. While I’m not interested in taking in the job of building for others, getting the kit to add to a locally acquired NUC seems like a plus for me.

Now, where to plug it in…

 

[jsulzinger]

I'm interested, Thanks!

 

[HomerJAU]

I too would be very interested in the configured NUC...

You’re on the list. Where are you located!

 

[djstephan]

Hi Gary,

I'm interested also, as long as someone else is as well here in Europe, to do as you suggested.

The thing is, I don't have/use Kodi..and the main thing is I'm not very computer/tech savvy (Ok a little more that the basics) so I will need a lot of help along the way.

Right now I have ripped a lot of my surround collection on an SSD and use an Oppo 103 to listen.

Please let me know,

PS.. Thanks for your awesome work!

Stephan

 

[HomerJAU]

Thanks to everyone that’s registered their interest so far.

I’m going to start a new thread on Kodi media best practices so potential users know what’s needed to get the best experience in Kodi. That’s really about tagging, folder structures and naming. Since the NUCs won’t be ready for another week or more, that gives plenty of time to organise your media or start thinking about planning that activity. I’ll post a link in this thread when done.

 

[leefarber]

Hi Garry,

I'd love to try it as well, since I'm not Kodi savvy. All my Atmos rips are in mka format with sidecar files for JRiver. Would this play them back gaplessly?

Also, my media is on a hard drive connected via USB to my Mac Mini, so technically it's not a NAS. Could this unit still access my media files?

Thanks!

Lee

 

[HomerJAU]

Hi Lee,

All good using media on external hard drive(s). There are 3 x USB ports on back, one is thunderbolt 3, 2 are USB 3.

Yes, Kodi plays gapless MKA Atmos if the MKA contains all the album tracks and not split into song files. It plays gapless FLAC etc too of course.

These NUCs will have Kodi 21.2 which added limited MKA tagging support, enough tags to get a tagged MKA into the Kodi music library. MMH 9 beta 3 supports mka tagging from Muscbrainz online music database, so all semi automated, just a few clicks and entry of the BDA title (artist and album name)

 

[leefarber]

Yes, Kodi plays gapless MKA Atmos if the MKA contains all the album tracks and not split into song files. It plays gapless FLAC etc too of course.

Thanks Garry. A little confused. I use MMH to convert one big MKV rip of an album into individual tracks in MKA format, then tag and rename them. Does this mean they won’t play gaplessly in Kodi? They don’t play gaplessly over DLNA, which is the only way I’ve been able to send them (Mac Mini > Oppo 205 via DLNA > Marantz 8805 via HDMI).

Thanks!

 

[HomerJAU]

For mka gapless in Kodi it’s a singer chaptered mka rip tagged. Your split mka fikes will play but not gapless. Not all albums need gapless playback though. So you’d need to rerip the albums that need gapless or join the split files back to a single chaptered mka using MMHs tool, then tag that chaptered file.

 

[HomerJAU]

I'm interested also, as long as someone else is as well here in Europe, to do as you suggested.

Thanks Stephan. Let’s see what happens over next couple of weeks, we may find someone to do EU builds or I can ship from AU, the Euro is strong and the AUD weak so price may not be too bad. I would suggest you buy the power supply from Amazon in EU. That cuts the shipping weight significantly. So it’s just the NUC and remote which will be just over 500g I think.

This one from Amazon.de:
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Supply-Medion-Toshiba-Charging-Adapter-black/dp/B0B7RRPSC7

This is 90W, but you could get away with 65W if you are only going to use the Linux Kodi build and not run Windows.

 

[mrcond]

I am very much interested. I am using a NUC currently with JRiver but am not crazy about how it looks on screen. I have tried several times to get Kodi up and running but have run into technical difficulties each time (you @HomerJAU have been very helpful in that regard) so going this route is most welcome. Leave it to the experts!

 

[HomerJAU]

Welcome aboard! What NUC model are you using now? I guess it’s running Windows?

 

[PK]

Hey Garry,
I got this one back in 2018. Should I upgrade?
Thanks, PK

 

[mrcond]

Welcome aboard! What NUC model are you using now? I guess it’s running Windows?

Yes, it’s Windows. Here is the info copied from my eBay purchase. Intel NUC5i5RYK / i5-5250U / 1.60 GHz / 8GB RAM / 120GB SSD / Win10 Pro. I can always repurpose this for other use.

 

[HomerJAU]

Hey Garry,
I got this one back in 2018. Should I upgrade?
Thanks, PK

The NUC8s give you 4K HDR video (and a 4K Kodi UI, if you have a modern 4K TV it looks superb). These NUCs have way faster processing and better graphics processing. No lag in the UI. So yes to the upgrade, especially at this price.

You could buy a more recent NUC (faster again) and build your own again but that would cost at least $200 more than these NUCs. The NUC11 Pro (i3) is the sweet spot for those interested in rolling their own NUC.

 

[HomerJAU]

Intel NUC5i5RYK

That’s the first NUC I bought years ago. It’s still good as an Audio only device but see my reply to @PK above on why you want to upgrade.

 

[steelydave]

Hey Garry,
I got this one back in 2018. Should I upgrade?
Thanks, PK

The NUC8s give you 4K HDR video (and a 4K Kodi UI, if you have a modern 4K TV it looks superb). These NUCs have way faster processing and better graphics processing. So yes to the upgrade, especially at this price.

You could buy a more recent NUC (faster again) and build your own again but that would cost at least $200 more than these NUCs. The NUC11 Pro (i3) is the sweet spot for those interested in rolling their own NUC.

By all means upgrade because they're cheap, but if you have a 7th gen NUC, it can do 4K HDR with a free firmware upgrade.

 

[mrcond]

That’s the first NUC I bought years ago. It’s still good as an Audio only device but see my reply to @PK above on why you want to upgrade.

Yes, I just assume going with the complete package you are offering and then I’ll just use my Windows unit as a backup for internet browsing etc.

 

[HomerJAU]

I’ll count you in as far as numbers are concerned (the number of NUCs needed)

Looks like about 14 now in US/CA, a couple here in AU and 1 in EU. Pretty good response in a couple of days! Thanks.