Upgrading Home Theatre PC from RPi, but Not to an Android Box

blackfrancis75 on 13/02/2021 - 22:04

My home media setup:

  • Raspberry Pi (3rd Gen)
  • LibreELEC
  • Kodi
  • USB LAN adapter
  • External USB Drive

This setup allows me to use the attached drive as a 'NAS' i.e. all computers on the network can read/write to it (SAMBA), and Kodi can play media from it.
A year ago I bought an Android box, and was disappointed to discover it was (nearly?) impossible to have a USB-connected HD that was network-accessible as I had been doing with my RPi.

Sure, its possible to connect to SMB file-shares in Android (using a 3rd-party app like X-Plore File Manager), but I haven't found a way to have a drive mounted locally in Android that's also shared on the LAN - apparently this is a security feature built into Android.

So my question is, what hardware can I get that's more performant than a RPI, doesn't have a fan, doesn't run Android and can host a local USB drive as a SMB share?

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • Hybroid on 13/02/2021 - 22:07

    HP Microserver?

  • scrimshaw on 13/02/2021 - 22:09

    one of those Vesa mountable Mini-PC solutions perhaps?
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/htpc

    There are also a variety of fanless HTPC solutions from Hystou but they are pretty expensive, like 4-8 times more expensive than a Raspberry Pi 3.

    • blackfrancis75 on 13/02/2021 - 23:07

      Do you run Win10 on it?

      • Kenb0 on 14/02/2021 - 04:09

        I bought one of those intel NUCs that were listed on ozbargain just a couple of weeks ago, to replace my aging htpc(an old asrock vision from 2010). Will be running win10 on it with kodi and reusing my old htpc remote control. I use my htpc as the hub for my torrenting, fileserving, etc. and this NUC will do perfectly as I’ll run some VMs and docker images from it as well. Might be overkill for your requirements though.

        I did spend an extra $200 for a fanless case for it(Akasa Turing) as it’ll be sitting under my tv for hopefully another 10 years

  • bazingaa on 13/02/2021 - 22:28

    Optiflex SFF

  • rocketpoweredmice on 14/02/2021 - 00:45

    Why not RPi4?
    Planning to do a similar set up, wondering what limitations you've run into?

    • blackfrancis75 on 14/02/2021 - 15:15

      The RPi 3 is starting to struggle a bit with the higher bitrate files. 4 might be OK, but then I thought "why am I trying to pay bottom-dollar on something I use so much?". Hoping there's something that costs a bit more and is a lot more performant

  • Draxxx on 14/02/2021 - 01:12

    Not so. I'm running a CoreElect distro on a generic Android box, and I have 2 attached HDDs, network shared.
    You have to enable the sharing in the options, and in my case it has to be a part of my work group.
    Password authentication off, auto-share on, Min SMB1 - Max SMB3.

    This is the box I bought mid '19 - I don't think I got it from GB though.
    Surely there would be newer, better spec'd version of this.
    https://www.geekbuying.com/category/Android-TV-Boxes-1547/

  • AustriaBargain on 14/02/2021 - 05:31

    Could look at Apple TV. Infuse works great and you can SMB your external drive from a computer in your home or router just fine. But you do need to have a sixth sense for home networking to rely on Infuse. Plex can play files without transcoding too, but Plex is a steaming pile of crap these days.

    • whatisk on 19/02/2021 - 11:34

      Infuse is pretty but way too expensive for me. I ended up going MrMC which is essentially a Kodi port I belive.
      I ran Kodi on a RPi 3 for a while but have now transitioned to an Intel NUC running Win10. Don't believe it's fanless but have never noticed any noise from it and it also doubles as my Plex server.

      • AustriaBargain on 19/02/2021 - 11:43

        Infuse is $15 per year.

        • whatisk on 19/02/2021 - 12:21

          When I looked was more than that, but might have been the lifetime cost for that particular version. Then when a new major version comes out I think you have to pay it again to upgrade to that (eg: v5 to v6)? Perhaps yearly cost circumvents that?
          MrMC is single purchase price and works fine for my purpose - essentially only listing HDR movies until Kodi for windows can do it.

          • AustriaBargain on 19/02/2021 - 12:28

            @whatisk: Yes, paying yearly lets you update to the latest version. If you buy outright they usually offer you a discount for upgrading to new version.

  • skid on 14/02/2021 - 07:51

    Currently using a 2.5" USB drive as a SAMBA and NFS share on a AC86U router running merlin (linux).

    nb You're right about Android not being able to host a SAMBA server. It's due to Android blocking the SAMBA port. You can overcome this if you root the device.

    • Chandler on 18/02/2021 - 13:08
      +1

      You can overcome this if you root the device.

      Instructions unclear…

  • Presence on 14/02/2021 - 08:22

    Intel NUC? The low end ones are pretty cheap and will do what you want. Personally I run a NUC as a file server and then use Google Chromecast to control my TV.

  • AndyC1 on 14/02/2021 - 13:20

    Have you looked at Win 10 on the Rpi3? have you looked at Ubuntu on the RPI?
    The problem you are facing is not the RPi3 hardware, but the software running on it and configuring it.

  • boomramada on 14/02/2021 - 15:10
    +1

    Just get a NVIDIA Shield and a external HD.

  • BewareOfThe Dog on 14/02/2021 - 18:44

    The Pi4 is far more powerful than a Pi3.

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