Does anyone have a good guideline for computing requirements? I'm not planning to stream like with PleX or anything, I just want something I can stick on the back of my projector and forget about except for when I want to watch something or download something.
Requirements
- Small form factor
- Low power draw
- Enough SSD space for ~6 movies
- Storage expandable by external flash device
- Wi-Fi (my modem can't be moved closer)
- Bluetooth AND 3.5 mm for audio out
Something like the Nvidia Shield would be perfect but its too hard to download things onto it directly. Ideally, I wouldn't have to have a personal computer other than this device. Currently, I plug my laptop in and stream, but my streaming sites no longer work well and it does not have the storage for me to download movies.
Since I am not trying to use this as a home server to stream off of, I shouldn't need a lot of computing power for transcoding or parallel sessions or nothing like that.
AS mentioned in the title, my budget is around $150 (not including external storage). Any more than that, and it's not worth upgrading from my laptop.
Raspberry Pi 3-B is $35. You can get a half TB micro-ssd for $30. Plenty of cash left over to splurge on a fancy case off etsy if you want.
You could get the latest, Raspberry Pi 5, for $80 and still be under budget but they removed the 3.5mm and HDMI port in version 4 for a single usb-c out that can do AV.
I dont think rpi3B can handle x265 encoding. rpi4 can i think. Or an Odroid is an option + coreELEC. CE supports entware and docker so you can install all kinds of stuff on it, for downloading torrents or whatnot.
Can't "handl"e x265 as in it can't "play"?
Yes