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Should I go with raspberry Pi 2 as Media center

I have already got MK808 android stick, which is 1.2 GHz dual core with Mali 400 GPU.
After using it long as general purpose device, decided to convert it as media centric device, with 2.1 speaker setup
I am facing following limitations,
1. Not able to play HD/1080 videos smoothly
2. Tried USB sound card to connect it to 2.1 speaker, but quality is not good
So I started to look for alternate devices. I liked RPI 2 especially due to it's support, but before buy, I have some questions unanswered
1. Since I have 1.2 GHz device, I am just wondering with RPI 2 being 900 MHz, is it powerful enough device as media PC. Especially can we consider it for future proof (may be 3 years)? I am thinking because, I don't want to fall in situation to buy another device only after next 1 year due to RPI2 limitation.
2. When I add case, WiFi dongle, power cable, HDMI cable etc, it's going to about 75 USD. At this price, there are many choices like,
# Android stick MXIII, which seems more powerful with android support
# Dedicated media player like,
http://www.amazon.in/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=media+player
But I don't know, how to compare those with RPI 2 and conclude which one will be more powerful and future proof
Any suggestion?

RmatriX1218 said:
I have already got MK808 android stick, which is 1.2 GHz dual core with Mali 400 GPU.
After using it long as general purpose device, decided to convert it as media centric device, with 2.1 speaker setup
I am facing following limitations,
1. Not able to play HD/1080 videos smoothly
2. Tried USB sound card to connect it to 2.1 speaker, but quality is not good
So I started to look for alternate devices. I liked RPI 2 especially due to it's support, but before buy, I have some questions unanswered
1. Since I have 1.2 GHz device, I am just wondering with RPI 2 being 900 MHz, is it powerful enough device as media PC. Especially can we consider it for future proof (may be 3 years)? I am thinking because, I don't want to fall in situation to buy another device only after next 1 year due to RPI2 limitation.
2. When I add case, WiFi dongle, power cable, HDMI cable etc, it's going to about 75 USD. At this price, there are many choices like,
# Android stick MXIII, which seems more powerful with android support
# Dedicated media player like,
http://www.amazon.in/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=media+player
But I don't know, how to compare those with RPI 2 and conclude which one will be more powerful and future proof
Any suggestion?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using Raspberry Pi 2 B+ for a month as media center with the Rasplex OS. I have tried 1080p, 720p and a few different formats like mp4 mkv, avi etc and they all work fine, even while seeking. The main reason for this could be that the processing/trans-coding of the video is done on the server(the files are not stored on Pi, and no HDD is connected to it.) This all works on a WiFi adapter.
If You can use Plex app on Your Android Stick and use a plex server somewhere, You won't need to buy a Pi. Although You would need to buy Plex pass to come over restriction in Android app I think.

Rpi 1 can run almost limitless video bitrate via smb share. But it has issues with very heavy audio since 1 pi's processing power is not great basically. But mines 1 still run movies with 10mbps video and 5mbps audio well. Above that it starts to buffer maybe its network bottlenecking. Audio quality via hdmi is great. I got a pi 2 just a while ago looking forward to test it with openelec. I have chromecast stick too i think that i wouldn't need rpi if i didn't had media at local share. Chromecast is far more better if u use only netflix, viaplay, youtube, popcorn, etc and can use it with android device phone/tablet.

Thanks for replies.
Has anyone connected it to 2.1 speaker system?
Because, that is my one of the aim.
Can anyone tell quality if connected to AV cable/stereo jack?
And, is it possible to get video through HDMI cable and audio through AV cable to 2.1 speaker?
Can someone, who already have similar configuration, help me out to build similar one.

RmatriX1218 said:
Thanks for replies.
Has anyone connected it to 2.1 speaker system?
Because, that is my one of the aim.
Can anyone tell quality if connected to AV cable/stereo jack?
And, is it possible to get video through HDMI cable and audio through AV cable to 2.1 speaker?
Can someone, who already have similar configuration, help me out to build similar one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it can output both video through HDMI cable and audio through AV cable at the same time.

Nypan sr said:
Yes, it can output both video through HDMI cable and audio through AV cable at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you rate quality through AV cable out?
I believe, AV out doesn't give good quality as HDMI.
Through USB sound card on my MK808, I am loosing bass. Woofer doesn't give any sound.
I am worried, same should not be with RPI as I'll loose all fun of watching movies.
Anybody with 2.1 speaker setup hear?

RmatriX1218 said:
How do you rate quality through AV cable out?
I believe, AV out doesn't give good quality as HDMI.
Through USB sound card on my MK808, I am loosing bass. Woofer doesn't give any sound.
I am worried, same should not be with RPI as I'll loose all fun of watching movies.
Anybody with 2.1 speaker setup hear?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HDMI is better. My 2.1 system is connected to my LG-tv, so i dont know what quality the 3,5 mm output is.

Nypan sr said:
HDMI is better. My 2.1 system is connected to my LG-tv, so i dont know what quality the 3,5 mm output is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, my LED TC has onlu audio jack. So, if I connect 2.1 system with it, I get very low volume.
So, only option to get sound from RPI AV jack.
Can you check in your system with AV jack and report the difference in output?

Any though on
RPI2 vs MXIII vs MXQ?

RmatriX1218 said:
How do you rate quality through AV cable out?
I believe, AV out doesn't give good quality as HDMI.
Through USB sound card on my MK808, I am loosing bass. Woofer doesn't give any sound.
I am worried, same should not be with RPI as I'll loose all fun of watching movies.
Anybody with 2.1 speaker setup hear?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Composite video out quality is pretty good. On OpenELEC, playing 720p live stream Russia Today. Output is classic PAL resolution. Image quality is better than 576p SD DVB-S thru SCART with good quality sat reciever. I have big old widescreen CRT Panasonic Quintrix TV.
If you play any 720p movie, quality will be comparable to DVD player with SCART.
I dont know how is your audio input for these 2.1 speakers. Just single 3 pole 3.5mm or also separate one for subwoofer? If it need 2 connectors then you need 5.1 sound card with (usually orange) center/subwoofer connector.

I think you should turn up your headphone volume on your tv
Sent from my thl T6S using XDA Free mobile app

Ideal for local media or media on a NAS but not being able to access Netflix, Hulu etc (like you can on Android) might be a bit of a put off. Shame really coz the Pi2 is more than powerful enough to support these streaming services

Mate 10 Pro LDAC Playback Quality

Hi, got a Huawei Mate 10 Pro BLA-L29 8.0.0.136(C185) and a Shanling M0 as a Bluetooth receiver. When I get them connected using LDAC, there are two menu sections where I can set the audio quality to be fed to the M0. One is the Developer Options where, apart from selecting the BT codec itself, I can set sample rate at 44.1 to 96 kHz, bit depth of 16 to 32 bits per sample, and stream bitrate at 330 to 990 kbps. These settings behave in a weird manner, always reverting to default every time I disconnect the BT or even while it's connected. The other instance is the properties of an individual BT device where I can set the LDAC playback quality to either "Optimized for audio quality" or "Balanced audio and connection quality".
Problem: if the BT device is "Optimized for audio quality", I only get decent transmission if stream bitrate is set to 660 kbps or lower in the Developer Options. Inversely, if the latter is set to 990 kbps, it only works decently if the device-specific setting is "Balanced audio and connection quality". If both are set to maximum audio quality, the playback starts gagging violently, interruptions happening up to twice a second if the phone is active and like once every five to ten seconds if the screen is off (the two devices 5 inches away from each other with nothing but air between them).
I brought the Shanling M0 to the nearest Sony store and paired it with a demo phone with LDAC audio quality set to 32/96 at 990 kbps and it worked like a charm without a single hiccup.
Anyone else has this issue and/or aware of a fix?

I have been to a number of stores since the original post and was able to pair my Shanling M0 to various devices:
1. Huawei P20, Android 8.1, Bluetooth 4.2 - same problem.
2. Samsung Galaxy S9+, Android 8.0, Bluetooth 5.0 - no problem.
3. Samsung Galaxy A6, Android 8.0, Bluetooth 4.2 - no problem.
Apparently, Android version is not responsible for the malfunction, neither is Bluetooth version. It's the manufacturer.

Crap, crossing fingers about having this issue fixed. Have you reported it to Huawei customer service and Shanling's one ?
Thank you for the feedback. I'm interested in this small DAP (nostalgic for my beloved Sansa Clip), even if I'm quite sure I probably won't use the Shanling M0 as BT receiver.

Scalpos said:
I'm interested in this small DAP (nostalgic for my beloved Sansa Clip), even if I'm quite sure I probably won't use the Shanling M0 as BT receiver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you ask me, you should just grab your money and go get it, because it works fine with other phones than Huawei. Even with mine, if I set it to "Balanced audio and connection quality", it's doing great. Actually, the LDAC standard bitrate of 660 kbps is amply sufficient to deliver music from major streaming services like Google Play Music. Whatever the problem is, I don't believe it's Shanling's fault, because the intensity of gagging depends heavily on whether the phone screen is on or off, which has nothing to do with connection quality.
As to the DAP itself, I find its sound signature and stage presentation nothing short of amazing, at least on par with my favorite Hidizs AP100 and far better than vivo Xplay6 or anything else I tried. Sansa Clip+ is nowhere near. The way I feel right now, I'm far more likely to ditch the Huawei phone than the Shanling DAP, because there are reasonable alternatives to the former, but not the latter.

anton79ru said:
If you ask me, you should just grab your money and go get it, because it works fine with other phones than Huawei. Even with mine, if I set it to "Balanced audio and connection quality", it's doing great. Actually, the LDAC standard bitrate of 660 kbps is amply sufficient to deliver music from major streaming services like Google Play Music. Whatever the problem is, I don't believe it's Shanling's fault, because the intensity of gagging depends heavily on whether the phone screen is on or off, which has nothing to do with connection quality.
As to the DAP itself, I find its sound signature and stage presentation nothing short of amazing, at least on par with my favorite Hidizs AP100 and far better than vivo Xplay6 or anything else I tried. Sansa Clip+ is nowhere near. The way I feel right now, I'm far more likely to ditch the Huawei phone than the Shanling DAP, because there are reasonable alternatives to the former, but not the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, I started following Head-fi.org's thread few weeks ago, this device looks great.
I currently own a Cowon Plenue D for more than 2 years, I'm quite happy with it: relatively small, great battery life and sound. But I'd like to have a smaller good DAP I can bring with me when I run, or simply don't want to suck smartphone's battery. I bought a Sansa Sport Clip+ (BT DAP) one year ago, crappiest DAP I ever met...
What's your battery life experience using BT head/earphones wiht this DAP ?

Hello there,
Just to share the using LDAC experience with a mate 10 pro (BLA-L29 145 (C432))
I have a Sony headsets (WH-1000XM2) and it works just fine, I'm able to use LDAC perfectly, sound is very good but you need to be close to the phone, 5m apart and it starts to break.
I know its not the same situation, but this is my experience.
Best regards.

And the volume?
Mine with my sennheiser 4.50 BT NC is very low..

Scalpos said:
What's your battery life experience using BT head/earphones wiht this DAP ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no such experience, I only use M0 as a BT receiver with wired IEM connected to it. I never even bothered to measure battery life, since it's more than two days of my regular use, i connect it to a USB port earlier than I need to charge.
sartan said:
And the volume? Mine with my sennheiser 4.50 BT NC is very low.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to control volume on your headphones, you need to set it to maximum on the DAP. The rest of it will be the responsibility of your headphones' integrated amp - if the volume's too low, then it's just not powerful enough, there is no way a bluetooth source can fix that, as it does not transmit loudness.

sadmam said:
Hello there,
Just to share the using LDAC experience with a mate 10 pro (BLA-L29 145 (C432))
I have a Sony headsets (WH-1000XM2) and it works just fine, I'm able to use LDAC perfectly, sound is very good but you need to be close to the phone, 5m apart and it starts to break.
I know its not the same situation, but this is my experience.
Best regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much indeed, because that's exactly the diagnostic step that I missed. Need to try that to locate the problem more precisely. Are you sure that the LDAC playback quality setting in your bluetooth device options was at "Optimized for audio quality"?

anton79ru said:
I have no such experience, I only use M0 as a BT receiver with wired IEM connected to it. I never even bothered to measure battery life, since it's more than two days of my regular use, i connect it to a USB port earlier than I need to charge.
If you want to control volume on your headphones, you need to set it to maximum on the DAP. The rest of it will be the responsibility of your headphones' integrated amp - if the volume's too low, then it's just not powerful enough, there is no way a bluetooth source can fix that, as it does not transmit loudness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With other smartphone is working perfectly and with strong volume.
Where is possible to maximize the volume on the DAP? Simply with volume buttons?
Thanks.

sartan said:
With other smartphone is working perfectly and with strong volume.
Where is possible to maximize the volume on the DAP? Simply with volume buttons?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest that you go to the Shanling M0 thread on head-fi, there's a company representative on that forum who's very cooperative, you should describe your issue to him. I wish I could give you a hand, but my experience is limited to operating the volume wheel on the DAP.

anton79ru said:
Thank you very much indeed, because that's exactly the diagnostic step that I missed. Need to try that to locate the problem more precisely. Are you sure that the LDAC playback quality setting in your bluetooth device options was at "Optimized for audio quality"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes... it has to be... or it wont use LDAC at all... it will use APTX or something else... LDAC is only used on the setting "Optimised for audio quality".

Unstable Bluetooth bitrate

I have a serious problem with Bluetooth audio.
I have really good headphones, but they are quite old and there's no support for ldac or aptx (just sbc). However I'm coming from Huawei P20 Pro and I never had any problem with audio quality on that phone.
And what exactly I mean? When I'm listening the music I can hear occasional drops of audio bitrate. It's extremely annoying. And no, I'm not using different Bluetooth devices (but I was able to do this with Huawei which had older Bluetooth version [!]), everything about multiple output is disabled, that option in developer's menu is set to 1.6. I'm out of ideas and pretty disappointed that premium device like Note 9 have problems with basic functions like this.
Ps. It's not a problem with my device. Same thing is happening on my friend's Note 9.

connect headphone via Bluetooth then go to
developer mode enable it/Bluetooth audio codec/(select the code you needed)

At what volume do you listen via bluetooth?
I have the same issue with my car receiver and noticed that if i play it at max volume i experience that and if i play it at a slighty lower volume, one or two steps from max, the issue is gone (or so i hope) for now it seems it is resolved by lowering the volume from max, or it is fixed in CSC1
---------- Post added at 10:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 AM ----------
Amit.A said:
connect headphone via Bluetooth then go to
developer mode enable it/Bluetooth audio codec/(select the code you needed)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you make it stay on the selected option? Regardless which option i select the moment i go back or out of developer options it goes back to SBC

u sure ure not streaming through some streaming app and not reading actuall media from internal storage?
I'd try local media and see how that behaves.

bober10113 said:
u sure ure not streaming through some streaming app and not reading actuall media from internal storage?
I'd try local media and see how that behaves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not know about the OP but in my case regardles if it is a streaming service (deezer) local files (mp3) and sometimes with call audio, it does that.

_robojock_ said:
I do not know about the OP but in my case regardles if it is a streaming service (deezer) local files (mp3) and sometimes with call audio, it does that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what build if android are you running?

bober10113 said:
what build if android are you running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Devbase PIE CSC1 (It does it with all previous builds too.) I have also tried Dr. Ketan and other n9 roms same issue.

_robojock_ said:
Devbase PIE CSC1 (It does it with all previous builds too.) I have also tried Dr. Ketan and other n9 roms same issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im using viper audio and other audio mods.
not sure if its me that dosen't realise it but i dont think I've experienced any of this. i use only local media. i play it through power amp and set the audio output manually to high res output.

bober10113 said:
u sure ure not streaming through some streaming app and not reading actuall media from internal storage?
I'd try local media and see how that behaves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I'm not using any streaming services. Just FLAC or 320kbps AAC files ripped directly from CD.
_robojock_ said:
At what volume do you listen via bluetooth?
I have the same issue with my car receiver and noticed that if i play it at max volume i experience that and if i play it at a slighty lower volume, one or two steps from max, the issue is gone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not listening on max volume, but sometimes it's close (older or more niche music recorded and mastered properly).
Btw just tried listening on my dad's S8+ and it's the same, so Samsung generally has something broken with sbc codec which is rather disappointing.
Btw, I'm using European Exynos model.

That's probably why Samsung still includes the headphone jack with their phones. I don't use bluetooth that often, except in the car and I don't recall experiencing any issues with it. Maybe I don't pay attention to it, but I will this time and see.

Record what's playing with USB audio recorder or any other app...

Need some help to recorder exactly whats playing with quad dac and the exact same quality, native by software. Don't tell me using another sound card or mics. Can USB recorder do that? Do you know other software? Also it needs to leave quad dac enabled...
Trying to figure out if this is possible and if it has solutions. If not, maybe with a laptop, but what kind of software or external sound card can capture the exact same 32 bit data from the quad dac? Please help.

no UAPP cannot do this. there is no solution short of maybe root and even then I've never come across anything close.
more critically... engaging the quad DAC inherently means you are converting to analog. your request to avoid sound cards or mics is nonsensical, because an analog signal needs to be converted back to digital bro.
FYI if your intention is to rip music from streaming services, that's a whole different operation (encryption etc). I believe it is only possible with Google Play Music (Tidal has proprietary MQA encoding).
just tell me what you're really trying to do, maybe there's a better way.

Audio limits

Hi, I hope someone can answer me about this
I have a Note 8 (with Shure SE846...) and just started my trial period with Amazon Music HD.
I checked the quality info about some songs and it said the maximum my device can support is 24 bit / 48 KHz (Amazon can send up to the double (96 KHz) if I'm not wrong).
So I looked a little around on the internet and found out that despite the hardware limits (that are higher than those even with my Exynos), these "problems" are caused by Android 9.
Am I correct?
So I was wondering:
- would getting an external dac like Fiio K3 change anything?
- would getting a high quality bluetooth device that supports those parameters solve the problem?
I've just noticed that if I go to developer options I can set 96 KHz in bluetooth settings, is that actually true?
- if I install Lineage (so Android 10) I would obtain higher limits, right?
Sorry for all these questions and thank you in advance to anybody that would try to answer me
P.s. I've just noticed that in the developer section whatever I change it's soon back to the previous value. I also noticed that with my Fiio BTR1 it rightly uses aptx but settings are 16 bit and 44.1 KHz!
Why is that???
Can I trust what I read there? Is there any app that really tells me which settings are used?

Well Amazon says a dac would be useless right now
"How do I know if I need an external DAC?
If your device has a built-in DAC that does not support HD/Ultra HD audio, then you need an external DAC when connecting your player to your headphones or speakers to listen in HD/Ultra HD.
In order to play Ultra HD, the external DAC at a minimum must be capable of processing files with a bit depth of 24-bit and sample rates of at least 44.1 kHz. Check the DAC specifications to ensure it can play higher sample rates available with Ultra HD (48 kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz).
On iOS, disable the Alexa Wake Word feature in Settings to ensure playback through your DAC at the highest resolution.
At this time, external DACs are not supported on Android."
Would Android 10 solve this "problem" with my Note 8?