it’s plenty fast. i have a usb-attached nvme for the stuff i download to watch that I don’t intend to keep, and my main collection on a separate NAS. the microsd I run coreelec from is a samsung evo, i think it’s an A2 and it’s plenty fast. I haven’t installed coreelec to the emmc because i’m running nightly so it’s a decent fallback when CE breaks which does happen once every few months - and allows me to easily make a backup using dd.

there was an issue with x265 playback being out of sync slightly (which could be remedied by seeking back or forwards one step, i used to just do it at the beginning of playback), which persisted for more than a year, but that was resolved about two weeks back, so aside from the occasional av1 issues, I’d consider the X4Q+ the best CE device i’ve ever tested. i had also used one of the homatics boxes that CE supports, but gave it to a friend.

One more note, I have this connected through an hdmi switch (that’s shared with a steam deck and a ps5) to a usb-powered 4k hdr display. CEC works fine, passthrough audio works fine, color depth displays exactly, it’s just a butter smooth experience.

i’m no ugoos evangelist, but the hardware is really solid and fairly cheap and hasn’t failed me yet. i’ve been running this setup for about 2 years (iirc) and probably won’t be needing to upgrade for a while.

edit: for clarification on speed and image caching, my library has roughly 1600 movies, 140 shows with about 5200 episodes, and everything is scraped. there’s never any image loading issues like there is on slower hardware like the rpi and odroid.

+1 for Ugoos. I use an X4Q Plus, which has av1 support, but other than that I did the same setup: coreelec nightly (I like living on the edge). I have a complicated setup due to my networking paranoia and coreelec handles that without issue. I loaded coreelec onto a micro-sd but haven’t used the default android that it came with since day one.

My only real complaint is that SOME av1 files have playback issues, and some play flawlessly. I’m no expert so I haven’t any way to figure it out, and I’ve been too intimidated by the community to try to seek help or report a bug.

That being said, av1 isn’t meant to be an archival format and realistically only excels at network streaming, so it’s better to look for x265/hevc content rather than av1 if all you’re doing is playing locally (or even playing from a NAS on your local network). and, of course, x264 is still pretty much the standard, with the downside being higher filesizes for the same level of quality.

someone the other day posted a link to CT Fletcher talking about willpower and in that video he says something that resonates with me here (and I’m paraphrasing): when you do your best, it’s never a failure, it’s a victory. because you did your best. that you didn’t achieve some (possibly unattainable) goal is irrelevant, because the success is determined by the efforts you made. (and there are MANY ways to interpret those wise words and make them applicable to yourself).

as a single father, i’m constantly struggling with similar thoughts you describe. I often feel like i’m struggling to just survive. but when I see that my kid is happy, and that he’s following my advice (like: ‘never be afraid to speak your mind’ and ‘cleaning your room makes your life better’, etc) and I realize that yeah I’m absolutely doing the best for him that I can, then the whole rest of this shit sandwich doesn’t suck so bad.

there are many measures of wealth, and only ONE of them is by how many dollars are in your pocket. collect those smiles and those ‘i love you, dad’ and they’ll keep you going when money won’t.

as a retail worker, i don’t ever get any other holidays off, why would my employer (or the insame amount of entitled shoppers) respect some new holiday?

pretty sure the venn diagram of f-droid users and adblocking users is such a huge overlap that this may not pay off too well.