Odroid H4+/Ultra or do I need transcoding in the first place?

[elvanja]

Hi,

I am looking to run Jellyfin in my home, with basically one TV as consumer (LG C2). Maybe a laptop or two would also use it, but likely not at the same time.
Video material is mostly H264 and H265, but there are some oldies too, for which I don't know any details.

Initial idea was to just go with i5 and Arc310/380 and just build a simple desktop setup, couple of WD Red drives etc.
Would need to run also Home Assistant and Frigate (with WD Purple) and Coral.ai accelerator.
But then it seemed like I would be building/paying for a rather beefy machine for very little usage (Jellyfin would be used like once a week).
And of course, spend $$ on power. Not sure if that setup would be idling with some low wattage.

Anyway, looks like https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-h4-ultra/ would basically work.
It has a decent CPU, dual NIC, supports 4 HDDs and 48GB DDR5 (single channel though) and NVMe if need be.
But, it does not support a dedicated GPU.

Which brings me to my question. Do I really need transcoding?
Special note: kids stuff would likely have subtitles (SRT files).
I believe I read somewhere that this indeed requires transcoding, but I am not sure.

So, best stick with classic desktop setup or go for a more streamlined option?

Thank you for your time

[TheDreadPirate]

Get an Intel N100/N150 based mini PC or something like that.

You should have the capability to transcode, just in case. And the Intel N100 should meet your needs while not consuming a lot of power.

[gnattu]

The Odroid H4+/Ultra is literally an "Intel N100/N150 based mini PC or something like that"

[elvanja]

The Odroid H4 Ultra: N305 (Core™ i3 Processor), and the H4+: N97
So they indeed fall into the category.

I guess the only iffy moment is the transcoding here.
Do I understand correctly that N100/N150 should suffice?
If so, I can only assume N305 should be just as fine.

[TheDreadPirate]

Both should have the same media engine. The N305 has additional cores than the N100.