The new Raspberry Pi 4 Model B dropped today. It is a significant upgrade from the previous 3+. The 4GB RAM model is the best value for money. They all come with dual micro HDMI ports, Gigabit LAN, b/g/n/ac WiFi, 2 USB 3 ports and 2 USB 2 ports.
$94.95 is the regular price but at this price the RPi 4 is great value. The best place to pick up one of the new PRi's is from Little Bird Electronics' Pi Australia store.
Product ships in end of August.
I have been looking for a long time.
Can you link to similar ie form factor, power usage, whisper quiet running (fanless), USB 3, gig ethernet, hevc 10bit decode, 4K@60 HDR res, bluetooth 5, b/g/n/ac WiFi, massive community support etc.
Would be very interested?
Well, that is an old trick. If you are going to tailor your specs.
Its like a job ad that is overly specific - you know they have already chosen the person but were forced to advertise.
But for a cheap mini-PC, you start with the SoC. Check the Armbian or LibreELEC website?
Back when I was looking, the Amlogic S905 was popular.
Then search eBay, etc.
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=s905+4GB
They usually come with Android, so you flash it with Linux.
An Atom mini-PC with Windows 10 will cost a bit more, but may make life easier. Even if you plan to install Linux.
Not an old trick at all.
Those are the specs I want and there is finally something available that meets my needs.
I've looked into all of your suggestions ages ago including earlier versions of the RPi and have found them wanting.
Amlogic S905 (inc successors) and Atom mini-PC have all had major problems/short comings and if you looked into it as you have suggested you would know this.
@bargaino: Depends what you use it for though doesn't it?
One might even argue that those criteria are the bare bones specifications for a modern media box/pc in the age of 4K@60 10bit Hevc and HDR.
One simply needs to view the kodi forums here:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252916
There is always something missing with the amlogic/atom boxes.
Either gig ethernet or usb 3 or ram or problems with devices being bricked, losing wifi or remotes etc
Not to mention you'd be lucky to get any firmware revisions or support compared to an RPi.
You're also still looking at around mid $40-$50 for the lowest specced S905W or even over $100 for a high specced X2 anyway.
RRP is not a bargain
Excellent username.
Going to wait for some comparison videos first but I am excited to see some games that we haven't seen before become playable on Retropie.
Having to include Micro HDMI cables, and a USB-C charger with 5V/3A likely increases the price considerably for AU resellers who are making kits,
$59.95 for 1GB (standalone/server tasks without a screen),
$66.95 for 2GB,
$94.95 for 4GB (games/desktop usage)
you might want 4GB for 4k TV playback, but see what Kodi/OpenELEC recommends for 4k.
this is not a 'bargain' it's just advertising a R.Pi 4 should be moved to the forums for discussion
At close to 100A$ for the 4gb without case, power supply, etc I'd rather spend the extra $ and get the shield TV for 200A$ if using it for Kodi.
well, question is why spend the extra money, what does it provide?
going from $100 to $200 is 100% more in costs, the pi4 can decode 4k HDR x265 for movies, as well as do a host of other functions.
Interested in the rational?
I was looking at the shield too
The shield is a purpose built device, on the hardware side it supports 4k60fps with HDR, along with Dolby Atmos and dtsx passthrough. The WiFi also has 2x2 MIMO for probably more than double the bandwidth of the pi4. Add a nice remote (yes I know Kodi has a HDMI CEC driver), shiny enclosure, included power supply, and 16GB built-in storage.
Next, software. Android TV is a very well supported platform with everything from Google assistant, apps for every well known streaming service, and even games and game streaming, support for accessories like game pads etc.
Man the list is long.
If you want a media player /emulator system, get the shield. It's much better for that.
This is a general purpose computer, kind of like how desktop computers are general purpose, but a ps4 or dvd player is purpose built.
"Interested in the rational?"
Yep, and what is it, considering how limited the media formats supported on rPi are?
Being a "general purpose computer" with linux as its base OS the rPi4 should support equivalent if not more media formats (not proprietary streaming) than the shield as it is able to utilise any open source software.
Even though Shield is arguably best android player around there are problems with Kodi and android itself which Linux distros don't have.
At half the price or even less in future with discount codes on eBay etc getting one of these for Kodi is a no brainer if you like to tinker.
But then you should have just bought a $40 4k Android box with DRM from Banggood etc. The right box and you can even flash with AndroidTV, though the only app that I find needs mouse emulation is Netflix under standard Android.
Gonna have to disagree.
As mentioned in another post i've got 9 assorted $40+ 4k android boxes from amlogic to rockchip and everything in between.
All of them have something wrong/missing even when changing over to a kodi linux distro.
They range from poor to no software/firmware support for bugs.
Not to mention the trouble you can get yourself into trying to get root, install custom firmware or recovery, bricking devices etc. (check the freaktab forums)
Losing functionality such as wifi use of the remote etc.
Always something missing re one or more of my requirements usb3, gig ethernet, enough ram, HDMI-CEC, HDMI-RGB etc.
The RPi4 is the first device that meets all my requirements and I can run it natively on linux as opposed to android (yes even android tv) and all its limitations with one of the best supported devices.
You can check many devices strengths and limitations here:
"Yes these cheap AMLogic devices, running OSMC / LibreELEC / CoreELEC are better than both the more expensive Intel "Lake" NUC's and the NVIDIA Shield for auto, mixed 1080p / 4K HDR Kodi Krypton video playback"
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252916
I won't pay more than double the price for a shield when for my use it's only benefit is streaming services which is inbuilt in almost all my tvs or through PS4, Xbox etc.
So i'm going middle of the road no cheap $40 android or $200 shield. And if i can get it off ebay with a discount even better.
Can anyone point me to instructions to get Raspberry Pi to play Netflix? Last time I tried Firefox/Chromium on Raspbian but it doesn't have the widevine included.
Or is the easiest way to get Kodi running and add the Netflix add-on?
Some pointers will be appreciated. The internet seems to be littered with instructions for raspberry prior to Netflix shifted to HTML5. A bit frustrating to waste time on out of date info.
spend 100 and get an optiplex that shits all over the SBC
You're offering a desktop computer as a substitute??
Especially re power usage/small form factor/virtually silent running (fanless) etc??
compare the price difference between a 100 dollar pi 4, 20 dollar psu, 50 dollar SD card, 20 dollar case, hdmi dongle, etc etc… to a 100 dollar optiplex
where is the savings exactly? you think having a usff on most of the time will matter in the long run to the expense of buying a pi 4 kit? it wont
@i7-2600k: I have all of those accessories and then some already so don't need to spend anything.
So that's the first saving.
Secondly I have 9 rooms with existing kodi boxes.
So you're trying to tell me running 9 desktop computers won't consume a crap load more energy than 9 RPi.
Sure mate.
Not including whisper quiet running and waaay smaller form factor.
For my usage it's not in the same league.
Can you really buy a sub $100 Optiplex, even secondhand, that is under 10watt while playing media? Also early Intel integrated graphics did not support 24p and HDR will be an issue(which it probably is on the rPi as well).
Definitely, and the rPi will not support streaming services(or apparently 4k H264). The Shield is worth it over other cheap box options in that it all, just works.
What do you mean by won't support steaming services? As in android apps? Or there's some kind of hardware limitation?
He means netflix, amazon prime, hulu etc.
You can use drm-free streaming services on this. But not drm services like Netflix. This is a software limitation, the hardware is overkill for that.
Get a shield or Xiaomi knockoff shield if you want that.
@idonotknowwhy: Do you know why is it that Shield and Xiaomi can play DRM but not Raspberry Pi? Thought both are on ARM.
@BlueSkyAPI: Yeah, because these are closed-source proprietary protocols. It's up to the company to choose to support the platform, and generally, companies like this don't seem to like Linux.
The hardware (arm) can handle it just fine, even my potato TV from 2012 can run netflix with it's onboard cpu.
You can do some super dodgy hacks to compile the opensource chromium, grab the drm component on google-chrome, and force it into chromium, but it's going to be buggy, and probably violates the license agreement for chrome.
@idonotknowwhy: Ah that makes sense. Thank you. So does that mean other hardware makers like NVidia would pay a royalty to Netflix to get authorised to include Netflix's DRM in their box?
@BlueSkyAPI: I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't think so. Netflix want to me everywhere, but they want to avoid people ripping their content.
Android supports the drm technologies, which is why the shield works. If you get a dodgy raspberry pi ripoff like the banana pi, and put their android image on it, Netflix will work.
@idonotknowwhy: Netflix wants to be everywhere but not open source due to the content protection requirement. Makes a lot of sense but awful for the less technical people like me to use RBPi as an easy media consumption unit.
Looks like the scene might be improving slowly. Recent OSMC seems to support Netflix/Amazon Prime out of the box now so that'll save a lot of tinkering. Not sure if the support is added by Kodi or OSMC though. (https://osmc.tv/2019/04/osmcs-easter-update-is-here-with-kod…)
Linux is Open Source. The whole spirit of the open source movement is not to allow "hidden/proprietary" code to run on your computer. DRM is the opposite of Open Source in that you don't know what is running on your machine as the "source code" is not open for inspection.
DRM is futile anyway as they've all been cracked from UHD to netflix to Prime video as evidenced by them being available all over the net.
I believe you were able to stream lower res Netflix on linux but not sure now.
So proprietary streaming services not running on linux is idealogical not due to software/hardware limitations.
@prxy: Thank you for the explanation. Wonder how OSMC builds in Netflix support. (https://osmc.tv/2019/04/osmcs-easter-update-is-here-with-kod…) From my perspective it's good to have easily accessible software to stream DRM content on open source platforms, even if it means running a small non-opensource DRM component.
@BlueSkyAPI: Linux being Open Source means you can do anything to it.
So you can roll your own flavour of linux by getting the "package management system" to accept proprietary sources ie. widevine to play DRM content.
I believe you were able to stream lower res Netflix on linux but not sure now.
Yeah we can do 720p in chrome.
The whole spirit of the open source movement is not to allow "hidden/proprietary" code to run on your computer.
Not really, we're happy to have the choice to run proprietary code if we choose to.
I'd rather have the option to run steam on Linux, vs pirating games and using wine, or worse running Windows lol.
Thanks smiley-k, I'll look into that if I ever get into Netflix again.
@idonotknowwhy: Yes absolutely really:
"The whole spirit of the open source movement is not to allow "hidden/proprietary" code to run on your computer."
DRM is the absolute opposite of what the Open Source movement is trying to achieve.
look up the past Sony DRM rootkit scandal if you want to see what can happen when it goes wrong!
Linux being free and open does give you the ability to install from proprietary sources though as I have mentioned elsewhere.
If you want a non technical discussion that covers most
of the points here is a good one to get you started:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/14/firefox-c…
@prxy: Yeah I'm pretty well aware. I hate DRM, and have followed closely for a decade. I just don't hate it as passionately anymore.
Pretty happy with valve though, and their contributions to mesa, wine, and popularizing gaming on Linux via proton. Maybe that's why I'm willing to accept some diet-drm.
@prxy: In principle I don't mind DRM as I respect Netflix to have to protect their asset (which they've spent a lot of money to produce) but I guess the takeaway here is that DRM not being open source means we don't know what else could be in there.
So we don't really hate DRM - we are hating the possibility that the DRM software could have something else that's more than the stated DRM functionalities.
Thank you for bringing out the point.
I think this has the potential to be a Kodi android box killer.
A lot of people already have other means to use streaming services ie TV(inbuilt), xbox, PS4 etc.
Where is 4K streamed in H264 (especially since 10bit H264 profiles not supported in any hardware I know of)?
Even UHD bluray is HEVC.
Can this do 10bit x264 1080p?
@idonotknowwhy: I don't believe so but am not sure as I haven't seen any specs documenting hardware 10bit x264 1080p.
I haven't seen many hardware devices support it bar something like the rockchip based boxes.
Without hardware assist it would be up to the cpu to software decode it.
So would have to see if the rPi4's cpu has the grunt for software decode.
Remember that x264 is way easier to decode computationally than x265.
I have a 12 year old laptop that can software decode 10bit x264 anime with vlc no problem.
@prxy: Yeah okay, thought it might ahve hardware 10bit x264.
I don't think we'll see this as it's pretty much only the anime scene which has standardized on it.
My rPI3+ struggles and overheats with 720p Hi10p anime, and this thing is only like 20% faster…
@idonotknowwhy: The benchmarks I have seen range between 30 and 120% faster than a rpi3b+. Also with a heat sink it can be overclocked by 10-20%. So you might see a significant improvement.
@adam-07: I guess it depends on if this work is single-thread (10-20% improvement) or multithreaded (100+%)
My rPI3+ already has a heatsink and is overclocked a little.
@idonotknowwhy: One thing to take note of:
"Cortex A72 has 15-instruction pipeline depth, compared to just 8 on the older model, and it also provides out-of-order execution so it’s not waiting for the output of one process to start on another. So, even at the same clock speed (and the BCM2711B0 is based on a smaller process node), Cortex-A72 processors will be significantly faster and use more power than their A53-powered ancestors"
"on the Linpack benchmark, which measures overall compute power, the Pi 4 absolutely whooped the Pi 3 B+ in all three tests. On the all-important single precision (SP) test, the Pi 4, scored 925 as compared to the 3 B+’s mark of 224, a boost of 413 percent."
"On the Sysbench CPU test, the Pi 4 B was capable of performing 394 events per second as compared to 263 for the Pi 3 B+. That's a difference of 50 percent"
Source:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/raspberry-pi-4-b,6193.h…
@idonotknowwhy: The new chip is a different design and can perform some tasks heaps better. I read a list of the things that changed (can't remember them all) and high compute tasks was vastly improved so I think things like optimised video codecs will perform well. If you are hitting the upper limit of what you have now, you are probably the target audience they are looking for for this upgraded product.
@adam-07: Oh yeah, I'm getting one. I'm already hitting the upper limit trying to run dreamcast games on mine :)
@idonotknowwhy: I think emulation will be the killer application for these. As people realise the things it can't emulate are getting smaller and smaller. That and using the 4GB model (maybe not with the AU prices) as a Chrome OS/Linux desktop for people who just browse the web, email and watch YouTube.
I use Kodi on OSMC on my RPi3B+ and it works without any dramas, and I am hoping with the 4th one out now, there would be bargains for 3B+ soon, so I will be out haunting to pick up one more
Check second hand. I'll have a few going up on eBay/Gumtree lol
Upvote, as I learned a lot in this post
interesting the $ per compute power …..huawei have licensed ARM and are using those cpus for some of their new compute intiatives and data centres, cheaper than intel and you can make your own chips without paying the USA.
no wonder trump is upset, with mobile phone cpus advancing quicker than intel x86 chips it’s an interesting future.
Has something changed? Last I read Huawei has had its ARM license suspended due to the fact that even though ARM isn't developed in the US there was concerns about flow on effects for ARM when trading with the US if they were also supplying Huawei with hardware. I believe Huawei did have a large supply of existing chips that'd get them through the year or so however however the ARM licensing issues along with Android remain very large concerns for the company.
Couldn't find anything relating to the sanctions from ARM having been lifted.
no wonder trump is upset
Trump is a lying criminal buffoon.
Any detail of power consumption? The AU energy price I have to care about this.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/raspberry-pi-4-b,6193.h…
"At idle, the Pi 4 B draws 3.4 watts, which is just 17 percent more than the 3 B+. Under load, that number jumps to 7.6 watts, but that’s still only 19 percent more juice than its direct predecessor."
They also talk about the speed relative to the previous RPi boards.
The only issue with that, is that the predecessor had a big power jump. But yep, they may have done better this time.
You are worried about a small device which probably uses no more or less power than for example an Android media player device?. It would be a minuscule power usage.
3.4 Watts idle.
May not be a bargain, but awesome news.
RRP is not a bargain.
This is against posting rules. If you wanna let people know it's available, use the forums.
mods here ignore reports anyway
That doesn't seem to always be the case though?
Aldi posts and some Nintendo devices are posted at RRP to name a couple.
Usually because they're out of stock and hard to find due to being popular items.
This is not and is closer to being an ad.
Normal rrp price tho
Same price here https://raspberry.piaustralia.com.au/raspberry-pi-4-model-b with deliver or free pick up so this is cheaper if your in nsw
Local Pickup - $0.00
Pickup from our warehouse located in Hornsby, NSW
I think you posted the wrong link. That one is the same one as this deal.
it has free delivery
Same price here https://raspberry.piaustralia.com.au/raspberry-pi-4-model-b with deliver or free pick up so this is cheaper if your in nsw
I think you misunderstood. What I'm saying is that you didn't post an alternative source. You've linked to the exact same page as this deal does.
RPi4 will have its use case and competition is a good thing, not being tied to Android OS is also good.
As for RRP, it just launched for pre-order and you would expect prices to go down with time.
Mods generally allow first reported pre-order deal for a new product, even at RRP.
KODI, PLEX and Nvidia Shield for streaming 4k is just one of the use case.
There are plenty others and those who have experience with RPi should know about them.
They should also have existing setup - cables, power supply and the works so it should not blow out total cost of ownership.
IMHO RPi4 is a decent upgrade for those on RPi path.
Expect a ton of dev work like emulation of your favourite childhood retro consoles, IoT, Torrent worker, possibly NAS, Z-wave and Zigbee integration etc.
Yes it's more a product announcement than a bargain, but the product has gained more exposure here than it would in the forums. Graham from core electronics has already talked about an ozb exclusive, if you read through the posts.
Thanks op.
Ordered the 2GB version through Core. ETA is very early July.
Would this work well for live sport streams in browser to a 55inch TV? The 3B+ struggles to do it and quality suffers.
Currently use a laptop connected via hdmi but if this would be capable that would be great
get an android tv box if that is all your doing
I have a Vodafone TV and it also struggles to stream live streams using Firefox for Android TV
Why dont you just use the proper app to watch iptv
Firefox is probably not the ideal choice of streaming in a browser on Android. As asa79 asked, why are you not using the standard apps(I did browser stream with Stan for a bit, because of app compatibility on unsupported Android box)?
@Major Mess: On a laptop with hdmi to TV it streams 720p fine. On both vodafone tv and rp3B+ the quality is poor. I've tested all these on the same stream, same network, same time etc
@ohyesss: I think you'll notice a few improvements if you use kodi, but you might need to tinker a bit with the read ahead and cache settings a bit. advancedxml settings file.
Also on VLC on computer you might notice a bit of stuttering because of the way it fetches the packets. What are you using to stream on your laptop?
I'm not 100% sure of your setup, but also agree there are some issues with streaming on rPi3. I haven't quite isolated to whether it is because of the hardware acceleration support not working properly or if it is something else.
@BunnyDownDog: I use Firefox on the laptop to stream. It's not flawless but these are not high quality streams,usually 720 Max.
Will have a look into kodi, seems to pop up a lot in these topics. Thanks
@ohyesss: The "read ahead and cache settings of advanced xml settings file for Kodi"
referred to by @BunnyDownDog can make a world of difference.
It has done so on my Android Boxes at least.
Would also look at rs-online to purchase as they have free fast Toll shipping, but they don't have any stock of the 4s until September
Good bargain. Cheers OP.
Even though I'm glad to see a new Raspberry release this is not technically a bargain.
I ordered a Raspberry Pi 4, 4gb from pimorini yesterday. It wasn't the cheapest price. It was much cheaper at the pihut, until one factored in the cost of international postage.
Signed for international delivery was 9 pounds.
The pi itself was for 45 Pounds.
(99 AUD in all)
Added an universal usb c 5.1 v, 3A charger with AU plug for 7.5 pounds
Credit card was debited for 112.03 AUD.
Royal mail tracking shows it's already on it's way
would have done the same but cases out of stock means the board would just kick around on my desk, and pimorini are out of power supplies now also which would have been nice to make the most of postage, so might wait until australian stock, and cases are available and maybe an australian supplier tries to sweeten the deal with free shipping.
at least i can load buster on my 3b+ and i guess do mostly the same stuff until we get stock in australia and hopefully some deals.
The advantage of Pirmoni is when ordering for Australia they drop the VAT tax (15% i think) and don’t add the GST
I'm not sure rPi is really a bargain anymore because of the movements in exchange rate. It just doesn't seem as cheap as it did when the original rPi 1,2,3 came out.
There are a few alternatives depending on what you want out of it.
People arguing for extra community support… Um, how often do people need that though? Furthermore for devs it really isn't a issue as this product is generally aimed at devs and engineers.
If you want a media player, just get an android box. It just simplifies things and is more versatile. If you want to go further, you can even get those windows sticks or build a NUC for not that much more.
If you want a media player, just get an android box.
Yep!
People arguing for extra community support… Um, how often do people need that though?
This isn't just helpdesk, it includes all the github projects, etc which are designed with the raspberry pi in mind.
I won't go into the same points i've made in other posts but there are lots of problems with android boxes of all descriptions, windows sticks or even NUC's.
I also don't agree they are that more cost effective anyway if you compare hardware/functionality "apples with apples" so to speak.
You want a solid support base for fixing firmware issues which plague all of the above.
The freaktab forums are littered with people bricking devices or losing functionality due to trying to get root, install recovery or custom roms to fix bugs etc.
the vodafone is the best media player i have to date and i have the xiaomi and some generics collecting dust .
you can buy the voda at local shop, comes with AU power pack, has ethernet and wireless.
if people aren’t into tinkering , just pay for a turnkey media player, sit back and watch media.
![[Pre Order] Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4GB RAM $94.95 + $7.20 Delivery @ Little Bird Electronics / Pi Australia](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/14/466114.jpg?h=16f935e5)
I've just set it up on my pi3. What do you need help with?