Anyone looking to get into this project, this is a good place to start. Amazon Warehouse has a J-Tech ENCH4 "Like New" for $76.18. Used, sure, but no more risk than eBay and backed by Amazon returns.
NOTE: Link should take you to the Warehouse direct, but you may need to select the other buying options.
Received a LinkPi ENC1-V3 today. Not had a ton of time to play, but so far the experience has been good. Never tried a Version 2, but this new model has a new processor, a move to 2GB of DDR4 and 8GB of storage.
I will continue to test. If there is anything someone would like me to test or confirm, please let me know.
i went with same model. What are you using for settings? I find it works ok, but tuning is slower than i would expect.
Thanks, I was looking to possibly dive into all this. Curious as to why you didn't get the one you recommended above?
My basic settings so far:
Output: 1080p60
Codec: H.264 High
Bitrate: CBR
BitRate: 20Mbit*
GOP: 2 sec
Stream: HTTP (TS)
Audio: Stereo AAC, 44.1K, 320 kb/s
The video bitrate is ridiculously high for testing. I've only had the unit for a single day and want to see what kind of torture it can take. With the settings above, I hover around 12-15% CPU and 25% Memory.
The only time I was able to "crush" the CPU was when I adjusted the VBR to use a QP profile of 0, a test of "lossless" encoding. This test worked, but the encoding was a bit choppy at times and did not look that much better. I mean, the source is not lossless, so it is a waste of performance.
Tuning for me has been pretty reliable. My testing is with a DirecTV Osprey set top box which natively runs the DTV Stream interface. I just have to have ADB wake the box and input a channel number, and I'm good to go. However, turning on the full frame de-interlace does cause a delay in stream. I don't use that setting currently.
I already have a J-Tech ENCH4 encoder. This was the first encoder I purchased. It has fine build quality, respectable performance and the firmware is very stable. I just wanted something new to play with. This forum is the Playground after all.
This project and ADBTuner sent me down a rabbit hole of reading about encoders. Most all of the encoders are based on a Hikvision platform developed for security cameras. All these encoders are nearly identical and most are running SoC from 2016/17 (with slight variations). Seems the chip shortage stalled market for these devices. The LinkPi is another cheap encoder platform with interesting firmware and regular updates. It looked like something fun to tinker with, but the performance was very much like the many other Hikvison platforms as it uses the same era and class SoC (boo). Then this Summer LinkPi announced platform upgrades (huzzah).
The ENC1 V3 is a pretty big departure from the V2. Instead of 512MB of DDR3, the new version uses 2GB of DDR4, which I'm sure helped add support for 4K30. On the V2, the base storage is 256MB where the new model uses 8GB. The V3 uses a new processor, the ss524v100. This "new" SoC is very similar to the old Hi3520DV400, so much it can act as a drop in replacement, but supposedly has better performance and codec support. The upgrades and low price was enough to get me to bite on a new toy.
My impression so far, which has only been a day, is the LinkPi ENC1-V3 is really quite nice for the price. The performance is fantastic. On the a single 1080P stream, I'm not seeing any of the occasional frame drops like I did on my other test encoders (I'm looking at you news scroll on bottom of screen). Picture quality, although a little sharp, looks great.
Another perk is possible access to the filesystem. Excellent GitHub info on the LinkPi platform here. I'm thinking of trying to get AH4C to run natively on the box, an idea I got from seeing this video of a STB remote control added to custom LinkPI (see video below).
What I can't speak to is reliability. The LinkPi platform is billed as an OEM system, but these encoders really seem to be development boxes. If you are worried about quality and comforted by warranty support, you may want to stick to some of the well known brands: Uray, J-Tech, Orivision, etc.
For around $130 on Amazon right now, this encoder seems a good deal. There are two vendors, Youyeetoo and WayPonDev, selling this encoder with Amazon shipping. With extended holiday returns (US), this gives you until the end of January to figure out if you like the device.
Happy Encoding!
EDIT: The Grammar!
Very cool device. The Github has some great info!
Thanks. I think VBR may have been my culprit. I'll test some more.
I kinda don't know what this thread is about, but I'm nosey, curious by nature, and would like to learn. LOL! Is a HD capturing device different than what's being discussed here, HDMI encoders?
Well root access on the LinkPi is a success. As I was in the middle of recording some shows, I did not do too much, but I was able to update the nosignal.yuv file. I think this looks much nicer when waiting to tune 
Nice work. Let's see what it's running:
uname -a
ldd --version
cat /proc/cpuinfo
I suspect you can compile ah4c simply:
GOARCH=arm GOARM=7 GOOS=linux go build . -o ah4c-armv7
Sharing my findings, but I will say I'm a pretty novice with Linux, but I do like to learn.
# uname -a
armv7l GNU/Linux
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
model name : ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)
BogoMIPS : 48.00
Features : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part : 0xc07
CPU revision : 5
Running ldd did not produce a result. I assume this is to check shared libraries. Looking at the SDK for LinkPi, seems there is a LinkLib
Hrmf.. I might have to get one of these devices to fiddle with!
You might like to know there is now a coupon for an extra 5% off, just dropped today on Amazon.
If you are are looking for higher density of ports, and a little faster processor, the five HDMI port ENC5 V2 was also upgraded to more recent SoC, DDR4 and storage size. These models go for about $400 on eBay, but WayPonDev via Amazon has it for around $330 plus shipping. Long ship dates though.
Got a late Black Friday Deal alert from Amazon, dropped price to $103.99 on the LinkPi ENC1 V3.
EDIT: Sold out as of 11/20 morning. They went quickly. Maybe they will get more stock.
This looks interesting. Ive been looking at the cheap 1channel devices from china on ebay, but have been hesitant. They can be a little cheaper than this box.
Is the HDMI out on this box a “pass through” ?
At least with the black friday deal and return options im gonna pull the trigger finally and check this out. Can always return to Amazon if it doesnt meet my expectations.
Thanks for the tip
I've not tested the pass through, by design such is supposed to.
I rec'd a LinkPi V3 over the weekend. In my early h264 testing, it does seem to have quite good processing. Text crawls on the bottom of the screen have been nearly perfect. And, in all seriousness much, much better than any of the previous encoders I've played with. Including the URay 4K encoder. Which started off great, but it has developed a regular stutter, no matter what settings I try. Every 3-4 seconds there is a hard stutter, which makes things unwatchable. I guess that one will get returned.
One item to note on the LInkPI, my early testing was with an ONN box, plugged into the encoder with a separate HDMI cable, went well. When I tried my Chromecast (which has a built in HDMI cable) the encoder bounced between seeing a signal and no signal. So, will have to troubleshoot more, but odd that it doesn't like the Chromecast HDMI connector???
Im getting the unit this week. Ill let ya know
Just to clarify, did you get the stutter on your URay or the LinkPi? The only time I saw a stutter on my LinkPi is while I did a reboot during a stream. Took a minute to buffer. Overall, the performance of my LinkPi has been really nice.
I have not tried my Chromecast on the LinkPi yet. I ordered a second ENC1V3 to play due to that Black Friday sale. Hoping to get some deep dive testing done over the Thanksgiving Holiday.