[abdullahkhalids]

Is it at all possible to run 1080p video using Pi Zero 2 W smoothly with no jittering?

What about launching a browser and playing a 1080p video from a streaming site?

I am looking for a computer to connect to my internet-disconnected TV.

[pseudosavant]

I've easily played 1080p video, but not using a full Linux GUI. The more effective way is to use a command-line video player like mpv that can leverage the hardware decoder and render to the frame buffer.

I made a project for a band to use on-stage where it would switch between videos by tapping a bluetooth foot pedal. The stompbox-style foot pedal buttons were just wired into an ESP32 acting like a bluetooth keyboard sending 1, 2, or 3. The key bindings for mpv were setup to instantly switch to specific videos for each number. It worked perfectly.

I have also used it to real-time 1080p stream my gaming PC from another room using Moonlight so that I could play in more than one location in my home. That was also running directly from the command-line.

But trying to use something like X/Wayland and proper GUI apps usually performs poorly. 512MB of RAM and the 1GHz CPU clock struggle with that.

[ssl-3]

> Is it at all possible to run 1080p video using Pi Zero 2 W smoothly with no jittering?

Yes, I think so. With strong caveats.

I used a Pi 3b as the primary video player for local media in my living room for a few years, starting a decade or so ago when that was the new hotness. The Pi Zero 2W is the same thing except with less IO and a somewhat-slower clock speed (but it can be overclocked to match the 3b).

I just put an appropriate build of Kodi on an SD card, booted it up like an appliance, pointed it at my network share, and used it.

The performance was proper for the time doing this in lets-sit-down-and-watch-a-movie mode. It was generally flawless with 1080p h.264 and lesser formats. It was not so good with h.265/HEVC, but that wasn't as common back then as it is today.

I was very pleased when I picked up a Pi 4 for this role once that came 'round. It does a very fine job with all of my 1080p media on my old dumb TV, including h.265 (which it has a hardware decoder for).

> What about launching a browser and playing a 1080p video from a streaming site?

No, not in my experience. There may be an incantation that I don't know, but I have not had very good success with these devices with browser-based streaming media. They have, for me, been resolutely disappointing in this role. I blame gaps in the video driver/X11/browser stack, but I haven't ever wanted to go very deep into this particular rabbit hole.

> I am looking for a computer to connect to my internet-disconnected TV.

If you're in the States and you can tolerate the ecosystem (which is definitely not browser-based), then you might find that a $25 ONN streaming box from Wal-Mart is a better bet for this job. These run Android.

[drnick1]

> If you're in the States and you can tolerate the ecosystem (which is definitely not browser-based), then you might find that a $25 ONN streaming box from Wal-Mart is a better bet for this job. These run Android.

These are horrible from a privacy standpoint, and should be avoided. They are cheap for a reason.

[ssl-3]

Yeah, probably. So is the Android phone that I bought for $64 that I take with me everywhere.

My war is already lost. Reaping the spoils of assimilation is only natural.

[N1ckFG]

In my experience, yes to hardware-accelerated video from CLI--running in EGL mode, with no window manager, that RPi model works very well. (A C++ app that uses video as a texture can be surprisingly performant, too.) But no to playing video in a full desktop environment and browser, not smoothly--it's just too much overhead.

[nine_k]

An old thin client machine, like a Thinkcentre M73, would do the job, and would cost less than an RPi. Look at EBay.

[justin66]

He's talking about a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. It's a $15 part.

[drnick1]

No, I don't think it will be beefy enough, since you need to be running a desktop environment essentially to do that. (Check out Plasma Bigscreen BTW.)

I used thin client seems much better for this.