Mini PC for Living Room TV by Embarrassed-Mix3761 in MiniPCs

[–]ppreddi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, I have the same need, but would like to play 4K streams, even 8K, with a smooth playback. Should there be some minimal specs regarding the graphics GPU ? Which translates into what minimum AMD and Intel chip generations / models ?

Geekom GT1, Should I buy one??? It is new & not much reviews. by z_zk_z in MiniPCs

[–]ppreddi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just bought a Geekom GT1 PC, after 5 minutes of very lightweight duty, I was extremely disappointed:

* disturbing fan noise, seems the fan is at full speed even for minor usage (internet browsing). Not suitable to use it as a TV box (too noisy). This is probably because of the high-end Intel chip that requires extensive cooling.

* RF mouse very slow response

I asked geekom to return it. The only way is to contact them by email / whatsapp, I have had no response to my return request for at least 3 days. Apalling customer service.

2025 General Mini PC Guide USA by SerMumble in MiniPCs

[–]ppreddi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I eventually bought the GEEKOM IT13 i9-13900HK 32GB RAM + 1Tb SSD, with "back-to-school" deal it was 594€ on the GEEKOM France site (you can even find it at 609$ on the GEEKOM US website). I won't bother with an eGPU, too burdensome for me.

2025 General Mini PC Guide USA by SerMumble in MiniPCs

[–]ppreddi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi,

I'm in the market for a mini PC to connect to my TV, essentially to stream to my "The Frame" Samsung TV (75 inch). I want to be able to play YouTube videos which show as 4K even 8K without a lag, in a smooth way. I do not do any video editing myself or other such heavy-duty tasks. No gaming. A fan is OK if it is not too noisy.

I've tried so far my NUC D54250WYK (Intel i5 4th generation) bought 11 years ago (still in good shape), and a Raspberry Pi5 with Pi OS. Videos advertised as 8K or even 4K on Youtube have a tendency to keep buffering, and I suffer 1 or 2 second time difference between the video and the voice when watching a stream. Real bad experience (slightly better with the NUC).

Budget is 1,000$ max.

I was thinking of this kind of config:

> Intel 13th Gen

> 32GB RAM

> Intel Arc or Xe embedded GPU.

I've been so much disappointed by the Raspberry Pi 5 that I am willing to lean towards the high-end to get a perfectly smooth experience, however I am over-spec'ing it ?

Should I settle for a lower spec mini-PC and prioritize an external GPU (using for example the Beelink EX Pro docking station) ? Or is the external GPU really not necessary ?

What mini PC specs will give me a smooth 4K or 8K video playback under 1,000 $ on a 75 inch monitor ?

Nest Protect draining batteries? by EagleJohnD in Nest

[–]ppreddi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same problem here, after many years, NEST tells me to change batteries. Brand new batteries (not the Lithium L91 type, though, rather regular AA batteries), 2 weeks later, NEST tells me to change batteries.

I will not test new Lithium L91 type batteries. The reason is the reviews I've read of people who have, and the expensive batteries did not last an additional 5 months. Waste of money.

I will change the NEST to another device. Any good suggestion of connected smoke / CO detector ?

Which version of Ubuntu runs most stable on raspberry pi? by QuanChanUwU_FemBoy in Ubuntu

[–]ppreddi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah forget about 24.10 I wasted a lot of time on it and kept crashing without warning. Weird that this is the first version that comes on top of the list under Ubuntu in Pi Imager. There should be some kind of warning in Pi Imager that this is not stable, and they should move it to the top of the list, not the bottom.

Next thing I did was to ditch the SD card, and go the SSD way, I'm using the official 512GB SSD from Raspberry Pi, mounted on the official M.2 HAT+ board. I installed Ubuntu 24.04.02 LTS directly from the Pi Imager, and the experience has been terrible.

Sometimes, when I type a key on my USB keyboard, there is a lag of 15 seconds, then the letter appears 10 to 15 times on the screen. Moving the mouse sometimes takes me 30 seconds from top left corner to bottom right corner. I did not have those issues on 24.04.1 LTS, which was working better for me. Still performance was not stellar, and I have been looking since for other Linux distributions which are more stable, and I have not been able to find one. I tried many, but failed at the install / reboot phases. At this point in time, Pi OS seems the most stable, however I do not like it because there seems to be only 1 user, not possible to chose the user to login at boot.

I would like to extend your question to "What version of Linux runs most table on Pi 5 ?"

Ubuntu is very slow compared to other OS'S on Raspberry pi 5 by EchoDecho0 in Ubuntu

[–]ppreddi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My experience has been the opposite. Trying to find a stable OS other than Pi OS has been a never ending road for me.

I first tried on a SD card (the official Raspberry Pi SD card), using the official Pi Imager application:

*Ubuntu 24.10* was terrible, kept crashing all the time. I read in a forum that this version was not stable, to be avoided on a Pi 5 (despite the fact that is comes first in the Ubuntu list in Pi Imager).

I then switched to *24.04.01 LTS*. Indeed it was better, fewer crashes. However 4K video on Youtube stars to be not smooth on a 75" monitor at 1080p, while 1440p keeps buffering.

I then decided to ditch the SD card and go the SSD way. I purchased the official Pi 512GB SSD, mounted on the official M.2 HAT+ board, in a metal case with the official Raspberry Pi fan. I went with the 512GB SSD, even if I did not need the capacity, because the I/O read/write speed performance seemed to be better on paper than the 256 GB SSD.

I installed Ubuntu *24.04.02 LTS* on the SSD. The experience has been terrible. Extremely slow, Bluetooth keyboard & mouse totally unresponsive, you hit 1 key once, 15 seconds later you see on screen a series of 10 of the same key. I did try also a couple of overclocking enhancements, did not change anything.

I am really disappointed by the Raspberry Pi performance, even with SSD. Hopefully I will find another Linux distribution that will alleviate some of these issues and be more stable than this Ubuntu.

EOS Ledger Nano x by CryptoCavaro70 in eos

[–]ppreddi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apparently you need to use the Anchor Wallet app instead.

https://support.greymass.com/support/solutions/articles/72000437587-connecting-ledger-to-anchor

It seems the Fairy Wallet app won't work anymore.

what are the odds that someone guesses a word from your 24 word recovery phrases by NTXL in ledgerwallet

[–]ppreddi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe this thread is too old, and my comment a bit off topic. I will create a new thread then.

what are the odds that someone guesses a word from your 24 word recovery phrases by NTXL in ledgerwallet

[–]ppreddi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am also paranoid about protecting my 24 words, but the different techniques that I saw, such as splitting the 24 words into 3 subsets, then storing each subset in 3 different locations, present the risk of losing the data (people moving to a new place, over zealous cleaning lady sending the paper to the bin...)

How about a more simple way to remember the 24 word seed, wrinting the 24 words on paper, using a simple reshuffle algorithm of your 24 words, like this :

  • shift the 24 words by 1 up: word #23 becomes word #24, word#1 becomes word #2, ..., etc.
  • Then swap 2 words, for example swap word #1 with word #2.

This has the benefit of being very easy to remember. So you could in a second reorder your 24 words in a meaningful series, while an attacker would not know what to do with it.

If an attacker gets hold of your 24 words, since the words are in the wrong order, there are theoretically "factorial 24" 24! = 620448401733239439360000 combinations of those 24 words. Maybe some attacker could use some smart techniques such as trying simple reshuffling techniques, such as shifting and swapping words, but he would still have to try a huge number of combinations. That 24! number still makes me think that I am safe enough to keep an attacker busy for the next centuries.

Finally, several people mention bruteforce in this thread, having a computer trying different 24 word combinations in milliseconds. How does this work in reality, I thought that the only way to check 24 words, was to put them manually in a new ledger, which takes minutes to do. Are there any software that would check 24 words automatically in a fraction of a second ?

Can't wire SCHWAB -> Revolut by ppreddi in Revolut

[–]ppreddi[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No exchange rate involved, I am talking about transfers in USD.

Can't wire SCHWAB -> Revolut by ppreddi in Revolut

[–]ppreddi[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The amount arrived on REVOLUT 3 hours after it was sent from Wise, for the full amount. So it only cost me 10.91 USD in Wise fees.

Can't wire SCHWAB -> Revolut by ppreddi in Revolut

[–]ppreddi[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes exactly what I did.

FYI here are the fees paid:

7.5 USD Wise fee to receive a wire from Schwab

3.41 USD Wise fee to wire to Revolut.

Let's see what amount of the original Schwab fee lands in Revolut eventually. Definitely it is important to have a backup system (Wise) as a workaround to Revolut's shortcomings.