New XBMC Port Promises ARM-Powered HD In the Palm of Your Hand

Engadget has a recent teaser video promising HD content via XBMC running on a 600MHz Beagleboard. This could mean great things for home theater putterers, with the Beagleboard tipping the scales at a modest $150 and the ability to fit in the palm of your hand. Already running on everything from MIDs to AppleTVs and now moving to ARM-powered devices like the Beagleboard, it looks like XBMC needs to be renamed from "Xbox Media Center" to "ubiquitous media center."

Comments

Cheapest

[manekineko2]

This looks incredible if they can pull it off, but until this is out, what is the cheapest XBMC machine I could throw together that would be able to play any content I throw at it?

I'd love to jump on upgrading from my vintage Xbox XBMC, but I'd hate to drop a few hundred on an upgrade only to find out that it plays 99% of videos out there, but chokes on all high bit rate 1080p MKVs with lots of action, or something like that.

Re:Cheapest

[Henriok]

600 MHz ARM-processor won't be able to play 1080p MKV. This can almost play 480p apparently.

Re:Cheapest

[Vuojo]

Anything with Nvidias ION board can handle high bitrate 1080p movies without dropped frames. Here is a link to the board I used for my XBMC http://pden.zotac.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=169&category_id=15&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

Re:Cheapest

[0100010001010011]

Hardware Decoder...

Right now people are working on getting the CrystalHD from Broadcom working under OS X and Linux. Supposedly they can't release it for NDA reasons.

Then there is also VDPAU. I know there isn't an ARM port (YET!). Feature Set C decodes nearly everything in HD. I was playing 1080p with 10% CPU.

There are a ton of those set top box devices from WD and other companies that advertise to 1080P with a small fanless device.

Re:Cheapest

[RattFink]

The processor on the board, a OMAP3530, also has a ~500mhz C64x+ DSP and a POWERVR SGX video accellerator. There is plenty of power on it.

Re:Cheapest

[drgould]

A recent Lifehacker article suggested the $200 Acer Aspire Revo. Pros: 160GB HD, HMDI output, Gigabit ethernet, reportably plays 1080p, runs XBMC. Cons: single-core, 1GB RAM, no built-in expandability, WiFi or IR.

For $320, the Revo's big brother also has dual-core, 2GB RAM and built-in WiFi.

Re:Cheapest

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

The processor on the board, a OMAP3530, also has a ~500mhz C64x+ DSP and a POWERVR SGX video accellerator. There is plenty of power on it.

Yeah, its right there in the name!

Re:Cheapest

[slim]

does it enforce DRM?

XBMC? The media player that plays video files inside RARs on the fly?

No, enforcing DRM is not one of their priorities.

Re:Cheapest

[drinkypoo]

There are a ton of those set top box devices from WD and other companies that advertise to 1080P with a small fanless device.

The problem with this notion is that those devices usually can only decode a limited set of video codecs at 1080P, using a companion chip or coprocessor. Many of those OMAP devices don't even have the power to play an AVI and upscale it to 1080P if they have to do it with the CPU. Most of them will hw decode most MPEG streams, but they won't even handle all of those.

Small Correction:

[lobiusmoop]

The Beagleboard runs at 500Mhz, not 600Mhz (they underclock the processor for reliability. I have one btw)

Re:Small Correction:

[sootman]

And for those who have never heard of or seen a Beagleboard, it's worth noting that it doesn't have a built-in display. So the headline should be "New XBMC Port Promises ARM-Powered HD Source in the Palm of Your Hand." Which is still pretty cool but I thought they were talking about something that I could hold in my hand and watch. Note to headline writers: small is great, but "fits in your hand" isn't too special unless the device is intended to be used while in your hand.

Mine cost me $85

[Phil Urich]

I just threw an NVIDIA 8400 GS 512MB PCI card into my ancient PIII 600mHz, and since I'm running Linux (Ubuntu 9.04 although I've seriously tweaked the install) XBMC just uses VDPAU to offload all the rendering to the video card. And yes, it can do 1080p x264 video just fine, which amuses me to no end since the majority of the parts in that computer are from 1999!

If you don't have a spare old computer around, or you want to buy a complete solution, basically any of the "Ion-based" nettops should be cheap, tiny and get the job done. There's tons out there, and you can even get one from System76 that already has Ubuntu installed ( http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=95 ) at which point you only need to add the XBMC PPA to the repository list, click install and apply, and voila, a tiny cheap machine capable of 1080p video. For some anecdotal evidence on how easily these setups can run you can hunt around the XBMC forums a bit. Basically the key is just to get any kind of machine with a GeForce 8-or-later card in it, and the newer ones have even more features as far as using VDPAU is concerned.

Re:Didn't XBMC drop the Xbox support awhile ago?

[0100010001010011]

Someone is still making nightly builds: http://sshcs.com/xbmc/

It's getting almost all the same new features and bug fixes as everything else. From what I understand it is one massive main source trunk. Everything platform specific is taken care of by #if statements and the config script.

Pandora?

[Spykk]

As I recall, the pandora handheld is also built on an OMAP3530 and has a video out jack. Video playback didn't work out so well for Sony's PSP, but having a HTPC in my pocket that can stream my videos over the network seems like a good thing.

Points wrong/missing in summary

[donj]

1. XBMC on ARM Branch can be viewed here: http://xbmc.org/trac/browser/branches/xbmc_on_arm
2. Discussion about XBMC on ARM with a lot more background info is going on here in the official forum: http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35139&page=14
3. You might want to link to the first source i.e. the official xbmc webpage: http://xbmc.org/theuni/2009/10/23/xbmc-on-arm-gles-2-0/
4. XBMC is not called Xbox Media Center anymore, just XBMC.

How does this compare to a Popcorn Hour?

[sunking2]

Or other network media tank? I love my IO-100 and it plays everything I have ever thrown at it. Low wattage, runs linux, excellent audio/video connectivity and is I think 300mhz mips.

Re:How does this compare to a Popcorn Hour?

[sunking2]

There are tons of versions and companies that have their own. Popcorn Hour is just the name of the biggest selling company, like Coke for soda. Mine, the IO-100HD from Dragon Tech Corp is completely fanless and runs cool and quiet. Not a single crash. The actual term to search for is Network Media Tank and you'll find tons of reviews for many different brands. Some have had heat issues. I bought mine to do exactly as you want, to replace the xbox 360 and it's worked beautiful. Plays full 1080P mp4 from a network share no problem.

This is nowhere near the cheapes media center

[popo]

WD LIVE blows this away, and has better playback....

A much better bang for the buck.

http://wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=735

Re:Cheapest - Under $300

[MorderVonAllem]

There's a way to watch/play mythtv recordings/live tv on xbmc using the myth:// protocol. I find that xbmc works a lot better than myth for existing media and don't bother running the mythtv frontend.

Re:Cheapest - Under $300

[Eil]

XBMC is a media player only. If you want to record TV, you still need Myth. If you don't, XBMC is roughly 325 million times easier to set up and use.