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

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the melts-in-your-mouth dept.

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."

6 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cheapest by Henriok · · Score: 4, Informative

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

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    - Henrik

    - when the Shadows descend -
  2. Small Correction: by lobiusmoop · · Score: 4, Informative

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

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
  3. Re:Cheapest by Vuojo · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  4. Mine cost me $85 by Phil+Urich · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
  5. Re:Cheapest by RattFink · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    "I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
  6. Points wrong/missing in summary by donj · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.