XBMC Running On Raspberry Pi

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Posted by Unknown on Wednesday January 25, 2012 @04:51AM from the i'll-take-ten dept.

jones_supa writes "The Raspberry Pi Foundation has a news release about Raspberry Pi running XBMC smoothly, turning the board into a media center the size of deck of cards. Looking at Pi's low price, small size and hardware 1080p support, this could make an interesting HTPC project. Included is a video demonstration of the setup. For this to be possible, the XBMC team created a customized version that targets the beefier Raspberry Pi model."

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Impressive hardware by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-25 04:55 · Score: 3, Interesting

The big news is that the GPU on the Raspberry Pi doubles the performance the iPhone 4S -- on a board that costs a fraction of the iPhone. Now that's impressive.
1. Re:Impressive hardware by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-25 05:04 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  What on earth are we talking about here? Is it the ability to display a UI, or the ability to decode H.264 at that resolution? They are very different things.
2. Re:Impressive hardware by chrb · 2012-01-25 05:11 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  There is more to GPU performance than the ability to decode 1080p H264. I believe the OP is referring to this story: $25 Raspberry Pi packs 2x iPhone 4S GPU performance, roasts Tegra 2
  
  Forget teaching kids how to program; the $25 Raspberry Pi computer might just be the home entertainment STB and compact gaming console we’ve been waiting for. The low-cost computer – and its $35 sibling – should deliver double the graphical performance of the iPhone 4S, according to executive director (and Broadcom SoC architect) Eben Upton, telling Digital Foundry that not only does the BCM2835 GPU at the heart of the Raspberry Pi roast Apple’s latest smartphone, but it thoroughly whups NVIDIA’s Tegra 2.
3. Re:Impressive hardware by ifrag · 2012-01-25 05:16 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Is it the ability to display a UI, or the ability to decode H.264 at that resolution
  For that matter, which H.264 profile? Is it just CBP (Constrained Baseline Profile) or BP? If it can decode the same H.264 my Windows box does, then it would be quite impressive, but I just don't see how that would be possible at this price and current generation hardware.
  
  --
  Fear is the mind killer.
4. Re:Impressive hardware by Rakishi · 2012-01-25 05:35 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  And probably sucks up five times the power that the iphone GPU does. Amazing what you can do when you don't have to deal with trying to get 7 hours of run time out of a 5watt-hour battery.
5. Re:Impressive hardware by 19thNervousBreakdown · 2012-01-25 06:02 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Argh, I must have messed up some HTML:
  Specs
  
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  <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
6. Re:Impressive hardware by HarrySquatter · 2012-01-25 06:12 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  How is he missing the point? The iPhone 4S is more expensive due to having many more features than the Pi (touchscreen, gps, cell radio, wifi, internal storage, more RAM, Bluetooth, wifi, built-in camera, etc.). Also it's GPU is constrained by power restrictions due to battery life. Comparing the two is dishonestdishonest and not analogous.
  Also the only reason this can be sold art $25 is heavy subsidizing by Broadcom. Again making this a dishonest comparison.
7. Re:Impressive hardware by SuperSlacker64 · 2012-01-25 06:18 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  It has a phone app now? Man, it really can do everything!
8. Re:Impressive hardware by c++0xFF · 2012-01-25 06:37 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Back of the envelope calculations:
  The iPhone 4 battery is 5.25 Whr at 3.7V. The Raspberry Pi draws 300mA peak. Let's be pessimistic and assume that's the constant draw for XBMC video decoding. At 5V, that's 1.5W, which will give about 3.5 hrs of battery life. I'd bet you'd actually see closer to 4 hours in real-life tests. SD or 720p video would probably see even lower power consumption.
  So, how does the iPhone do? Real-world examinations of Apple's claim of "up to 10 hours" for playing video are hard to find. Apple's tests were done with a video from iTunes: 640×480 resolution, so this is hardly a fair comparison. PCWorld found the life to be about 6 hours for 720p video, but that includes the power from the display (at full brightness) and wifi. (The iPhone has had battery life issues because of an OS problem, just to complicate things a bit).
  So, the Raspberry Pi compares pretty well. I would love to see someone make a fair test here: play an HD video over HDMI for both devices and measure the power consumption. The Raspberry Pi will draw more current, probably, but not nearly as much as you might think.
Re:Excellent by SJHillman · 2012-01-25 04:59 · Score: 5, Funny

No, I'm just happy to see you.
x264 specs ain't everything by afex · 2012-01-25 05:06 · Score: 4, Interesting

while the specs for decoding video are AWESOME (especially for the price point), what I continually point out to people is that the low CPU can still kill you on some things. I have an NVIDIA ION / Atom D330 HTPC that can destroy the 40Mbps x264 killasample absolutely no problem, yet has trouble on some of the even medium-flashy skins for XBMC.

like i said, performance/dollar this thing is still awesome, but you do still have to think of the whole package.
1. Re:x264 specs ain't everything by ackthpt · 2012-01-25 05:14 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  while the specs for decoding video are AWESOME (especially for the price point), what I continually point out to people is that the low CPU can still kill you on some things. I have an NVIDIA ION / Atom D330 HTPC that can destroy the 40Mbps x264 killasample absolutely no problem, yet has trouble on some of the even medium-flashy skins for XBMC.
  like i said, performance/dollar this thing is still awesome, but you do still have to think of the whole package.
  It's mouthwatering .. waiting is the hard part.. I want one in my car, at my desk, at work, everywhere. Do you think they'll sell these as a six pack? :)
  
  --
  
  A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
2. Re:x264 specs ain't everything by Fallingcow · 2012-01-25 06:35 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Let me guess... you buy Monster cables?
Audio and video format support? by JDG1980 · 2012-01-25 05:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

I know that the Raspberry Pi is specifically advertised as supporting hardware decoding of H.264 up to 1080p30 at up to 40 Mbps. What I want to know is if it also supports VC-1 and MPEG-2 decoding at the same resolutions and data rates. I know that the underlying SoC has this capability, but will it be blocked or omitted from the SDK for licensing/patent reasons? Any of these three codecs can be found on Blu-Rays, and transcoding the rips to H.264 would reduce the quality.
Also, what about bitstreaming the HD audio codecs (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA) over HDMI 1.3? I know Raspberry Pi didn't want to pay for audio decoding licenses, but simply sending the raw bitstream to a receiver over the HDMI link shouldn't present any licensing issues (and is the best quality method to use anyway).
For the Raspberry Pi to be a good media streamer, it needs to be able to do these things.
Re:Excellent by Malard · 2012-01-25 05:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

What's more, we're working on getting libCEC to support the built in CEC support so you won't need the USB - CEC Adapter to get built in remote control support!

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XBMC | Pulse-Eight
Re:Excellent by Gaygirlie · 2012-01-25 06:31 · Score: 5, Informative

You're mixing things: the video plays at full speed, it's the window below it that has 8 fps. Ie. It's as it should be.
Re:Excellent by wagnerrp · 2012-01-25 06:33 · Score: 4, Informative

Recording HD or even SD video can put a strain on a chip and the Raspberry was made to be low priced not high powered. But I have a feeling once you added all the stuff required to make it a fully functional HTPC you'd be better off just getting one the the AMD E-350s and calling it a day.
Recording HD or even SD video hardly puts any strain on a chip, since you would be foolish to record anything that didn't come pre-compressed, either from a digital tuner, or analog encoder. All the chip has to do is shuffle bits from the capture subsystem to the storage subsystem. The question then becomes one of whether the performance of a late-90s PC is sufficient for your metadata needs, running the database, processing guide data, performing scheduling decisions, post-recording analysis of the video, etc...
If you're actually looking for a fully functional HTPC, you're better off getting real hardware, and not some intentionally underpowered system. Electricity is cheap, modern chips idle very efficiently, and it's not like you can't just put the thing in standby or power it off if you're that concerned. Having some real meat behind your HTPC just opens up a bunch of new possibilities, and opportunity for expansion.
Re:Excellent by chill · 2012-01-25 06:42 · Score: 3, Insightful

Because the storage devices are centralized, at least in my case with a media server in the basement.
The TVs and sound systems in each bedroom are NOT thousands of dollars. You can get 40" 1080p systems for around $300 now. Cheaper if you can deal with 720p.
Now, for under $50 (includes case, power supply, etc.) I can pop a box on the back of the TV to access everything I have centrally stored (400+ movies, 200+ TV episodes, 100+ short animations, 1,000+ music/audio) in each room. And if their Hulu and Amazon Prime plug-ins for XMBC work as well, get all that.

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Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Re:Excellent by quarkoid · 2012-01-25 07:09 · Score: 4, Informative

No, it's credit card sized. How many times do you need to be told?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Picture-001-copy.jpg
(ignore the border - that's removed after manufacture).
Re:Excellent by Joce640k · 2012-01-25 07:47 · Score: 3, Informative

Ummm, that's just the PCB. The finished Pi has connectors sticking out from all sides. Some of them are about 1cm long. Here's picture proof.

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