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Embedded Player Possibilities

Update #21 · Jun 1, 2012 · 9 comments

More response to issues raised during the Kickstart:

Finding Dedicated Player Hardware

I've gotten a number of conflicting reports on what Raspberry Pi (among other embedded platforms) can and cannot do. Unfortunately, it's not so simple to figure out, because most manufacturers quote the 1080p performance with H.264 encoding and the VP8 performance for lower resolution -- most mobile devices don't have 1080P screens, and it's mostly Android driving demand for VP8 support right now.

I think it may turn out that Raspberry Pi actually can't work even at the hardware level for decoding VP8 video at 1080P resolution, though.

However, I suspect this situation will loosen up over the next year or so -- either because VP8 gains more traction or because more Android devices will have 1080p screens.

For example, a friend directed me to this "1080P Android internet TV Box" on Alibaba (pictured below), which might have the necessary specs. It's a multimedia box designed for Android -- it specifically mentions playback of VP8 video at 1080P as a feature and it has an SDHC slot, so that's promising.

I don't know if this is the one to go with and I don't know the price, but I put in a quote request to see what it would cost. It does come with accessories and an IR remote control:


If not this one, though, I expect there will be another platform that will work out as a low-end dedicated player that can be made available later. I will certainly be looking for it.

Another, somewhat more purist, possibility would be to try to create an open hardware player (Raspberry Pi is not open hardware -- I may have said that it was, because I had a misconception about that awhile back). I do some people who work on open hardware and especially graphics hardware, so I'll be talking to them as well.

Comments

    1. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Christian Klass on June 2, 2012

      I asked the Boxee-guys a while ago about possible support for Lib-Ray, but they couldn't say anything yet: "We can't say for sure until the format is released and in use. If we hear from many users that it's something that they're interested in, we'd definitely look into what it would take to support the format. " (coming from the official speaker). Dune-HD CEO Konstantin Dyshlevo didn't think that Sigma-Chips are supporting VP8 yet. He'd also support Lib-Ray though: "But of course when this format becomes popular for our users it will be needed to check what can be done. (not so much resources to do it in advance)"

    2. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Terry Hancock on June 2, 2012

      Carlos Solis - The key thing is that it has the hardware decoder for VP8 with capacity to 1080p. The actual software stack might take some work.

    3. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Carlos Solis on June 1, 2012

      But... Can it run Replicant?

    4. Missing_small

      Creator Andrew Clayton on June 1, 2012

      Indeed, here's the WebM projects blog post on it.
      http://blog.webmproject.org/2012/03/webm-gaining-momentum-in-hardware.html

    5. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Terry Hancock on June 1, 2012

      maikmerten - Awesome! That does sound promising then. I wish I knew how much it cost (I've only recently signed up to Alibaba -- not really sure what to expect from it).

    6. Missing_small

      Creator maikmerten on June 1, 2012

      That specific SOC is even advertised as "the world's first SOC to support decoding of the Full HD (1080P) VP8 video codec entirely in hardware". http://www.rock-chips.com/upload/image/RK29/29.jpg

      So that platform indeed looks promising.

    7. Photo_on_2009-09-27_at_19.05.small

      Creator Jon Rosebaugh on June 1, 2012

      I guess it also lacks a SD card slot, so you'd need a USB card reader too. Which means my comment is pretty dumb, sorry.

    8. Photo_on_2009-09-27_at_19.05.small

      Creator Jon Rosebaugh on June 1, 2012

      Google's new Chromebox certainly has the specs to be a set-top player, and is linux-based so I'm sure you could replace the chromeOS with a player OS. However, at $329, it is a bit expensive for this purpose. (It also only has DVI and Displayport output; you'd need a separate HDMI adapter.)

    9. Missing_small

      Creator maikmerten on June 1, 2012

      That box uses the Rockchip RK2918 ARM SOC. According to the WebM Blog, this one indeed has a VP8 hardware decoder: http://blog.webmproject.org/2011/12/picking-right-driver.html

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