(2012-05-01 19:04)bornagainpengui Wrote:  

(2012-04-30 09:27)welshblob Wrote:  Given that these boxes are being manufactured already and new ones based on this chip seem to be released weekly then is there a need for a kickstarter project?

Because it's not about the hardware, it's about some sort of standardization and reference design. Think Boxee Box without the lock-in, then add Android games.

Right now everyone just kind of builds something or starts with an old pc sitting in the corner and installs XBMC. It works. It works better than any of us have any right to expect it to work, a testament to the ability of the developers here--but it never works 100% of the time due to strange hardware quirks and differences in configuration.

My thinking (as an enduser, not a programmer) is that if one set of hardware was chosen, then it could be targeted towards much more easily because the developers would have a common platform on which to work. Instead of trying to build something and hoping it will be "good enough" or buying a customer device like the AppleTV and hoping it can be hacked to doing what we want this would allow people to buy a finished box and plug it in. This would be a better deal for both group, those who want to tinker and those who want it to just work.

Like I said, I'm not a programmer so I'm probably missing all sorts of reasons why this is impractical and not likely to work. To me though this kind of thing just makes sense and I really don't understand why nothing like it hasn't happened already. I understand the reasoning behind not wanting to make a XBMC Wii, or an XBMC 360, or PS3 edition because there is no way to prevent the host company from wiping out your efforts with a firmware update. I've never understood why the XBMC team never sat down, talked amongst themselves and said "Hardware XYZ is what we will target and support with OS ABC and the amount of RAM 123, etc etc. XBMC may work on other hardware but this is what we recommend."

--bornagainpenguin

(2012-05-01 19:04)bornagainpengui Wrote:  

(2012-04-30 09:27)welshblob Wrote:  Given that these boxes are being manufactured already and new ones based on this chip seem to be released weekly then is there a need for a kickstarter project?

Because it's not about the hardware, it's about some sort of standardization and reference design. Think Boxee Box without the lock-in, then add Android games.

(2012-05-03 04:15)Ned Scott Wrote:  If desired, we can have a little "note pad" like page on the wiki for all these Allwinner A10 devices, so you guys can easily list and make notes about all of this.

(2012-05-06 00:45)madmalkav Wrote:  Main problems IMO right now are that allwinner have to A) release the 3.0.8 kernel sources so we can get the Mali to work on the GL acceleration, and b) get Allwinner to clarify the license of the video decoder to see if it is compatible with XBMC license.

(2012-05-06 00:45)madmalkav Wrote:  Main problems IMO right now are that allwinner have to A) release the 3.0.8 kernel sources so we can get the Mali to work on the GL acceleration, and b) get Allwinner to clarify the license of the video decoder to see if it is compatible with XBMC license.

(2012-05-06 20:02)gimli Wrote:  Or better. Get Allwinner to relase their linux SDK. Thats the most anying part. They have a linux SDK which is for sure also using GPL code, but no sign of releasing it.