XBMC on Raspberry Pi - Wonder if this will work out? (Historical Discussion Thread)

I've managed to build XBMC with pvr support, but I'm still waiting for my Raspberry Pi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7qoFfC6nvI

(2012-04-22 18:29)95123321 Wrote:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7qoFfC6nvI

Great Video
Whats about performance when fanartbrowsing? Maybe you want to Post 2nd video

For anyone who has a RPi already, you can now build OpenELEC from mainline git to run on arm! http://openelec.tv/news/item/241-openele...-pi-part-1

I hate to say it but I fear for the Raspberry Pi's future as a comprehensive media player solution. Don't get me wrong, the board has all the hardware to do it all, but the support that we as XBMC users would need for a good fluid experience in HD on this device is unlikely to happen based on what I've been reading. In truth, the real guts of this chip is the VideoCore IV GPU, not the ARM processor when it comes to media applications. The simple reason for this reasoning is that the 700Mhz ARM portion of the SoC can at MOST software decode MPEG2 and other popular codecs, and this I think will be a real deal breaker for many who were hoping to do much much more with this platform. Sure it can hardware decode H.264 at 1080P, but that's about all it can do on the hardware decoding front. Although the BroadCom SoC has the ability do hardware decode everything our community would want, the Raspberry Pi foundation has opted not to license the rest of the codecs supported by the SoC to save a few bucks per unit. From the types of posts i've been reading over there on their forum and blog, it looks as though we're going to be left hanging out in the wind because our need for codec support does not fall inline with the foundations "Core Goals". Some have advocated an end-user CODEC support upgrade package for an additional fee, but based on the types of responses from the folks running the show over there, it doesn't look promising.

That said, I do think the Raspberry Pi is a neat peace of hardware, and I have actually purchased one with hopes of running XBMC on it when a pre-packaged distribution becomes available from either OpenELEC or RasBMC (one of the two should be available by the time i get my Pi as the Pis are back ordered for months), however i do have my concerns over the ability for the relativity weak ARM processor to handle software decoding my SD MPEG2 video streams and handling the UI at the same time with out creating a less than ideal user experience.

In either case, regardless of the ultimate outcome I am definitely looking forward to seeing what this thing can actually do with out the aid of hardware accelerated video decoding.

(2012-04-27 01:41)slicemaster Wrote:  I hate to say it but I fear for the Raspberry Pi's future as a comprehensive media player solution. Don't get me wrong, the board has all the hardware to do it all, but the support that we as XBMC users would need for a good fluid experience in HD on this device is unlikely to happen based on what I've been reading. In truth, the real guts of this chip is the VideoCore IV GPU, not the ARM processor when it comes to media applications. The simple reason for this reasoning is that the 700Mhz ARM portion of the SoC can at MOST software decode MPEG2 and other popular codecs, and this I think will be a real deal breaker for many who were hoping to do much much more with this platform. Sure it can hardware decode H.264 at 1080P, but that's about all it can do on the hardware decoding front. Although the BroadCom SoC has the ability do hardware decode everything our community would want, the Raspberry Pi foundation has opted not to license the rest of the codecs supported by the SoC to save a few bucks per unit. From the types of posts i've been reading over there on their forum and blog, it looks as though we're going to be left hanging out in the wind because our need for codec support does not fall inline with the foundations "Core Goals". Some have advocated an end-user CODEC support upgrade package for an additional fee, but based on the types of responses from the folks running the show over there, it doesn't look promising.

That said, I do think the Raspberry Pi is a neat peace of hardware, and I have actually purchased one with hopes of running XBMC on it when a pre-packaged distribution becomes available from either OpenELEC or RasBMC (one of the two should be available by the time i get my Pi as the Pis are back ordered for months), however i do have my concerns over the ability for the relativity weak ARM processor to handle software decoding my SD MPEG2 video streams and handling the UI at the same time with out creating a less than ideal user experience.

In either case, regardless of the ultimate outcome I am definitely looking forward to seeing what this thing can actually do with out the aid of hardware accelerated video decoding.

No different from the Apple TV 2, where we can only access hardware decoding for h.264, and that's been great for the vast majority of people/videos/etc.

Yeah but at least the ATV2 processor is powerful enough to run standard def Xvid or MP4 (some peoples use cases for TV shows that were never aired in hi def)..not sure about the PI as I do not have one...

(2012-04-27 01:41)slicemaster Wrote:  I hate to say it but I fear for the Raspberry Pi's future as a comprehensive media player solution. Don't get me wrong, the board has all the hardware to do it all, but the support that we as XBMC users would need for a good fluid experience in HD on this device is unlikely to happen based on what I've been reading. In truth, the real guts of this chip is the VideoCore IV GPU, not the ARM processor when it comes to media applications. The simple reason for this reasoning is that the 700Mhz ARM portion of the SoC can at MOST software decode MPEG2 and other popular codecs, and this I think will be a real deal breaker for many who were hoping to do much much more with this platform. Sure it can hardware decode H.264 at 1080P, but that's about all it can do on the hardware decoding front. Although the BroadCom SoC has the ability do hardware decode everything our community would want, the Raspberry Pi foundation has opted not to license the rest of the codecs supported by the SoC to save a few bucks per unit. From the types of posts i've been reading over there on their forum and blog, it looks as though we're going to be left hanging out in the wind because our need for codec support does not fall inline with the foundations "Core Goals". Some have advocated an end-user CODEC support upgrade package for an additional fee, but based on the types of responses from the folks running the show over there, it doesn't look promising.

That said, I do think the Raspberry Pi is a neat peace of hardware, and I have actually purchased one with hopes of running XBMC on it when a pre-packaged distribution becomes available from either OpenELEC or RasBMC (one of the two should be available by the time i get my Pi as the Pis are back ordered for months), however i do have my concerns over the ability for the relativity weak ARM processor to handle software decoding my SD MPEG2 video streams and handling the UI at the same time with out creating a less than ideal user experience.

In either case, regardless of the ultimate outcome I am definitely looking forward to seeing what this thing can actually do with out the aid of hardware accelerated video decoding.

Ask the PI Foundation to make the additional codec pack available for purchase. When the demand is getting high enough they might work on it.

Tecnical words :

What XBMC can do at the moment :

Video decoing is only done in hardware and we support :

MPEG-4 Part 2 ( Xvid )
MPEG-4 Part 10 ( h264/AVC)
VP8 ( Partial in hardware )

Audio decoding :

All is done in software, expect AC3/DTS passthrough.

With the additional codec pack XBMC could use the hardware decoding to do :

Mpeg2, VC1, DTS, AC3

DTS-HD and TrueHD are not supported by the hardware and the software decoding is to slow.


Personal words :

Everyone have to consider if the PI fit for their needs. You can't say that is no comprehensive media player solution. If the support fit your needs, it is. If not, you have to use another device. That is a personal decision, so you can't speek in general for the whole XBMC community.

cheers

gimli

(2012-04-27 08:19)classicspam Wrote:  Yeah but at least the ATV2 processor is powerful enough to run standard def Xvid or MP4 (some peoples use cases for TV shows that were never aired in hi def)..not sure about the PI as I do not have one...

Read the post above.

cheers

gimli

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17857189

Watch the news video to the end ;-)