Allwinner A10 : Is XBMC ported to MALI-400MP ?

And another comes on the market;
http://www.pineriver.cn/eshowProDetail.asp?ProID=1531

These A10 boxes are really starting to get popular! The size and look of that latest one is really intriguing, too bad it doesn't look like it has Ethernet...just WiFi...or does it have Ethernet? Not very clear from the page. Hopefully we'll get Linux + XBMC running on these A10 boxes soon. Decisions decisions....which A10 to get?

just ran into this... The PCB is manufactured for use in a tablet but it's got all the necessarily connectors (doesn't have Ethernet but hey what do you expect in a pcb designed for tablet use) for use in a desktop/set-top implementation...for $27 (more than likely in volume) not bad....http://micdigi.com/2012/03/the-allwinner...-about-27/

similar product here: http://micdigi.com/2012/04/7-inch-a10-pc...on-screen/

It's been mentioned in this review that the refresh rate for the Mele A1000 is 61.9hz (check the last screenshot as well as the comments).

http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/04/08/m...nd-review/

Is this something that can be changed with some hackery?

Showing 61.9hz refresh only mean they don't understand why vsync is important

Only 1008 BogoMips ? my 900MHz amlogic is running around 1750

Excellent, I wasn't sure if the refresh rate was somehow locked down. If it can be easily changed, then I'll order a box right away.

(2012-04-28 02:50)slicemaster Wrote:  just ran into this... The PCB is manufactured for use in a tablet but it's got all the necessarily connectors (doesn't have Ethernet but hey what do you expect in a pcb designed for tablet use) for use in a desktop/set-top implementation...for $27 (more than likely in volume) not bad....http://micdigi.com/2012/03/the-allwinner...-about-27/

similar product here: http://micdigi.com/2012/04/7-inch-a10-pc...on-screen/

What I want to know is why can't someone start a kickstarter or something and customize one of these boards for an XBMC console to replace the old xbox as standard reference hardware?

I'm not a business guy, but I'd imagine quite a few of us would buy an officially supported settop box with the ability to do emulation games integrated into the system. (Bring your own roms obviously.) Of course there are some games available for XBMC already, the ankroid clone and the media triva come to mind...

And since Android already comes built for these boards, I wonder how hard it would be to get games running fullscreen from within the XBMC interface? Clearly I'm not a programmer either, so I don't know how hard it would be to do, but I imagine some of the work Canonical is doing with Ubuntu for smartphones would be instructive there?

(2012-04-30 02:43)bornagainpengui Wrote:  

(2012-04-28 02:50)slicemaster Wrote:  just ran into this... The PCB is manufactured for use in a tablet but it's got all the necessarily connectors (doesn't have Ethernet but hey what do you expect in a pcb designed for tablet use) for use in a desktop/set-top implementation...for $27 (more than likely in volume) not bad....http://micdigi.com/2012/03/the-allwinner...-about-27/

similar product here: http://micdigi.com/2012/04/7-inch-a10-pc...on-screen/

What I want to know is why can't someone start a kickstarter or something and customize one of these boards for an XBMC console to replace the old xbox as standard reference hardware?

I'm not a business guy, but I'd imagine quite a few of us would buy an officially supported settop box with the ability to do emulation games integrated into the system. (Bring your own roms obviously.) Of course there are some games available for XBMC already, the ankroid clone and the media triva come to mind...

And since Android already comes built for these boards, I wonder how hard it would be to get games running fullscreen from within the XBMC interface? Clearly I'm not a programmer either, so I don't know how hard it would be to do, but I imagine some of the work Canonical is doing with Ubuntu for smartphones would be instructive there?

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?

(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

we don't talk out loud