Just donated $50, hopefully it helps someone get a good Android tablet since I'd really love seeing XBMC running natively on the upcoming hardware 
2011-04-23, 15:50
I was wondering as Android network media players are starting to appear in the marketplace with more on the horizon (meteorit MMB-322 is first). The first batch seem to be using the Marvell Armada 88DE3010 chipset which Anandtech stated doesn't have a GPU but some hardware acceleration layer for graphics.
I'm guessing that makes any Armada 88DE3010 player no good as an Android platform that could run XBMC or would the 900Mhz-1.2Ghz CPU be fast enough to handle the XBMC UI, would XBMC team be interested in one (I'd donate money if it was suitable, you can buy from Germany).
Quote:Unfortunately, this is just a 2D graphics core from Vivante, the GC300
I'm guessing that makes any Armada 88DE3010 player no good as an Android platform that could run XBMC or would the 900Mhz-1.2Ghz CPU be fast enough to handle the XBMC UI, would XBMC team be interested in one (I'd donate money if it was suitable, you can buy from Germany).
2011-04-24, 15:15
Just wanted to say thanks to all the devs for all their hard work over the years, have been down the xbox, pc and atv2 path and just wanted to give my +1 for future possible development for the Android platform.
Just saw this as an upcoming product in AU and thought it would be perfect around the home with XBMC, Kogan TV
Although I think it's only v2.2 Android but don't know enough about this O/S yet other than there being 2.3 and 3.0 as well.
Seems it uses this ARM processor Samsung A8
So not sure how viable it is but just wanted to give my support to this cause.
**
Just saw this as an upcoming product in AU and thought it would be perfect around the home with XBMC, Kogan TV
Although I think it's only v2.2 Android but don't know enough about this O/S yet other than there being 2.3 and 3.0 as well.
Seems it uses this ARM processor Samsung A8
So not sure how viable it is but just wanted to give my support to this cause.
**
2011-04-25, 09:04
I have a Xoom and this thread put a real damper on my hopes of seeing usable XBMC on it. Didn't stop me from testing out what I could and the results of going beyond baseline were ugly.
Since that time I've been researching what does work how to get a good experience on a Honeycomb tablet with Tegra 2. While most SD content plays fine with software encoding, anything at 720p really needs to be conformed baseline to ensure decent quality. This limits on-demand playback of HD sources, you need a fairly powerful processor to run conversions, especially if its performing other tasks at the same time.
So if you want to sit on the couch and watch a new tv episode or movie in HD your out of luck unless you plan ahead a few hours.
What this means for any potential XBMC version and what would actually be a great scripted feature in the current version is the need to have a queue to device button that 1) checks to see if a file is compatible with the intended viewer and if not queues a reencode and 2) schedules a transfer of the file (reencoded or not) to the device or upload directory for the device.
This would allow users who are browsing locally to save a playlist for when they go on the road, similar to how subsonic works.
At least with android, one of the stumbling blocks is wireless transfers, which are still somewhat glitchy, particularly with large files. Even if it was only to make playlists I'd love to have XBMC on my Xoom.
Since that time I've been researching what does work how to get a good experience on a Honeycomb tablet with Tegra 2. While most SD content plays fine with software encoding, anything at 720p really needs to be conformed baseline to ensure decent quality. This limits on-demand playback of HD sources, you need a fairly powerful processor to run conversions, especially if its performing other tasks at the same time.
So if you want to sit on the couch and watch a new tv episode or movie in HD your out of luck unless you plan ahead a few hours.
What this means for any potential XBMC version and what would actually be a great scripted feature in the current version is the need to have a queue to device button that 1) checks to see if a file is compatible with the intended viewer and if not queues a reencode and 2) schedules a transfer of the file (reencoded or not) to the device or upload directory for the device.
This would allow users who are browsing locally to save a playlist for when they go on the road, similar to how subsonic works.
At least with android, one of the stumbling blocks is wireless transfers, which are still somewhat glitchy, particularly with large files. Even if it was only to make playlists I'd love to have XBMC on my Xoom.
2011-04-25, 09:42
Darn it, oh well Marvell's next gen 88DE3100 chipset is supposed to have proper OpenGL-ES GPU so hopefully it might be more suitable. Although the 88DE3010 is a Blu-ray spec Arm SoC it's dual core CPU is Arm v5 which I've no idea if XBMC Arm can run on given my limited knowledge (it's not Cortex) so it might not which ends that & the 3100 is likely to have the same CPU.
2011-04-26, 20:47
After the next-gen ARM's are released, I'm assuming video decoding will no longer be a problem:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/qualc...ittle-exp/
From Cortex A9 (Tegra2) to A15 (new):
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/qualc...ittle-exp/
From Cortex A9 (Tegra2) to A15 (new):
- ~5x CPU performance improvement
- ~4x GPU performance improvement
- ~WHAT
?
2011-04-26, 21:38
rausch101 Wrote:After the next-gen ARM's are released, I'm assuming video decoding will no longer be a problem:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/qualc...ittle-exp/
From Cortex A9 (Tegra2) to A15 (new):
- ~5x CPU performance improvement
- ~4x GPU performance improvement
- ~WHAT
Bad assumption, video decode has squat to do with video rendering.
2011-04-26, 21:43
davilla Wrote:Bad assumption, video decode has squat to do with video rendering.
Well, they do share the word "video". (jokes)
2011-05-13, 18:00
Me too. I'll keep dreaming about having an Android tablet running pure XBMC.
2011-05-17, 15:51
I believe you all tested this very well and have more knowledge about XBMC or developing than I do. I just wonder though, how can it happen that iOS DOES get XBMC and it is stated that Android can't.. Xoom is capable of running 1.6Ghz Tegra2 speeds. That's pretty bad ass, I know they are custom kernels.. But still..
I think the hardware is pretty capable of running full HD 1080p movies. I just recently bought a Galaxy Tab 10.1v, I will test if I can play a 8-10gb H.264 1080p movie. I think it very much up to the players and the codecs. I seen some video's around that played 1080p easily in one player, but failed even getting 5fps in another..
I think the hardware is pretty capable of running full HD 1080p movies. I just recently bought a Galaxy Tab 10.1v, I will test if I can play a 8-10gb H.264 1080p movie. I think it very much up to the players and the codecs. I seen some video's around that played 1080p easily in one player, but failed even getting 5fps in another..
2011-05-17, 17:28
FricoRico Wrote:I believe you all tested this very well and have more knowledge about XBMC or developing than I do. I just wonder though, how can it happen that iOS DOES get XBMC and it is stated that Android can't.. Xoom is capable of running 1.6Ghz Tegra2 speeds. That's pretty bad ass, I know they are custom kernels.. But still..
I think the hardware is pretty capable of running full HD 1080p movies. I just recently bought a Galaxy Tab 10.1v, I will test if I can play a 8-10gb H.264 1080p movie. I think it very much up to the players and the codecs. I seen some video's around that played 1080p easily in one player, but failed even getting 5fps in another..
Read the thread, tegra2 is not enough...
Besides, the reason why ios exist are a few, first and foremost the atv2 which is actually a device which makes sense (more than novelty) to run xbmc on. There is nearly no end-user device yet meant to be a htpc like appliance.
Secondly, android is far more limiting with their bionic core and compiler than iOS, android is closer to posix basic than "normal" linux. And a few things which one would think is C++ standards it doesn't even support. This means that many of the third party libraries needs patching to work whereas they didn't need as much on iOS.
Thidly, and this is the most important. A developer had hardware access and wanted to do the porting for iOS. No dev own a xoom nor any htpc like android based appliance. This is the major thing with floss, someone has hardware and steps up and do the work necessary. It wasn't a team decision that someone would be forced to do the porting to iOS, someone just did it.
If you have problems please read this before posting
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Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
"Well Im gonna download the code and look at it a bit but I'm certainly not a really good C/C++ programer but I'd help as much as I can, I mostly write in C#."
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
"Well Im gonna download the code and look at it a bit but I'm certainly not a really good C/C++ programer but I'd help as much as I can, I mostly write in C#."
2011-05-17, 18:59
Just out of curiosity--is the Tegra 2 incapable of doing hi-def decoding on a hardware level (the chip just lacks enough power in the way that the original XBOX did) or is it an issue of Tegra 2 drivers not supporting HD decoding, but it's still theoretically possible?
2011-05-17, 19:10
take the time to re-read the many threads I've posted about tegra2. I have one, did the work to enable hw decode in xbmc. The hw is incapable of decoding [email protected] and above, yet it can handle VC1. Go figure.... It's anyones guess why. But I suspect that since tegra2 does not even have neon, they can't fix it.
