2013-01-10, 16:49
My company had an order for about 1000 Raspberry Pi type B as our annual christmas present standing out. I think we might have been part of the reason for the long waiting times =)
2013-01-10, 17:25
(2013-01-10, 16:49)Kibje Wrote: My company had an order for about 1000 Raspberry Pi type B as our annual christmas present standing out. I think we might have been part of the reason for the long waiting times =)
That is so nice...
how about the cases? 
2013-01-12, 14:56
Ive just played around a bit with my brothers Pi, running openelec 3.0 beta.
Some findings:
In general, performance with the default skin is quite satisfactory (despite running off a slow class 4 SDcard), but I wont lie and say its absolutely silky smooth when browsing my movie library using poster art, because its not. There is some small lag and jerkyness, but it doesnt get close to becoming frustrating, except maybe while its scraping the library. All other skins were marked as broken atm, so I didnt try any other.
Boot times are acceptable considering the slow card, but it was more than 30s. Then again, I will leave it always on anyway.
Ive encountered some minor bugs and lacking features using openelec; most notably, movies with AAC 5.1 audio are decoded in to 2 channel PCM to my AVR, whereas on my x86 box, it gets transcoded to 5.1 DD. This is a bummer, and I hope it gets solved. DTS and AC3 movies played just fine and where received by my AVR as such, but DTS music files didnt play back at all. Not even when using the DVDplayer. To be fair, on my x86 Eden box, those files are only playable as 2 channel stereo.
There is also an issue when fast forwarding movies that the screen goes white/corrupted and takes a few seconds before its rendered properly. This is a known bug apparently, Im not even sure if its Pi specific. After updating OpenELEC the problem seemed mostly fixed, but not quite yet, it reappeared when some popup was shown, like when switching subtitle language. This is a very minor issue tho, and to be expected for beta software.
More important is that even my highest bitrate 1080p movies played back completely smooth. Absolutely perfect. Surprisingly, even the 1080p VC1 files I tried played back just fine, and with low CPU load, despite me not having purchased a license, so I guess its decoded in software? They werent very high bit rate though.
Starting and stopping a movie does take a tiny bit longer than on my x86 box, but I was playing it over the network rather than a local drive, so that alone might explain it. Even so, its only like 1 or 2 seconds or so.
In general, Im quite impressed with the tiny box. For less than 50 euro and less than 5W, its absolutely stunning.
Some findings:
In general, performance with the default skin is quite satisfactory (despite running off a slow class 4 SDcard), but I wont lie and say its absolutely silky smooth when browsing my movie library using poster art, because its not. There is some small lag and jerkyness, but it doesnt get close to becoming frustrating, except maybe while its scraping the library. All other skins were marked as broken atm, so I didnt try any other.
Boot times are acceptable considering the slow card, but it was more than 30s. Then again, I will leave it always on anyway.
Ive encountered some minor bugs and lacking features using openelec; most notably, movies with AAC 5.1 audio are decoded in to 2 channel PCM to my AVR, whereas on my x86 box, it gets transcoded to 5.1 DD. This is a bummer, and I hope it gets solved. DTS and AC3 movies played just fine and where received by my AVR as such, but DTS music files didnt play back at all. Not even when using the DVDplayer. To be fair, on my x86 Eden box, those files are only playable as 2 channel stereo.
There is also an issue when fast forwarding movies that the screen goes white/corrupted and takes a few seconds before its rendered properly. This is a known bug apparently, Im not even sure if its Pi specific. After updating OpenELEC the problem seemed mostly fixed, but not quite yet, it reappeared when some popup was shown, like when switching subtitle language. This is a very minor issue tho, and to be expected for beta software.
More important is that even my highest bitrate 1080p movies played back completely smooth. Absolutely perfect. Surprisingly, even the 1080p VC1 files I tried played back just fine, and with low CPU load, despite me not having purchased a license, so I guess its decoded in software? They werent very high bit rate though.
Starting and stopping a movie does take a tiny bit longer than on my x86 box, but I was playing it over the network rather than a local drive, so that alone might explain it. Even so, its only like 1 or 2 seconds or so.
In general, Im quite impressed with the tiny box. For less than 50 euro and less than 5W, its absolutely stunning.
2013-01-12, 17:39
As told before, I ordered my Raspberry Pi a few days ago from www.modmypi.com
And I must say that support is really quick and kind, I forgot an UK to EU adapter with all of my items and when I contacted support they kindly added that adapter to my order with no extra fee and for free (the adapter is around 2.5€)
Now we'll see about shipping, but I'm pretty confident and I think I'll get it during next week ! ^^
And I must say that support is really quick and kind, I forgot an UK to EU adapter with all of my items and when I contacted support they kindly added that adapter to my order with no extra fee and for free (the adapter is around 2.5€)
Now we'll see about shipping, but I'm pretty confident and I think I'll get it during next week ! ^^
2013-01-14, 17:36
2013-01-14, 17:48
(2013-01-12, 14:56)Vertigo Wrote: In general, performance with the default skin is quite satisfactory (despite running off a slow class 4 SDcard), but I wont lie and say its absolutely silky smooth when browsing my movie library using poster art, because its not. There is some small lag and jerkyness, but it doesnt get close to becoming frustrating, except maybe while its scraping the library. All other skins were marked as broken atm, so I didnt try any other.EDIT: I originally pointed at the useddsfanart setting but have since realised that is not supported on ARM based devices like the RPi
(2013-01-12, 14:56)Vertigo Wrote: Ive encountered some minor bugs and lacking features using openelec; most notably, movies with AAC 5.1 audio are decoded in to 2 channel PCM to my AVR, whereas on my x86 box, it gets transcoded to 5.1 DD. This is a bummer, and I hope it gets solved.The rapsberry Pi will not be able to do this transcoding, it is too cpu and memory intensive and there is no hardwareoffloading available to do this.
You will need to either not download AAC5.1 movies or buy a receiver that can decode it =)
I have the same issue with my ION box and chose not to download aac5.1 anymore.
2013-01-14, 17:59
(2013-01-14, 17:48)Kibje Wrote: The rapsberry Pi will not be able to do this transcoding, it is cpu and memory intensive and there is no hardware available to do this. Either do not download AAC5.1 movies or buy a receiver that can decode it =)
I kind of doubt thats the problem. I asked in a different thread, and a developer replied its just not implemented yet, and low on the priority list.
But the Pi can even do accelerated DTS decoding in theory (and on test systems), but a licensing issue keeps it from doing so in practice for now. But even in software, DTS to 5.1 PCM usually works on the Pi. Im not sure AAC would be so much more demanding.
As for a decoder, I havent seen many AVRs that can do AAC5.1. In fact, while I havent searched exhaustively, I havent seen a single one. AAC2.0, yes, but 5.1?
2013-01-17, 09:06
(2013-01-12, 17:39)jsn.crdnl Wrote: As told before, I ordered my Raspberry Pi a few days ago from www.modmypi.com
And I must say that support is really quick and kind, I forgot an UK to EU adapter with all of my items and when I contacted support they kindly added that adapter to my order with no extra fee and for free (the adapter is around 2.5€)
Now we'll see about shipping, but I'm pretty confident and I think I'll get it during next week ! ^^
I got it yesterday (in less than 1 week) ! Even with the huge amount of snow and freeze.
Got an extra UK to EU power plug adapter for free!
2013-01-17, 12:23
Great, will you report back if you are happy with your choice?
Good luck and I recommend to try Raspbmc.
Good luck and I recommend to try Raspbmc.
2013-01-17, 12:37
Im going to tentatively second the raspbmc recommendation. So far I had only used Openelec, since that is what I used on x86 too, but Raspbmc does appear to be a lot smoother. Ive only just started testing it, so i have no idea about stability yet.
2013-01-17, 13:05
(2013-01-17, 12:23)Nu7s Wrote: Great, will you report back if you are happy with your choice?
Good luck and I recommend to try Raspbmc.
No prob!
First look at it yesterday evening, and I can already say :
- Everything is in good state
- Case easy to use and seems to be (not best but) good quality
- Heat sinks easy to install on chip
- It easily get into a big spider web when everything's connected ... (I hope ModMyPi while soon release their new case which includes all connections, hub, internal dongle emplacement, 2.5" hdd enclosure, ...)
Concerning distros ::
XBian
- Easy to install (automatic installer on windows)
- 30-45 sec boot time
- A little slow (some lags) for navigation (without changing default settings)
- Didn't find Wifi configuration (I think I had to go to console but hadn't usb key board) => That's where I dropped it
Raspbmc
- Easy to install (automatic installer on pi with online database)
- 30-45 sec boot time
- A little slow (some lags) for navigation (without changing default settings)
- Easy WiFi configuration (configured from windows installer)
- When rebooted I got an error with file system loading causing the distro not to be loaded anymore => that's where I dropped it
Openelec
- ~1min boot time
- A good speed (rare lags) for navigation (without changing default settings)
- I tried to configure WiFi from the OpenElec Program but it apparently doesn't work.... => That's where I'm gonna restart this evening ! ^^
NOTE : Concerning the boot time and menu fluidity, I assume it may be ameliorated by modifying some properties (disabling RSS, swap memory, over-clocking, deactivating services, changing skin -for reFocus/reAlaska ?- ...)
An important thing will also be the Bluetooth dongle compatibility to make my wiimote work as remote controller. (I know it exists as a OpenElec Addon but it needs to be tested on rpi and with my dongle)
2013-01-17, 14:12
You can always overclock your RPI a bit. This is done by adding parameters to a "config.txt" file on your SD-card or by running the raspi-config tool.
You can find more information about the config.txt file here:
http://elinux.org/RPiconfig
(As long as you don't change the voltages, the waranty should not be void, more info on the page)
And more info about the raspi-config here:
http://elinux.org/RPi_raspi-config
I'm not sure the raspi-config is included in the Raspbmc build.
You can find more information about the config.txt file here:
http://elinux.org/RPiconfig
(As long as you don't change the voltages, the waranty should not be void, more info on the page)
And more info about the raspi-config here:
http://elinux.org/RPi_raspi-config
I'm not sure the raspi-config is included in the Raspbmc build.
2013-01-17, 14:18
I read on several places there are issues when enabling overclocking (even very mild overclocking) that your sdcard corrupts. I believe its an issue with the cpu governor, its not just because you push the cpu too hard. Im not sure this is solved. Do you know?
2013-01-17, 14:46
(2013-01-17, 14:18)Vertigo Wrote: I read on several places there are issues when enabling overclocking (even very mild overclocking) that your sdcard corrupts. I believe its an issue with the cpu governor, its not just because you push the cpu too hard. Im not sure this is solved. Do you know?
It's not for Raspbmc, I over-clocked it yesterday (with last release).
After a few minutes, I got a black screen, reboot and then couldn't restart Raspbmc file system (surely because of sdcard corruption) (that's at that point that I went to another distro)
2013-01-17, 15:04
Hmmmm, good point Vertigo. I'm having a problem with my XMBC build that sometimes when I cut the power to the PI it will not boot with a kernel panic error. Something about rootfs. Maybe because of overclock settings like you said. It doesn't destroy my SD-cards and I never power off my PI so it's not really a issue for me.
