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No reasonable way to port xbmc to Enigma2's Python on a insufficient resources.
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I was also wondering if this could happen as there are many devices sold for sat TV and now with PVR support of XBMC it could be much easier.
If it wasn't a plugin for enigma but a complete port would it be possible? Because enigma2 is basically a linux distro as inside it has all the folders structure of a linux system. Could a programmer with a knowledge have a look into it?
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Kib
Team-Kodi Member
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2013-04-23, 08:58
(This post was last modified: 2013-04-23, 09:04 by Kib.)
Looked at it and it is not possible.
Also for new devices this would probably need extensive support from the manufacturer.
To run XBMC you need OpenGL / OpenGLES and support for hardware decoding of video.
These boxes have neither.
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Kib
Team-Kodi Member
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2013-04-25, 10:43
(This post was last modified: 2013-04-25, 10:44 by Kib.)
It does indeed support OpenGL ES.
That means a system-on-a-chip with those processors in it could theoretically run XBMC, but still the code would need to be rewritten for MIPS processor architecture and there would have to be an available driver with hardware acceleration. In other words: cool that they run an OS with hardware acceleration on it, but if we don't have sourcecode for that driver it would have to be written from scratch. Without support from broadcom / another company or clear documentation this is almost impossible to do, unless you are extremely skilled in MIPS-architecture and Broadcom chipdesign.
I am not sure if any of their code actually came back or was published.
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I think writing own driver from XBMC is a no-go, unless some enthusiast will do that.
Though what I would like to point out that there exists players and people writing players for this system, because basically they are linux based. There are more "distros" that one can install on these machines. So I think there should be some kind of drivers that work and that could be useful. As XBMC is installed on Linux in a normal PC maybe it could be installed on these systems as well. I just don't know which requirements does XBMC need from a Linux distro to be instalable.
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Actually, I recall that we do have support for MIPS and can be built for it. It would still take a lot of work to get going for this specific situation, but in theory it is possible.
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Yes, I am fully aware what momentarily is the best solution for XBMC. When I was building my first HTPC I followed the forums and went the Nvidia ION+Linux way with a board and added a Celeron processor as it is also used as a file server for the other boxes at home. Next what followed was an All-in-one pc for the kitchen with a USB sat card with XBMC installed. Now with the PVR plugins it is working very well(btw would recommend this kind of solution for the kitchen to everyone, even my parents enjoy much using it).
I was just wondering when these boxes run Linux, XBMC can be run on Linux and the communities both around these boxes and XBMC are huge why it wouldn't be a nice merge. These boxes already have most of the things you use XBMC for. They have samba, nfs server, connect to youtube to watch videos, check weather, webcams, have included the psu, the remote, the sat tuners, in some boxes you can include terrestrial and cable tuners, have CI slots for decription modules, you can add wireless cards, internal HDD, etc. They have skins etc., but miss the library XBMC can build and the beatiful GUI and user experience XBMC offers.
XBMC was even ported to the iPhones so I said to myself, with so many things in common why there couldn't be a version of XBMC for these boxes as well? Especially after XBMC started to support PVR. If I was able to build a software packege I would start to dig into it how much work would need to be done, I am just not capable of doing more than installing packages in Linux and change some lines in the configuration files.
And thank you Kibje and Ned Scott for your attention to this case, I highly appreciate your attention as XBMC staff.
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davilla
Retired-Team-XBMC Developer
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Porting XBMC to another platform requires two things to be even considered.
The 1st is GL or GLES support. This is for the XBMC GUI. That's the 1st hurdle. No GL/GLES, no GUI. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
The second is video decoding. If you have the ponies, you can handle it via software FFMpeg. If no ponies, then you have to tap hardware video decode. Now very important point the newbees never see to wrap their minds around. GL/GLES does NOT equal hardware video decode. Without hardware video decode on these embedded platforms, epic fail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
XBMC for iOS/ATV2 was only viable because we could do hardware video decode. If that was not possible, then it would have never been completed and release. Same for Android, no hardware video decode, then finishing the port was a useless exercise.
