XBMC for Linux port to run on Dreambox and DBox2 hardware?
#1
Question 
Gentlemen,

Not sure if this has been asked before in this forum. Sorry, if so!

I was wondering if - with the XBMC port to Linux - XBMC will run on a Dreambox in the future, too. I know, there are plug-ins to access a Dreambox from a XBOX, but could XBMC once possibly run on directly on a Dreambox as an Enigma alternative?

Any rumours or even facts?

Cheers,

FunKey
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#2
It has been stated numerous times that the current goal is to port XBMC to the linux platfrom. The developers don't plan to look at any other platfroms until the main task is complete.
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#3
HTPCGB,

I read this, too. The point is: What is the Linux platform? Dreambox runs a Linux OS. Does this mean - in theory - you can pick the XMBC for Linux (once it's out) and install it on a Dreambox?

Thanks for some hints.

FunKey
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#4
It'll probably run in SDL mode, but the 250Mhz CPU means it won't play HD video. In fact, it may have difficulty with SD video; the xbox1 has a 733Mhz CPU.
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#5
Sorry, I should have elaborated. The developers' current target is a PC running Ubuntu with a fairly modern CPU and graphics card. Whether they ever plan to support the dbox's unique architecture, I do not know. From a practical standpoint, I would say probably not. The whole reason for the linux port was to enable XBMC to handle HD content and modern compression formats.
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#6
htpcgb Wrote:Sorry, I should have elaborated. The developers' current target is a PC running Ubuntu with a fairly modern CPU and graphics card. Whether they ever plan to support the dbox's unique architecture, I do not know. From a practical standpoint, I would say probably not. The whole reason for the linux port was to enable XBMC to handle HD content and modern compression formats.

The fact that it will end up on a commodity piece of hardware that can be upgraded at will without yet another huge port effort is icing on the cake. Current effot's progress is amazing....Cool
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#7
No, XBMC for Linux will never be ported by Team-XBMC to run on Dreambox/DBox2.

Dreambox/DBox2 may be classified as "a computer running Linux" but it is not a x86 architecture computer, nor does it feature a OpenGL 2.0 (3D hardware acceleration graphic processor unit) which is the minimum requirements to make the XBMC GUI run smoothly. Also, like rodalpho stated, even if XBMC did not require x86 and OpenGL 2.0 (which it does), the 250Mhz CPU of a Dreambox/DBox2 is not even close to powerfull enough to run the graphic intense XBMC GUI, ...because believe it or not, the XBMC is a relativly graphic intense GUI; just try to run XBMC in 'SDL_2D' mode on a 3Ghz (3000Mhz) x86 CPU without a modern OpenGL 2.0 GPU, you might get 2 or 3 frames-per-seconds displayed at best, the reason for this is that the OpenGL 2.0 GPU is used to draw and scale the pictures from the XBMC GUI on the screen and that is very graphic intense and thus requires a modern hardware GPU (graphic processor unit) which can accelerate this process to off-load the CPU (central processor unit) which is not design and optomized for that task, which a GPU is.

To sum up; the XBMC Linux port project clearly states that the goal was and still is to first port XBMC to run on x86 CPU and OpenGL 2.0 GPU. ...now even if that would to change sometime in the future it would surely still be to a more powerfull platform than the original Xbox (which features a 733Mhz x86 CPU and we will for sure also require a modern hardware GPU (graphic processor unit) for video display acceleration.
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#8
Gamester,

Thank you very much for this profound answer. So the Dreambox won't be my future hardware, thats for sure. I am just too much XMBC-addict to get rid of this fantastic piece of software.

I truly appreciate your tremendous effort since the first day XBMC came out. Keep up the good work; I am shure you are writing a little piece of history with this Linux port project.

Cheers,

FunKey
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#9
dont be so quick to dismiss the dreambox

it still will play nice with your xbox not to mention the whole fta thing Smile
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#10
Is there anychance XBMC could be developed to take advantage of the Broadcom 7401 chip in my lovelly new dreambox?

The chip supports 1080p/24/30 AVC/MPEG2/VC1 HD decoding
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#11
Nope.
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#12
rodalpho Wrote:Nope.

care to explain why?
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#13
Read the first page of this very thread.
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XBMC for Linux port to run on Dreambox and DBox2 hardware?0