Popcorn Hour board

[Marie.O]

imho, the board of the Popcorn Hour, which is used in various forms in different boxes, has a lot of potential as a media director. HDi for example bundles it with a Blu Ray drive in a nice enclosure (http://hdi.co.il/fullhd_players/). And the pure board (without any enclosure), can be had for fairly little money, 250EUR, iirc. You have HDMI, Component, S/P-DIF, USB and more connectors available.

[totallymaxed]

imho, the board of the Popcorn Hour, which is used in various forms in different boxes, has a lot of potential as a media director. HDi for example bundles it with a Blu Ray drive in a nice enclosure (http://hdi.co.il/fullhd_players/). And the pure board (without any enclosure), can be had for fairly little money, 250EUR, iirc. You have HDMI, Component, S/P-DIF, USB and more connectors available.

Yep the B-110 board looks interesting - what do others think? Thom? (**this should be broken out into a new thread Colin**)

http://www.digitalreviews.net/reviews/video/popcorn-for-all-syabas-popcorn-hour-a-110-and-b-110-network-media-tanks-rev.html

[hari]

http://www.popcornforum.de/showthread.php?tid=2792

have not checked if all bits are there to deploy on the box itself. The big Q, can we utilize the SMP8635 properly? Given the history I doubt.. otherwise it would fit our needs..

br, Hari

[Marie.O]

Reading thru the posted thread, it seems as if they are still not opensourcing the really relevant bits.

[totallymaxed]

Reading thru the posted thread, it seems as if they are still not opensourcing the really relevant bits.

Hmmm...right. The driver for the SMP8635 is the key for us... this chip would give us an incredible Video capability...

Andrew

[Marie.O]

Reading thru the posted thread, it seems as if they are still not opensourcing the really relevant bits.

Hmmm...right. The driver for the SMP8635 is the key for us... this chip would give us an incredible Video capability...

[hint]Maybe a company should try to get into contact with SigmaDesign, and checkout what needs to happen...[/hint]

[hari]

no doubt that we can get a SDK, the Q is can we live with the conditions.. we've been there with the via driver already.

br, Hari

[Marie.O]

Well, we have other closed source stuff in LMCE already. Look at the USB-UIRT for example. Yes, closed source is not perfect. And I think, one should look at the SDKs rules, to see, how much we would depend on SigmaDesign, if we would need support for later kernels etc.

[totallymaxed]

Reading thru the posted thread, it seems as if they are still not opensourcing the really relevant bits.

Hmmm...right. The driver for the SMP8635 is the key for us... this chip would give us an incredible Video capability...

[hint]Maybe a company should try to get into contact with SigmaDesign, and checkout what needs to happen...[/hint]

Hint taken ;-)

Andrew

[totallymaxed]

Well, we have other closed source stuff in LinuxMCE already. Look at the USB-UIRT for example. Yes, closed source is not perfect. And I think, one should look at the SDKs rules, to see, how much we would depend on SigmaDesign, if we would need support for later kernels etc.

Hmm... I guess the B110 is completely re-flashable... ie without any limitations?

Andrew

[hari]

you'll get proprietary bits in the SDK to utilize the GPU. That's what I'm talking about. The base system itself is not the real issue. But I'd be very interested to see what's "in the box" :-)

br, Hari

[Marie.O]

hari sounds like someone who is looking for a sponsor of a popcorn hour and the SDK

[totallymaxed]

hari sounds like someone who is looking for a sponsor of a popcorn hour and the SDK

Well we're prepared to sponsor a unit or two....but I'd like to make sure we all agree that we have chosen the best board. Of course we could choose one and find its the wrong choice...that always a risk...a risk we just have to accept. But lets spend another week making sure we have made a good choice.

Any other candidate boards?

Andrew

[krys]

This will give a whole new meaning to "Hari gets his popcorn"...

but seriously, I am excited to see this process. I have been dying to upgrade a few MD's and something along these lines would be great.

[hari]

before we get demo boards I'd say we check the sdk conditions. If we have to sign NDAs and manage a private closed source branch for it, I'd pass. But I fear there might be no other license option in that area. The moko guys tried hard to get a chip with open 3d specs. Maybe there is sth from Intel, they have their PXA/.. stuff and a good GPU with open drivers..

br, Hari