<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 1:46 PM, Michael T. Dean <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mtdean@thirdcontact.com" target="_blank">mtdean@thirdcontact.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
IME, the support for using extremely underpowered systems generally comes about the time it's no longer needed--such as when the available systems are no longer underpowered... For example, by the time the PVR-350 decoder was usable on GNU/Linux, modern processors could handle SDTV MPEG-2 decoding without breaking a sweat. VDPAU itself came out at a time when processors didn't need it (I said "processors", not "toys"--where you've been able to do a Core 2 Duo system that runs about the same power draw as an Atom, but then had some headroom available for when you need it, since Atom was first released, so there was never a need for Atom). Similarly, I expect we'll have good support for MythTV on systems like the RPi about the time there's a better option available (whether that option is better ARM-powered devices or something else that provides low-power, low-cost systems).<br>
<br>
Note, also, that many people thought the Beagle Board would be "the perfect frontend," but we're not all using Beagle frontends, yet...<br>
<br>
Mike (perhaps a bit jaded) Dean<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br></div></div></blockquote><div>I disagree on a couple fronts. First, it's not so much the low power this time as it is price. Other than a $6 case, $10 AD adapter and ~$20 SDcard, the Pi clocks in at $35. That's pretty dang cheap for a front end. Add in the fact that there are no moving parts and the footprint is the size of a deck of cards, and the device becomes greater than the sum of its parts.<br>
<br>Second, A C2D will play back 1080p but it won't do it as well as a GPU-offloading solution. You'll get tearing, jitter, and overall a somewhat crappy experience. It will "work", but it won't make the wife happy.<br>
<br>Just my two cents.<br></div></div>