[mythtv-users] Android tablet - advanced remote control and/or frontend?

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Thu Jun 10 21:28:22 UTC 2010


On Thursday, June 10, 2010 03:15:15 pm Nick Rout wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 1:09 AM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > On Thursday, June 10, 2010 06:57:03 am Richard Morton wrote:
> >> http://phandroid.com/2010/06/09/notion-ink-adam-pops-back-in-still-on-tr
> >> ack -for-q3-releas/
> > 
> > Interesting, but it looks like overkill for a remote and underkill for a
> > frontend.
> > 
> > To be a practical frontend it would need hardware decoding for common
> > video formats, including h264. None of the tablets I've seen (including
> > the iPad) have anywhere near the power to do software decoding. Some
> > tegra chips have this capability, but I'm not sure which of them this
> > unit is using.
> > 
> > I think we'll see many ARM-based tablets in the coming months, they seem
> > to be the next "Netbooks".
> 
> The web page claims "Full High Definition Multimedia"
> (http://www.notionink.in/adamoverview.php).

Such a statement can mean a lot of things. It may be able to *display* HD resolutions but not necessarily decode anything 
but MPEG2. I'm not sure what "HD web streaming formats" might mean, though "such as Youtube" implies flash, something an 
iPad won't do.

It also says the screen is 1024x300, hardly what I would call "Full HD".

I hate it when marketing types write these things and not engineers.

> 
> Yes this might be nice as a frontend on the can or perhaps out by the
> pool [1], but really I think I prefer the 'watch tv from the sofa'
> paradigm.

Agreed, totally.

> 
> [1] although wireless bandwidth may be a limiter.

Many people have had good luck with WiFi and HD video, but many others have found it to not work well. I'd guess that if 
everything is perfect (no interference, good signal level etc.) it might work, but I wouldn't count on it.

It looks like an interesting device, but I wouldn't count on over-hyped marketing to tell the whole story.




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