Hi everyone - I've just discovered this amazing Beagle world, and
would like to use the iminent bb-xm if I can.
Background: I've volunteered to provide some cheap thin clients for a
local charity, for watching streamed DVB video (720p/1080i in MPEG2/
MPEG4, SD in H.264) and doing typical computer things (surfing, email,
etc) through a cheap 720p or 1080p monitor.
I immediately thought of Atom/ION/XBMC, but bb-xm looks much more fun
if it's got the grunt, which I'm struggling to find out.
I've read around, and seen the videos of the C4 doing SD/H.264 and
720p, but without lots of supplementary information that tells me
little.
So, does anyone know (or have an opinion) if BB-xm can handle the
above video requirements, and/or know where I can further look/ask?
And am I right to assume that specifying 720p monitors would reduce
demands on the bb-xm (or can PowerVR handle the extra throughput/
scaling load of 1080p output)?
Many thanks for any pointers - as always, the first steps are the
hardest.
Hi everyone - I've just discovered this amazing Beagle world, and
would like to use the iminent bb-xm if I can.
Background: I've volunteered to provide some cheap thin clients for a
local charity, for watching streamed DVB video (720p/1080i in MPEG2/
MPEG4, SD in H.264)
the BB cannot decode 1080i in any format. It can do some limited 720p, but
not e.g. MPEG2 at 50/60fps as often used in broadcast world.
and doing typical computer things (surfing, email,
etc) through a cheap 720p or 1080p monitor.
I immediately thought of Atom/ION/XBMC, but bb-xm looks much more fun
if it's got the grunt, which I'm struggling to find out.
I've read around, and seen the videos of the C4 doing SD/H.264 and
720p, but without lots of supplementary information that tells me
little.
So, does anyone know (or have an opinion) if BB-xm can handle the
above video requirements, and/or know where I can further look/ask?
Unless you can control the content (you encode it yourself), the answer
is mostly no.
Hi everyone - I've just discovered this amazing Beagle world, and
would like to use the iminent bb-xm if I can.
Background: I've volunteered to provide some cheap thin clients for a
local charity, for watching streamed DVB video (720p/1080i in MPEG2/
MPEG4, SD in H.264)
How are you capturing the DVB stream?
the BB cannot decode 1080i in any format. It can do some limited 720p, but
not e.g. MPEG2 at 50/60fps as often used in broadcast world.
and doing typical computer things (surfing, email,
etc) through a cheap 720p or 1080p monitor.
I immediately thought of Atom/ION/XBMC, but bb-xm looks much more fun
if it's got the grunt, which I'm struggling to find out.
I've read around, and seen the videos of the C4 doing SD/H.264 and
720p, but without lots of supplementary information that tells me
little.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so buy one and try it out.
FFmpeg likely gives the best performance of open source codecs on the
BeagleBoard right now. omapfbplay doesn't include audio, but will
likely have the best fps. For commercial codecs, I suggest you
contact a TI sales rep.
So, does anyone know (or have an opinion) if BB-xm can handle the
above video requirements, and/or know where I can further look/ask?
Unless you can control the content (you encode it yourself), the answer
is mostly no.
And am I right to assume that specifying 720p monitors would reduce
demands on the bb-xm (or can PowerVR handle the extra throughput/
scaling load of 1080p output)?
I haven't seen anyone use the PowerVR for video--just the ARM+DSP/IVA.
The highest performance codecs I've seen split the processing between
the ARM and the IVA subsystems, but I'm not aware of any codecs like
that for free.
Check out the FFmpeg video wall project with the BeagleBoard to get an
idea of what is possible with open source codecs.
The selected program stream arrives over the LAN, from a server with
DVB-S and DVB-T boards in (someone else's problem).
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so buy one and try it out.
FFmpeg likely gives the best performance of open source codecs on the
BeagleBoard right now. omapfbplay doesn't include audio, but will
likely have the best fps. For commercial codecs, I suggest you
contact a TI sales rep.
I wish I could - but this is out of hours stuff, and I'm paying for
the hardware, so I can't invest time and money on every possibility to
see if it even has a chance of working. I need to be reasonably sure
up front, and the feedback here, which is appreciated, isn't
encouraging. I guess I needed an OMAP4 BB.
I wasn't aware that there were commercial codecs though - are they so
much better?
I haven't seen anyone use the PowerVR for video--just the ARM+DSP/IVA.
The highest performance codecs I've seen split the processing between
the ARM and the IVA subsystems, but I'm not aware of any codecs like
that for free.
I know nothing about it except that it has no codec features, but
thought it might at least be used for scaling to the display
resolution. Incidentally does it suffer from the same problems as the
PowerVR in Intel's GMA500 chipset - lack of decent drivers on Linux?
Check out the FFmpeg video wall project with the BeagleBoard to get an
idea of what is possible with open source codecs.
Yes I've seen that, very clever! Unfortunately I'm limited to just one
board!
