From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB9991381F3 for ; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:07:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 95A3921C01A; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:06:52 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-wi0-f181.google.com (mail-wi0-f181.google.com [209.85.212.181]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 80CFFE0466 for ; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:05:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-wi0-f181.google.com with SMTP id hm2so1959764wib.10 for ; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:05:43 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=date:from:to:subject:message-id:in-reply-to:references:organization :x-mailer:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=HQcpKmiTurR9D+zpb21uvx58YyXLKY4st53XQHysxU0=; b=WC0nugYImK91/3htcMqodAp/CfvC35gIgVfypt9tuu33LZjdgIYAAFZmYCmtrg5KeZ SfP9Q0b7oXGl29nhKm4TDErrexP42Pvr027QgXPVjIRCekdUfz+x5LFp/xkhCDXOZDwq 7DkdQwPWN9KtL6vFOjfN6NAvbDaMTRk8sCawuOm32Kxwo/Dc643clvbU11l0rSxxLscN MXk1Ks5O6O0NEcnuwJtzWJ+TkySC9VUYPbRKQAAiFwyaf21Z7M6iWgTdSVAc92s4Toli 3q64RHExKjVoAaXAxLA7Koeb5Iu3z0N/iEJ6wTpaNVjBbGrilQGGvVqk7Jn37edPZFB/ qbQg== Received: by 10.180.14.73 with SMTP id n9mr3072575wic.15.1353182743027; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:05:43 -0800 (PST) Received: from khamul.example.com (196-210-100-105.dynamic.isadsl.co.za. [196.210.100.105]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id w5sm7152884wiz.10.2012.11.17.12.05.40 (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:05:41 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2012 22:03:04 +0200 From: Alan McKinnon To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Beagle vs. Panda vs. Raspberry on Gentoo Message-ID: <20121117220304.758a8615@khamul.example.com> In-Reply-To: References: Organization: Internet Solutions X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.8.1 (GTK+ 2.24.13; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 63c0b3cd-6dd1-4a62-9a83-b1110dce4581 X-Archives-Hash: ee02abd306a5476112a5eb4c0de6dd4f On Sat, 17 Nov 2012 10:59:28 -0800 Grant wrote: > Which of these would be the best choice for Gentoo? I have a > Beaglebone but now I'm looking for something with video for HD > playback. > > - Grant I'd say none of them (yet). It doesn't matter what other features in the form of fancy IO and neat circuitry is put on such boards, they are all limited by what the CPU can do. If the board has a RealTek chip, it;s limited by what the RealTek dev software provides. I have a Raspberry Pi, and doing what it was designed to do is something it is very good at. It was designed to teach kids how to program. It was not designed to play full HD video. The Pi suffers with playback the very same way all the other ARM media players out there suffer, whether they be AC Ryan, Medi8ter, Xtreamer or whatever - as soon as you have to run some controlling software as well as the codec, and especially if you have to decode audio on the device (as opposed to having the amp do it in hardware), it stutters. The cpu just cannot cut it. The next generation of ARM chips and software are reputed to be beefed up to deal with this very issue, and Google will turn up many valid opinions about this. Meanwhile, you can get it to work, just be aware things are not 100% there yet (for reasonable definitions of "there" starting with 720p). The cheapest solution by far and the easiest to get working is a Raspberry Pi and an OpenElec built for it. You need one 30 bucks Pi,one HDMI tv and one ultra cheap SD card and you are good to go ;-) -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckinnon@gmail.com