[mythtv-users] Raspberry Pi now ships with 512MB RAM

[Michael T. Dean]

On 10/15/2012 09:12 PM, Per Hatlevik wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 6:02 PM, Michelle Dupuis wrote:
>>  From what I recall from the last discussion on list, accelerated video is not supported for that video chipset, so not suitable...
> not suitable until someone writes it. vdpau was not supported until
> someone wrote support for that. i have actively been researching
> openmax and the implementation doesn't seem that bad if i had the
> time.
>
> definitely having 512MB should allow us to run the full frontend which
> helps, and then there's just openmax. my problem is that i'm
> comfortable programming just never really programmed video encoders or
> decoders so that is a learning experience but i definitely have
> openmax on my list of things to do if no one else beats me to it, just
> not a lot of spare time these days to spend doing anything.
>
> the hardware h264 encoder on the raspberry pi could be of interest to
> a lot of people as well....

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).

Note, also, that many people thought the Beagle Board would be "the 
perfect frontend," but we're not all using Beagle frontends, yet...

Mike (perhaps a bit jaded) Dean