Broadcom Crystal HD

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Introduction

Broadcom's Crystal HD is an inexpensive dedicated hardware decoder. It is distributed in the following forms:

• BCM970015 - PCIe mini card (new)
• BCM970012NB - PCIe mini card
• BCM970012PQ - PCIe desktop adapter
• BCM970012IC - ExpressCard 34
• BCM970010 - ExpressCard 34

It may also be known as the Broadcom AV-VD905, which is paired with the ASUS Eee Keyboard.

Crystal HD is also known by other includes. For example, Dell refers to it as Broadcom BD Accelerator.

The above products may be rebranded by OEM's, and are known to be available for the following targeted platforms:

• HP Mini 110
• Aspire One netbook
• Dell Inspiron 1525 and Studio 1735

(note: there are adapters for regular to mini PCIe cards: http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/MP1.html)

Another adapter has been tested and works for me in a PCIe X1 slot on a normal motherboard and was cheaper than the MP1 adapter: http://www.titanwirelessonline.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=RB-11E

The decoders are available on ebay, among other sources.

Drivers

Drivers are being developed for both MythTV frontend and XBMC.

Obtaining drivers

Available drivers

• Current Driver and libraries available from Jarod Wilsons GIT site (Jan-25-2010)

• Compile and install the driver:

Do this or an equivelent:

cd ~

wget -O crystalhd.tar.gz http://git.wilsonet.com//crystalhd.git?a=snapshot;h=82bb6578c4e7cafdbbfb898e2eddea5116969e8d;sf=tgz

tar -zxvf chrystalhd.tar.gz

or

I found under Ubuntu 11.10 I had to use the git version:

git clone git://git.wilsonet.com/crystalhd.git

I also had to add the following code to <crystalhd dir>/driver/linux/crystalhd_flea_ddr.c

 #include <linux/delay.h>

sudo apt-get update

apt-get install autoconf g++

cd crystalhd/driver/linux

autoconf

./configure

make clean; make

sudo make install

sudo modprobe crystalhd

dmesg to see if the BCM970012 is seen

You might find some output similar to:

Broadcom 70012 Decoder 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

• Compile and install the libraries:

cd crystalhd/linux_lib/libcrystalhd

make clean; make

sudo make install

That's it for now.

Since the MythTV application doesn't yet support it, you can't test it within MythTV (on Feb-10-2010).

You can test in a current SVN of XBMC if desired.

If you use XBMC to test your BCM970012 you can check dmesg for something similar to:

Starting BCM70012 Device

clock is moving to 175 with n 35 with vco_mg 2

CInitializing Dio pool 10 1024 605c f232d420

Firmware Downloaded Successfully

Then upon completing use of the device:

Closing user[0] handle

Deleting IOQs

Releasing RX Pkt pool

Released dio pool 10

Stopping BCM70012 Device

MythTV Crystal HD Support

Processes and streams that can be accelerated for most video formats

Crystal HD can accelerate the decoding of full HD ripped from blu-ray.

• H.264/AVC HP at L 4.1 1080p/1080i, 40 Mbps
• SMPTE VC-1 AP at L 3 1080p/1080i, 40 Mbps
• VC-1 Simple and Main Profile (WMV9)
• MPEG-2 MP @ ML and MP @ HL

It supports any standard resolution from QVGA up to 1920 x 1088.

Alternatives

There are alternative methods for hardware assisted playback of high definition video:

• VDPAU

External Links

• BCM70010 (mobile) product
• BCM70012 (desktop) product
• Mini PCIe to PCIe X1 adapter