Any replacement for MediaMVP?

[MartenR]

Basic h264 video only hardware playback working, next turn mpeg2 software decoding

[odin4242]

My Pi arrived this week. If there is anything i can do, just let me know. Until then i'll keep playing with the raspbmc

[MartenR]

@odin4242
Until I do not know if mpeg2 video decodong is possible, it can still turn out that porting to the pi is not possible.
I really do not know, what you can do, since the architecture of vomp is changing internally on a daily basis, maybe implement HDMI CEC in RemoteLinux (but everything pi specific surrounded by preprocessors triggered in defines.h?)

BTW. Decoding mpeg2 through ffmpeg works now in color at 7-10 fps. I assume that I have to use more GPU.

Marten

[odin4242]

Hi Marten,

i read the thread on the raspberry pi forum concerning the mpeg2 decoding. The Pi is such a nice little thing, would be a real pitty if turns out to be impossible.

Till

[muellerph]

Decoding MPEG2 is the first, second will be to get deinterlacing done.

[MartenR]

I do not know if deinterlacing is the way.
Alternatively, we can also switch resolution and let the tv deinterlace, (leads to ugly OSD only at PAL resolution) that is something, which needs discussion.
Btw, second step is getting audio playback and AV sync.

Marten

[AndersF]

As an alternative to raspberryPi, maybe this one instead?
http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/04/04/mele-a2000-android-2-3-media-player-powered-by-allwinner-a10/

At least 1.2 GHz processor freq. ! Maybe makes software decoding of mpeg possible?

approx $75 at Aliexpress: http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/560499953-New-Arrive-Mele-A1000-TV-box-Allwinner-A10-hackable-device-Network-Intelligent-drive-HD-player-wholesalers.html

/Anders

[MartenR]

Some news about my progress.
I managed to selectively switch off motion compensation and IDCT.
So I can give an estimate how many frames the cpus is able to handle if the remaining part of the decoding is done by GPU.

Full decoding done by CPU: 12-13 FPS (reported before lower values due to a busy loop).
CPU decoding without motion compensation: 22- 33 FPS (22 fps is startup probably some hickups in the buffers).
CPU decoding without motioncompensation and no IDCT: 30-50 FPS (propably limited by VSYNC)

So writing the shaders will be the way to go.
In the git is now a separate branch xvmc, for my test.

If someone wants to watch recordings with no audio 25 fps for h264 or mpeg2 no audio at 10-12 fps, he can use the master branch.

Marten


Marten

[Chris]

What is this raspberry pi you speak of ..... I remember ordering something that never turned up.....

[Harry]

What is this raspberry pi you speak of ..... I remember ordering something that never turned up.....

ouch.
demand is still high it seems.
it was just yesterday, that i gave up hope on the situation to normalize and
for the RPi devices to become available from stock.
well.. i've joined a queue list. they said something about a backlog of 300k devices
to be delivered first, then eventually it's our turn.

cheers
Harry

P.S pity England couldn't make it to the semi finals. i would have loved to see GER vs. ENG :/

[Chris]

Mine did finally arrive, just before I left home for 2 weeks or so. I got 2h with it!

I think there is hope for the supply/demand situation to sort itself out. The foundation spent months making 10000 boards, of which 4000 went to Farnell and 4000 to RS. As soon as compliance testing passed, at least Farnell pressed the great big "go" button and they expect to have shipped 140,000 boards by the end of June I think they said. So that's some acceleration!

[muellerph]

After reading the XBMC on Android I bought myself a Sumvision Nano+ Slim and installed the currently available hardware accelerated XBMC from Pivos XIOS DS device.
-> It is pre alpha, so those who didn't hear yet, don't hold your breath.

For sure there is not yet any PVR functionality included, but it looks very promissing to me that it will work at the end.
- I was able to play VDR recordings from SD and HD channels!
- Also XBMC can play hardware accelerated from e.g. Mediathek which means you can also stream with the player used.
- I could set interlace on for the SD content (but I'm not yet 100% sure if it as any effect at the end).

When in XBMC the Android platform goes mainline AND the PVR plugin as well, then this is for me the perfect replacement for MVP and sadly Vomp. Maybe in a year?

Side information:
- Using the airmouse is very handy, usable for surfing, youtube, etc
- First thing for me to do was really installing Android 4.0. I had clipping errors with 2.3.4
- For sure I can control my box from my Android mobile with the XBMC remote (no PVR integration yet)
- The box get's quite warm but not hot. I assume ~40°C. You can set it to standby when unused
- When ordering from (Amazon) UK, get an adapter as well if you are not from UK
- No guarantee, but Pivos XIOS DS and Sumvision Nano+ Slim really seem to be identical so far. XIOS DS has a remote that Sumvision don't provide.

- I'm unsure about WAF, as XBMC is much more complex.
- The VDR plugin to support XBMC PVR plugin is called XVDR, this is based on Vomp (it's stated in XVDR sources and you can see in the code and structure of XVDR the similarities, e.g. keepalive). I'm unsure if the also available VNSI plugin is still running.

[vnmm]

Heh, why didn't I check amazon.com...

The way it doesn't require a computer to boot means it could be a problem to hack. I wonder if anyone at mvpmc has taken a look at it..


--------------------------------------


[Ed: Signature URL removed. This was a spammer account which copied a post from 2 years ago in order to appear genuine.]

[muellerph]

I assume you are talking about the Nano+

The way it doesn't require a computer to boot means it could be a problem to hack. I wonder if anyone at mvpmc has taken a look at it..

I have seen emvepee as a nick in the pivos forum, so I'm sure one from mvpmc is also there.
Anyway: You don't need to boot from a pc, it would be enough to be part of google play. This would be a very easy way to install packages. In doubt you can always install own packages. These boxes are all rooted.

MartenR: Do you think you will try another time an Android box as a Vomp client?
If yes maybe a "lightweight" XBMC would also make sense. For me XBMC is quite heavy from functionality and therefore also from complexity.

[MartenR]

MartenR: Do you think you will try another time an Android box as a Vomp client?
If yes maybe a "lightweight" XBMC would also make sense. For me XBMC is quite heavy from functionality and therefore also from complexity.

Probably not. But if you want I can send you my last android port, maybe it works out of the box. (If the mediaplayer uses proper android classes, the port is complete in this sense, otherwise you might use code from the raspberry port for omx handling).
The reason that I am reluctant about android is, that it takes me 6 month or so to make a port, but then the lifetime of the device is over and I have to start over again. (That is what happend last time with my port).

In the moment the raspberry pi is my target(assuming that this platform will be available a long time). Btw. I have written an  mpeg2 to mpeg4 transcoder, which achieves high frame rates in the last two weeks. So mpeg2 playback for vomp at the raspberry pi is in sight.

Marten