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Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

linuxgizmos.com

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Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

#81

Post by Uberphallus »

Ecio78 wrote: post #76
Uberphallus wrote: post #74

Well, as a not completely satisfied owner of: eSata Sheevaplug: currently NAS, no video, soft floating point. Raspberry Pi B/512: was a music server but the built-in audio is extremely crappy, unbalanced GPU/CPU power (damn you, DTS tracks), now sitting in a corner. Cubieboard: (current music server, stable, faster than RPi but no video hardware acceleration in linux). I just bought this in without much thinking. I h…

Isn't Raspberry PI's gpu acceleration supported on XBMC (with the right driver and/or dedicated distro?)

Yes, but most HD content is delivered with DTS audio, and the CPU chokes hard on that. So either you output directly via HDMI passthrough(which in my case means a long ass cable from the projector to the speakers) or reencode.

Also, even if HDMI audio works for you, XBMC interface is sluggish in the RPi. I'd check anything else for serious XBMC use.

Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

#82

Post by Uberphallus »

casperc wrote: post #80
Uberphallus wrote: post #74

Well, as a not completely satisfied owner of: eSata Sheevaplug: currently NAS, no video, soft floating point. Raspberry Pi B/512: was a music server but the built-in audio is extremely crappy, unbalanced GPU/CPU power (damn you, DTS tracks), now sitting in a corner. Cubieboard: (current music server, stable, faster than RPi but no video hardware acceleration in linux). I just bought this in without much thinking. I h…

Can anyone comment on how this will do as a media server? I.e. will it be able to decode 720p and 1080p h264?

Supposedly yes: https://community.freescale.com/thread/301478

Don't know how stable Linux support is, though.

Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

#83

Post by Ecio78 »

Uberphallus wrote: post #81
Ecio78 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Raspberry PI's gpu acceleration supported on XBMC (with the right driver and/or dedicated distro?)

Yes, but most HD content is delivered with DTS audio, and the CPU chokes hard on that. So either you output directly via HDMI passthrough(which in my case means a long ass cable from the projector to the speakers) or reencode. Also, even if HDMI audio works for you, XBMC interface is sluggish in the RPi. I'd check anything else for serious XBMC use.

I knew there were problems with some audio ouput, but I had read about the possibility of passthrough - in my case it will be ok. I suppose the CPU "choking" is only present when trying to let the RPi transcode the audio, right?

I have a 2012 Panasonic Plasma TV and the integrated media player is so-so: i.e. it doesn't support external srt subtitles when playing mp4 or mkv files, so I have to remux them in mkv with subs in order to play them, and I was thinking about getting a RPi (and also changing my Seagate Dockstar tranmission/minidlna system with 2 or more disks NAS)

Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

#84

Post by cnvogel »

X-Istence wrote: post #15

The downside is that the ethernet controller is run over USB. This is what kills performance drastically on the raspberry pi as well. USB is simply not a good protocol to run high speed network traffic over with low latency. The protocol is extremely chatty!

The Freescale i.MX6 has "native" Gigabit Ethernet: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?co... (that's the single-core part)

The block diagram for the "Tiny cubic mini pc" shows a AR8030/AR8035 between the CPU core and the outside world, that's a Gigabit PHY, not a Gigabit to USB chip, so indeed the native ethernet is used.

Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

#85

Post by Uberphallus »

Ecio78 wrote: post #83
Uberphallus wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but most HD content is delivered with DTS audio, and the CPU chokes hard on that. So either you output directly via HDMI passthrough(which in my case means a long ass cable from the projector to the speakers) or reencode. Also, even if HDMI audio works for you, XBMC interface is sluggish in the RPi. I'd check anything else for serious XBMC use.

I knew there were problems with some audio ouput, but I had read about the possibility of passthrough - in my case it will be ok. I suppose the CPU "choking" is only present when trying to let the RPi transcode the audio, right? I have a 2012 Panasonic Plasma TV and the integrated media player is so-so: i.e. it doesn't support external srt subtitles when playing mp4 or mkv files, so I have to remux them in mkv with s…

In that case I think RPi can fit your needs, though the GUI will feel slow anyway.

Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

#86

Post by rjsw »

voltagex_ wrote: post #68
rjsw wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are SheevaPlug variants with two RJ45s.

The Guruplug and Dreamplug. They're still limited by the USB to about 350mbit throughput.

The ethernet controllers are built in to the Marvell SoC, they don't use USB.

Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

#89

Post by voltagex_ »

rjsw wrote: post #86
voltagex_ wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Guruplug and Dreamplug. They're still limited by the USB to about 350mbit throughput.

The ethernet controllers are built in to the Marvell SoC, they don't use USB.

Hrm, thanks. There still must be a speed limitation somewhere.

Re: Tiny $45 cubic mini-PC runs Android and Linux

#90

Post by rjsw »

Ecio78 wrote: post #73
x0054 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, the IO performance is nothing to write home about. But the CPU / GPU is really good. The only Linux I got working on it is Kali Linux. But Ubuntu is also available. I think a SOC with dual SATA for raid would be really cool for a small server.

Many "low-cost" (80-150$) 1 or 2-bay NAS (seagate, netgear, dlink, zyxel etc..) can be "hacked" and the OS can be substituted with Linux. The difference is that they don't have a video output, and I think the CPUs should be more limited (many have Marvell Kirkwood 800mhz-1.5ghz), but they are designed for NAS usage so multiple SATA ports, eventually gigabit ethernet etc.. Having said that, probably the best home NAS…

The HP Microservers also have ECC RAM, Marvell Kirkwood based servers don't.
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