[free118]

Hello,
my next project will be an ARM HT(PC) with XBMC, like on the Rasberry PI, but more powerful.
The price range will be up to ~100€.
My first thought was something that runs android, but android only support 720p HDMI output for the moment.
So i need something which is linux capable. The HW should be android capable, so i could switch later to android if i want.
First use will be under a different Linux distribution.

I see that there are several similar RaspPi HW's like the Cubieboard, Mele A1000, MK802, Wandboard .......
But i figured out that XMBC didn't support the HW acceleration on the MALI400MP GPU. Is this still right?

So CuBox-i looks good for the moment, but it's not "really" available and no feedback for the moment.

Did someone know a good hardware which have "full" GPU hand CPU acceleration support form XBMC and has more power as a RaspPi and is android capable?

Thanks

[Starstream]

The amlogic 8726-M chipsets were limited to 720p output but upscaled to 1080p, they could decode 1080p video, Pivos were the creator of this which wound up getting cloned.

Other Android chipsets did not have this limitation however hardware video decoding on those wasn't as robust or even supported at least until recently where the situation has improved greatly and the hardware in Android boxes has slowly improved in performance.

However high quality Android boxes are still pretty thin on the ground, Pivos are promising their next one will tick all the boxes (XBMC 1080p, HD audio) but that may not launch until end of the year or slip into next year from the talk on their forums.

The Ouya offers the best performance in an Android device at this time but it has some limitations in audio pass-through. The Archos TV Connect is another 1080p capable device however XBMC on this doesn't run full screen and has no audio pass-through options at all. Then their are the various Rockchip android sticks and boxes, your mileage will vary greatly with these.

Video decoding on Arm isn't always done on a GPU, many Arm chipsets have a separate VPU (video processing unit).

So I would either look at the Ouya and see if your okay with it or hold off and wait to see Pivos next unit if looking for stable 1080p output in an Android device.

The CuBox forums have threads which covers GeeXbox the linux/XBMC distro that support that platform, you might find some feedback on it.

[joelbaby]

Your wishlist is impossible because Android + Full XBMC support is not available.

If you want Android + Linux on the same hardware, the secret is to look at the chipset.
Android only is easy. Linux is harder to get.

You need either: Amlogic aml8726-mx (dual core) or Amlogic aml8726-m8 (quad), or Freescale i.mx6
Someone posted earlier today that the new aml8726-m8 might not have Linux builds on it from Pivos. This is a pity if true.
There is some talk about RK3188 chipset and linux, but not sure how this will translate into xbmc linux builds.

Freescale i.mx6 devices appear to have a lot of interest from the developer community.
Wandboard is like a Pi (you need to buy a box for it), Utilite is good but no infra red port, Cubox-i is not shipped yet but does have built in IR, but not as powerful as the utilite pro.

If you buy a $100 device, you are taking a risk. If you have time, just wait.
Look at http://stephan-rafin.net/blog/ where he has posted a hardware decoded xbmc.

I have Cubox-i on order. If it doesn't work how I want, I can sell it on eBay quite easily I think.

[memeka]

I have tried XBMC on 3 ARM devices, both Android and Linux. I will be talking about the Linux experience

1) raspberry pi: Good video decoding, but not so great xbmc experience. It would have been the perfect device with (at least) a dual core hf chip and 1gb ram.

2) odroid u2: quad core A9 1.7GHz, 2GB RAM, Mali 400 - very good linux support, has 3D egl drivers with decent performance, CPU is great, RAM is more than enough. No fan, comes with heatsink that doubles as a case, very small and not bad looking. Usable as Linux desktop. You get 60fps in XBMC. Has video decoder (but not in mainline). Decodes 1080p video, but good only on 720p output resolution. 1080p video in 1080p resolution skips frames. Limited CEC support, for some users it works, for some only partial (depending on TV manufacturer). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3kSF2a1cNM

3) odroid xu lite (I actually have the XU+E which has 200MHz more than lite for 20 extra euros): 100 euros for the board, case and power cable, but the price does not include shipping and wifi (or emmc, which is 2x faster than sd). Has USB3, octo core (4x A15 @ 1.4GHz, 4x A7 @ 1.2GHz), 2GB RAM, power vr gpu. Currently cannot use all 8 cores at the same time, but the A15 cores are VERY powerful (depending on what samsung does, there might be support for running all 8 cores in the future). Has hardware decoder for XBMC (not in mainline) which works good (VPU), but there are no 3D native drivers for linux GPU (yet, the developers are working on that). This means that you have no native linux 3D acceleration in X11 (or XBMC). Currently you DO have 3D support in XBMC with the Android drivers with libhybris, with the video decoded by native linux code. You can also decode with Android Media Codec via libhybris, performance is the same as native linux decoder. Performance is great, you get 1080p decoding in 1080p resolution with no sweat, 60fps GUI in XBMC with ~20% CPU utilization (1080p decoding does not even starts the A15 processors, the A7 are enough). The only current disadvantage is that X11 does not run at the same time with XBMC because of libhybris (it's X11 OR XBMC) - this is similar to raspberry pi, which also runs XBMC outside of X11. It has a small fan, but users have replaced it successfully with (rather large) heatsinks (though you need more money for heatsink). With proper Linux GPU drivers, this is going to be a gem.

EDIT: odroids are fully android capable, xbmc running well and doing 1080p decoding (both u2 and xu). Basically the U2 has the hardware of a galaxy S3 and the XU has the hardware of a galaxy S4 (exynos).

EDIT2: being a board, as opposed to a box, means you can do more than xbmc with it, like attaching extra sensors on GPIO pins... so it's more like the raspberry pi than a "xbmc box" which is closed off. Also you basically cannot brick it because all storage (emmc, sd) is removable, so you can reflash it any time.

PS: for remote control, until CEC is working properly, I am using a flirc device - better than IR. It's a USB dongle that receives ir signals but it's seen by the device as a keyboard, so you can map any remote key to a "keyboard" key - this means that you can use multiple remotes (you can program multiple remote key to the same "keyboard" key). Other control options are bluetooth remotes or controllers, and xbmc app on a phone/tablet, or all the same time

[noggin]

It's worth keeping an eye on the newer, optimised, Raspberry Pi builds.

There's a lot of work going in to optimising them, and they are looking to be much more responsive within the UI than they used to be. (Early demo here : http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4986 )

The core video decoding is excellent, and if you are in Europe, there is often better frame rate switching support on the Pi.

Last time I checked the Odroids were still struggling with 50Hz refresh rates and auto frame-rate switching (which is also an issue within many Android devices) I bought an Odroid-U2 - as there was a lot of initial enthusiasm about the board in these parts. However whilst it's undoubtedly a very snappy little board, and very competent as a general little Linux machine, or an Android device, it doesn't quite seem to have broken through as an XBMC device. The Cubox-i and similar systems based on the same SoC (iMX.6?) looks like it is getting a lot more attention and decent support from manufacturers in VPU terms (which is key to a decent video playback experience)

[memeka]

this is with my odroid-xu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUorE09cC-4

CEC is working, just had to enable it in XBMC

[vvd214]

Vote for devices base AML8726-MX Devices work great and stable with linux xbmc, can see here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthre...?t=2418029