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Nvidia Jetson Nano, superfast Kodi device?
#1
I just read that Nvidia is launching their Jetson Nano. It is marketed as an "AI System" but when I see the specs I am hopeful it should do Kodi too, and perhaps on a very high level. More info can be found at Nvidia and a good preview on AndroidAuthority. Price will be $99.

Specs:

GPU:                 NVIDIA Maxwell™ architecture with 128 NVIDIA CUDA® cores
CPU:                 Quad-core ARM® Cortex®-A57 MPCore processor
Memory:           4 GB 64-bit LPDDR4
Storage:           16 GB eMMC 5.1 Flash
Video Encode:   4K @ 30 (H.264/H.265)
Video Decode:   4K @ 60 (H.264/H.265)
Camera:           12 lanes (3x4 or 4x2) MIPI CSI-2 DPHY 1.1 (1.5 Gbps)
Connectivity:     Gigabit Ethernet
Display:            HDMI 2.0 or DP1.2 | eDP 1.4 | DSI (1 x2) 2 simultaneous
UPHY:               1 x1/2/4 PCIE, 1x USB 3.0, 3x USB 2.0
I/O:                  1x SDIO / 2x SPI / 6x I2C / 2x I2S / GPIOs
Size:                69.6 mm x 45 mm
Mechanical:      260-pin edge connector

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Curious at your thoughts!
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#2
It looks like a mini Shield TV. It's apparently also running Ubuntu 18.04. Unfortunately for years, Nvidia have been quite a d!ck in keeping their video drivers proprietary for Linux. Plus they also never bothered to give 10bit support in VDPAU. This may be different with their new NVDEC and NVENC solution, but so far none of the Kodi or LibreELEC developers has felt the need to create yet another driver layer to adjust the new Nvidia drivers to Kodi's needs. LibreELEC also drops Nvidia support for their Generic build as per LE v10.0 /Kodi 19 because of it. So, I wouldn't hold my breath regarding this Jetson thingy if I were you.
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#3
Yes the Linux GPU drivers are the Key here.

I really does not mater how powerful a platform is. If the vendors do not want to provide standard GPU drivers that Kodi can use well then the platform will quickly fade into oblivion for Linux Kodi usage.

The NVIDIA Shield would have had LibreELEC already if any of the developers were even remotely interested in the Maxwell GPU.

As an example the AMLogic S912, did not have standard Linux GPU drivers supplied by AMLogic and hybrid Libhybris (Linux/Android) drivers had to be use that caused all sorts of problems during development. Remaining bugs such as stuttering Subtitles have only just recently been fixed - that took over 1 year. That is unacceptable going forward.

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#4
Wow, this thing is smoking Smile They are going to sell millions of them. Maybe time to put my porting hat back on.
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#5
I don't think we would mind if you did. Nvidia and 10bit Linux is still welcome for many people. Smile
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#6
(2019-03-21, 01:28)Klojum Wrote: It looks like a mini Shield TV. It's apparently also running Ubuntu 18.04. Unfortunately for years, Nvidia have been quite a d!ck in keeping their video drivers proprietary for Linux. Plus they also never bothered to give 10bit support in VDPAU. This may be different with their new NVDEC and NVENC solution, but so far none of the Kodi or LibreELEC developers has felt the need to create yet another driver layer to adjust the new Nvidia drivers to Kodi's needs. LibreELEC also drops Nvidia support for their Generic build as per LE v10.0 /Kodi 19 because of it. So, I wouldn't hold my breath regarding this Jetson thingy if I were you.
ISTR that the TX1 (which is in the Shield TV and the Jetson TX1 dev board) didn't have VDPAU or NVDECODE/NVCUVID support and instead relies purely on a GStreamer framework for video decoding and encoding?  Looks like the Nano is a cut-down TX1 - so I'd expect the same limitations unless nVidia have had a change of heart?

There hasn't been a decent Linux port of Kodi on the TX1 platform that I can find so far...

If GStreamer isn't going to be a workable solution, I wonder if there is any possibility to write CUDA-accelerated decoder code? nVidia don't themselves support NVDECODE (formerly NVCUVID) on the TX1/TX2 platforms - which I think is an nVidia CUDA decode approach (though it may also access VPU elements not just GPU?) and pushes people to GStreamer on those platforms.

I'm not sure I'd expect them to support NVDECODE themselves on the Nano - though some third party might find a way to write CUDA accelerated h.264, h.265, VC-1 etc. decoding?
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#7
Ya know, I did a port of xbmc/kodi to gstreamer a few years back Smile
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#8
Cortex A57


huhHuh? That's a 2012 ARM design btw.
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#9
(2019-03-21, 14:20)davilla Wrote: Ya know, I did a port of xbmc/kodi to gstreamer a few years back Smile
 Great!  Does it fit in with the current development path Kodi is taking?
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#10
(2019-03-21, 22:33)noggin Wrote:
(2019-03-21, 14:20)davilla Wrote: Ya know, I did a port of xbmc/kodi to gstreamer a few years back Smile
 Great!  Does it fit in with the current development path Kodi is taking? 
Not a clue, I don't pay much attention to the development path Kodi is taking Smile
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#11
Anybody got their hands on one of these yet? I'm curious what your impressions are.
I saw a nice looking case to print on thignsverse
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3518410
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#12
(2019-04-04, 04:00)calev Wrote: Anybody got their hands on one of these yet? I'm curious what your impressions are.
I saw a nice looking case to print on thignsverse
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3518410

my shield tv runs great
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#13
* davilla places an order...
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#14
(2019-04-05, 23:42)davilla Wrote: * davilla places an order...

Cool! Would you like to keep us informed about your findings?
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#15
I just got mine in the mail. The desktop feels really smooth. Except when just launching something. That's probably because it's reading from an sd card. A big improvement over a raspberry pi 3. I do see occasional video tearing on the monitor. Not sure whats up with that. Just lines going across the screen.Could be driver issues. when watching a youtube video and dragging a web browser window I get video glitches too. 

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Nvidia Jetson Nano, superfast Kodi device?0