(2014-05-09, 02:19)Ned Scott Wrote: It's not even worth $20, and I'm not exaggerating. I have an Allwinner A10 device, and it's total junk.
I really hate to say it, but this is untrue. I would question this person's knowledge about of this device. It is an A20 not an A10. I consider Ned's comments as akin to the adage (incorrectly attributed to Bill Gates); the raspberry pi is all you will ever need, no one needs more than a raspberry pi for this type of project.
As time has progressed and people have taken a serious look at the raspberry pi it has come to light that the raspberry pi has begun to show it's weaknesses. For instance some weaknesses are that real lack of power in the raspberry pi for anything other than playing media XBMC, and the fact that it has a 100mb Ethernet that's shared with the USB ports. Those are just two. No power button, no mic, no true reset, no real time clock. No consistency in how addon makers choose which pins. Those are just a couple more.
The raspberry pi model b+ has improved things yet it still has the same weaknesses as its predecessor. An example of what I consider to be a problem due to these weaknesses (such as weak powered) is as follows: you cannot index your content (or even use a shared mysql media database) while playing something without having your CPU utilization skyrocket to 100% (where it stays there) even for a simple mp3 file. If you do not index your content then playback is fine. However the device isn't usable as a NAS because of the shared Ethernet/USB. And, you have to over-clock it to get it to get acceptable performance on the interface for Kodi.
When using something like Lubuntu just browsing the web on the raspberry pi is enormously problematic and it isn't something that I would wish upon anyone. On the banana pi it is fast enough out of the box to not even be considered problematic. It'll even play back a good amount 720p video adequately without accelerated video.
The banana pi's 1gb of ram is a godsend. The dual core CPU is an enormous improvement. The SATA port is wonderful. The 1gb Ethernet that's not shared with the USB ports creates the potential for a nice NAS device. As well, the gpio on the banana pi is pin compatible with the raspberry pi, so you can do everything on it that you do on the raspberry pi, including take advantage of the support system surrounding raspberry pi. I do think that the banana pi is quite a bit ahead of the raspberry pi. What it lacks is the commitment from projects like Kodi. To make things even more appetizing the new model of the banana pi has built in wireless and rids itself of the old composite input in favor of the same type of change that the raspberry pi model b+ does. I decided to get a banana pi because of the SATA port, 1gb ram, and 1gb Ethernet. These are important to me. With the second model having built in WiFi this makes it more enticing.
Now Kodi is a good solid project and it can make devices like this shine. I use Kodi all the time as my media center systems. I'd like to see these devs show some humility and reconsider this as a project that's worthwhile. Given that the only real thing lacking for the banana pi is accelerated video along and the latest version of Kodi hopefully this project's leaders will reconsider.
I've read posts where individuals are dumping on the banana pi while praising it's lesser cousin. This is really inappropriate. This is a solid device with massive potential. With a solid commitment from the right projects this one will step up for anyone willing to give it a go.
I have no affiliation with anyone related to these or any other pico board/software developer. I've just been in the industry for 30 years and have used these devices since they've been available.
