[artrafael]

There are already device manufacturers and vendors who preinstall XBMC on their devices (e.g., Pivos, Ouya).

[Starstream]

Sigma seem to have gone real quiet of late, most of their remaining licensees that use their chips are still using the same old stuff, Western Digital being their biggest client. Cloud Media (Popcornhour) use their top of the line chip but it is still not that much different from before and the PCH-A400 UI still feels like your using something done in Flash complete with texture pop in.

I think Sigma is feeling the heat from all the Arm chips that have flooded the market not just in consumer STB markets but they are all over the place in business markets as well.

As artafael says their are Arm boxes running XBMC now on the market and they are rapidly evolving, Pivos have a new one coming very soon according to their forums.

[ertman]

This (sigma based xbmc) was something I was looking forward to, a couples of years ago, but with companies like pivos, they (sigma) are becoming irrelevant.

It will probably be a case of too little too late.

[Hedda]

Sigma Designs posted have over the last year posted some news that I think could maybe be related to the silence on the front of XBMC for MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs

August 28th, 2012
Sigma Designs Enters XBMC Arena with 3-D SoC Processor http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...120828.pdf

January 7th, 2013
Sigma Picks Boxee To Take Digital TV To The Next Level http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...30107d.pdf

July 3rd, 2013
Samsung buys Boxee, keeping on full staff
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/03/samsu...ee-report/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theate...buy-boxee/

September 12th, 2013
Sigma Designs to Launch New ARM-based Chipset at IBC http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...30912b.pdf

I think Sigma is feeling the heat from all the Arm chips that have flooded the market not just in consumer STB markets but they are all over the place in business markets as well.

One could speculate that Sigma Designs first choose XBMC, then changed their mind to go with Boxee instead, after that news broke Sigma Designs was probably forced to limbo when Boxee surprisingly was acquired Samsung.

And now Sigma Designs have decided to broaden their portfolio with ARM-based SoCs too, but unfortunate no news on XBMC for MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs.

There are already device manufacturers and vendors who preinstall XBMC on their devices (e.g., Pivos, Ouya).

Yes but not on any devices with MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs which is what this thread is all about.

[artrafael]

My post was in response to this, which does not refer to Sigma in particular:

Hello, I was wondering how come no one thinks to create a group for the development of a dedicated device for xbmc.

And, yes, I agree this thread is about Sigma, but the general question was asked, so...

[artrafael]

My post was in response to this, which does not refer to Sigma in particular:

Hello, I was wondering how come no one thinks to create a group for the development of a dedicated device for xbmc.

And, yes, I agree this thread is about Sigma, but the general question was asked, so...

[Ned Scott]

I'm not sure what the status on Sigma is, but keep in mind that Sigma doesn't normally market hardware themselves. Something like XBMC is basically an option for their clients who buy their chips for set-top-boxes that will then be sold under a different brand. Sigma could have a fully functional XBMC port and it could simply be that none of their clients have yet gone with that option. At least, that is my own personal speculation.

[ertman]

Good point Ned and Hedda.

It does seem like they were going the route of providing a XBMC like device using Boxee, or possibly a Boxee fork that they can sell to manufacturers with custom skinning. It still seems to me that they are taking to long to market.

[Hedda]

I'm not sure what the status on Sigma is, but keep in mind that Sigma doesn't normally market hardware themselves. Something like XBMC is basically an option for their clients who buy their chips for set-top-boxes that will then be sold under a different brand. Sigma could have a fully functional XBMC port and it could simply be that none of their clients have yet gone with that option. At least, that is my own personal speculation.

Very good points, but I guess the concrete question here is if XBMC even is a real option for Sigma Designs MIPS-based SoC clients today?

It could be a catch-22 with current lack of upstream support code for Sigma Designs SoC's in mainline XBMC that are holding their clients off from going that route.

Just as an example, no manufacturers of Android media-players included XBMC support until Team-XBMC first had brought in Android support into XBMC mainline.

You had the initial vision and then they implemented it once the option was available.

"If you build it, they will come" - Field of Dreams

[Starstream]

Sigma have announced a new chip series at CES 2014 the SMP8756, they have abandoned MIPS and gone with an Arm Cortex A9 single core with a Mali 400 GPU. The chip also supports H.265 and 4K along with Android and linux.

I guess if anyone brings a Sigma Android device to market we'll see XBMC on it that way at least.

[jjd-uk]

Single ARM core? in the days of Quad and even Octa ARM core SoC's I can't see them getting much traction with that unless it's extremely cheap.

[BORIStheBLADE]

Sigma have announced a new chip series at CES 2014 the SMP8756, they have abandoned MIPS and gone with an Arm Cortex A9 single core with a Mali 400 GPU. The chip also supports H.265 and 4K along with Android and linux.

I guess if anyone brings a Sigma Android device to market we'll see XBMC on it that way at least.

I think last year they announced a chipset that was supposed to run XBMC but I don't think it saw the light of day at all. I would love to see some of their hardware run XBMC but I don't see it happening now.

[Hedda]

@BORIStheBLADE/Starstream, see copy of previous post below, which also mentions SMP8734, a predecessor to SMP8736

Sigma Designs posted have over the last year posted some news that I think could maybe be related to the silence on the front of XBMC for MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs

August 28th, 2012
Sigma Designs Enters XBMC Arena with 3-D SoC Processor http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...120828.pdf

January 7th, 2013
Sigma Picks Boxee To Take Digital TV To The Next Level http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...30107d.pdf

July 3rd, 2013
Samsung buys Boxee, keeping on full staff
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/03/samsu...ee-report/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theate...buy-boxee/

September 12th, 2013
Sigma Designs to Launch New ARM-based Chipset at IBC http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...30912b.pdf

I think Sigma is feeling the heat from all the Arm chips that have flooded the market not just in consumer STB markets but they are all over the place in business markets as well.

One could speculate that Sigma Designs first choose XBMC, then changed their mind to go with Boxee instead, after that news broke Sigma Designs was probably forced to limbo when Boxee surprisingly was acquired Samsung.

And now Sigma Designs have decided to broaden their portfolio with ARM-based SoCs too, but unfortunate no news on XBMC for MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs.

There are already device manufacturers and vendors who preinstall XBMC on their devices (e.g., Pivos, Ouya).

Yes but not on any devices with MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs which is what this thread is all about.

[BORIStheBLADE]

@BORIStheBLADE/Starstream, see copy of previous post below, which also mentions SMP8734, a predecessor to SMP8736

Sigma Designs posted have over the last year posted some news that I think could maybe be related to the silence on the front of XBMC for MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs

August 28th, 2012
Sigma Designs Enters XBMC Arena with 3-D SoC Processor http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...120828.pdf

January 7th, 2013
Sigma Picks Boxee To Take Digital TV To The Next Level http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...30107d.pdf

July 3rd, 2013
Samsung buys Boxee, keeping on full staff
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/03/samsu...ee-report/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theate...buy-boxee/

September 12th, 2013
Sigma Designs to Launch New ARM-based Chipset at IBC http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/libr...30912b.pdf

I think Sigma is feeling the heat from all the Arm chips that have flooded the market not just in consumer STB markets but they are all over the place in business markets as well.

One could speculate that Sigma Designs first choose XBMC, then changed their mind to go with Boxee instead, after that news broke Sigma Designs was probably forced to limbo when Boxee surprisingly was acquired Samsung.

And now Sigma Designs have decided to broaden their portfolio with ARM-based SoCs too, but unfortunate no news on XBMC for MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs.

There are already device manufacturers and vendors who preinstall XBMC on their devices (e.g., Pivos, Ouya).

Yes but not on any devices with MIPS-based SoCs by Sigma Designs which is what this thread is all about.

Yeah I've seen those press releases in the past. Can you point me to a Sigma box with one of these chipsets I can buy then? No one has posted about using them so I look at it as they don't exist.