3 ms·

> One of the main options pointed at is low-power x86 boxes, which are better than Pis ever were. In terms of what? Battery usage at idle? BOM to operationaliz

by derefr 3y ago

> One of the main options pointed at is low-power x86 boxes, which are better than Pis ever were. In terms of what? Battery usage at idle? BOM to operationalize the design? Surely not. > > It's almost as if most of the people whining are just upset there isn't a cheap device they can drop into a Kodi box without any effort. > Okay. Yes? That's a valid usecase. Funny enough, all throughout the pandemic the one thing that kept being made was Android streaming boxes. I'm pretty sure it's dead simple to wipe those and put Kodi on them. So it's not much of a valid use-case. (I'd instead expect most hobbyists who want Pis, to actually want them for running game-console emulators — specifically, emulators for consoles new enough that those weaker streaming boxes would struggle with them.)

skykooler 3y ago
The Pi is not stellar in terms of battery usage at idle, either. Its CPU doesn't have proper power management handling, which is why all homemade raspi-based phones/tablets/etc have a <6hr battery life.
rcarmo 3y ago
Some of those Android TV boxes actually had pirated apps of various kinds - and SoCs that were gimped to the extent where you really needed the source to rebuild that particular version of Android.
yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
>>> - people saying that there are "more performant" devices. Sure, there are. How do they perform in terms of kernel support and documentation? >> One of the main options pointed at is low-power x86 boxes, which are better than Pis ever were. The rest of the ARM ecosystem is, I agree, poor. > In terms of what? Battery usage at idle? BOM to operationalize the design? Surely not. I was responding to kernel support; x86 boxes can usually just run straight mainline Linux with no problem, which is far better than most of the ARM ecosystem (even Pis aren't running mainline, they're just a well-supported downstream). > Android streaming boxes. I'm pretty sure it's dead simple to wipe those and put Kodi on them There are alternatives, but then we're back to spotty support, fragmented ecosystems, and using a Pi for video streaming is still a valid usecase.

by derefr 3y ago

skykooler 3y ago

The Pi is not stellar in terms of battery usage at idle, either. Its CPU doesn't have proper power management handling, which is why all homemade raspi-based phones/tablets/etc have a <6hr battery life.

rcarmo 3y ago

Some of those Android TV boxes actually had pirated apps of various kinds - and SoCs that were gimped to the extent where you really needed the source to rebuild that particular version of Android.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

>>> - people saying that there are "more performant" devices. Sure, there are. How do they perform in terms of kernel support and documentation? >> One of the main options pointed at is low-power x86 boxes, which are better than Pis ever were. The rest of the ARM ecosystem is, I agree, poor. > In terms of what? Battery usage at idle? BOM to operationalize the design? Surely not. I was responding to kernel support; x86 boxes can usually just run straight mainline Linux with no problem, which is far better than most of the ARM ecosystem (even Pis aren't running mainline, they're just a well-supported downstream). > Android streaming boxes. I'm pretty sure it's dead simple to wipe those and put Kodi on them There are alternatives, but then we're back to spotty support, fragmented ecosystems, and using a Pi for video streaming is still a valid usecase.