6 ms·

Dual gigabit, wi-fi and the ability to run Ubuntu makes this very interesting for a "home router / hub" type device. Video output makes it interesting for a me

Dual gigabit, wi-fi and the ability to run Ubuntu makes this very interesting for a "home router / hub" type device. Video output makes it interesting for a media player device. Putting both in one low-powered box is awesome...

msoad 13y ago
For video this doesn't really work. I tried a bunch of ARM devices to use as my HTPC. Problem is video codecs are not optimized for ARM. I think ARM devices are good enough for 6Mbps videos but software is not there yet.
- ZoFreX 13y ago
  If the GPU can do the decoding, or it has a separate decoder chip, then it will cope just fine regardless of the CPU.
- jeena 13y ago
  I'm using my Raspberry Pi for showing full HD video on my TV and the files are on my iMac which is connected with the 10/100 Ethernet controller. I have not had any problems watching movies on my TV. Or is it something else you're talking about?
  - msoad 13y ago
    If decoding happens in your Mac (PLEX) then Raspberry doesn't really do anything. Raspberry can not decode a Loseless REMUX MKV from Blu-Ray in my experience. Maybe GPU can help, but I have not seen any ARM board with decent GPU like Nvidia ION.
    - azernik 13y ago
      The Pi is an interesting system in that it has a truly impressive GPU (according to the manufacturers "capable of BluRay quality playback"), especially compared to its bottom-shelf CPU. Which means you need everything encoded in h.264 or some other format the GPU can do, but that's achievable.
      - johnchristopher 13y ago
        Xvid and Divx play nice but I have had problems with Theora.
    - paxswill 13y ago
      The GPU in the RasPi is very good. In fact, the system should properly be viewed as a GPU with a CPU grafted onto it. It's common for 1080p24 H.264 to be decoded on it, and there are options to license MPEG2 and VC-1 accelerated decoding as well.
      - johnchristopher 13y ago
        Too bad MPEG-2 licence on the rPi doesn't make it (yet) easily play DVD.
        jevinskie 13y ago
        Has anyone tried to do a timing attack on the MPEG-2 decoder license check? Is the check done in HW or a software-based hardware abstraction library?
- prg318 13y ago
  I have yet to have any issues streaming video to my rPi using OpenELEC [1]. OpenELEC is an embedded linux distribution to run XBMC and has a build optimized for the rPi specifically. The rPi can be a little laggy in the menus at times, but I haven't experienced issues with playback. [1] http://openelec.tv http://openelec.tv
- joezydeco 13y ago
  I've been running Freescale's OMX video codecs (via Android) on this iMX6 architecture and it's working great. It's all hardware/GPU based and a typical h.264 stream @ 720p doesn't take more than 3-5% CPU.
  - zobzu 13y ago
    typical yes, but if you get something that actually uses the software decoder because the hardware decoder doesn't support it, you'll peak to 100% cpu and choppy playback. You didn't think the software decoder takes 5% cpu did you ? :)
- lhl 13y ago
  It's not really that that useful to talk about "ARM devices" as a class as they vary wildly in capabilities and this will lead you to make very misinformed, or in this case, totally wrong statements. The i.MX6 has a VPU that supports h.264 1080p60 decode and 1080p30 BP encode. For more information about the VPU you can mouse over the block diagram: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX6Q&nodeId=018rH3ZrDRB24A#prettyPhoto[iframes]/0/ http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?co... or you may want to review the i.MX6 GStreamer docs as well: https://community.freescale.com/docs/DOC-93387 https://community.freescale.com/docs/DOC-93387
josteink 13y ago
> Dual gigabit, wi-fi and the ability to run Ubuntu makes this very interesting for a "home router / hub" type device. For that type of appliance, I'd rather have OpenWRT than Ubuntu. Comes pre-fit to the job at hand. And with a reasonable secure configuration by default, as opposed to whatever the thing you've hacked together yourself accidentally leaves open. That said: Having medium-powered, cheap, compact and appliance-like general purpose computing available is certainly a nice change. Big computers with lots of cores and gigahertz gets boring pretty quickly. These kinds of things sort of takes computing a bit more back to its roots.
- patrickod 13y ago
  I was thinking the same thing. I'm guessing though that it wouldn't be too hard to put OpenWRT on the box?
  - TobbenTM 13y ago
    Or any other Linux firewall (IPCop, Smoothwall, Untangle...) for that matter.
- s_baby 13y ago
  No thanks, OpenWRT package management is awful. None of the advantages of OpenWRT apply to a machine that has enough resources to run a typical distribution.
  - yuvadam 13y ago
    What exactly makes `opkg` awful? Sure, it's no aptitude or pacman, but you have to remember that OpenWRT is a full fledged distribution (package manager and all) that fits on an image of less than 4MB!
    - s_baby 13y ago
      opkg upgrade can brick your device. >Sure, it's no aptitude or pacman, but you have to remember that OpenWRT is a full fledged distribution (package manager and all) that fits on an image of less than 4MB! It's nice when resources are a limitation. But that's not the case here.
s_baby 13y ago
The PogoPlug also meets these specs for $20. Even though it has these specs it never reaches close to full speed. I suspect this could hold true for this pc as well. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5240/pogoplug-series-4-introduced-usb30-meets-the-cloud http://www.anandtech.com/show/5240/pogoplug-series-4-introdu...
- martinml 13y ago
  $20? I can't find that price point anywhere. Was that a typo or am I not looking in the right place? http://pogoplug.com/devices#pick http://pogoplug.com/devices#pick
  - Ecio78 13y ago
    the official pogoplug site reports 99$ for Amazon but if you search you'll see 39$: http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Series-Backup-Device-Version/dp/B006I5MKZY/ http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Series-Backup-Device-Version/... This one is 18$ http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Backup-and-Sharing-Device/dp/B005GM1Q1O http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Backup-and-Sharing-Device/dp/... but it looks like the first device of the list without sata and usb3 (still good for doing some small hack[1] Some years ago I bought a Seagate Dockstar (that was derived from the first pogoplug imho) for around 30-40$ (the street price was 80-100) and I'm still using it with Debian (nothing too fancy, just samba, transmission bt client and minidlna) [1] NB according to this blog post http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.com/2013/03/pogoplug-series-4-archlinux-review.html http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.com/2013/03/pogoplug-seri... che old versions had better specs (this pogoplug has 800mhz cpu and 128mb ram, the old one was 1.2ghz like my dockstar)
    - martinml 13y ago
      Thanks! It's a pity Amazon USA doesn't ship electronics to Spain (and while Amazon UK does, the price is much higher). I'll search the 2nd hand market, because it looks like a really great device for that price for little hacks and such :)
      - 13y ago
lhl 13y ago
As an "all-in-one" this looks appealing (although the Wandboard Quad is still probably a better deal once you factor in all the additional charges that CompuLab tends to add). If you're looking at something specifically for networking/routing, it might be worth noting that other i.MX6 boards have had GigE performance issues: http://boundarydevices.com/i-mx6-ethernet/ http://boundarydevices.com/i-mx6-ethernet/
- icanicant 13y ago
  My understanding is that it's not a board issue but rather a flaw in the i.MX6 silicon that would affect any board using it. Freescale claim that it just limits the data rate achievable from the built-in Ethernet, but my experience is that the i.MX6 gets a lot of Ethernet overruns even at much lower data rates, resulting in packet loss and unreliable Ethernet. TCP often works around it but UDP/connectionless protocols are thoroughly broken on this SoC. I would think twice before using the i.MX6 as a router. A laptop maybe, but not something for which you require/expect reliable network links.
  - lhl 13y ago
    Agreed that these are pretty low-level issues - even testing w/ a separate PCIe controller didn't help much. For routing and hackability I'd go w/ a Mikrotik RouterBoard, or for pure price/performance (and a really polished UI), I'd go w/ Ubiquiti's Edge Routers.
eloisant 13y ago
Does the specs look like it could read any video file without lag or stuttering? I have a Chinese Android TV box (RK3066) and video playback for 1080p files is not perfect.

msoad 13y ago

For video this doesn't really work. I tried a bunch of ARM devices to use as my HTPC. Problem is video codecs are not optimized for ARM. I think ARM devices are good enough for 6Mbps videos but software is not there yet.

ZoFreX 13y ago
If the GPU can do the decoding, or it has a separate decoder chip, then it will cope just fine regardless of the CPU.
jeena 13y ago
I'm using my Raspberry Pi for showing full HD video on my TV and the files are on my iMac which is connected with the 10/100 Ethernet controller. I have not had any problems watching movies on my TV. Or is it something else you're talking about?
- msoad 13y ago
  If decoding happens in your Mac (PLEX) then Raspberry doesn't really do anything. Raspberry can not decode a Loseless REMUX MKV from Blu-Ray in my experience. Maybe GPU can help, but I have not seen any ARM board with decent GPU like Nvidia ION.
  - azernik 13y ago
    The Pi is an interesting system in that it has a truly impressive GPU (according to the manufacturers "capable of BluRay quality playback"), especially compared to its bottom-shelf CPU. Which means you need everything encoded in h.264 or some other format the GPU can do, but that's achievable.
    - johnchristopher 13y ago
      Xvid and Divx play nice but I have had problems with Theora.
  - paxswill 13y ago
    The GPU in the RasPi is very good. In fact, the system should properly be viewed as a GPU with a CPU grafted onto it. It's common for 1080p24 H.264 to be decoded on it, and there are options to license MPEG2 and VC-1 accelerated decoding as well.
    - johnchristopher 13y ago
      Too bad MPEG-2 licence on the rPi doesn't make it (yet) easily play DVD.
      - jevinskie 13y ago
        Has anyone tried to do a timing attack on the MPEG-2 decoder license check? Is the check done in HW or a software-based hardware abstraction library?
prg318 13y ago
I have yet to have any issues streaming video to my rPi using OpenELEC [1]. OpenELEC is an embedded linux distribution to run XBMC and has a build optimized for the rPi specifically. The rPi can be a little laggy in the menus at times, but I haven't experienced issues with playback. [1] http://openelec.tv http://openelec.tv
joezydeco 13y ago
I've been running Freescale's OMX video codecs (via Android) on this iMX6 architecture and it's working great. It's all hardware/GPU based and a typical h.264 stream @ 720p doesn't take more than 3-5% CPU.
- zobzu 13y ago
  typical yes, but if you get something that actually uses the software decoder because the hardware decoder doesn't support it, you'll peak to 100% cpu and choppy playback. You didn't think the software decoder takes 5% cpu did you ? :)
lhl 13y ago
It's not really that that useful to talk about "ARM devices" as a class as they vary wildly in capabilities and this will lead you to make very misinformed, or in this case, totally wrong statements. The i.MX6 has a VPU that supports h.264 1080p60 decode and 1080p30 BP encode. For more information about the VPU you can mouse over the block diagram: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX6Q&nodeId=018rH3ZrDRB24A#prettyPhoto[iframes]/0/ http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?co... or you may want to review the i.MX6 GStreamer docs as well: https://community.freescale.com/docs/DOC-93387 https://community.freescale.com/docs/DOC-93387

josteink 13y ago

> Dual gigabit, wi-fi and the ability to run Ubuntu makes this very interesting for a "home router / hub" type device. For that type of appliance, I'd rather have OpenWRT than Ubuntu. Comes pre-fit to the job at hand. And with a reasonable secure configuration by default, as opposed to whatever the thing you've hacked together yourself accidentally leaves open. That said: Having medium-powered, cheap, compact and appliance-like general purpose computing available is certainly a nice change. Big computers with lots of cores and gigahertz gets boring pretty quickly. These kinds of things sort of takes computing a bit more back to its roots.

patrickod 13y ago
I was thinking the same thing. I'm guessing though that it wouldn't be too hard to put OpenWRT on the box?
- TobbenTM 13y ago
  Or any other Linux firewall (IPCop, Smoothwall, Untangle...) for that matter.
s_baby 13y ago
No thanks, OpenWRT package management is awful. None of the advantages of OpenWRT apply to a machine that has enough resources to run a typical distribution.
- yuvadam 13y ago
  What exactly makes `opkg` awful? Sure, it's no aptitude or pacman, but you have to remember that OpenWRT is a full fledged distribution (package manager and all) that fits on an image of less than 4MB!
  - s_baby 13y ago
    opkg upgrade can brick your device. >Sure, it's no aptitude or pacman, but you have to remember that OpenWRT is a full fledged distribution (package manager and all) that fits on an image of less than 4MB! It's nice when resources are a limitation. But that's not the case here.

s_baby 13y ago

The PogoPlug also meets these specs for $20. Even though it has these specs it never reaches close to full speed. I suspect this could hold true for this pc as well. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5240/pogoplug-series-4-introduced-usb30-meets-the-cloud http://www.anandtech.com/show/5240/pogoplug-series-4-introdu...

martinml 13y ago
$20? I can't find that price point anywhere. Was that a typo or am I not looking in the right place? http://pogoplug.com/devices#pick http://pogoplug.com/devices#pick
- Ecio78 13y ago
  the official pogoplug site reports 99$ for Amazon but if you search you'll see 39$: http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Series-Backup-Device-Version/dp/B006I5MKZY/ http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Series-Backup-Device-Version/... This one is 18$ http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Backup-and-Sharing-Device/dp/B005GM1Q1O http://www.amazon.com/Pogoplug-Backup-and-Sharing-Device/dp/... but it looks like the first device of the list without sata and usb3 (still good for doing some small hack[1] Some years ago I bought a Seagate Dockstar (that was derived from the first pogoplug imho) for around 30-40$ (the street price was 80-100) and I'm still using it with Debian (nothing too fancy, just samba, transmission bt client and minidlna) [1] NB according to this blog post http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.com/2013/03/pogoplug-series-4-archlinux-review.html http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.com/2013/03/pogoplug-seri... che old versions had better specs (this pogoplug has 800mhz cpu and 128mb ram, the old one was 1.2ghz like my dockstar)
  - martinml 13y ago
    Thanks! It's a pity Amazon USA doesn't ship electronics to Spain (and while Amazon UK does, the price is much higher). I'll search the 2nd hand market, because it looks like a really great device for that price for little hacks and such :)
    - 13y ago

lhl 13y ago

As an "all-in-one" this looks appealing (although the Wandboard Quad is still probably a better deal once you factor in all the additional charges that CompuLab tends to add). If you're looking at something specifically for networking/routing, it might be worth noting that other i.MX6 boards have had GigE performance issues: http://boundarydevices.com/i-mx6-ethernet/ http://boundarydevices.com/i-mx6-ethernet/

icanicant 13y ago
My understanding is that it's not a board issue but rather a flaw in the i.MX6 silicon that would affect any board using it. Freescale claim that it just limits the data rate achievable from the built-in Ethernet, but my experience is that the i.MX6 gets a lot of Ethernet overruns even at much lower data rates, resulting in packet loss and unreliable Ethernet. TCP often works around it but UDP/connectionless protocols are thoroughly broken on this SoC. I would think twice before using the i.MX6 as a router. A laptop maybe, but not something for which you require/expect reliable network links.
- lhl 13y ago
  Agreed that these are pretty low-level issues - even testing w/ a separate PCIe controller didn't help much. For routing and hackability I'd go w/ a Mikrotik RouterBoard, or for pure price/performance (and a really polished UI), I'd go w/ Ubiquiti's Edge Routers.

eloisant 13y ago

Does the specs look like it could read any video file without lag or stuttering? I have a Chinese Android TV box (RK3066) and video playback for 1080p files is not perfect.