> >> Well, some basic questions to ask ourselves: > >> 1) What will it do? I personally think that a reasonable aim is decoding > >> video, hopefully even 720p/i or possibly 1080p/i, in real time (30+ > >> fps), > >> while also providing a simple framebuffer and possibly audio. If > >> video is > >> the way to go, what formats? > > > > 1080p > > Mpeg 1, 2 up to 80 Mbps > > Mpeg 4 up to 20 Mbps ( Is this really the worst case? Seems low. ) > > H.264 up to 40 Mbps > > > > H.264 is the killer. :-( > > It is worse than just H.264, it has to be H.264 HiP 1080p/30! Only > dedicated hardware is a viable solution for that. Look at the size and > price of the first HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players. They probably are not > using a single chip solution for decode.
What is "HiP"? I searched a bit and didn't find anything that looked relevant. > >> Any sort of DSP should also work. > > > > This seems very promising if we can find a suitable one. The TI ones look > > great except they aren't fast enough. Anyone know if/when TI is coming > > out with a newer faster model? I think a couple recent posts had pointers > > to other brands? > > The DSPs for video decode are fixed point. For OpenGL, we need a > floating point Does video decode have to be done in fixed point, or could a floating point unit be useful? Perhaps a fixed point unit and a floating point unit working together somehow? > A DSP based card isn't going to decode H.264 HiP 1080p/30 If TI can speed theirs up it might. > > OGD1 and OGC are going PCI-X/PCIe, so this project could go the other way > > and use Ethernet. The TI chips have it built in, I'm not sure about the > > other brands. > > I think that most users will expect a PC expansion card. Most users buy a Gateway/Dell/HP with virus server preinstalled. There are lots of people clammering for a good small quiet Ethernet-to-TV box. > >> 4) What sort of output? DVI, s-video, S/P-DIF, etc. > > > > DVI plus s-video. > > New TVs aren't going to need S-Video. You want to throw all the old TVs into the landfill? Not very green. > What is S/P-DIF ? > > Digital audio single cable. We'll also need creaky old RCA analog audio out for all the prehistoric TVs we want to avoid throwing into the landfill. > > It would be good to support component if we can. > > Are there new TVs or monitors that have component (analog) that don't > have DVI or HDMI? I read a lot of complaints from people with $$$$ HDTV with component-in and no digital-in. Should they throw their recent $$$$ TVs into the landfill also? > > Question is, do we require DVI dual link? DVI single link is good > > for 1080, but only up to 60 Hz. There is a strong possibility that > > we will need to support 1080 at higher than 60 Hz. And there are the > > 3 or 4 people that have the spendy 30" displays that require dual link. > > Most current wide screen monitors are 768 lines but higher resolution > ones will be coming. Currently, 1080 is only common on screens larger > than 32 inches. This issue might or might not be determined by the > chips we use. This makes it sound like you only care about TVs sold today, not TVs sold 2 years ago or 2 years in the future. The 23-24" LCD computer monitors are 1920x1200. Just right for 1080 plus a letterbox area for subtitles / closed caption / clock / frame counter / editor GUI buttons / whatever. > >> 5) What is the purpose? Is it designed as a media center, linux video > >> "savior", or what? > > > > A video/graphics device that connects via Ethernet instead of a > > card slot. No problems with AGP vs PCI vs PCI-X vs PCIe. No > > problems with being out of slots, or having none to begin with > > (e.g. laptops). Put the noisy computer in another room. > > It makes sense to an engineer -- a box near the monitor or TV. > > Can we convince users? Or could the same product be used both ways? > Module goes in a box with a power supply, or plugs into a PC expansion > card with system bus interface. This would cost more (unless the > economies of scale reduced the price) but has advantages both to the > user and to the manufacturer. Use an external P/S, probably a wall-wart style. Then when it fails, you can just plug a new one in. Roku HD1000 owners will beat a path to your door. Also keeps 120VAC out of the box. One less thing to design. Benefit from economies of scale. A PCIe x1 connector might not cost much? Not sure about the interface chip. > > FLOSS "savior"? yes > > media server? yes > > X11 server? yes (would need keyboard and pointing device, but that > > shouldn't be hard to add.) > > Keyboard and Pointing device would be on the client. You would only > need to have them plug into the box if you were hiding the computer in > another room. IAC, you could just connect them with USB. The TI DSPs have USB. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
