Raspberry Pi B+ - Still Slow, But A Small Improvement

[plonoma]

I would like to keep my home-theater PC a tiny thing that isn't really a PC..
I know there are many things to choose from already that are small like RPi, but I like RPi because of how popular it is, and so a lot of things get made for it specifically, like raspbmc..

So what is the next most popular thing (besides RPi) that would be more powerful and able to play h265 and etc.. I don't care about the price..

Small and powerful you say.

The Gigabyte's Brix Pro might be what you are looking for:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/02/a-turbo-charged-quad-core-mini-desktop-gigabytes-brix-pro-reviewed/

[Dukenukemx]

Of course the Raspberry Pi is slow*... that ain't the freakin' point of the device and never was the point!! The point is that the Raspbery Pi is CHEAP (I ain't holding my breath for a K1 board to be priced at $35 for a "high-end" model) and it has a community built around it to make it easy for hobbyists and kids to learn how computers actually work and how to use computers to solve problems via software and hardware projects. Kids don't need another stupid toy to play games or IM people, but they do need to learn what actually makes a computer work under the hood.

The problem with the Pi is that it uses a very old ARM6 architecture that makes it hard to put new Linux distros on it. For pure computing you could get a MK802 which has much better hardware but no ports like the Pi has for hobby projects but it's the same price $35. The Hummingboard is $45 but you get so much more. Unlike the MK802 it comes with GPIO header and it's ARMv7. The thing is a beast with more ports than a PI and 1 Ghz and it doesn't require you to purchase video codecs to use video acceleration like the Pi.

There are much better choices than the Pi right now. Take it from a Pi owner.

[libv]

I am amazed. Banana Pi, Hummingboard? Why would you even want to look into those bits of china junk? If you want a more powerful processor, check out the http://linux-sunxi.org/Category:Community_Devices or even http://linux-sunxi.org/Category:OSHW If you want to match the price of the RPi, then go for the http://linux-sunxi.org/Olimex_A10-OLinuXino-Lime There's even an A20 based one on the way.

[Dukenukemx]

I am amazed. Banana Pi, Hummingboard? Why would you even want to look into those bits of china junk? If you want a more powerful processor, check out the http://linux-sunxi.org/Category:Community_Devices or even http://linux-sunxi.org/Category:OSHW If you want to match the price of the RPi, then go for the http://linux-sunxi.org/Olimex_A10-OLinuXino-Lime There's even an A20 based one on the way.

I do like the Olimex A10-OLinuXino-Lime but in America on Amazon it's going for $52. Probably cheapest is $43 on some other sites. Going to point out it has an AllWinner CPU which are pretty good but made in China. Just saying.

[brent]

Yeah, the china knockoff boards are hopeless... zero support. However, none of the Allwinner boards come close to the level of the Pi in terms of support and the amount of functionality that actually works. It doesn't matter how powerful the hardware is if you can't actually sensibly use it. An Allwinner SoC based board with the level of software support that the Raspberry Pi Foundation gives, that would be pretty awesome.

[droidhacker]

Good grief, what a shit headline. Calling the rpi slow is like calling a Beowulf cluster a burden to carry in your pocket. Completely true, completely irrelevant, and complete flamebait.

How is it irrelevant when you can 10x the bang for the buck for an extra $10?
As an educational device, it was WAY obsolete before it was even planned.
Give the kiddies something DECENT to play with!

[droidhacker]

I am amazed. Banana Pi, Hummingboard? Why would you even want to look into those bits of china junk? If you want a more powerful processor, check out the http://linux-sunxi.org/Category:Community_Devices or even http://linux-sunxi.org/Category:OSHW If you want to match the price of the RPi, then go for the http://linux-sunxi.org/Olimex_A10-OLinuXino-Lime There's even an A20 based one on the way.

I may be pointing out the obvious... but you flamed the china junk, then recommended a few other bits of... china junk.

Also, rpi is pretty much junk as well, broadcom is NOT fun.

[droidhacker]

Yeah, the china knockoff boards are hopeless... zero support. However, none of the Allwinner boards come close to the level of the Pi in terms of support and the amount of functionality that actually works. It doesn't matter how powerful the hardware is if you can't actually sensibly use it. An Allwinner SoC based board with the level of software support that the Raspberry Pi Foundation gives, that would be pretty awesome.

rpi "foundation" seem to be more interested in flaming than in supporting anything.
Also, you would not *believe* the source code I talked out of a china-junk vendor once... Its completely wild out there, no IP crap at all -- you just need to find the right person and they'll give you everything.

[Kivada]

Like all low power devices, it's not even the GPU that decodes it, it's a dedicated chip. The h264 codec is written in hardware, which itself is a chip inside the GPU package, so it is not possible to update it.

There are external hardware decoders, that you can change/replace (e.g. Broadcom decoder chipsets), but you would need at least a mPCIe interface, which the RPi has not.

Given the price, the most likely solution is to replace the Pi by a board that can do h265 when you find one, or transcode your movies to h264 on a beefier PC each time.

The term you are looking for is DSP, they have replaced dedicated codec chips as even though the codec chips use less power the DSP is programmable and not as limited in what codecs it can support. I.E. Pretty much all DSPs that can handle H.264 can also handle VP8 video, if the manufacturer ever got around to releasing a firmware update to add the functionality.

[riklaunim]

How is it irrelevant when you can 10x the bang for the buck for an extra $10?
As an educational device, it was WAY obsolete before it was even planned.
Give the kiddies something DECENT to play with!

They already have tablets or smartphones. Schools and their homes have x86 PCs/Laptops running Windows/OSX/Linux... And if you would check some reactions on Raspberry Pi forum you would notice than things like Android are "irrelevant for education" for them. Better SBC, more differentiated hardware portfolio too So global popularity of Android won't be used, no partnership with Arduino, mBed or alike. No berry-laptops or berry-nettops with Intel/AMD CPU targeted for education (or Chromebooks like what Dell does now). It looks rather boring. It may be cool to make a self driving robot or display something on a LCD and make it useful, but I never saw Raspberry "in education". If the teacher is not a RPi passionate then no way anything like that would show up in school. Not to mention that it's even hard to push some Python programming, algorithm writing/solving in Polish schools or the Python absence in high schools (where Java and Microsoft rule). Kano sets would be slaughtered in public tenders (so much money for a small orange keyboard and mini PC that can't run apps they require - usually Windows apps ), but as a hardware-independent project it would have real chances if the education materials would be done really good.

So, yes, it's boring for me as a Python developer and "evangelist"