HTPC (XBMC/VDR) based on an APU!

[oliver]

I'm thinking of getting a new HTPC for running xbmc or vdr. In the future, I want to use a tv-headend server or the like, but for now I need to put my dvb-t pci receiver in the htpc.

So my eyes went to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131697
An asus fanless E350 that has 2 pci slots.

My question is from the user experience point of view. Has anybody got a E350 media PC and can it handle 720p/1080p x264 encoded material preferably with Open Source only drivers? I know video decoding is something being worked on and even if everything is decoded in software (for now) does it pack enough beef to handle 1080p? I'd imagine no, but with the new xvmc support if it runs at 90% CPU load, that would be plenty for now. I suppose for the first few months the catalyst driver could help, but does that even do anything useful?

So, any thoughts/suggestions?

[deanjo]

I'm thinking of getting a new HTPC for running xbmc or vdr. In the future, I want to use a tv-headend server or the like, but for now I need to put my dvb-t pci receiver in the htpc.

So my eyes went to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131697
An asus fanless E350 that has 2 pci slots.

My question is from the user experience point of view. Has anybody got a E350 media PC and can it handle 720p/1080p x264 encoded material preferably with Open Source only drivers? I know video decoding is something being worked on and even if everything is decoded in software (for now) does it pack enough beef to handle 1080p? I'd imagine no, but with the new xvmc support if it runs at 90% CPU load, that would be plenty for now. I suppose for the first few months the catalyst driver could help, but does that even do anything useful?

So, any thoughts/suggestions?

Couple of weeks ago tried out a laptop with an e350 and it stuggled even playing medium bitrate 720P content with the foss drivers.

[pingufunkybeat]

If it's HTPC you're looking for, you might consider Intel's APUs, they should have open source hardware decoding.

I haven't tried them, so I don't know the current state of the drivers, however.

[curaga]

It should be able to play 1080p with the blob though, it has the UVD block.

[deanjo]

It should be able to play 1080p with the blob though, it has the UVD block.

That support is still pretty shaky at the moment in linux. If he had to go foss drivers then there really is only one option and that is intel as mentioned above. Or alternatively get a board with a mini pci-e slot as well and use a crystalHD board or as much as I have to say it, use windows for the OS and everything should play fine on it then.

[oliver]

even though i'm strongly against the blob, if it does work with it, i can consider it, for now. Until the drivers are ready, and I guess that will happen in the end?

[pingufunkybeat]

The OSS drivers are unlikely to ever support hardware UVD. We are all hoping for it, bridgman promised to "look into it" at some point in the future, but it's all very vague.

What will happen eventually is Gallium3d-based shader decoding, which does the decoding on the GPU, but without using the specialised hardware. This solution will enable weak CPUs to play high bitrate HD content, but is not as power-efficient as the dedicated hardware block. Still, I expect it will be good enough for most people.

This is not ready yet, though. At the moment, it can fully accelerate MPEG2 decoding, and work on MPEG4 and h264 is underway. The developer doing this has been hired by AMD recently, but nobody knows how this will affect the decoding work yet.

[oliver]

I wouldn't be supprised if UVD is just a little hardware layer around shader based decoding, but that's just a huge hunch

Shader based decoding would be perfectly fine, and if this board can do that in a year from now; then I'll get it now

[pingufunkybeat]

I don't think that anyone will promise this, but it is possible.

At the moment, you can use vdpau in, say, mplayer, to decode mpeg2 stuff. The decoding is done automatically on the GPU using shaders.

There are still many pieces left before this works for h246 HD video, though. If Christian continues working on it at the same speed, though, it might come sooner than we expect it. But nobody knows what exactly he will be concentrating on now that he's in AMD (I suspect that supporting the latest generation cards will be a priority, like it is for Alex).

[crazycheese]

Why not provide OpenCL implementation on top of Gallium and use OpenCL to accelerate decoders?