XBMC Gains Crystal HD 1080p Decoding Support

[tettamanti]

I would assume so. In Broadcom's case, there's only one chip to write a driver for, and it only does one thing.

And the interface is extremely simple: pass compressed data via ioctl, read decoded (YUV) data out; all the complexity in handled on the card.

What I'd like to know is if Broadcom found an easy way to separate HDCP/encryption from acceleration, since I believe that's a major reason why the specs for UVD/UVD2 are taking so long to come out.

The broadcom card does not have any digital output so HDCP does not come into play. If you refer to AACS: with clear input the card outputs clear decoded images, I'm not sure what happens with encoded input, the code is a bit obscure; it would seem that decoded output is scrambled (so I guess that it does the AES decryption then re-encodes the data), and should be processed by something else (which is probably not available on linux).

[V!NCENT]

FLOSS? I smell a state tracker comming up, yesh

PS:

And the interface is extremely simple: pass compressed data via ioctl, read decoded (YUV) data out; all the complexity in handled on the card.

Oh crap...

[whizse]

@whizse: have you checked dealextreme? I'd really like this in PCI or PCIEx1 too.

(But I thought they were electrically compatible?... (x1 and mini))

EDIT: Here's some adapters, they seem fairly common:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Mini-PCI-Express-USB-SATA-Coverter-Adapter-Card-Compu_W0QQitemZ250496885880QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a52c72478

(although I have no idea what performance over USB would be like, and I don't think SATA is meant to bend that way)

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Mini-PCI-E-to-PCI-E-adapter-3-antenna-Shielding-Case_W0QQitemZ170422041954QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27adf1fd62

(you could probably remove that backplate and hack on a more generic backplate. or rig the antennas to something else. or leave them I guess.)

Thanks, those were quite a bit cheaper than the others I found.

It seems Broadcom have (or had?) plans for a standard PCIE version, called BCM970012PQ, but they either haven't launched it yet, or perhaps scrapped the idea?

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Broadcom_Crystal_HD#Introduction

[Jorophose]

Hmm, but it seems these things only have support for h.264 @ 1080i?...

Or are the ebay pages wrong?

[Kjella]

I guess this comes from the lack of XvBA documentation from ATI. But why is it so difficult, as I guess there is something strong enough to prevent ATI to gives the clues to use it.
After all, ATI has made huge efforts to support open-source, so why is it so difficult ?

DRM. If you can find a way to break AACS or HDMI by watching specific buffers or opcodes that can't be changed - for example because they're the UVD input/output buffers - then AMD would be in deep, deep shit. Like "lose HD playback on all affected cards", "lose their Windows driver certification" and "won't be recertified until they've taped out new hardware" bad.

I wish they'd just give up, it's all broken anyway. But even though it's trivially possible with AnyDVD HD, AMD would still be slow roasted for giving the pirates another way. They have said they will look into it and see if it's possible, but it hasn't been their highest priority. Then again, Bridgman have said there's not much pending legal review, so maybe they'll take a look soon. I expect the actual interface to be quite similar to this one, put in compressed stream get decompressed frames back.

[Kano]

If you want to test this chip with a desktop system you must have got really too much money. Maybe this chip gets more common next year on some netbooks/nettops as ion will be incompabile with the new Atoms. Currently desktop systems just need a NV G210 card which is really cheap compared to this solution

[whizse]

If you want to test this chip with a desktop system you must have got really too much money. Maybe this chip gets more common next year on some netbooks/nettops as ion will be incompabile with the new Atoms. Currently desktop systems just need a NV G210 card which is really cheap compared to this solution

An Nvidia card? Not in my house, sorry

[nightmorph]

~20 USD on ebay

Yeah, but mini PCIe to PCIe adapter cards don't exist, except from one company that charges $100 for them.

I'm not sure that this $6 card will do the trick, even though someone else linked it earlier.

Besides, until the gstreamer, mplayer, ffmpeg, and xine developers add support for this, it's far too much trouble to bother with.

[Jorophose]

Yeah, but mini PCIe to PCIe adapter cards don't exist, except from one company that charges $100 for them.

I'm not sure that this $6 card will do the trick, even though someone else linked it earlier.

Besides, until the gstreamer, mplayer, ffmpeg, and xine developers add support for this, it's far too much trouble to bother with.

Uh, I think I linked to that, and my mistake, it doesn't work that way. It seems to be a device to let you plug USB/SATA stuff into a miniPCIe slot.

I've heard that mini PCIE is just pciex1. Anyone want to try?

As for xine/ffmpeg/gstreamer support, it should come soon, but even if it takes a while, people seem to really love XBMC and I say it's worth a shot. By the time the next stable XBMC is out though we might see support for the card in other software.

@Kano: That's a $45 gaz-guzzling card, vs this small $20 device that likely uses little power (fingers crossed that it's something like 1-3W tops)...

[BlackStar]

@Kano: That's a $45 gaz-guzzling card, vs this small $20 device that likely uses little power (fingers crossed that it's something like 1-3W tops)...

I've heard that Broadcom has an HD decoder that needs ~200mW to work. No idea if this is used on this card, but if it is then this card shouldn't consume more than 1W.

Edit: for me, the important thing is that this chip is going to be used on many new netbooks. Ion2 is pretty much a stillborn baby and Intel's new Atom processors still cannot decode HD - this chip is pretty much the only solution for netbook manufacturers.

(Why HD on a netbook? Because I can place it next to any TV to watch a movie without even plugging it into the mains. An HTPC or a full-blown laptop is not nearly as versatile).