Funding Global Domination Mk II "The Console"

[Al Johnson]

On Tuesday 09 December 2008, Stroller wrote:
> On 8 Dec 2008, at 12:23, Arigead wrote:
> > ...
> > So you'd have a PC Motherboard, TV out don't know what standard. Do
> > all
> > modern TV's take the same digital connection all over the world? Then
> > you'll have a TV in signal for recording TV. Again I've no idea if
> > that
> > would mean different hardware all over the world. Ethernet, USB,
> > Remote
> > control. Nice plastics.
> >
> > A few companies have toyed with the idea of producing Open Console but
> > to my knowledge nobody has ever really done it well ...
>
> Hi there,
>
> I, too, have thought about what open hardware I'd like to see on the
> market.
[snip]
> The problem with silent video front ends is power vs noise. And the
> best front ends for MediaTomb have hardware decoding on board. But
> they're closed source: http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/
>
> So what I think would be idea would be for OpenMoko - or someone like
> them - to produce a low-power media box with hardware decoding, and
> open-source drivers for the video-accelerator chip. The Popcorn
> devices have such an accelerator, but did I mention they're closed-
> source?  (VIA used to do CPUs c 1ghz with extra MPEG decoders, but
> they have been very late to the game with their open-source "chrome"
> drivers).

The Neuros OSD2 is more or less what you're describing. It uses the Ti DaVinci 
which is closely related to the OMAP on the beagleboard. Development is in 
the open using OE, and the codecs can use the onboard DSP. The problem with 
it from my point of view is that it's not powerful enough to output 1080p.
http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/OSD2.0_Development