Raspberry Pi

[bbond007]

OUYA? huh?
That one slipped below my radar.
Not bad.
Nice processor. Could use more memory and expansion.
Has anyone tried to run an alternate Linux OS on it?

I agree, it should have more flash, or better yet, an SD card slot. In addition, more than one (regular sized) USB would have been appreciated.

The I connected a powered usb hub to mine to connect both a usb thumb drive and wireless kb. There is that.

Also. The price for an additional controller is $50 usd, which is too much.  It's nice enough, but without vibration or recharge features, that really seems like too much. You probably don't want to chance getting a used controller as you'll probably get one of the kickstarters which were the ones people were complaining about.

I read something about it being able to use ps3 controllers but I think support for that may be game specific.

[ChaosLord]

OUYA? huh?
That one slipped below my radar.
Not bad.
Nice processor.

Ouya is only $100.00 now so its nice and cheap and is supposedly more powerful than Rpi.

I would happily buy a Ouya if PhoenixKonsole or someone could make a good AROS distro for it that made use of its GPU.

I love the Pi.  I don't really have anything against it.  But the Pi is optimized for low low low power consumption.  I have always valued low power consumption.  But in my situation any cpu I own will be permanently plugged into a wall outlet.  I will never ever ever run anything off of battery power.  So I don't need super extreme power conservative-ness.  If a computer uses 20 watts that is ok with me cause its plugged into the wall.  What this means is that I am happy to buy an ARM powered computer that is faster than Rpi and uses some more electricity.

Here is a graph of Ouya performance vs. Nexus 7 vs Galaxy S4:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/06/ouya-hardware-impressions-a-k-a-indie-game-the-console/

If someone has a Ouya vs. Raspberry Pi chart I would like to see it.

[ChaosLord]

[Talking about Ouya] I agree, it should have more flash, or better yet, an SD card slot. In addition, more than one (regular sized) USB would have been appreciated.

What is wrong with connecting a USB external drive dock thingy?  Then you can plug in your old 2TB drives forever and ever.  Its the most cost effective mass storage option.  Why buy expensive flash when you can buy cheap hard drives?

Also. The price for an additional controller is $50 usd, which is too much.

Then use a wireless PS3 controller or a wired Xbox 360 controller.  Or some other Bluetooth controller.

  It's nice enough, but without vibration

Vibration is evil and should be turned off at all times.

 or recharge features,

True but you can use rechargeable batteries.

[Iggy]

I fully agree with ChaosLord, all minor points.
I'm more concerned with the lack of an alternate OS and the 1 MB of memory.

[bbond007]

Also, I'm curious, how well can a Pi handle XBMC?

The RPi will run XBMC, although the default UI is kind of sluggish just because of all the effects however, The video playback is top notch quality. I understand that you have pick a more basic scheme which is supposed to improve the experience.

I have XBMC loaded on the OUYA as well and have not done much video playing on it to compare the video quality, but the UI responsiveness is night and day different on the two devices.

[bbond007]

Here is a graph of Ouya performance vs. Nexus 7 vs Galaxy S4:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/06/ouya-hardware-impressions-a-k-a-indie-game-the-console/

If someone has a Ouya vs. Raspberry Pi chart I would like to see it.

The OUYA is substantially faster than my US S3, however the international galaxy S3 is more powerful than the one for the USA market.

I think performance wise I read that the RPi is about the same as the original Xbox. I'm guessing OUYA is like 50% of a 360 or PS3

[Iggy]

The OUYA is substantially faster than my US S3, however the international galaxy S3 is more powerful than the one for the USA market.

I think performance wise I read that the RPi is about the same as the original Xbox. I'm guessing OUYA is like 50% of a 360 or PS3

Isn't there more than one version of the S4?
Which is the graph comparing?

[bbond007]

Isn't there more than one version of the S4?
Which is the graph comparing?

yeah, there is the USA international which again is half the number of faster cores....

[nicholas]

The RPi will run XBMC, although the default UI is kind of sluggish just because of all the effects however, The video playback is top notch quality. I understand that you have pick a more basic scheme which is supposed to improve the experience.

I have XBMC loaded on the OUYA as well and have not done much video playing on it to compare the video quality, but the UI responsiveness is night and day different on the two devices.

I use this on my Pi and the UI is very responsive.

http://openelec.tv

I have the 512MB model running at 1GHz.

[ChaosLord]

What resolution of movies can you watch with XBMC on a Pi?

[bloodline]

What resolution of movies can you watch with XBMC on a Pi?

1080p

-edit- in Amiga speak: 1920×1080x24bit@60Hz

[ChaosLord]

1080p

-edit- in Amiga speak: 1920×1080x24bit@60Hz

No way!

I assume that is only with .avi format?

What about .mkv or .mp4 or .h264?

[bloodline]

No way!

I assume that is only with .avi format?

What about .mkv or .mp4 or .h264?

Avi is just a container, but all my videos are either m4v or  .h264

Yes the Pi's graphics chip can decode h264 in hardware in realtime... It can also encode h264 in realtime to, that functionality comes free with the Pi

[NovaCoder]

Yep if you just want something to emulate an Amiga either get an OUYA, FPGA Arcade or a good old MiniMiggy

I'm still in two minds about emulation of retro platforms, I guess it's pretty cool but it's still not the same as having the real HW.   I've got a feeling that if I brought something like an OUYA for retro gaming that I end up spending most of my time playing newer games on it

[bbond007]

No way!

The only time it can't play 1080p is the some cases when then audio is DTS multi-channel and you are trying to decode it to stereo. You can compensate for that by overclocking. Obviously this is not an issue if you use a hifi that decodes DTS/AC3...

most of the time playing video uses like under 10% CPU

[ChaosLord]

Yes the Pi's graphics chip can decode h264 in hardware in realtime... It can also encode h264 in realtime to, that functionality comes free with the Pi

Dude, ur exploding my mind.

Does Ouya have all the same magic that Rpi has, just more?

Can I assume that a Ouya would play movies even better than Rpi?


But just because Pi can do something in hardware does not necessarily mean it can play every single movie at 1920x1080 @60fps.  Some movies are much harder to play than others, especially scenes with a lot of small moving objects everywhere while the camera is rotating.  That is phenomenally hard to play correctly.

My bro has this pc with a 2Ghz core2duo and some kind of gfx card and it has severe problems playing 1920x1080 movies.  It can sometimes play them ok but usually the framerate jumps up and down wildly during the movie even when 2 ppl are just sitting there talking to each other.

I need to ask you a question: Do u (or did u) play a lot of FPS games on your home computer?