01-22-2017, 07:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-22-2017, 07:56 PM by mar81018.)
(12-28-2015, 04:13 PM)o9guy Wrote: (12-19-2015, 12:45 PM)BobF Wrote: And that's what disturbed me about my PI when I got it. To actually have to pay for the accelerated graphics driver was an insult.
Is pine64 going to get us an accelerated graphics driver? I would guess that's an important thing concerning this board.
It might seem like nitpicking but you're not paying for accelerated graphics on the Pi. The pi, out of box, is perfectly capable of accelerated graphics (i.e. vertexes, triangles, fill, framebuffering, etc.) -- you can run 3D games / demos all day long. Additionally, VLC and Kodi have zero problems playing most 1080p video streams. What you buy is a CODEC license. A CODEC is used to decode specific video stream formats in hardware. The two CODECS offered are MPEG2 and VC1. The reason you have to pay for this is because the owner of the CODEC charges for use of that CODEC and the Pi foundation saw that as an additional expense that kept their price point farther away. MPEG2 is owned by the MPEG group and VC1 is owned my Microsoft. VLC can still play most of these video streams, but in some cases such as high bitrates, video does stutter if the accelerated CODEC isn't used. Bu again, this doesn't mean the Pi doesn't have video acceleration without the CODECS.
In contrast, Allwinner has decent video hardware but doesn't publish the details of how to use it. You can draw a screen all day but the CPU has to draw every piece and there is no hardware acceleration available to Linux because they won't open up the information needed by the community. Even if you get the Allwinner folks to play ball with the GPL you may not get the hardware accelerated CODEC the pi offers.
Again, it may seem like nitpicking but there is a significant difference between hardware accelerated graphics and CODEC licenses. Are we still talking about the PIne64 or the Pi? I thought I was on a forum for the Pine64 but you are taling about the Pi now. Did you mean to reference the Pine64 instead of the Pi?
(12-28-2015, 04:13 PM)o9guy Wrote: (12-19-2015, 12:45 PM)BobF Wrote: And that's what disturbed me about my PI when I got it. To actually have to pay for the accelerated graphics driver was an insult.
Is pine64 going to get us an accelerated graphics driver? I would guess that's an important thing concerning this board.
It might seem like nitpicking but you're not paying for accelerated graphics on the Pi. The pi, out of box, is perfectly capable of accelerated graphics (i.e. vertexes, triangles, fill, framebuffering, etc.) -- you can run 3D games / demos all day long. Additionally, VLC and Kodi have zero problems playing most 1080p video streams. What you buy is a CODEC license. A CODEC is used to decode specific video stream formats in hardware. The two CODECS offered are MPEG2 and VC1. The reason you have to pay for this is because the owner of the CODEC charges for use of that CODEC and the Pi foundation saw that as an additional expense that kept their price point farther away. MPEG2 is owned by the MPEG group and VC1 is owned my Microsoft. VLC can still play most of these video streams, but in some cases such as high bitrates, video does stutter if the accelerated CODEC isn't used. Bu again, this doesn't mean the Pi doesn't have video acceleration without the CODECS.
In contrast, Allwinner has decent video hardware but doesn't publish the details of how to use it. You can draw a screen all day but the CPU has to draw every piece and there is no hardware acceleration available to Linux because they won't open up the information needed by the community. Even if you get the Allwinner folks to play ball with the GPL you may not get the hardware accelerated CODEC the pi offers.
Again, it may seem like nitpicking but there is a significant difference between hardware accelerated graphics and CODEC licenses. Are we still talking about the PIne64 or the Pi? I thought I was on a forum for the Pine64 but you are taling about the Pi now. Did you mean to reference the Pine64 instead of the Pi?
(12-28-2015, 04:13 PM)o9guy Wrote: (12-19-2015, 12:45 PM)BobF Wrote: And that's what disturbed me about my PI when I got it. To actually have to pay for the accelerated graphics driver was an insult.
Is pine64 going to get us an accelerated graphics driver? I would guess that's an important thing concerning this board.
It might seem like nitpicking but you're not paying for accelerated graphics on the Pi. The pi, out of box, is perfectly capable of accelerated graphics (i.e. vertexes, triangles, fill, framebuffering, etc.) -- you can run 3D games / demos all day long. Additionally, VLC and Kodi have zero problems playing most 1080p video streams. What you buy is a CODEC license. A CODEC is used to decode specific video stream formats in hardware. The two CODECS offered are MPEG2 and VC1. The reason you have to pay for this is because the owner of the CODEC charges for use of that CODEC and the Pi foundation saw that as an additional expense that kept their price point farther away. MPEG2 is owned by the MPEG group and VC1 is owned my Microsoft. VLC can still play most of these video streams, but in some cases such as high bitrates, video does stutter if the accelerated CODEC isn't used. Bu again, this doesn't mean the Pi doesn't have video acceleration without the CODECS.
In contrast, Allwinner has decent video hardware but doesn't publish the details of how to use it. You can draw a screen all day but the CPU has to draw every piece and there is no hardware acceleration available to Linux because they won't open up the information needed by the community. Even if you get the Allwinner folks to play ball with the GPL you may not get the hardware accelerated CODEC the pi offers.
Again, it may seem like nitpicking but there is a significant difference between hardware accelerated graphics and CODEC licenses. Are we still talking about the PIne64 or the Pi? I thought I was on a forum for the Pine64 but you are taling about the Pi now. Did you mean to reference the Pine64 instead of the Pi?
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