Pandora Cube

[MWeston]

Component and VGA outputs would be done through a daughter board plugged into the LCD connector and mounted somewhere close in this new case. I didn't think this was a good idea without digital video either so it was always a consideration in my mind. That would be the only difference between Pandora and this cube assuming the nubs, game buttons and keypad was left on.

 

[wardred]

On the whole console/media center thing.
I like that idea almost as much as I like the Pandora...
I also like the idea of a Pandora docking station.

What I'd want to see in both:
720P minimum - 1020P preferred
s-video/HDMI out. DVI too, though that's optional for me.
At least 4 if not 6 or 8 USB ports. (Think multiple controllers, then...other stuff. Card reader, what have you.)
I wish there were a "console" standard "large" usb connector for when you wanted
a robust game controller like connection and weren't worried so much about size.
Wired ethernet
++ on the careful selection of power supply. I'd love it if it could conform to the whole 1watt no load standard Europe is shooting for.
IR Remote

For the console only:
SATA HD enclosure, no included HD - let us buy our own.
sdhc reader(s)
Some way to support wireless controllers. (Bluetooth if there are bluetooth controllers.)
Possibly this could be an add on USB attachment - but I'd be careful about too many dongles.
It would have to have a really good gaming/streaming interface. Maybe even better than the Pandora's.
Wireless - the Pandora already has this.

What I'd REALLY like to see in an Open Source Console - rather than handheld:
A TRUE gaming and multimedia center.
1080P - HDMI, DVI, and S-Video minimum
5.1, or even up to 7.1 sound. Copper and optical line out.
Lines in for video/sound
DVD Standard, Optional Blueray - maybe a delay for the later.
There would have to be some way to output the video for both.
Maybe proprietary on chip decoder that's only accessible via API to satisfy the media moguls.
When not playing videos it could act as a reader - at the least - and possible writer.
Empty SATA HD enclosure
at least 2 SDHC slots
Wireless controllers
4-8 USB connections
Universal IR Remote compatible
Wired/wireless ethernet

If possible, DVR functionality, including modern video in - don't know the current state of locking down over the air/satellite/cable signals

A good interface for accessing a media library
Including all stored movies, sound, etc.
Also a good way for adding it.

Hookups to all the streaming video services you could arrange - youtube, hulu - boxee already has trouble with this - etc.
Record on these would be excellent

What I'd be looking for is the best of all worlds that open source can deliver, and the consoles and media centers almost get. Good split screen games. The ability to take your save games to go easily on your SDHC. Heck, share your saves over the network. Install your games / media locally on your HD, or to your NAS drive.

Unfortunately all that would drive the price of the thing into, or even past the PC price range. Especially if you take into account adding things like the ability to be a DVR/modern video in- good luck getting buy in from the Cable Co's, Hulu, or anybody on that one. (Even Boxee has trouble with being an online streaming box.)

Probably the simplest thing to deliver would be a docking station with the 4-8 extra USB cables, ethernet cable, stereo, HDMI/S-VIDEO/DVI/????, other standards outputs, assuming it would work somewhat like the breakout cable, and maybe having to have a short "dongle" usb cable to hook up to the Pandora's USB port to act as a hub/charger. (The fewer extra connectors, the better, but I don't think you have an "all in one" laptop like connector on the Pandora.)

The hooked to the TV console thing sounds great to me, but the expectations...It would either need to be really inexpensive like those joystick game consoles, or it would need to offer comparative / better power than the current consoles, or a very well thought out and defined feature set. The biggest problem with that well defined feature set is you'll get resistance from so many of the players. Nobody wants open source stuff and unencumbered non-DRM'd media to eat their lunch.

I think there's potential for it, but also think that it would be even more demanding in a lot of ways then the Pandora. I'd just as soon see a Pandora docking station as it'll do most of what the "Pandora-Box" would already.

Edit: moved the 720P minimum line to the "both" category

 

[MWeston]

If it was me in charge, I'd wait until the OMAP4 was ready, then put together an HD-capable console with HDMI output, an upgradeable internal hard drive--probably 2.5"--and any other cool stuff I might want.

OMAP4 is a couple years out still.

 

[gruso]

Hmm. What if you broadened the definitions a bit, rather than just market it as a home Pandora? We've had threads about turning Pandora into wearable computers, carputers, all manner of things. It would be perfect for projects like that. Some people will see a cool home gadget, others will see a "premium" alternative to the Beagleboard. You might even elbow into SheevaPlug's territory.

 

[wardred]

Oh, and while I'm asking for impossible things, I'd love a good relatively inexpensive NAS. For a 4 drive enclosure the price gets pretty steep. This could be an accessory to the media / gaming center.

On that device:
Wake on LAN
USB/Firewire/Ethernet in and out
Samba/NFS/SSH
Possible wireless

2,4,6 drive options.
2 individual drives/mirror/or "large drive" options on the 2 drive enclosure
On the 4 and 6 drive enclosures the option of raid 5
And Bonus for something like RaidZ, especially if it does auto volume resizing when dynamically adding a new drive.

With 6 2 Terra-byte drives, losing 1 for striping that's an incredible 10 terrabytes - even using the HD manufactures base 10 definition of terrabyte that's some storage there...

A nice to have - some sort of data integrity MD5 like ability to check files after they're written, because, let's face it, there's a pretty good chance of data corruption with this beast. (I think RaidZ covers that?)

 

[Red Ring Rico]

To me, something that isn't going to be portable shouldn't be constricted to portable needs. As good an idea as it is to get more Pandoras out there in a different form factor, I just can't see it doing so well as the portable unit would do on its own. A different approach to the configuration would be in my mind.

 

[wardred]

Hmm...taking a step back to a "stock" Pandora board.

4-6 USB connectors.
Stereo out and in. (Does it support more then stereo? If so give the option.)
Possible video in.
If possible wired ethernet - would use USB to Ethernet I suppose, may not be worth it for the cost, though not an expensive part if produced en-masse unless I'm mistaken.
Power supply.

Video out would be the big thing.
This might work better as a "better" beagle board as some pointed out rather than a true home console.
A lot of requests for VGA, DVI, and HDMI. S-VIDEO. Maybe even component cable.
Since some would be using this as a console/media center, and some to do development on, I'm not sure how many of these you could eliminate and satisfy enough people.
I believe the omap3 is capable of 720p video, right?

Or, as a simple extra piece of hardware, a good docking/charging station with the above for the pandora.

_____________________

Back to high concept:
If designed well, a connector at the bottom or top of the case for "stackable" USB drive enclosures.
I.E. Place the "Pandora Cube" on top of a drive enclosure. Allow it to stack 2x for 1HD and 1Optical, or any combo you choose.

 

[gruso]

You could also rebrand some nice 800x480 standalone LCDs and sell them separately. Great for carputers, net-tops and other niche applications. Emphasise support for BT peripherals including PS3 SixAxis, and imaginations will run wild.

 

[Alpha2]

-HDMI out put for high quality video file playback
-USB hub
-Bluetooth
-Wifi
-180gb Internal HD

It seems feasible to me but it also seems to me that the whole point of the ARM is portability, it's not really a hard core computing workstation. I mean as it stands now we may only be just barely able to hopefully play 720p AVI videos, MKV videos if we're really, really lucky which would seem a waste of HDMI for anything other than... photos maybe? Forget games if it's not powerful enough to run videos at full HD then it certainly not going to produce a game at that resolution... unless maybe an upscaled 8Bit game possibly, I dunno. you can slap a bunch of extras to the outside of the Pandora and make a console I think it just needs to be a little more than a Beagleboard in a convienient box powerwise to really grab some coin.

Ultimately I think maybe it's more important that the Pandora get out and really get pushed to it's limits and get really shaken down first before looking to build derivatives.

 

[God Ginrai]

[...] MKV videos if we're really, really lucky [...]

MKV is just a container format. It has nothing to do with the Quality of the video, the encoding of a video is what you are supposed to worry about, because that determines the level of possibility, not the container. MKV wouldn't be any harder to play than AVI.

-God Ginrai

 

[Archaemic]

Not really interesting. One of the main things that attracts me to the Pandora is that it's portable. Remove the portability, and I lose a lot of interest :/

 

[bzar]

No, I already have a media server for those things. I would, however be interested in a similar device, which can play 1080p h.264 (or any other video format for that matter up to this), has hdmi (with audio) port, all working on linux, so I can make it to do all other things. Basically a dream solution for all media center/home theater music/video/emulation etc needs. This way I could move my media to a NAS and save a desktops worth of floor space. Oh, and it would have to be silent. I'd also like a pony to go.

 

[kollau]

Not really interested. The pandora is so tiny, that I don't mind connecting it to the tv and this means, that I won't need a pandora cube anymore.

 

[lulzfish]

Is HDMI really that useful? My newest two LCD televisions are combined TV / monitors that have VGA and DVI in place of HDMI.

 

[Archaemic]

HDMI is just DVI + audio, anyway.

 

[Azure]

Nope, not really interested. First of all, I'm already getting a Pandora which should be able to do most/all of what the Pandora Cube could do. Second of all, I'd want it to have much more powerful hardware. It'd be a home system, so I'd expect similar power to a home system, which isn't the case with the Pandora (which has compromises in hardware to account for the portability factor; perfectly fine for a portable handheld, but not something I'd be interested in for a device that will be sitting in front of me TV the whole time). IMO, it's a lot of money to use hardware only in a manner in which it wasn't intended (non-portable, stationary use). If I was in the market for a Pandora Cube, I'd rather just use that ~$200 to build a cheap but powerful computer.

 

[GuchaRU]

I would buy one if there will be:
* built in HDMI and VGA
* mini HDD at least 120GB
* ethernet
* at least 4 full powered usb slots
* 5.1 audio support

 

[Chip]

HDMI is just DVI + audio, anyway.
They're signal-compatible, but they're not the same. DVI can pass either digital or analog video, while HDMI is limited to digital only. HDMI supports HDCP (hardware copy protection, needed for blu-ray playback), while DVI does not. If the Pandora cube has an HDMI port, it will be limited to the features that DVI supports (no analog, no HDCP). HDMI-DVI adapters are cheap and readily available on the internet, so whichever conection the cube has, you can use it with any digital display.

 

[lulzfish]

Well, I can buy converter cables.
I think the basic idea is interesting.

I've only seen computers get down to around $250 like the System76 Meerkat, but...
Actually, now that I mention it, that's a pretty decent computer.

But I can't exactly play high-end Windows games on either of these, and the Pandora box might be cheaper in total cost if I leave it running constantly. It would be smaller and quieter, too.

I might be more interested once I'm paying for my own utilities. I wish OEMs would list better power usage stats.. "84 watt PSU" doesn't tell me a whole lot. the Meerkat uses between 0 and 84 watts all of the time. Thanks.

 

[surt]

Digital video out - then yes. I've been considering a BeagleBoard for a light-weight always-on secondary PC but this sounds like it should be more end-user friendly.

If it's going to come with a custom case the why not build a USB hub into the case? One less thing to hook up to it.