Raspberry Pi 4 released


kuru said:
Looks like this one finally has decent 1080p video performance. I was disappointed by the 3b for everyday/media use.
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1080p always worked fine and was hardware accelerated back to the original pi.

This adds 4k and hvec hardware acceleration.
 
Eh, this might be pushing the limits of what you can realistically cram into a handheld. The new SoC sucks down more power and throws off more heat than the previous unit, and that was already iffy. Those OG gameboy mods that stuck a 3A into an OG gameboy shell had pretty big 4000mAH batteries, and they still only got like 3 hours of runtime. This would get less than that, and would definitely require active cooling.
 
Chip said:
Eh, this might be pushing the limits of what you can realistically cram into a handheld. The new SoC sucks down more power and throws off more heat than the previous unit, and that was already iffy. Those OG gameboy mods that stuck a 3A into an OG gameboy shell had pretty big 4000mAH batteries, and they still only got like 3 hours of runtime. This would get less than that, and would definitely require active cooling.
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I welcome active cooling and also don't mind a thick sized handheld. 1-2 hours of gaming would be fine with me as well :)
 
ckblackm said:
I wonder if I could use one as an OTA DVR to use for broadcast tv.
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Probably, though I wonder what the benefit of doing this in this day and age are. Something like this should apparently work with OpenElec, although you'd need one per channel you want to record; multiplexing one of the USB3.0 ports with USB3 hub of some variety would probably be best.

But in this age of streaming TV I wonder why you'd bother. I download all kinds of TV for later consumption myself just using an internet connection.
 
Chip said:
Eh, this might be pushing the limits of what you can realistically cram into a handheld. The new SoC sucks down more power and throws off more heat than the previous unit, and that was already iffy. Those OG gameboy mods that stuck a 3A into an OG gameboy shell had pretty big 4000mAH batteries, and they still only got like 3 hours of runtime. This would get less than that, and would definitely require active cooling.
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Yep. That's the concern at present in the handheld space. A theoretical (for now) Pi 4A would fit, but there's no batteries you can use inside a DMG case as yet that can 1) provide more than 1-2 hours of play time and 2) charge while powered. Which is a shame, as the Pi3B can't emulate some arcades (looking at you, Power Drift) with the libretro emulators. Mind you, an overclocked Pandora (which is much slower than a Pi3B+) can manage to emulate them but we have better emulators.
 
Chip said:
Eh, this might be pushing the limits of what you can realistically cram into a handheld. The new SoC sucks down more power and throws off more heat than the previous unit, and that was already iffy. Those OG gameboy mods that stuck a 3A into an OG gameboy shell had pretty big 4000mAH batteries, and they still only got like 3 hours of runtime. This would get less than that, and would definitely require active cooling.
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From the bench on medium it looks like wihtout any cooling it throttles between 1 and 1.5GHz. It looks very likely that this could run @100% it left at 1GHz.
 
levi said:
Probably, though I wonder what the benefit of doing this in this day and age are. Something like this should apparently work with OpenElec, although you'd need one per channel you want to record; multiplexing one of the USB3.0 ports with USB3 hub of some variety would probably be best.

But in this age of streaming TV I wonder why you'd bother. I download all kinds of TV for later consumption myself just using an internet connection.
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Mainly to skip commercials for sports broadcasts.
 
ckblackm said:
Mainly to skip commercials for sports broadcasts.
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Ah in which case getting the data OTA possibly isn't best, unless you have a good reliable way to judge the length of advert breaks to be able to skip them. My solution these days usually involves inspecting the HTML5 player and getting the raw video file out of it and then downloading that without the included advert breaks, but I guess with sports broadcasting there's always the risk that the broadcaster doesn't have the rights to stream it after the event; I'd have to check.
 
Downside, is that you have to have at *least* a 3 amp power supply that doesn't drop the 5v down too low or it will complain about brownouts. Experienced that a lot with my 3B, and various different power supplies. Measured voltage was frequently around the 4.65v region (or less) with a few of the '5v, 3.1 A' USB power supplies I have tried and out of two of them I have only had one deliver +4.65v at about 2A mostly consistently and that is with a VERY short USB cable. The Official power supplies are supposed to be more robust but I've never liked 'living on the edge' with just that one, I like a bit of versatility when it comes to power supplies. I can't help but think that these are getting out of the realm of general purpose SBC tinker boards and more into the realm of full power PC's.
 
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Does it complain about brownouts in reality, or just reboot spontaneously. I wonder if having some kind of big capacitor across the battery terminals might allow a slightly crappier power supply to run more reliably, providing it drops it requirements to 2.1A or thereabouts when it's thermally throttling. Although the boot process when it's generally pulling quite a lot of amps from cold and also need to charge this capacitor you've attached might be beyond what the power supply can handle, so that's a potential gotcha to avoid if possible.
 
levi said:
Does it complain about brownouts in reality, or just reboot spontaneously. I wonder if having some kind of big capacitor across the battery terminals might allow a slightly crappier power supply to run more reliably, providing it drops it requirements to 2.1A or thereabouts when it's thermally throttling. Although the boot process when it's generally pulling quite a lot of amps from cold and also need to charge this capacitor you've attached might be beyond what the power supply can handle, so that's a potential gotcha to avoid if possible.
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RPI 3 complains constantly about brownouts with the lightning symbol on the top right corner. I've also noticed slowdown when doing something like PSX emulation. I've fiddled with different settings in hopes of solving the problem with the other power supplies but it's hit or miss. Only the official adapter seems capable of delivering enough current at sufficient voltages. It's extremely picky, and will start flashing the symbol at or slightly below 4.65V. Above seems to be okay but that thin margin is very thin indeed. I'm curious about getting an RPI4, but I hardly use the two RPI3's that I have now as it is.
 
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