MWeston
Internal Development
Hi,
This is just an inquisitive poll about getting HD onto the Pandora or similar device. The gigantic thread about a Pandora cube made me curious but this doesn't indicate I'm up to anything more than gathering information. I've started thinking about how I might plug in something to the LCD connector to get HD but it's just for experimentation. I don't want to see "Confirmed: Pandora has HD output!".
Some things to consider:
- HDMI has a $10k/yr licensing fee that would be hard to swallow for hacking only. A lot of people would have to want mod kits for this one! It does open the possibility for 5.1 audio if done on the main PCB and only if I can synchronize the I2S channels to run at the same clock edge so I can steal the data line from each McBSP interface....not an easy proposition.
- DVI-D - I own nothing with this connector!
- Analog options might use more power. I have seen some pretty low power HDMI converter chips but the DVI ones seem to suck as much power as the component video chips! You would think a purely digital solution would use less power but it's not always true or not by as much as hoped.
- DisplayPort - I don't know a heck a lot about this one yet. Isn't it just something Apple is trying to sell everyone on still? Anyone else actually use it? Does it carry audio too? The royalty free thing is really nice.
- Are there others out there and are they royalty free? HDMI is so cool because one little cable does everything, but that licensing fee is something that makes anything but a serious commitment (due to contracts having to be signed) impossible.
EDIT: Some things I mentioned on page 4 that should be noted at the start of this topic as well:
"Nope, it's not going into the design. Everything about it is so wrong for now: need to order new parts, write new software, test a new board then order thousands of them after it works, and also we'd have to modify the case.
Plus people are coding for 800x480 and suddenly having HD would change everything. Most stuff would have to use 800x480 and then scale up to whatever HD resolution was used (like S-Video does but scaling down) and that wouldn't look good (or at least defeat the point of HD). The only thing HD would be good for is media playback and desktop applications. I'm not against any of that. In fact, it's a very neat aspect of the Beagle, but from what I read people saying, that goes against the niche market Pandora holds with its portability. It's not like anyone needs to render Super Mario Brothers at 720p to improve the graphics. "
This is just an inquisitive poll about getting HD onto the Pandora or similar device. The gigantic thread about a Pandora cube made me curious but this doesn't indicate I'm up to anything more than gathering information. I've started thinking about how I might plug in something to the LCD connector to get HD but it's just for experimentation. I don't want to see "Confirmed: Pandora has HD output!".
Some things to consider:
- HDMI has a $10k/yr licensing fee that would be hard to swallow for hacking only. A lot of people would have to want mod kits for this one! It does open the possibility for 5.1 audio if done on the main PCB and only if I can synchronize the I2S channels to run at the same clock edge so I can steal the data line from each McBSP interface....not an easy proposition.
- DVI-D - I own nothing with this connector!
- Analog options might use more power. I have seen some pretty low power HDMI converter chips but the DVI ones seem to suck as much power as the component video chips! You would think a purely digital solution would use less power but it's not always true or not by as much as hoped.
- DisplayPort - I don't know a heck a lot about this one yet. Isn't it just something Apple is trying to sell everyone on still? Anyone else actually use it? Does it carry audio too? The royalty free thing is really nice.
- Are there others out there and are they royalty free? HDMI is so cool because one little cable does everything, but that licensing fee is something that makes anything but a serious commitment (due to contracts having to be signed) impossible.
EDIT: Some things I mentioned on page 4 that should be noted at the start of this topic as well:
"Nope, it's not going into the design. Everything about it is so wrong for now: need to order new parts, write new software, test a new board then order thousands of them after it works, and also we'd have to modify the case.
Plus people are coding for 800x480 and suddenly having HD would change everything. Most stuff would have to use 800x480 and then scale up to whatever HD resolution was used (like S-Video does but scaling down) and that wouldn't look good (or at least defeat the point of HD). The only thing HD would be good for is media playback and desktop applications. I'm not against any of that. In fact, it's a very neat aspect of the Beagle, but from what I read people saying, that goes against the niche market Pandora holds with its portability. It's not like anyone needs to render Super Mario Brothers at 720p to improve the graphics.
"
