Raspberry Pi - $35 Linux computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter daz
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This just gets better. Really looking forward to getting one of these.

Another question, does this have an audio socket for 5.1? Excluding hdmi.
 
d_brennen said:
Don't think it's capable of sustaining 100mbps. Other functions share the same bandwidth i.e. USB
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Most of the suggestions that I've seen worry that the CPU itself won't be able to sustain such rates. I believe some NICs will offload the work, and I'd hope that'd be the case in such a unit, though cheapness may have it that that's not the case.

You on the other hand are suggesting that the internal pipeline being shared, would be a factor in the reasoning this not being able to sustain higher speeds. Is there any specs which actually confirm any of this, or are we just postulating?

Either way, I'm fairly excited by the prospect of this. The killer app is the potential for a small, cheap, and power efficient media centre, but even if it weren't, the flexibility of the units make them very interesting to a lot of people for less mainstream reasons.
 
Most of this is postulating until we see real hardware. Its not even released yet. We are making educated (ish:)) guesses at this stage.

Network transfers do use CPU. We dont know if the CPU can handle network streaming + linux backend + XBMC backend + playback so far. I think its reasonable to question if the CPU is up to it, but at this stage its just guesswork.

We should know pretty soon.
 
I've seen the XBMC video's and it's pretty interesting.

Been wondering how it'll handle some of the multichannel audio files I've got on the server. Probably not well. I'm currently running XBMC on an original xbox and it struggles with decoding 24bit 192khz stereo and 24bit 96khz 6 channel flac files.

*yes, I know the max output from the xbox is only 48khz... but there's no point resampling the files down*
 
masterluke said:
shame there isnt spdif as my av amp doesnt have hdmi:(
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Same here. I'm hoping that a cheap USB soundcard with optical out can be used to send the bitstream to the amp, but we just won't know until it arrives. My TV sadly will only send 2-channel audio out to the amp regardless of what it receives over HDMI. I'm sure this issue will hit a lot of people and there'll be some solution pretty quickly.
 
pduk said:
Same here. I'm hoping that a cheap USB soundcard with optical out can be used to send the bitstream to the amp, but we just won't know until it arrives. My TV sadly will only send 2-channel audio out to the amp regardless of what it receives over HDMI. I'm sure this issue will hit a lot of people and there'll be some solution pretty quickly.
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It's a noble cause but I do wonder how many of these will end up in the hands of budding coders and disadvantaged children.

The cool factor aside, I think a lot of people will be disappointed with the performance of these. Once you buy your Raspberry, reasonable storage device, DC adaptor, USB hub and USB soundcard you may have spent as much as on a second hand P4 base unit and cheap ass HDMI GPU. Many folk like ourselves will have access to old hardware for free anyway
 
d_brennen said:
It's a noble cause but I do wonder how many of these will end up in the hands of budding coders and disadvantaged children.

The cool factor aside, I think a lot of people will be disappointed with the performance of these. Once you buy your Raspberry, reasonable storage device, DC adaptor, USB hub and USB soundcard you may have spent as much as on a second hand P4 base unit and cheap ass HDMI GPU. Many folk like ourselves will have access to old hardware for free anyway
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It depends on your current configuration as to how many extras you would need to use the Raspberry Pi as a small HTPC.

In my situation I would need the following items:
  • Raspberry Pi (~£22 - Model B)
  • USB Power Supply (already own several)
  • Network Cable (already have loads)
  • SDHC Memory Card (~£8)
  • HDMI Cable (already have several)
  • Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (already have)

So there is little extra spend beyond the initial cost of the Raspberry Pi. Even if you don't already own some of the items I listed above then you could pick them up cheaply.

While you maybe able to pick up a generic beige box for not much more, the aim is to engage people in computers. I personally find the Raspberry Pi to be a much more engaging prospect than just another desktop system.
 
As I said, most of the forum posters on this forum and the Raspberry forums are already engaged with computers ;) And we all have hardware at our disposal, either under the stairs or very cheap

Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for the foundation and will be buying one myself. More for the IO access. IRL computing is far more interesting than abstract
 
Personally i wouldnt have to buy anything for it.

pduk said:
Same here. I'm hoping that a cheap USB soundcard with optical out can be used to send the bitstream to the amp, but we just won't know until it arrives. My TV sadly will only send 2-channel audio out to the amp regardless of what it receives over HDMI. I'm sure this issue will hit a lot of people and there'll be some solution pretty quickly.
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True. I may have to put up with 2 channel audio until i get usb spdif sorted. Not sure many usb soundcards with spdif there are and how the linux support is. Anyone have experience of this?
 
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masterluke said:
Personally i wouldnt have to buy anything for it.

True. I may have to put up with 2 channel audio until i get usb spdif sorted. Not sure many usb soundcards with spdif there are and how the linux support is. Anyone have experience of this?
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I have had multiple motherboards with spdif working without issue on linux, however I don't have any experience of USB soundcards.
 
Same here. In my experience spdif "just works" on linux using motherboard header pins. I presume usb devices could be a bit more troublesome. I use an old cdrom audio cable spliced with an old rca plug to my av amp which works a treat :).
 
d_brennen said:
As I said, most of the forum posters on this forum and the Raspberry forums are already engaged with computers ;) And we all have hardware at our disposal, either under the stairs or very cheap

Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for the foundation and will be buying one myself. More for the IO access. IRL computing is far more interesting than abstract
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You'd pay for that extra power in heat, power, and noise; something I'm not particularly happy with doing.

On the other hand, there is nothing stopping me running this unit 24/7, and using WOL to turn something more powerful on when the need requires, have it do some heavy lifting, then turn it back off.

YMMV.
 
Probably get one just for the sake of having one.

Potential of buying one, setting it up in the back of a TV and putting it at the end of my bed, attached to the wall..

Could be fun.
 
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