[Arm-netbook] Any ARM SoC has Open-Source access to hardware video decoder ?

[lkcl luke]

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 5:21 AM, Michael Zucchi <notzed at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 02/07/12 00:34, Alexey Eromenko wrote:
>> While I agree that 3D is nice, the use-cases for it are limited.
>> Much more needed is the VPU stuff (hardware video decoder), more than GPU (3D).
>> Once any SoC will do VPU, it will become so much more useful...
>
> What's this obsession with video decoding?

 given that ARM SoCs are not powerful enough to do this level of
processing on its own, you can't sell a mass-volume product that
doesn't have acceleration.

 btw - there are companies in taiwan that use 300mhz MIPS-based CPUs
with decoders that scream along.  their OS?  GNU/Linux.  have these
companies taken legal advice on tivoisation? yes.  do they even want
you to *KNOW* that they are using GPL source code? no.  do they
consider it a failure that you even find out? yes.

 these products are sold in volumes of hundreds of millions of units.
they're called TVs.  they run GNU/Linux.  you didn't even know that
they're running GNU/Linux, and the companies that manufacture the TVs
*DO NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT*.

 this situation pisses me off.

 in order to correct this situation, it is *essential* to have a
low-cost competitive SoC that has video decode.

l.