512MB Raspberry Pi Project Board Model B for $35

Quote from spikey911 : Because the Rasp has hardware decoding out of the box. Xbmc runs great on the Rasp, and has played every video I have thrown at it...It also streams with no issue at all... For the price, nothing can compare.

wow, you must not have thrown much at it.....

Quote from austin-dude : XBMC isn't the only game in town... RasPlex [rasplex.com] is now out too. Recent Lifehacker article about RasPlex http://lifehacker.com/5991040/ras...theater-pc

wow thats pretty terrible.



dont get me wrong i love xbmc (plex not so much) and i love the pi.... but.......

anyone have experience with both the 256mb ram one and the 512mb ram one? Is there a noticeable difference?

and hightop, from what I'm hearing, it's only the ridiculous bluray rips with dts that make the pi suffer. I've also heard that setting the dts to pass through and overclocking fix a lot of those issues

Quote from Kryspie : pretty sure these are old tech by now. they got a name for being one of the first of the "pc on a stick" trend.....but the ras pi has been surpassed, even by chinese hobbyists looking for a few extra bucks.... can get better android sticks for a little more if you look around

I'd love to see what "Chinese hobbyist" device you're thinking of- or what your source is.

The Pi WILL be surpassed, certainly... I'd bet not soon.

Some of what's going to happen now is entirely predictable. The Pi sold a million units in the first year without coming close to meeting demand. That sort of thing does not go un-noticed in the marketplace. There will be a spate of other companies who are absolutely sure they can do it better and reap bucks... but as with any disruptive technology, the first few or several who think that will be missing the point, will do it wrong, will try to force the "disruptive" part back into the old molds, and will fail. I don't think there are any Android-on-a-stick devices selling in the millions.

The Pi is a huge success not because it was designed perfectly for a given field or use, it wasn't. It's because it will do just about anything pretty well. As a species we have always valued our most general-purpose tools most highly, which makes perfect sense, as we are the most generalist species that has evolved here, and the approach has worked pretty well for the first few million years.

Look at this thing. It's a processor, and as much I/O as they could possibly cram in there. That's all it is. No OS included, but maybe 15 available now. No peripherals included. No power supply included. No case included.

Not only does the absence of these things hold down price (especially for those of us who have boxes of the junk around anyway), but far more importantly it does not pre-judge how it is to be used. It's wide open. Hell, there are at least three distinct ways just to supply power to this thing.

So, the board that kids can use to drive Lego devices is the same one I'm typing this on. I can invest some learning curve in it partly because it's running Debian, which means that what I learn I can also use on my Ubuntu and Mint notebooks and desktops, and to some degree on the Solarian boxes I connect to at my work... and I can use what I've learned on all those Unix/Linux machines from the '80s until now to drive Lego devices if I decide to. That's pretty cool.

I can pretty much guarantee that the first imitators will make something more powerful, more expensive and far less versatile, which will attract about zero interest in comparison. Most importantly for the market it will be more expensive, which the makers will have no trouble justifying but the market will not, now that it's been demonstrated what can be done.

Eventually, the Pi will probably become what was originally intended, a teaching tool, and hobbyists will move on to some competitor that is also very, very versatile and cheap... but whatever organization wants to take the market share is not going to have that easy a time of it. Not only do they have to at least GRASP the vision and potential of the Pi, but they are also competing with those having the connections at ARM to realize the potential very inexpensively. It was a combination of elements that might be difficult to repeat anytime soon.

I am in the camp that thinks the Raspberry Pi is obsolete.

The Chinese android PC on a stick devices are the size of usb stick, have wifi built into them, come with power supply, or can be plugged into usb port. Have mini SD slot, and about 35 dollars and up. You don't need case for it, you don't have to get power supply cable for it. It runs xbmc and android and debian, ect.
Some newer ones are quad core too. I have regular one host a1 and I can play games on it , it comes with hdmi and just a little bit bigger than usb memory stick.

Why would you want 35 dollars for Raspberry Pi, then get 9 dollar case, and 10 dollars shipping, and power cable, for old style arm processor.

My dockstar/pogoplug v2 has the same type arm5 processor and I can pick the pogoplug v2 for 15 dollars shipped and it has 4 usb ports and can do debian and be server.

A year ago, before the Chinese PC on a stick, yeah the hype was for Raspberry Pi, I was interested in it 6 months before it came out. But in a year, a lot has happened and the PC on a stick as stomped this Pi into the dust.

So it will be for little kids in 3rd world countries , as designed.

Quote from beans : anyone have experience with both the 256mb ram one and the 512mb ram one? Is there a noticeable difference? and hightop, from what I'm hearing, it's only the ridiculous bluray rips with dts that make the pi suffer. I've also heard that setting the dts to pass through and overclocking fix a lot of those issues

I don't have experience with the 256 but I can tell you the 512 is already pretty slow...

Quote from richman : Why would you want 35 dollars for Raspberry Pi, then get 9 dollar case, and 10 dollars shipping, and power cable, for old style arm processor.

you're not limited to android, you don't have to pay 9 dollars for a case and chances are you have a power cable already. $45 dollars for what it is and what it does seems very very reasonable.

Quote from mortar : Exactly what sticks would you be referring to ? All the sticks Iv'e seen,none of them run xbmc smoothly. Most say Android devices just aren't quite there yet..If I'm wrong plz let me know.. As far as the debate of which is better..that's tough. I use both thru my 3 rokus and htpc. Plex is nice,especially when streaming to my phone or such,but XBMC to me wins in terms of features and interface. It is just so much more feature rich and polished eye candy factor,to me anyway...But both are nice and rock solid.

Quote from gigaboom : I'd love to see what "Chinese hobbyist" device you're thinking of- or what your source is. The Pi WILL be surpassed, certainly... I'd bet not soon. Some of what's going to happen now is entirely predictable. The Pi sold a million units in the first year without coming close to meeting demand. That sort of thing does not go un-noticed in the marketplace. There will be a spate of other companies who are absolutely sure they can do it better and reap bucks... but as with any disruptive technology, the first few or several who think that will be missing the point, will do it wrong, will try to force the "disruptive" part back into the old molds, and will fail. I don't think there are any Android-on-a-stick devices selling in the millions. The Pi is a huge success not because it was designed perfectly for a given field or use, it wasn't. It's because it will do just about anything pretty well. As a species we have always valued our most general-purpose tools most highly, which makes perfect sense, as we are the most generalist species that has evolved here, and the approach has worked pretty well for the first few million years. Look at this thing. It's a processor, and as much I/O as they could possibly cram in there. That's all it is. No OS included, but maybe 15 available now. No peripherals included. No power supply included. No case included. Not only does the absence of these things hold down price (especially for those of us who have boxes of the junk around anyway), but far more importantly it does not pre-judge how it is to be used. It's wide open. Hell, there are at least three distinct ways just to supply power to this thing. So, the board that kids can use to drive Lego devices is the same one I'm typing this on. I can invest some learning curve in it partly because it's running Debian, which means that what I learn I can also use on my Ubuntu and Mint notebooks and desktops, and to some degree on the Solarian boxes I connect to at my work... and I can use what I've learned on all those Unix/Linux machines from the '80s until now to drive Lego devices if I decide to. That's pretty cool. I can pretty much guarantee that the first imitators will make something more powerful, more expensive and far less versatile, which will attract about zero interest in comparison. Most importantly for the market it will be more expensive, which the makers will have no trouble justifying but the market will not, now that it's been demonstrated what can be done. Eventually, the Pi will probably become what was originally intended, a teaching tool, and hobbyists will move on to some competitor that is also very, very versatile and cheap... but whatever organization wants to take the market share is not going to have that easy a time of it. Not only do they have to at least GRASP the vision and potential of the Pi, but they are also competing with those having the connections at ARM to realize the potential very inexpensively. It was a combination of elements that might be difficult to repeat anytime soon.

Quote from richman : I am in the camp that thinks the Raspberry Pi is obsolete. The Chinese android PC on a stick devices are the size of usb stick, have wifi built into them, come with power supply, or can be plugged into usb port. Have mini SD slot, and about 35 dollars and up. You don't need case for it, you don't have to get power supply cable for it. It runs xbmc and android and debian, ect. Some newer ones are quad core too. I have regular one host a1 and I can play games on it , it comes with hdmi and just a little bit bigger than usb memory stick. Why would you want 35 dollars for Raspberry Pi, then get 9 dollar case, and 10 dollars shipping, and power cable, for old style arm processor. My dockstar/pogoplug v2 has the same type arm5 processor and I can pick the pogoplug v2 for 15 dollars shipped and it has 4 usb ports and can do debian and be server. A year ago, before the Chinese PC on a stick, yeah the hype was for Raspberry Pi, I was interested in it 6 months before it came out. But in a year, a lot has happened and the PC on a stick as stomped this Pi into the dust. So it will be for little kids in 3rd world countries , as designed.

rrichman basically typed my response.

But just a couple of links

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/s...k3066.aspx

http://liliputing.com/2013/03/and...e-cpu.html


Yes these may be a littler expensive, but they give everything to the user. No need for a learning curve here.

Maybe the Android/PC stick and the Ras Pi are intended for different markets?


......many people would much rather pay a little more to use an interface they are famililar with, and have a neat little box to go with the SoC as well.....

Quote from beans : and hightop, from what I'm hearing, it's only the ridiculous bluray rips with dts that make the pi suffer. I've also heard that setting the dts to pass through and overclocking fix a lot of those issues

whats ridiculous about bluray?

why does noone care about picture quality in the age of high resolution and high bitrate video?

anyway the point im making is that while this can run xbmc, it does not provide a full or smooth xbmc experience.

Quote from Kryspie : rrichman basically typed my response. But just a couple of links http://www.laptopmag.com/review/s...k3066.aspx http://liliputing.com/2013/03/and...e-cpu.html Yes these may be a littler expensive, but they give everything to the user. No need for a learning curve here. Maybe the Android/PC stick and the Ras Pi are intended for different markets? ......many people would much rather pay a little more to use an interface they are famililar with, and have a neat little box to go with the SoC as well.....

>>Yes these may be a littler expensive, but they give everything to the user. No need for a learning curve here.

Maybe the Android/PC stick and the Ras Pi are intended for different markets?<<

Evidently. I consider the learning curve the fun part.

I'm surprised at your choices, though, on a few points. At a glance, one of these is $60, the other $100, it's not clear that either will do 1080 out of the box, though it's implied that they might, someday, somehow.

More to the point, sealed consumer electronics are not what I think of in association with the word "hobbyist", Chinese or otherwise. I thought we were talking about something hobbyists put together for other hobbyists.

These seem to fit well what I was describing; more powerful, less versatile, more expensive.. exactly what I described as "missing the point". Consumer electronics devices designed for playing videos and games, for predigested entertainment, but not for playing with the devices themselves. Avoiding a learning curve.

Personally, I find that boring. Guess not everyone does.

I started back in the '80s, we were putting together our own PCs, getting them working, putting together BBS systems. Back then the people who had started earlier laughed at us for saying we "built" computers from components- they soldered their own boards, that was building a computer. They were complaining then that Apple had sold out, had turned away from the "hobbyist" culture to supporting the notion that you could just pay your way into the "Computer Revolution" by buying their products instead of actually acquiring the knowledge of how they worked.

I think the "retrograde" step back from passive consumerism to active creation is a large part of what has people interested in the Pi. Learning curve welcome.

Quote from hightop32 : whats ridiculous about bluray? why does noone care about picture quality in the age of high resolution and high bitrate video? anyway the point im making is that while this can run xbmc, it does not provide a full or smooth xbmc experience.

might have said that wrong. It's not that bluray rips are ridiculous, just that there's certain rips that have a really high bitrate. There are decent bluray rips that don't have excessively high bitrates and aren't compressed to hell. But the more I read about it, the more it seems to be a DTS issue.

Quote from richman : I am in the camp that thinks the Raspberry Pi is obsolete. The Chinese android PC on a stick devices are the size of usb stick, have wifi built into them, come with power supply, or can be plugged into usb port. Have mini SD slot, and about 35 dollars and up. You don't need case for it, you don't have to get power supply cable for it. It runs xbmc and android and debian, ect. Some newer ones are quad core too. I have regular one host a1 and I can play games on it , it comes with hdmi and just a little bit bigger than usb memory stick. Why would you want 35 dollars for Raspberry Pi, then get 9 dollar case, and 10 dollars shipping, and power cable, for old style arm processor. My dockstar/pogoplug v2 has the same type arm5 processor and I can pick the pogoplug v2 for 15 dollars shipped and it has 4 usb ports and can do debian and be server. A year ago, before the Chinese PC on a stick, yeah the hype was for Raspberry Pi, I was interested in it 6 months before it came out. But in a year, a lot has happened and the PC on a stick as stomped this Pi into the dust. So it will be for little kids in 3rd world countries , as designed.

Person who is not the target market thinks product is worthless. Water is wet. This is for kids learning to program in schools and people who like to hack hardware together. This is not for a media player.

RPi 2 will launch this year with a spec bump. Again, it won't be targeted to you.

Quote from sd444 : Person who is not the target market thinks product is worthless. Water is wet. This is for kids learning to program in schools and people who like to hack hardware together. This is not for a media player. RPi 2 will launch this year with a spec bump. Again, it won't be targeted to you.

this^

Quote from sd444 : Person who is not the target market thinks product is worthless. Water is wet. This is for kids learning to program in schools and people who like to hack hardware together. This is not for a media player. RPi 2 will launch this year with a spec bump. Again, it won't be targeted to you.

I did say it's good for 3rd world kids! in my last sentence.

Others are looking at the Pi for media stuff too, and other purposes, so what some of us are saying is valid. Many of us were looking at this device as server/ tv streamer/ websurfer device. So for that it is so so. We are just clarifying the target audiences and agreeing , it's for 3rd world kids.

Quote from hightop32 : whats ridiculous about bluray? why does noone care about picture quality in the age of high resolution and high bitrate video? anyway the point im making is that while this can run xbmc, it does not provide a full or smooth xbmc experience.

I read this while I stream HD video flawlessly on my Pi via XBMC.