480p is HD and should be a good fit for the n900. Downscaling 720p on-the-fly so you don't have to transcode doesn't seem reasonable to me. Get an ION netbook if you want to watch 720p.
Also, currently I believe only gstreamer can use the DSP. So mplayer or VLC or whatever non-gstreamer thing will have to do the decoding on the Cortex. Not only am I not aware of any DSP support plans for non-gstreamer apps, but I am not sure if the DSP arbitration allows for third party application.
Nokia have provided the TI DSP codecs for decoding. These will not do 720p like the HD pack but an enterprising dev or company could create better optimised codecs and sell them on ovi store or provide them in extras.
zaheerm: Do you see any possibility of bringing DSP-accelerated decoding to third-party apps (mplayer & VLC)? Or do you agree with redenisc?
I guess the TI DSP codecs are closed, but is there documentation on how to access them from outside of gstreamer?
And of course, what redenisc asked, whether third party apps can at all access them or if it's locked to gstreamer
That was not my point. Yes, the code is open-source, and nothing prevents mplayer, VLC or whoever else from re-implementing it (except time constraints).
But that does not prove that access arbitration will work and the device won't burn in flames if say mplayer tries to use the DSP at the same time as gstreamer.
That was not my point. Yes, the code is open-source, and nothing prevents mplayer, VLC or whoever else from re-implementing it (except time constraints).
But that does not prove that access arbitration will work and the device won't burn in flames if say mplayer tries to use the DSP at the same time as gstreamer.
The dsp would error out on one or the other if it failed. This would happen if multiple gstreamer based processes used it too, so no different. I don't mind only having GStreamer but if others want mplayer/vlc let them do the work to get the dsp stuff working.
I'm sorry, I normally consider myself pretty tech-savvy, but could someone explain what "access arbitration" is, how it relates to this discussion and what it has to do with my future N900 dying in a fire?
