Multimedia Player?

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richmond62
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Multimedia Player?

Post by richmond62 » Thu Sep 26, 2019 12:11 pm

129 leva is about $75:
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Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 14.08.25.png
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8 GB hard disk, 1 GB DDR3 RAM, 1 USB port, 1 HDMI, and WiFi, ARM processor

Does anyone know if one could install some sort of light Linux for ARM on this thing
and turn it into a mini computer?

Ouch; just saw it at another store for 109 leva.

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Re: Multimedia Player?

Post by FourthWorld » Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:59 pm

It may be possible that the ARM Linux LC engine may work on that, but I'm not sure what dependencies may come into play. I'd guess the last RPi build should work with Debian well enough, but it's hard to say.

For myself, I've stuck with Intel-based mini-PCs with very good outcomes for running LC. They cost a bit more, but not that much more if LC is a must-have on them:

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100019096 ... rder=PRICE
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Re: Multimedia Player?

Post by richmond62 » Fri Sep 27, 2019 10:09 am

This multimedia player comes with some version of Android installed, so, presumably,
one could use it as a sort of extended tablet, especially if one could get a pointing device
such as a mouse, and a keyboard to work with it.

I suppose one could make non-standard sized Android standalones to run on this . . .

AND, as Apple are beginning to make funny noises about transitioning from Intel processors
to ARM processors, there will be various flavours of LiveCode capable of running on ARM chips
somewhere down the turnpike?

The question I keep asking myself is, as the 10-15 year old computers running 32-bit Xubuntu
(and 18.04 LTS is as far as 32-bit Ubuntu flavours reach) get extremely long in the tooth and
start failing, is it better to replace them with second-hand 64-bit computers at 200+ leva each or
with these Multimedia things either running their 'native' Android or some flavour of Linux?

The other, inevitable Q I am asking (to which the reply is almost certainly 'Yes') is whether I should
invest in one of these things to gutter about with and possibly trash completely just to see if
these ideas are possible.

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Re: Multimedia Player?

Post by bogs » Fri Sep 27, 2019 11:31 am

richmond62 wrote:
Fri Sep 27, 2019 10:09 am
The other, inevitable Q I am asking (to which the reply is almost certainly 'Yes') is whether I should
invest in one of these things to gutter about with and possibly trash completely just to see if
these ideas are possible.
Your wallet is the only one that can answer that question. Well, your wallet and your significant other, but probably not in that order :P
Image

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Re: Multimedia Player?

Post by FourthWorld » Fri Sep 27, 2019 4:25 pm

richmond62 wrote:
Fri Sep 27, 2019 10:09 am
AND, as Apple are beginning to make funny noises about transitioning from Intel processors
to ARM processors, there will be various flavours of LiveCode capable of running on ARM chips
somewhere down the turnpike?
The team has done a good job of staying on to of Apple's ever-changing HW/OS changes. I imagine this will be just one more.
The question I keep asking myself is, as the 10-15 year old computers running 32-bit Xubuntu
(and 18.04 LTS is as far as 32-bit Ubuntu flavours reach) get extremely long in the tooth and
start failing, is it better to replace them with second-hand 64-bit computers at 200+ leva each or
with these Multimedia things either running their 'native' Android or some flavour of Linux?
I think it comes down to what you want to do with the device, no?

Determine the apps you need, then select the OS that runs those apps.
The other, inevitable Q I am asking (to which the reply is almost certainly 'Yes') is whether I should
invest in one of these things to gutter about with and possibly trash completely just to see if
these ideas are possible.
The best evaluation is hands-on, testing real-world usage patterns.
Richard Gaskin
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Re: Multimedia Player?

Post by richmond62 » Fri Sep 27, 2019 8:28 pm

My friendly second-hand bloke has just got a truck-load of these in store:
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Screenshot 2019-09-27 at 22.24.52.png
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85 leva = $48

which makes my question largely theoretical.

Although, I am still tempted, should I have a few spare crinklies left at the end of the month . . .

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Re: Multimedia Player?

Post by FourthWorld » Fri Sep 27, 2019 8:54 pm

richmond62 wrote:
Fri Sep 27, 2019 8:28 pm
My friendly second-hand bloke has just got a truck-load of these in store:
-
Screenshot 2019-09-27 at 22.24.52.png
-
85 leva = $48

which makes my question largely theoretical.
That's a helluva good price. Is the RAM expandable/upgradeable? 2GB can do plenty for light duty, but these days I try to go for 4GB for anything with a GUI. But with Xubuntu or Lubuntu it may not matter. I have an old nettop here running Lubuntu quite well.
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Re: Multimedia Player?

Post by richmond62 » Fri Sep 27, 2019 9:42 pm

The computers in my school 90% of the time are running small LC standalones for
EFL kiddos, and the only other thing they ever run is LiveCode, I have a load of 32-bit
boxes as old as 15 years with as little as 512 MB RAM doing just exactly what is needed
with Xubuntu.

My "problem" is that when Xubuntu 18.04 is end-of-life there will be no further 32-bit
releases.

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