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• How to Track Website Visitors : Benefits, Tools and FAQs

  31 août 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips, Marketing

  Businesses spend a ton of time, money and effort into creating websites that are not only helpful and captivating, but also highly effective at converting visitors. They’ll create content, revise designs, add new pages and change forms, all in the hope of getting visitors to stay on the site and convert into leads or customers.

  When you track website visitors, you can see which of your efforts are moving the needle. While many people are familiar with pageviews as a metric, website visitor tracking can be much more in-depth and insightful.

  In this article, we’ll cover how website visitor tracking works, what you can track, and how this information can improve sales and marketing results. We’ll also explain global privacy concerns and how businesses can choose the right tracking software. 

  What is website visitor tracking ? 

  Website visitor tracking uses software and applications to track and analyse how visitors interact with your website. It’s a vital tool to help businesses understand whether their website design and content are having the desired effect.

  

  Website visitor tracking includes very broad, non-specific data, like how many times visitors have come to your site. But it can also get very specific, with personal information about the user and even recordings of their visit to your site. Site visits, which may include visiting several different pages of the same site, are often referred to as “sessions.”

  Although Google Analytics is the most widely used website visitor tracking software, it isn’t the most comprehensive or powerful. Companies that want a more in-depth understanding of their website may need to consider running a more precise tool alongside Google Analytics, like Matomo.

  As we’ll cover later, website tracking has many important business applications, but it also poses privacy and security concerns, causing some states and countries to impose strict regulations. Privacy laws and your company’s values should also impact what web analytics tool you choose.

  How website tracking works

  Website tracking starts with the collection of data as users interact with the website. Tracking technologies like cookies, JavaScript and pixels are embedded into web pages. These technologies then gather data about user behaviour, session details and user actions, such as pageviews, clicks, form submissions and more.

  More advanced tracking systems assign unique identifiers (such as cookies or visitor IDs) to individual users. This enables tracking of user journeys across multiple sessions and pages. These detailed journeys can often tell a different story and provide different insights than aggregated numbers do. 

  All this collected data is transmitted from the user’s browser to a centralised tracking system, which can be a third-party web analytics tool or a self-hosted solution. The collected data is stored in databases and processed to generate meaningful insights. This process involves organising the data, aggregating metrics, and creating reports.

  Analytics tools process the collected data to generate reports and visualisations that provide insights into user behaviour. Metrics such as pageviews, bounce rates, conversion rates and user paths are analysed. Good web analytics tools are able to present these insights in a user-friendly way. Analysts and marketing professionals then use this knowledge to make informed decisions to improve the user experience (UX).

  Advanced tracking systems allow data segmentation and filtering based on various criteria, such as user demographics, traffic sources, devices and more. This enables deeper analysis of specific user groups. For example, you might find that your conversion rate is much lower when your website is viewed on a mobile device. You can then dig deeper into that segment of data to find out why and experiment with changes that might increase mobile conversions.

  3 types of website tracking and their benefits

  There are three main categories of website tracking, and they each provide different information that can be used by sales, marketing, engineering and others. Here, we cover those three types and how businesses use them to understand customers and create better experiences.

  Website analytics 

  Website analytics is all about understanding the traffic your website receives. This type of tracking allows you to learn how the website performs based on pageviews, real-time traffic, bounce rate and conversions. 

  For example, you would use website analytics to determine how effectively your homepage drives people toward a product or pricing page. You can use pageviews and previous page statistics to learn how many people who land on your homepage read your blog posts. From there, you could use web analytics to determine the conversion rate of the call to action at the end of each article.

  

  User behaviour

  While website analytics focuses on the website’s performance, user behaviour tracking is about monitoring and quantifying user behaviour. One of the most obvious aspects of user behaviour is what they click on, but there are many other actions you can track. 

  The time a user spends on a page can help you determine whether the content on the page is engaging. Some tracking tools can also measure how far down the page a user scrolls, which reveals whether some content is even being seen. 

  Session recordings are another popular tool for analysing user behaviour. They not only show concrete actions, like clicks, but can also show how the user moves throughout the page. Where do they stop ? What do they scroll right past ? This is one example of how user behaviour data can be quantitative or qualitative.

  Visitor information

  Tracking can also include gathering or uncovering information about visitors to your site. This might include demographic information, such as language and location, or details like what device a website visitor is using and on which browser they view your website. 

  This type of data helps your web and marketing teams make better decisions about how to design and format the site. If you know, for example, that the website for your business-to-business (B2B) software is overwhelmingly viewed on desktop computers, that will affect how you structure your pages and choose images. 

  Similarly, if visitor information tells you that you have a significant audience in France, your marketing team might develop new content to appeal to those potential customers.

  Use website visitor tracking to improve marketing, sales and UX 

  Website visitor tracking has various applications for different parts of your business, from marketing to sales and much more. When you understand the impact tracking has on different teams, you can better evaluate your company’s needs and build buy-in among stakeholders.

  Marketing

  At many companies, the marketing team owns and determines what kind of content is on your website. From landing pages to blog posts to the navigation bar, you want to create an experience that drives people toward making a purchase. When marketers can track website visitors, they can get a real look at how visitors respond to and engage with their marketing efforts. Pageviews, conversion rates and time spent on pages help them better understand what your customers care about and what messaging resonates.

  But web analytics can even help marketing teams better understand how their external marketing campaigns are performing. Tracking tools like Matomo reveal your most important traffic sources. The term “traffic source” refers to the content or web property from which someone arrives at your site. 

  For instance, you might notice that an older page got a big boost in traffic this month. You can then check the traffic sources, where you find that an influential LinkedIn user posted a link to the page. This presents an opportunity to adjust the influencer or social media aspects of your marketing strategy.

  

  Beyond traffic sources, Matomo can provide a visual user journey (also known as User Flow), showing which pages visitors tend to view in a session and even in what order they progress. This gives you a bird’s-eye view of the customer journey.

  Sales

  Just like your marketing team, your sales team can benefit from tracking and analysing website visitor information. Data about user behaviour and visitor demographics helps sales representatives better understand the people they’re talking to. Segmented visitor tracking data can even provide clues as to how to appeal to different buyer personas.

  Sales leadership can use web analytics to gauge interest over time, tie visitors to revenue and develop more accurate sales forecasts and goals. 

  

  And it’s not just aggregated website tracking data that your sales team can use to better serve customers. They can also use insights about an individual visitor to tailor their approach. Matomo’s Visits Log report and Visitor Profiles allow you to see which pages a prospect has viewed. This tells your sales team which products and features the prospect is most interested in, leading to more relevant interactions and more effective sales efforts.

  User experience and web development

  The way users interact with and experience your website has a big impact on their impression of your brand and, ultimately, whether they become customers. While marketing often controls much of a website’s content, the backend and technical operation of the site usually falls to a web development or engineering team. Website analytics and tracking inform their work, too.

  Along with data about website traffic and conversion rates, web development teams often monitor bounce rates (the percentage of people who leave your website entirely after landing on a page) and page load time (the time it takes for an individual web page to load for a user). Besides the fact that slow loading times inconvenience visitors, they can also negatively affect your search engine optimization (SEO).

  

  Along with session recordings, user experience teams and web developers may use heatmaps to find out what parts of a page draw a visitor’s attention and where they are most likely to convert or take some other action. They can then use these insights to make a web page more intuitive and useful.

  Visitor tracking and privacy regulations 

  There are different data privacy standards in other parts of the world, which are designed to ensure that businesses collect and use consumer data ethically. The most-discussed of these privacy standards is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was instituted by the European Union (EU) but affects businesses worldwide. However, it’s important to note that individual countries or states can have different privacy laws.

  Many privacy laws govern how websites can use cookies to track visitors. With a user’s consent, cookies can help websites identify and remember visitors. However, many web visitors will reject cookie consent banners. When this happens, analysts and marketers can’t collect information from these visitors and have to work with incomplete tracking data. Incomplete data leads to poor decision-making. What’s more, cookie consent banners can create a poor user experience and often annoy web visitors.

  With Matomo’s industry-leading measures to protect user privacy, France’s data protection agency (CNIL) has confirmed that Matomo is exempt from tracking consent in France. Matomo users have peace of mind knowing they can uphold the GDPR and collect data without needing to collect and track cookie consent. Only in Germany and the UK are cookie consent banners still required.

  Choosing user tracking software

  The benefits and value of tracking website visitors are enormous, but not all tracking software is equal. Different tools have different core functionalities. For instance, some focus on user behaviour over traditional web analytics. Others offer detailed website performance data but offer little in the way of visitor information. It’s a good idea to start by identifying your company’s most important tracking goals.

  Along with core features, look for useful tools to experiment with and optimise your website with. For example, Matomo enables A/B testing while many other tools do not.

  

  Along with users of your website, you also need to think about the employees who will be using the tracking software. The interface can have a big impact on the value you get from a tool. Matomo’s session recording functionality, for example, not only provides you with video but with a colour-coded timeline identifying important user actions.

  

  Privacy standards and compliance should also be a part of the conversation. Different tools use different tracking methods, impacting accuracy and security and can even cause legal trouble. You should consider which data privacy laws you are subject to, as well as the privacy expectations of your users.

  

  Some industries have especially high data security standards. Government and healthcare organisations, for example, may require visitor tracking software that is hosted on their premises. While there are many purely cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) tracking tools, Matomo is available both On-Premise (also known as self-hosted) and in the Cloud.

  Frequently asked questions

  Here are answers to some of people’s most common questions about tracking website visitors.

  Can you track who visited your website ?

  In most cases, tracking your website’s traffic is possible. Still, the extent of the tracking depends on the visitor-tracking technology you use and the privacy settings and precautions the visitor uses. For example, some technologies can pinpoint users by IP address. In other cases, you may only have access to anonymized data.

  Is it legal to track someone’s IP address ?

  It is legal for websites and businesses to track someone’s IP address in the sense that they can identify that someone from the same IP address is visiting a page repeatedly. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), IP addresses are considered personally identifiable information (PII). The GDPR mandates that websites only log and store a user’s IP address with the user’s consent.

  How do you find where visitors are clicking the most ?

  Heatmap tools are among the most common tools for learning where visitors click the most on your website. Heatmaps use colour-coding to show what parts of a web page users either click on or hover over the most.

  Unique tracking URLs are another way to determine what part of your website gets the most clicks. For example, if you have three links on a page that all go to the same destination, you can use tracking links to determine how many clicks each link generates.

  Matomo also offers a Tag Manager within the platform that lets you manage and unify all your tracking and marketing tags to find out where visitors are clicking.

  What is the best tool for website visitor tracking ?

  Like most tools, the best website visitor tracking tool depends on your needs. Each tool offers different functionalities, user interfaces and different levels of accuracy and privacy. Matomo is a good choice for companies that value privacy, compliance and accuracy.

  Tracking for powerful insights and better performance

  Tracking website visitors is now a well-ingrained part of business operations. From sales reps seeking to understand their leads to marketers honing their ad spend, tracking helps teams do their jobs better.

  Take the time to consider what you want to learn from website tracking and let those priorities guide your choice of visitor tracking software. Whatever your industry or needs, user privacy and compliance must be a priority.

  Find out how much detail and insight Matomo can give you with our free 21-day trial — no credit card required.

• Save video using opencv with H264 codec

  31 octobre 2023, par ldiaz997

  This is beyond me and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have read that in order to have my video in h265 codec, I need to build opencv from source. Well, I did that, and I also did it for ffmpeg Docker ffmpeg Compiler. But I'm trying to run my application using docker, and I still can't get over the error :

  


  [ERROR:0@93.327] global cap_ffmpeg_impl.hpp:3018 open Could not find encoder for codec_id=27, error: Encoder not found
[ERROR:0@93.327] global cap_ffmpeg_impl.hpp:3093 open VIDEOIO/FFMPEG: Failed to initialize VideoWriter


  


  Dockerfile :

  


  FROM python:3.10.12-slim-buster

RUN apt-get update

# Set the working directory in the container
WORKDIR /app

# Copy the application code into the container
COPY . .

# Set ffmpeg and ffprobe binary files
RUN mv ffmpeg /usr/local/bin
RUN mv ffprobe /usr/local/bin

# Build opencv from source, to be able to use h264 codec.
RUN apt-get install -y cmake \
    gcc \
    g++ \
    python3-numpy \
    libavcodec-dev \
    libavformat-dev \
    libswscale-dev \
    libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
    libgstreamer1.0-dev \
    libpng-dev \
    libjpeg-dev \
    libopenexr-dev \
    libtiff-dev \
    libwebp-dev \
    git

RUN git clone --depth 1 --branch 4.8.0 https://github.com/opencv/opencv.git && \
    git clone --depth 1 --branch 4.8.0 https://github.com/opencv/opencv_contrib.git && \
    cd opencv && \
    mkdir build && \
    cd build && \
    cmake -D OPENCV_EXTRA_MODULES_PATH=/app/opencv_contrib/modules ../ && \
    make -j"$(nproc)" && \
    make install

# Remove opencv github project
RUN rm -r opencv

# Remove opencv_contrib github project
RUN rm -r opencv_contrib

# Prevents Python from writing pyc files to disc
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1

# Prevents Python from buffering stdout and stderr
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1

# Install python dependencies
RUN pip install --upgrade pip
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

# Install netcat to know when rabbitmq is running
RUN apt-get install -y netcat

# Set execute permissions
RUN chmod +x entrypoint.sh
RUN chmod +x web_start.sh

ENTRYPOINT ["./entrypoint.sh"]


  


  I ran the command ./ffmpeg -i 57b3e3a7-ad22-469d-a7ff-cf76ba780664 -vcodec libx264 -acodec aac output.mp4 to test ffmpeg and this was the result.

  


  ffmpeg version N-112515-gba6a5e7a3d Copyright (c) 2000-2023 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12) 20160609
  configuration: --prefix=/root/ffmpeg_build --pkg-config-flags=--static --extra-libs=-static --extra-cflags=--static --extra-cflags=-I/root/ffmpeg_build/include --extra-ldflags=-L/root/ffmpeg_build/lib --extra-libs='-lpthread -lm' --bindir=/root/bin --enable-gpl --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-nonfree
  libavutil      58. 27.100 / 58. 27.100
  libavcodec     60. 30.102 / 60. 30.102
  libavformat    60. 15.101 / 60. 15.101
  libavdevice    60.  2.101 / 60.  2.101
  libavfilter     9. 11.100 /  9. 11.100
  libswscale      7.  4.100 /  7.  4.100
  libswresample   4. 11.100 /  4. 11.100
  libpostproc    57.  2.100 / 57.  2.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '57b3e3a7-ad22-469d-a7ff-cf76ba780664':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: qt  
    creation_time   : 2023-10-30T15:34:32.000000Z
    com.apple.quicktime.make: Apple
    com.apple.quicktime.model: iPhone 13 Pro Max
    com.apple.quicktime.software: 16.6
    com.apple.quicktime.creationdate: 2023-10-30T11:34:32-0400
  Duration: 00:00:03.60, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 16264 kb/s
  Stream #0:0[0x1](und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 1920x1080, 16120 kb/s, 29.99 fps, 29.97 tbr, 600 tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-30T15:34:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Video
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
      encoder         : H.264
    Side data:
      displaymatrix: rotation of -90.00 degrees
  Stream #0:1[0x2](und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 89 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-30T15:34:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
  Stream #0:2[0x3](und): Data: none (mebx / 0x7862656D), 0 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-30T15:34:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Metadata
  Stream #0:3[0x4](und): Data: none (mebx / 0x7862656D), 0 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-30T15:34:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Metadata
  Stream #0:4[0x5](und): Data: none (mebx / 0x7862656D), 34 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-30T15:34:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Metadata
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac (native) -> aac (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 AVX2 LZCNT BMI2
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] profile High, level 4.0
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] 264 - core 148 r2643 5c65704 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2015 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=30 lookahead_threads=5 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to 'output.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: qt  
    com.apple.quicktime.creationdate: 2023-10-30T11:34:32-0400
    com.apple.quicktime.make: Apple
    com.apple.quicktime.model: iPhone 13 Pro Max
    com.apple.quicktime.software: 16.6
    encoder         : Lavf60.15.101
  Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 1080x1920, q=2-31, 29.97 fps, 30k tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-30T15:34:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Video
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
      encoder         : Lavc60.30.102 libx264
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: N/A
      displaymatrix: rotation of -0.00 degrees
  Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 69 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-30T15:34:32.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
      encoder         : Lavc60.30.102 aac
[out#0/mp4 @ 0x5ae3440] video:2773kB audio:31kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.157082%
frame=  108 fps= 74 q=-1.0 Lsize=    2809kB time=00:00:03.59 bitrate=6393.3kbits/s speed=2.47x    
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] frame I:4     Avg QP:22.27  size: 48408
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] frame P:104   Avg QP:24.58  size: 25440
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] mb I  I16..4: 10.3% 82.9%  6.8%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] mb P  I16..4:  4.6% 18.1%  0.8%  P16..4: 40.3%  6.9%  4.1%  0.0%  0.0%    skip:25.3%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] 8x8 transform intra:78.0% inter:85.0%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 44.9% 29.1% 0.1% inter: 22.5% 23.3% 0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] i16 v,h,dc,p: 17% 49% 14% 19%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 19% 25% 37%  3%  3%  5%  3%  2%  4%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 29% 30% 17%  3%  4%  8%  3%  2%  3%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] i8c dc,h,v,p: 67% 20% 12%  0%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] Weighted P-Frames: Y:1.9% UV:0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] ref P L0: 61.8% 10.4% 18.3%  9.4%  0.2%
[libx264 @ 0x5ae4c00] kb/s:6303.40
[aac @ 0x68c9880] Qavg: 119.986


  


  The resulting video had an h264 codec. In my opinion, the problem is in opencv. Basically this is what I do in my python code :

  


  cap = cv2.VideoCapture(video)
shoot_frames = []
while True:
    ret, img = cap.read()
    if not ret:
       break
    if some_condition:
       shoot_frames.append(img)
    if len(shoot_frames) > 41:
       out1 = cv2.VideoWriter(upload_path(name , dir), cv2.VideoWriter_fourcc(*'avc1'), int(fps), (int(width), int(height)), True)
       for shoot_frame in shoot_frames:
           out1.write(shoot_frame)
       out1.release()
       shoot_frames = []


  


  Output from print(cv2.getBuildInformation()) :

  


  General configuration for OpenCV 4.8.1 =====================================
  Version control:               4.8.1-dirty

  Platform:
    Timestamp:                   2023-09-27T14:20:56Z
    Host:                        Linux 5.15.0-1046-azure x86_64
    CMake:                       3.27.5
    CMake generator:             Unix Makefiles
    CMake build tool:            /bin/gmake
    Configuration:               Release

  CPU/HW features:
    Baseline:                    SSE SSE2 SSE3
      requested:                 SSE3
    Dispatched code generation:  SSE4_1 SSE4_2 FP16 AVX AVX2 AVX512_SKX
      requested:                 SSE4_1 SSE4_2 AVX FP16 AVX2 AVX512_SKX
      SSE4_1 (16 files):         + SSSE3 SSE4_1
      SSE4_2 (1 files):          + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2
      FP16 (0 files):            + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2 FP16 AVX
      AVX (7 files):             + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2 AVX
      AVX2 (35 files):           + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2 FP16 FMA3 AVX AVX2
      AVX512_SKX (5 files):      + SSSE3 SSE4_1 POPCNT SSE4_2 FP16 FMA3 AVX AVX2 AVX_512F AVX512_COMMON AVX512_SKX

  C/C++:
    Built as dynamic libs?:      NO
    C++ standard:                11
    C++ Compiler:                /opt/rh/devtoolset-10/root/usr/bin/c++  (ver 10.2.1)
    C++ flags (Release):         -Wl,-strip-all   -fsigned-char -W -Wall -Wreturn-type -Wnon-virtual-dtor -Waddress -Wsequence-point -Wformat -Wformat-security -Wmissing-declarations -Wundef -Winit-self -Wpointer-arith -Wshadow -Wsign-promo -Wuninitialized -Wsuggest-override -Wno-delete-non-virtual-dtor -Wno-comment -Wimplicit-fallthrough=3 -Wno-strict-overflow -fdiagnostics-show-option -Wno-long-long -pthread -fomit-frame-pointer -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections  -msse -msse2 -msse3 -fvisibility=hidden -fvisibility-inlines-hidden -O3 -DNDEBUG  -DNDEBUG
    C++ flags (Debug):           -Wl,-strip-all   -fsigned-char -W -Wall -Wreturn-type -Wnon-virtual-dtor -Waddress -Wsequence-point -Wformat -Wformat-security -Wmissing-declarations -Wundef -Winit-self -Wpointer-arith -Wshadow -Wsign-promo -Wuninitialized -Wsuggest-override -Wno-delete-non-virtual-dtor -Wno-comment -Wimplicit-fallthrough=3 -Wno-strict-overflow -fdiagnostics-show-option -Wno-long-long -pthread -fomit-frame-pointer -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections  -msse -msse2 -msse3 -fvisibility=hidden -fvisibility-inlines-hidden -g  -O0 -DDEBUG -D_DEBUG
    C Compiler:                  /opt/rh/devtoolset-10/root/usr/bin/cc
    C flags (Release):           -Wl,-strip-all   -fsigned-char -W -Wall -Wreturn-type -Waddress -Wsequence-point -Wformat -Wformat-security -Wmissing-declarations -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -Wundef -Winit-self -Wpointer-arith -Wshadow -Wuninitialized -Wno-comment -Wimplicit-fallthrough=3 -Wno-strict-overflow -fdiagnostics-show-option -Wno-long-long -pthread -fomit-frame-pointer -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections  -msse -msse2 -msse3 -fvisibility=hidden -O3 -DNDEBUG  -DNDEBUG
    C flags (Debug):             -Wl,-strip-all   -fsigned-char -W -Wall -Wreturn-type -Waddress -Wsequence-point -Wformat -Wformat-security -Wmissing-declarations -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -Wundef -Winit-self -Wpointer-arith -Wshadow -Wuninitialized -Wno-comment -Wimplicit-fallthrough=3 -Wno-strict-overflow -fdiagnostics-show-option -Wno-long-long -pthread -fomit-frame-pointer -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections  -msse -msse2 -msse3 -fvisibility=hidden -g  -O0 -DDEBUG -D_DEBUG
    Linker flags (Release):      -Wl,--exclude-libs,libippicv.a -Wl,--exclude-libs,libippiw.a -L/ffmpeg_build/lib  -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,--no-undefined  
    Linker flags (Debug):        -Wl,--exclude-libs,libippicv.a -Wl,--exclude-libs,libippiw.a -L/ffmpeg_build/lib  -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,--no-undefined  
    ccache:                      YES
    Precompiled headers:         NO
    Extra dependencies:          /lib64/libopenblas.so Qt5::Core Qt5::Gui Qt5::Widgets Qt5::Test Qt5::Concurrent /usr/local/lib/libpng.so /lib64/libz.so dl m pthread rt
    3rdparty dependencies:       libprotobuf ade ittnotify libjpeg-turbo libwebp libtiff libopenjp2 IlmImf quirc ippiw ippicv

  OpenCV modules:
    To be built:                 calib3d core dnn features2d flann gapi highgui imgcodecs imgproc ml objdetect photo python3 stitching video videoio
    Disabled:                    world
    Disabled by dependency:      -
    Unavailable:                 java python2 ts
    Applications:                -
    Documentation:               NO
    Non-free algorithms:         NO

  GUI:                           QT5
    QT:                          YES (ver 5.15.0 )
      QT OpenGL support:         NO
    GTK+:                        NO
    VTK support:                 NO

  Media I/O: 
    ZLib:                        /lib64/libz.so (ver 1.2.7)
    JPEG:                        libjpeg-turbo (ver 2.1.3-62)
    WEBP:                        build (ver encoder: 0x020f)
    PNG:                         /usr/local/lib/libpng.so (ver 1.6.40)
    TIFF:                        build (ver 42 - 4.2.0)
    JPEG 2000:                   build (ver 2.5.0)
    OpenEXR:                     build (ver 2.3.0)
    HDR:                         YES
    SUNRASTER:                   YES
    PXM:                         YES
    PFM:                         YES

  Video I/O:
    DC1394:                      NO
    FFMPEG:                      YES
      avcodec:                   YES (59.37.100)
      avformat:                  YES (59.27.100)
      avutil:                    YES (57.28.100)
      swscale:                   YES (6.7.100)
      avresample:                NO
    GStreamer:                   NO
    v4l/v4l2:                    YES (linux/videodev2.h)

  Parallel framework:            pthreads

  Trace:                         YES (with Intel ITT)

  Other third-party libraries:
    Intel IPP:                   2021.8 [2021.8.0]
           at:                   /io/_skbuild/linux-x86_64-3.7/cmake-build/3rdparty/ippicv/ippicv_lnx/icv
    Intel IPP IW:                sources (2021.8.0)
              at:                /io/_skbuild/linux-x86_64-3.7/cmake-build/3rdparty/ippicv/ippicv_lnx/iw
    VA:                          NO
    Lapack:                      YES (/lib64/libopenblas.so)
    Eigen:                       NO
    Custom HAL:                  NO
    Protobuf:                    build (3.19.1)
    Flatbuffers:                 builtin/3rdparty (23.5.9)

  OpenCL:                        YES (no extra features)
    Include path:                /io/opencv/3rdparty/include/opencl/1.2
    Link libraries:              Dynamic load

  Python 3:
    Interpreter:                 /opt/python/cp37-cp37m/bin/python3.7 (ver 3.7.17)
    Libraries:                   libpython3.7m.a (ver 3.7.17)
    numpy:                       /home/ci/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include (ver 1.17.0)
    install path:                python/cv2/python-3

  Python (for build):            /opt/python/cp37-cp37m/bin/python3.7

  Java:                          
    ant:                         NO
    Java:                        NO
    JNI:                         NO
    Java wrappers:               NO
    Java tests:                  NO

  Install to:                    /io/_skbuild/linux-x86_64-3.7/cmake-install
-----------------------------------------------------------------




  


  Update

  


  I made my docker image more simpler, and therefore my question. Install ffmpeg from the repository :

  


  FROM python:3.10.12-slim-buster

RUN apt-get update

# Set the working directory in the container
WORKDIR /app

# Install ffmpeg for opencv
RUN apt-get install -y ffmpeg

# Copy the application code into the container
COPY . .

# Build opencv from source, to be able to use h264 codec.
RUN apt-get install -y cmake \
    gcc \
    g++ \
    python3-numpy \
    libavcodec-dev \
    libavformat-dev \
    libswscale-dev \
    libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
    libgstreamer1.0-dev \
    libpng-dev \
    libjpeg-dev \
    libopenexr-dev \
    libtiff-dev \
    libwebp-dev \
    git

RUN git clone --depth 1 --branch 4.8.0 https://github.com/opencv/opencv.git && \
    git clone --depth 1 --branch 4.8.0 https://github.com/opencv/opencv_contrib.git && \
    cd opencv && \
    mkdir build && \
    cd build && \
    cmake -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -D OPENCV_EXTRA_MODULES_PATH=/app/opencv_contrib/modules -D OPENCV_ENABLE_NONFREE=ON ../ && \
    make -j"$(nproc)" && \
    make install

# Remove opencv github project
RUN rm -r opencv

# Remove opencv_contrib github project
RUN rm -r opencv_contrib

# Prevents Python from writing pyc files to disc
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1

# Prevents Python from buffering stdout and stderr
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1

# Install python dependencies
RUN pip install --upgrade pip
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

# Install netcat to know when rabbitmq is running
RUN apt-get install -y netcat

# Set execute permissions
RUN chmod +x entrypoint.sh
RUN chmod +x web_start.sh

ENTRYPOINT ["./entrypoint.sh"]


  


  Run the following commands inside the docker container :

  


  $ ffmpeg -version

ffmpeg version 4.1.11-0+deb10u1 Copyright (c) 2000-2023 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 8 (Debian 8.3.0-6)
configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0+deb10u1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --arch=amd64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --disable-filter=resample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libjack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librsvg --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
libavutil      56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100
libavcodec     58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100
libavformat    58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100
libavdevice    58.  5.100 / 58.  5.100
libavfilter     7. 40.101 /  7. 40.101
libavresample   4.  0.  0 /  4.  0.  0
libswscale      5.  3.100 /  5.  3.100
libswresample   3.  3.100 /  3.  3.100
libpostproc    55.  3.100 / 55.  3.100


  


  $ ffmpeg -i cf91f302-c357-49ba-b59c-bcfb8b7f4866 -vcodec libx264 -f mp4 output.mp4

ffmpeg version 4.1.11-0+deb10u1 Copyright (c) 2000-2023 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 8 (Debian 8.3.0-6)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0+deb10u1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --arch=amd64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --disable-filter=resample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libjack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librsvg --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
  libavutil      56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100
  libavcodec     58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100
  libavformat    58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100
  libavdevice    58.  5.100 / 58.  5.100
  libavfilter     7. 40.101 /  7. 40.101
  libavresample   4.  0.  0 /  4.  0.  0
  libswscale      5.  3.100 /  5.  3.100
  libswresample   3.  3.100 /  3.  3.100
  libpostproc    55.  3.100 / 55.  3.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'cf91f302-c357-49ba-b59c-bcfb8b7f4866':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: qt  
    creation_time   : 2023-10-31T10:38:42.000000Z
    com.apple.quicktime.make: Apple
    com.apple.quicktime.model: iPhone 13 Pro Max
    com.apple.quicktime.software: 16.6
    com.apple.quicktime.creationdate: 2023-10-31T06:38:42-0400
  Duration: 00:00:04.23, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 15915 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 1920x1080, 15767 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 600 tbn, 1200 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      rotate          : 90
      creation_time   : 2023-10-31T10:38:42.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Video
      encoder         : H.264
    Side data:
      displaymatrix: rotation of -90.00 degrees
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 89 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-31T10:38:42.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio
    Stream #0:2(und): Data: none (mebx / 0x7862656D), 0 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-31T10:38:42.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Metadata
    Stream #0:3(und): Data: none (mebx / 0x7862656D), 0 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-31T10:38:42.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Metadata
    Stream #0:4(und): Data: none (mebx / 0x7862656D), 34 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-31T10:38:42.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Metadata
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac (native) -> aac (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 BMI2 AVX2
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] profile High, level 4.0
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] 264 - core 155 r2917 0a84d98 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2018 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=6 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to 'output.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: qt  
    com.apple.quicktime.creationdate: 2023-10-31T06:38:42-0400
    com.apple.quicktime.make: Apple
    com.apple.quicktime.model: iPhone 13 Pro Max
    com.apple.quicktime.software: 16.6
    encoder         : Lavf58.20.100
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (libx264) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1080x1920, q=-1--1, 30 fps, 15360 tbn, 30 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc58.35.100 libx264
      creation_time   : 2023-10-31T10:38:42.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Video
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
      displaymatrix: rotation of -0.00 degrees
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 69 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2023-10-31T10:38:42.000000Z
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio
      encoder         : Lavc58.35.100 aac
frame=  127 fps= 27 q=-1.0 Lsize=    2005kB time=00:00:04.24 bitrate=3866.2kbits/s speed=0.909x    
video:1964kB audio:36kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.282549%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] frame I:1     Avg QP:21.43  size: 36791
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] frame P:59    Avg QP:23.61  size: 22380
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] frame B:67    Avg QP:24.20  size:  9743
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] consecutive B-frames: 20.5% 22.0% 16.5% 40.9%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] mb I  I16..4: 29.4% 58.6% 11.9%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] mb P  I16..4: 15.0% 21.8%  1.3%  P16..4: 26.1%  7.5%  3.1%  0.0%  0.0%    skip:25.2%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] mb B  I16..4:  1.9%  1.7%  0.1%  B16..8: 36.3%  3.6%  0.5%  direct: 3.9%  skip:52.1%  L0:42.9% L1:52.1% BI: 5.0%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] 8x8 transform intra:56.2% inter:86.6%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 19.5% 27.3% 2.1% inter: 11.7% 18.9% 0.1%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] i16 v,h,dc,p: 25% 54%  8% 12%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 22% 25% 44%  1%  2%  2%  2%  1%  1%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 16% 45% 13%  2%  7%  6%  6%  3%  3%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] i8c dc,h,v,p: 62% 27% 10%  1%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] Weighted P-Frames: Y:3.4% UV:0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] ref P L0: 65.2% 18.0% 12.2%  4.6%  0.1%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] ref B L0: 89.1%  9.3%  1.6%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] ref B L1: 97.2%  2.8%
[libx264 @ 0x55db965ee980] kb/s:3798.37
[aac @ 0x55db965edf00] Qavg: 125.454


  


  The errors persist.

  


  >>> import cv2
>>> out = cv2.VideoWriter("./out.mp4", cv2.VideoWriter_fourcc(*'avc1'), 30, (800, 600), True)
[ERROR:0@91.872] global cap_ffmpeg_impl.hpp:3018 open Could not find encoder for codec_id=27, error: Encoder not found
[ERROR:0@91.872] global cap_ffmpeg_impl.hpp:3093 open VIDEOIO/FFMPEG: Failed to initialize VideoWriter


  


  Could someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong ?

  


• My SBC Collection

  31 décembre 2023, par Multimedia Mike — General

  Like many computer nerds in the last decade, I have accumulated more than a few single-board computers, or “SBCs”, which are small computers based around a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that nearly always features an ARM CPU at its core. Surprisingly few of these units are Raspberry Pi units, though that brand has come to exemplify and dominate the product category.

  Also, as is the case for many computer nerds, most of these SBCs lay fallow for years at a time. Equipped with an inexpensive lightbox that I procured in the last year, I decided I could at least create glamour shots of various units and catalog them in a blog post.

  While Raspberry Pi still enjoys the most mindshare far and away, and while I do have a few Raspberry Pi units in my inventory, I have always been a bigger fan of the ODROID brand, which works with convenient importers around the world (in the USA, I can vouch for Ameridroid, to whom I’ve forked over a fair amount of cash for these computing toys).

  As mentioned, Raspberry Pi undisputedly has the most mindshare of all these SBC brands and I often wonder why… and then I immediately remind myself that it has the biggest ecosystem, and has a variety of turnkey projects and applications (such as Pi-hole and PiVPN) that promise a lower barrier to entry — as well as a slightly lower price point — than some of these other options. ODROID had a decent ecosystem for awhile, especially considering the monthly ODROID Magazine, though that ceased publication in July 2020. The Raspberry Pi and its variants were famously difficult to come by due to the global chip shortage from 2021-2023. Meanwhile, I had no trouble procuring these boards during the same timeframe.

  So let’s delve into the collection…
  

  Cubieboard
  The Raspberry Pi came out in 2012 and by 2013 I was somewhat coveting one to hack on. Finally ! An accessible ARM platform to play with. I had heard of the BeagleBoard for years but never tried to get my hands on one. I was thinking about taking the plunge on a new Raspberry Pi, but a colleague told me I should skip that and go with this new hotness called the Cubieboard, based on an Allwinner SoC. The big value-add that this board had vs. a Raspberry Pi was that it had a SATA adapter. Although now that it has been a decade, it only now occurs to me to quander whether it was true SATA or a USB-to-SATA bridge. Looking it up now, I’m led to believe that the SoC supported the functionality natively.

  Anyway, I did get it up and running but never did much with it, thus setting the tone for future SBC endeavors. No photos because I gave it to another tech enthusiast years ago, whose SBC collection dwarfs my own.

  ODROID-XU4
  I can’t recall exactly when or how I first encountered the ODROID brand. I probably read about it on some enthusiast page or another circa 2014 and decided to try one out. I eventually acquired a total of 3 of these ODROID-XU4 units, each with a different case, 1 with a fan and 2 passively-cooled :

  

  Collection of ODROID-XU4 SBCs

  This is based on the Samsung Exynos 5422 SoC, the same series as was used in their Note 3 phone released in 2013. It has been a fun chip to play with. The XU4 was also my first introduction to the eMMC storage solution that is commonly supported on the ODROID SBCs (alongside micro-SD). eMMC offers many benefits over SD in terms of read/write speed as well as well as longevity/write cycles. That’s getting less relevant these days, however, as more and more SBCs are being released with direct NVMe SSD support.

  I had initially wanted to make a retro-gaming device built on this platform (see the handheld section later for more meditations on that). In support of this common hobbyist goal, there is this nifty case XU4 case which apes the aesthetic of the Nintendo N64 :

  

  ODROID-XU4 N64-style case

  It even has a cool programmable LCD screen. Maybe one day I’ll find a use for it.

  For awhile, one of these XU4 units (likely the noisy, fan-cooled one) was contributing results to the FFmpeg FATE system.

  While it features gigabit ethernet and a USB3 port, I once tried to see if I could get 2 Gbps throughput with the unit using a USB3-gigabit dongle. I had curious results in that the total amount of traffic throughput could never exceed 1 Gbps across both interfaces. I.e., if 1 interface was dealing with 1 Gbps and the other interface tried to run at 1 Gbps, they would both only run at 500 Mbps. That remains a mystery to me since I don’t see that limitation with Intel chips.

  Still, the XU4 has been useful for a variety of projects and prototyping over the years.

  ODROID-HC2 NAS
  I find that a lot of my fellow nerds massively overengineer their homelab NAS setups. I’ll explore this in a future post. For my part, people tend to find my homelab NAS solution slightly underengineered. This is the ODROID-HC2 (the “HC” stands for “Home Cloud”) :

  

  ODROID-HC2 NAS

  It has the same guts as the ODROID-XU4 except no video output and the USB3 function is leveraged for a SATA bridge. This allows you to plug a SATA hard drive directly into the unit :

  

  ODROID-HC2 NAS uncovered

  Believe it or not, this has been my home NAS solution for something like 6 or 7 years now– I don’t clearly remember when I purchased it and put it into service.

  But isn’t this sort of irresponsible ? What about a failure of the main drive ? That’s why I have an external drive connected for backing up the most important data via rsync :

  

  ODROID-HC2 NAS backup enclosure

  The power consumption can’t be beat– Profiling for a few weeks of average usage worked out to 4.5 kWh for the ODROID-HC2… per month.

  ODROID-C2
  I was on a kick of ordering more SBCs at one point. This is the ODROID-C2, equipped with a 64-bit Amlogic SoC :

  

  ODROID-C2

  I had this on the FATE farm for awhile, performing 64-bit ARM builds (vs. the XU4’s 32-bit builds). As memory serves, it was unreliable and would occasionally freeze up.

  Here is a view of the eMMC storage through the bottom of the translucent case :

  

  Bottom of ODROID-C2 with view of eMMC storage

  ODROID-N2+
  Out of all my ODROID SBCs, this is the unit that I long to “get back to” the most– the ODROID-N2+ :

  

  ODROID-N2+

  Very capable unit that makes a great little desktop. I have some projects I want to develop using it so that it will force me to have a focused development environment.

  Raspberry Pi
  Eventually, I did break down and get a Raspberry Pi. I had a specific purpose in mind and, much to my surprise, I have stuck to it :

  

  Original Raspberry Pi

  I was using one of the ODROID-XU4 units as a VPN gateway. Eventually, I wanted to convert the XU4 to something else and I decided to run the VPN gateway as an appliance on the simplest device I could. So I procured this complete hand-me-down unit from eBay and went to work. This was also the first time I discovered the DietPi distribution and this box has been in service running Wireguard via PiVPN for many years.

  I also have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ kicking around somewhere. I used it as a Steam Link device for awhile.

  SOPINE + Baseboard
  Also procured when I was on this “let’s buy random SBCs” kick. The Pine64 SOPINE is actually a compute module that comes in the form factor of a memory module.

  

  Pine64 SOPINE Compute Module

  Back to using Allwinner SoCs. In order to make this thing useful, you need to place it in something. It’s possible to get a mini-ITX form factor board that can accommodate 7 of these modules. Before going to that extreme, there is this much simpler baseboard which can also use eMMC for storage.

  

  Baseboard with SOPINE, eMMC, and heat sinks

  I really need to find an appropriate case for this one as it currently performs its duty while sitting on an anti-static bag.

  NanoPi NEO3
  I enjoy running the DietPi distribution on many of these SBCs (as it’s developed not just for Raspberry Pi). I have also found their website to be a useful resource for discovering new SBCs. That’s how I found the NanoPi series and zeroed in on this NEO3 unit, sporting a Rockchip SoC, and photographed here with some American currency in order to illustrate its relative size :

  

  NanoPi NEO3

  I often forget about this computer because it’s off in another room, just quietly performing its assigned duty.

  MangoPi MQ-Pro
  So far, I’ve heard of these fruits prepending the Greek letter pi for naming small computing products :

  • Raspberry – the O.G.
  • Banana – seems to be popular for hobbyist router/switches
  • Orange
  • Atomic
  • Nano
  • Mango

  Okay, so the AtomicPi and NanoPi names don’t really make sense considering the fruit convention.

  Anyway, the newest entry is the MangoPi. These showed up on Ameridroid a few months ago. There are 2 variants : the MQ-Pro and the MQ-Quad. I picked one and rolled with it.

  

  MangoPi MQ-Pro pieces arrive

  When it arrived, I unpacked it, assembled the pieces, downloaded a distro, tossed that on a micro-SD card, connected a monitor and keyboard to it via its USB-C port, got the distro up and running, configured the wireless networking with a static IP address and installed sshd, and it was ready to go as a headless server for an edge application.

  

  MangoPi MQ-Pro components, ready for assembly

  The unit came with no instructions that I can recall. After I got it set up, I remember thinking, “What is wrong with me ? Why is it that I just know how to do all of this without any documentation ?”

  

  MangoPi MQ-Pro in first test

  Only after I got it up and running and poked around a bit did I realize that this SBC doesn’t have an ARM SoC– it’s a RISC-V SoC. It uses the Allwinner D1, so it looks like I came full circle back to Allwinner.

  

  MangoPi MQ-Pro with more US coinage for scale

  So I now have my first piece of RISC-V hobbyist kit, although I learned recently from Kostya that it’s not that great for multimedia.

  Handheld Gaming Units
  The folks at Hardkernel have also produced a series of handheld retro-gaming devices called ODROID-GO. The first one resembled the original Nintendo Game Boy, came as a kit to be assembled, and emulated 5 classic consoles. It also had some hackability to it. Quite a cool little device, and inexpensive too. I have since passed it along to another gaming enthusiast.

  Later came the ODROID-GO Advance, also a kit, but emulating more devices. I was extremely eager to get my hands on this since it could emulate SNES in addition to NES. It also features a headphone jack, unlike the earlier model. True to form, after I received mine, it took me about 13 months before I got around to assembling it. After that, the biggest challenge I had was trying to find an appropriate case for it.

  

  ODROID-GO Advance with case and headphones

  Even though it may try to copy the general aesthetic and form factor of the Game Boy Advance, cases for the GBA don’t fit this correctly.

  Further, Hardkernel have also released the ODROID-GO Super and Ultra models that do more and more. The Advance, Super, and Ultra models have powerful SoCs and feature much more hackability than the first ODROID-GO model.

  I know that the guts of the Advance have been used in other products as well. The same is likely true for the Super and Ultra.

  Ultimately, the ODROID-GO Advance was just another project I assembled and then set aside since I like the idea of playing old games much more than actually doing it. Plus, the fact has finally crystalized in my mind over the past few years that I have never enjoyed handheld gaming and likely will never enjoy handheld gaming, even after I started wearing glasses. Not that I’m averse to old Game Boy / Color / Advance games, but if I’m going to play them, I’d rather emulate them on a large display.

  The Future
  In some of my weaker moments, I consider ordering up certain Banana Pi products (like the Banana Pi BPI-R2) with a case and doing my own router tricks using some open source router/firewall solution. And then I remind myself that my existing prosumer-type home router is doing just fine. But maybe one day…

  The post My SBC Collection first appeared on Breaking Eggs And Making Omelettes.