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• 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.

• Ffmpeg input seeking - "Invalid NAL unit size"

  30 janvier 2024, par Dimitris

  I'm trying to use ffmpeg to get a 10-second clip from the middle of a video. The execution time of the command is important, that's why I've decided to use combined input & output seeking (as illustrated here).
The input video file is a CMAF with fragmented MP4, duration of 10 minutes.

  


  I'm testing on a Mac, Ffmpeg version is 6.1.1.

  


  This is the command that I'm using :

  


  ffmpeg -nostdin -y -ss 290 -copyts -start_at_zero -i https://devcdn.flowplayer.com/5f07362e-c358-41d0-857a-c64302a3fcc9/cmaf/17bdb16d-71d1-414c-a291-a028bd45b9ec/playlist_360.m3u8 -ss 300.0 -t 10 -vcodec libwebp -lossless 0 -quality 60 -compression_level 2 -loop 0 -an -sn output.webp


  


  Result : no output file is created.

  


  From what I understand it fails to seek position "290" in the video, probably due to "Invalid NAL unit size" errors.

  


  Here's the output :

  


  ffmpeg version N-106797-g580fb6a8c9-tessus Copyright (c) 2000-2022 the FFmpeg developersbuilt with Apple clang version 11.0.0 (clang-1100.0.33.17)configuration: --cc=/usr/bin/clang --prefix=/opt/ffmpeg --extra-version=tessus --enable-avisynth --enable-fontconfig --enable-gpl --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libdav1d --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvmaf --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-version3 --pkg-config-flags=--static --disable-ffplaylibavutil      57. 24.101 / 57. 24.101libavcodec     59. 27.100 / 59. 27.100libavformat    59. 23.100 / 59. 23.100libavdevice    59.  6.100 / 59.  6.100libavfilter     8. 37.100 /  8. 37.100libswscale      6.  6.100 /  6.  6.100libswresample   4.  6.100 /  4.  6.100libpostproc    56.  5.100 / 56.  5.100Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'https://devcdn.flowplayer.com/5f07362e-c358-41d0-857a-c64302a3fcc9/cmaf/17bdb16d-71d1-414c-a291-a028bd45b9ec/playlist_360.cmfv':Metadata:major_brand     : isomminor_version   : 1compatible_brands: isomavc1dashcmfccreation_time   : 2024-01-30T07:41:03.000000ZDuration: 00:09:56.54, start: 0.083333, bitrate: 458 kb/sStream #0:0[0x1](und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 1 kb/s, 24 fps, 24 tbr, 90k tbn (default)Metadata:creation_time   : 2024-01-30T07:41:03.000000Zhandler_name    : ETI ISO Video Media Handlervendor_id       : [0][0][0]ffmpeg version 6.1.1-tessus  https://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/  Copyright (c) 2000-2023 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple clang version 11.0.0 (clang-1100.0.33.17)
  configuration: --cc=/usr/bin/clang --prefix=/opt/ffmpeg --extra-version=tessus --enable-avisynth --enable-fontconfig --enable-gpl --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libdav1d --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvmaf --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-version3 --pkg-config-flags=--static --disable-ffplay
  libavutil      58. 29.100 / 58. 29.100
  libavcodec     60. 31.102 / 60. 31.102
  libavformat    60. 16.100 / 60. 16.100
  libavdevice    60.  3.100 / 60.  3.100
  libavfilter     9. 12.100 /  9. 12.100
  libswscale      7.  5.100 /  7.  5.100
  libswresample   4. 12.100 /  4. 12.100
  libpostproc    57.  3.100 / 57.  3.100
[hls @ 0x7fc7bb904280] Skip ('#EXT-X-VERSION:6')
[hls @ 0x7fc7bb904280] Opening 'https://devcdn.flowplayer.com/5f07362e-c358-41d0-857a-c64302a3fcc9/cmaf/17bdb16d-71d1-414c-a291-a028bd45b9ec/playlist_360.cmfv' for reading
    Last message repeated 2 times
Input #0, hls, from '[**]/playlist_360.m3u8':
  Duration: 00:09:56.46, start: 0.083333, bitrate: 0 kb/s
  Program 0 
    Metadata:
      variant_bitrate : 0
  Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 1 kb/s, 24 fps, 24 tbr, 90k tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      variant_bitrate : 0
      compatible_brands: isomavc1dashcmfc
      handler_name    : ETI ISO Video Media Handler
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
      encoder         : Elemental H.264
      major_brand     : isom
      minor_version   : 1
      creation_time   : 2024-01-30T07:41:03.000000Z
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> webp (libwebp))
[hls @ 0x7fc7bb904280] Opening 'https://devcdn.flowplayer.com/5f07362e-c358-41d0-857a-c64302a3fcc9/cmaf/17bdb16d-71d1-414c-a291-a028bd45b9ec/playlist_360.cmfv' for reading
    Last message repeated 2 times
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (1772342253 > 1534).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 1538
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-1977545460 > 1481).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 1485
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (1694403391 > 1582).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 1586
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-1404850266 > 1661).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 1665
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (703351242 > 1680).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 1684
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-836978648 > 1751).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 1755
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (752797651 > 1867).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 1871
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-1831058223 > 1833).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 1837
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-1238958831 > 2067).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2071
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (435683248 > 2090).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2094
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (2136335178 > 2229).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2233
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-1468707300 > 2203).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2207
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (482758774 > 2402).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2406
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-1079612217 > 2417).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2421
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-608087491 > 2546).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2550
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-1457748625 > 2527).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2531
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (1933919710 > 2734).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2738
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (1004643870 > 2803).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2807
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-207765435 > 2988).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2992
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-196888537 > 2306).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2310
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (1118966683 > 2620).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2624
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (1325583054 > 2715).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2719
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-2003602869 > 2906).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2910
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (1666330272 > 3085).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 3089
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (-742329993 > 2593).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2597
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (1326266794 > 2347).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2351
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] Invalid NAL unit size (2459776 > 2155).
[NULL @ 0x7fc7bb804f40] missing picture in access unit with size 2159
[https @ 0x7fc7ba022a00] Opening 'https://devcdn.flowplayer.com/5f07362e-c358-41d0-857a-c64302a3fcc9/cmaf/17bdb16d-71d1-414c-a291-a028bd45b9ec/playlist_360.cmfv' for reading
[...]
[vost#0:0/libwebp @ 0x7fc7bbb05780] No filtered frames for output stream, trying to initialize anyway.
Output #0, webp, to 'output.webp':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf60.16.100
  Stream #0:0(und): Video: webp, yuv420p(progressive), 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 24 fps, 1k tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      variant_bitrate : 0
      compatible_brands: isomavc1dashcmfc
      handler_name    : ETI ISO Video Media Handler
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
      creation_time   : 2024-01-30T07:41:03.000000Z
      major_brand     : isom
      minor_version   : 1
      encoder         : Lavc60.31.102 libwebp
[out#0/webp @ 0x7fc7bbb04900] video:0kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: unknown
[out#0/webp @ 0x7fc7bbb04900] Output file is empty, nothing was encoded(check -ss / -t / -frames parameters if used)
frame=    0 fps=0.0 q=0.0 Lsize=       0kB time=N/A bitrate=N/A speed=N/A 


  


  What I've tried so far :

  


  


  1. Downloaded the input file to a local directory and used it as input to ffmpeg - same results.

     


  


  2. Used the mp4 file from the playlist directly as an input to ffmpeg - worked but execution time is very slow

     


  


  3. Emmited the input seeking part (-ss 290 -copyts -start_at_zero) from the command - worked but also very slow in terms of execution time

     


  


  


  Any ideas on why I'm getting "Invalid NAL unit size" and how to make the command work with input seeking ?

  


• Add myself to MAINTAINERS for dxv/dxvenc

  30 mai, par Emma Worley

  Add myself to MAINTAINERS for dxv/dxvenc
  Signed-off-by : Emma Worley <emma@emma.gg>
  
  Signed-off-by : Michael Niedermayer <michael@niedermayer.cc>
  

  • [DH] MAINTAINERS