I have heard many times that the SOC used in the rPi has a closed video engine with a binary only driver. I have also heard that we really don't need to care about that. But then I saw this today in an Amazon listing for an rPi... "GPU provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 (requires license purchase from " None of this means a lot to me except for the part about having to purchase a license. What? And you have to purchase it from ?? Are they only talking about the H.264? I want to say that is used for video conferencing, but I'm shooting in the dark here. On the rPi web site they list "codecs" for MPG-2 and VC-1 for a couple of bucks each. What is going on? What happened to open source software? Are these codecs sold because there is a license fee with the format? I understand that JPG is also a licensed format, but it seems to be widely supported by any number of programs, both open source and commercial. -- Rick

It's incorrect, the H.264 license is included in the price of the pi already. It's only the MPEG2 and VC1 codecs that require buying a separate licence. Software patents are what happened... You can install software libraries to decode these formats and get away with it but if you want to use the hardware decoder you have to go by the book (or find a way to crack the hardware, but for the time and electricity you'd spend you may as well just cough up the license fee)

1. It's a 64 bit CPU - so can handle large amounts of memory, I/O, etc 2. It runs unmodified FreeBSD (ie full Unix OS but without GPL requirements) 3. It implements the 64-bit MIPS R4000 instruction set - uses existing compiler/package infrastructure 4. It's in Bluespec rather than Verilog - makes it easier to work on and modify (if you have a Bluespec licence) 5. There's a big test suite (easier to modify without fear of breaking things) We're at the opposite end of the scale - more Pentium than 4004... Theo

Can Someone Explain the Video Drivers to Me?

Nov 14, 2013 21 Replies

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G. Morgan 12 years ago

But it is available.

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They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin

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Theo Markettos 12 years ago

It's a 64 bit CPU - so can handle large amounts of memory, I/O, etc
It runs unmodified FreeBSD (ie full Unix OS but without GPL requirements)
It implements the 64-bit MIPS R4000 instruction set - uses existing compiler/package infrastructure
It's in Bluespec rather than Verilog - makes it easier to work on and modify (if you have a Bluespec licence)
There's a big test suite (easier to modify without fear of breaking things)

We're at the opposite end of the scale - more Pentium than 4004...

Theo

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