What to expect from Duo V2 operating system ?

The Duo v2 is an ARM ReadyNAS. The ARM platform uses Debian Squeeze. It can run a fair bit, but still not as much as the Intel (x86) platform.

Plex Media Server can only be installed on x86 (Intel) ReadyNAS units. PMS for Linux is only available for devices with Intel CPUs. Unless the Plex team decide to make an ARM version there won't be an add-on for ARM. Considering the system requirements for x86 (http://www.plexapp.com/linux/linux-pms-download.php) even if an ARM version is made the ARM ReadyNAS units may not be powerful enough to run it.

Consider a ReadyNAS Ultra or a ReadyNAS Pro. These use Debian etch though it's mainly Debian Lenny or Debian Squeeze packages backported to etch.

There are some conflicts at the moment but once these are resolved (no ETA and could be quite a while) one would expect the Ultra and Pro to move to using Debian Lenny or Debian Squeeze.

See http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=332047#p332047

chirpa wrote:
No ETA yet. We've looked into Lenny/Squeeze updates, but held off a bit still due to some conflicts.

Setting aside the Plex case, do you think we would end up to have an AirPrint add-on ?
Would I be able to compile a decently "fresh" revision on vlc (obviously cli) to handle mp4 stream recording ?
I must say the x86 product line is a bit on the expensive side for my wallet.

jj69 wrote:
Setting aside the Plex case, do you think we would end up to have an AirPrint add-on ?

I already have the AirPrint functionality ready for x86 and I don't think it would be too hard to port that over to the ARM boxes.

jj69 wrote:
Would I be able to compile a decently "fresh" revision on vlc (obviously cli) to handle mp4 stream recording ?

While you may be able to compile VLC for ARM I doubt you'll be happy with the performance. I also doubt it would be able to handle mp4 in real time. Together with the Plex team I tried and built a version of FFmpeg (which in most cases is what VLC will use to encode/decode). Transcoding a 2hour 1080p movie on ARM took roughly 23hours so no chance for live transcoding there. Didn't test pure streaming of content that doesn't need to be transcoded, though. Either way, there may be a solution to that but I don't know the current status of that so I won't go into any details right now.

From the technical side the major problem here is that the ARM architecture is lacking any enhanced support for math routines. So no SSE, MMX, 3DNOW and that's what really puts the breaks on any encoding/decoding you try to do on that platform.

-Stefan

Ok, things are a little clearer now.
Regarding vlc, I succeded in using a very old revision (0.8.3 I think) on my Duo, to read a mpeg2 ts stream (from my Freebox) and simply write it "as-is" in realtime on the Duo hd without any processing.
What I would like to achive is the same thing with mp4 ts stream (not handled by older vlc) from the same box or HDHomeRun or same of the kind (simple PVR functions actually). I actually need a RTSP stream dumper.
Just one more question for Stefan about AirPrint :
Does your solution implies we need the "target printer" filter for cups on the NAS ?
This could present a problem with some brand that do not provide filters for any other architecture than x86 (this is the case for my Samsung CLX 3185fn).

jj69 wrote:
What I would like to achive is the same thing with mp4 ts stream (not handled by older vlc) from the same box or HDHomeRun or same of the kind (simple PVR functions actually). I actually need a RTSP stream dumper.

If you send me a stream to test with and the VLC command line syntax you intend to use I can give it a try.

jj69 wrote:
Does your solution implies we need the "target printer" filter for cups on the NAS ? This could present a problem with some brand that do not provide filters for any other architecture than x86 (this is the case for my Samsung CLX 3185fn).

Since the i-Devices at least to my knowledge don't come with own printer drivers I fear that using target drivers would be the way to go. However, what I did was to enhance CUPS on the ReadyNAS so that it not only supports USB printers but also networked printers and possibly even printers attached to a Windows host. So there's a small chance you could send just raw data to a printer that is managed by the ReadyNAS but in reality is attached to a Windows box. In that case the actual rendering could be handled by the Windows machine, eliminating the need for a dedicated target driver. But I haven't tested this ;) Next time, just buy a Brother printer, as far as I know they come with full source code for their drivers. Or HP (I also ported HPLIP to the x86 ReadyNAS so I should be able to do the same for ARM).

-Stefan

WhoCares? wrote:
If you send me a stream to test with and the VLC command line syntax you intend to use I can give it a try.

Thanks for proposing, but I wont bother you with that : I'm reaching the conclusing that Duo V2 is a no-go for what I need.

WhoCares? wrote:

Since the i-Devices at least to my knowledge don't come with own printer drivers I fear that using target drivers would be the way to go. However, what I did was to enhance CUPS on the ReadyNAS so that it not only supports USB printers but also networked printers and possibly even printers attached to a Windows host. So there's a small chance you could send just raw data to a printer that is managed by the ReadyNAS but in reality is attached to a Windows box. In that case the actual rendering could be handled by the Windows machine, eliminating the need for a dedicated target driver. But I haven't tested this ;) Next time, just buy a Brother printer, as far as I know they come with full source code for their drivers. Or HP (I also ported HPLIP to the x86 ReadyNAS so I should be able to do the same for ARM).

There actually exist a Samsung driver for iOS but its embeded in an App : Apple doesn't allow third party printer driver installation, so I'm limited to printing mails and pictures (that is not interesting at all).
Since my printer is a network printer, the whole purpose of AirPrint on the NAS is to be able to print without the computer switched-on. The rendering must occure either on the iPad or on the NAS (since the printer will not render PDF directly).

Anyway, I'd like to thank you two very much for yours answers. I will postpone the change of the NAS, hoping for a cheaper x86 model and also for an updated debian distro.

Thanx again guys.