CSI-2 / Toshiba TC358743XBG

[kian]

Hi,

there is this little Toshiba Chip which has been shown to work with the Raspberry Pi on the Embedded World 2014 http://blog.pi3g.com/2014/03/embedded-w ... bc-market/. The German Company Auvidea has now developt a compact HDMI to CSI-2 Bridge http://www.auvidea.com/index.php/theme- ... i-2-bridge and i would love to see support from the Raspberry Foundation .

It would be perfekt to Encode the HDMI Input in the GPU like raspivid works, and then Stream to any RTMP Server like Youtube or USTREAM.

With this little Device People could build there own little TV Station with daisy chained Pi's. Image and Text Overlays would also be possible!

Sorry for my bad english

br, andreas

[6by9]

A couple of things:

• The CSI-2 receiver is still currently controlled by the GPU, hence drivers etc need to be done by the Foundation. Without that then that company aren't actually going to get any data into the Pi despite having designed it with the Pi pinouts.
• Models A, B, B+, and B2 all only expose 2 lanes of CSI-2. 1080P60 as YUV422 will exceed that (just). Compute Module does bring out all 4 lanes. 1080P30 is certainly achievable on 2 lanes, but that is still lots of data.
• The format the data will be received in from that chip is not one the encoder can natively consume. It may be possible to use the ISP hardware for a more efficient conversion, but that again requires GPU firmware changes.
• I don't see description of the I2C commands to actually control that chip. There appear to be comments on the Freescale community boards about drivers for Boundary Devices HDMI to MIPI interface (http://boundarydevices.com/product/bd_hdmi_mipi/), so it may be possible to make use of that. (Having had a quick look, they seem to want 4 lanes for anything above 720P30)

At EU165 for the AUvidea board, or $295 for the Boundary Devices one, both are a bit rich for me for experimentation.

I know the Foundation did do that demo at an exhibition, but I don't believe they decided to pursue it as a product. Then again if the demo board is kicking around Pi Towers, I might be persuaded to see if I can borrow it and try to make it more usable.

[jamesh]

The HDMI->CSI board works fine. It's just never been put on the market - I suspect there is too little demand. It cannot handle encrypted HDMI, or the higher frame rates as 6x9 has stated.

[ShiftPlusOne]

Yeah, pretty sure it's the same chip as on the board we have, so it should just work.

[gsh]

Yes although selling a $5 chip for €165 sounds a bit of a markup!

[jamesh]

Yes although selling a $5 chip for €165 sounds a bit of a markup!

Is that where a 'bit' == $160?

That would be hexadecidecimal?

[mknweb]

I've been researching this topic for about 8 months now, looks like this thread is the "latest" in regards to it. I'm dieing to build a wireless HDMI product that's priced correctly, I've got software written to handle the content (rtmp / channel servers / etc)... only thing holding me back is funneling this HDMI data through.

So with the latest Toshiba chip, do we just not have any drivers written or can this work out of the box today? I'm assuming the connections are what are fine, it's just a matter of interpreting the incoming bit data?

[ShiftPlusOne]

It works the same way as the camera does.

[ghans]

But the camera tuning degrades a "perfect" HDMI signal
considerably , doesn't it ?

That was quoted as the main reason why the Auvidea
Kickstarter campaign for an "HDMI in" board had to be
aborted , IIRC.


ghans

[ShiftPlusOne]

When I used it, I saw a little bit of blur, but I think it's just related to scaling and/or encoding.

I'm not familiar with the exact issues regarding Auvidea. Presumably, they didn't have a way to do what they wanted without a driver in the firmware.

[mknweb]

But the camera tuning degrades a "perfect" HDMI signal
considerably , doesn't it ?

That was quoted as the main reason why the Auvidea
Kickstarter campaign for an "HDMI in" board had to be
aborted , IIRC.


ghans

I can't recall, but I do know they (Jurgen) developed the B100 and B101 (specifically for RPI), which still utilizes CSI-2 base. I know he mentioned the B100 fits, but "doesn't work yet".

B101 w/ 15pin @ http://www.auvidea.com/index.php/theme- ... 32-06/b101

[mknweb]

When I used it, I saw a little bit of blur, but I think it's just related to scaling and/or encoding.

I'm not familiar with the exact issues regarding Auvidea. Presumably, they didn't have a way to do what they wanted without a driver in the firmware.

What we're* you using that has the Toshiba chip?

[ShiftPlusOne]

It was the board in the OP's post.
http://blog.pi3g.com/wp-content/uploads ... -chips.jpg (just left of the pi).

[mknweb]

It was the board in the OP's post.
http://blog.pi3g.com/wp-content/uploads ... -chips.jpg (just left of the pi).

Ahhh okay, makes sense. So I'm assuming that's the board that the Foundation built and just never pushed through... agh, I'd love to get my hands on one.

[ShiftPlusOne]

Yeah, I'd certainly buy one if it was an official product.

[jamesh]

I've got one, works pretty well, i.e. Raspistill showed the incoming HDMI stream as a preview. Not sure why it's never been launched, presumably not enough demand to support the Foundations effort.

I wonder if a Kickstarter might be the way to go.

[mknweb]

I'm willing to offer my time to help in anyway to have this capability.. just putting it on the table. I have a plethora of applications that require this, my single issue is my lack of hardware design.

[ghans]

Does this board need a special firmware build ?

ghans

[ShiftPlusOne]

Does this board need a special firmware build ?

ghans

Not currently, no.