
Ash HN: Tips to Convert an Old Setupbox and DVR with Broadcom BCM7453 MIPS Chip - webmobdev
I would like to convert a 10 year old satellite setupbox + DVR into a media player as it has a 160 GB HDD with a USB and Ethernet port. Has anyone did this sort of thing? Perhaps by installing Debian for MIPS? The Broadcom BCM7453 is a 300 Mhz MIPS system-on-chip with support for MPEG-4 and dolby digital decoding. Linux kernel for this seems to be available: Set-top box Linux (BCM7xxx) - kernel.org baseline  - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Broadcom&#x2F;stblinux-3.8&#x2F;tree&#x2F;master&#x2F;linux
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Nextgrid
Is this for learning? Because otherwise it's really not worth the time and
effort when a Raspberry Pi is much more powerful and can do HD decoding.

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webmobdev
Both for learning and to reuse a viable electronic device that would otherwise
just end up as waste! The CPU in this device also support hardware decoding
for many codecs, including H.264 and dolby digital, and it already comes with
a lot of output ports to connect it to a TV, making it an ideal candidate as a
media center if the right software can be installed on it.

