iPod Video Video "chip"

[mattandme]

I heard that the video processing in all of the ipos is done in the main CPU, even in the ipod video. i would like to know why. i heard that they dont know how to se it, but is it at all possible to reverse engineer one of those iPod updates, those things that uppdate the software and have a look at the ipod's original firmware code? I know thats a lot, and i wouldn't be able to do it any time soon... but i was just wondering if this is at all possible.

[nick_karstedt]

They don't use it because they really don't know anything about it.  Apple doesn't like to tell people things

An no, you can't really reverse engineer the update.  If it was open source, that'd be different!

[Llorean]

In theory it could be reverse engineered. But it's a very lot of work, for a minimal gain.

It would only help people with the video iPod, and it would only really improve the video feature. So, a non-core function for only one (or two if you count the 5.5G as a separate player) of the supported targets, with a very high cost in invested time that requires some special skills.

It's just fairly unlikely to happen that way.

[saratoga]

It probably wouldn't be impossibly hard to find the entry point for the broadcom DSP, and just wrap that as a blackbox.  THis would enable playback of video formats supported by the Apple firmware.  However, as Llorean said, it'd be Ipod Video only so its not that interesting to most developers.  Someone will probably pick up interest in it eventually.

[mattandme]

See, i like rockbox, and if thats one of the two things that if fixed, i would never used the original firmware ever again. the other is fix the 1-hour battery life. I'm sure that one wont be long though!

[gnu]

I wouldn't be too sure on that...