Sigma 8655 Vs Realtek 1073

One difference between the two is that the RealTek 1073 chipset can handle Blu-Ray. Several players based on the 1073 chip are now supporting Blu-Ray ISO playback.

1. Software

8655 may support 3 OSes Linux (Open Source?), Android, and Windows CE.

1073 supports Linux only so far.

2. SoC (CPU and Chipset)

8655 is 500Mhz CPU/FPU, 333Mhz IPU (Image), 1 DSP Audio, 1.25 HD video.
512MB DDR2 (667Mhz) DRAM. NAND Flash 512MB. The maximum bit rate is not clear.

1073 is 400Mhz CPU/FPU, IPU (???), at least 1 DSP Audio and 1 (?) HD video.
128MB DDR2 (???Mhz no more than 667Mhz) DRAM. NAND Flash 256MB. Some 1073 players declared that it can handle bit rate in 104Mbps. That is to say 1073 may have more than 2 HD video decode cores. Because Realtek did not open its data sheet, it is hard to verify.

3. Network

Both are 10/100Mbps ethernet. So both are legacy in network in the Gigabit Ethernet era.

4. SATA

Both support only SATA 1.5Gbps, the lowest SATA speed. They are limited in performance to use with SSD.

5. Power Consumption

Both had not declared their SoC power consumption data. The parameters should include standby, regular running, and full load running. I expect that both are less than 5W in full load. User can measure the total power consumption of a player. Anyway both power consumption are lower vs other SoCs and CPUs with Full HD playback capability.

6. Price/Performance

1073 is less expensive than 8655. The ratio of price/performance of 1073 and 8655 is nearly equal.

7. Others

Other functions are almost the same. Both are support DTS now.

CharlieCL

For me the WDTV Live with the 8655 was the same price as the Realtek so I thought why not. I bought it for $99.00 with no tax and free shipping. This thing has been a real powerhouse. It can even play my Planet Earth 1080p videos with 16 reFrames.

The 8655 is definitely an amazing chipset. I wonder what someone could do if they fully use that power. I have been following b-rad and his firmwares and am just waiting to see what can be done. Imagine how crazy it would be to be able to run an OS like Chrome OS and using a wireless keyboard and mouse set.