Best SBC for HD video recording and encryption?

Hello! Have an issue I am trying to work through as I'm trying to make an HD recording device that also encrypts.

I've actually just started dabbling in the raspberry pi but no stranger to hacking around these controllers. Having said that, my knowledge is lacking in a few areas and am unsure that the pi can give me what I need in this instance - 1080p 30fps video recording and encryption.

A little more on what I want to try to achieve: I'm trying to record stuff at the highest quality- right now I guess 1080p at 30fps. I want to write/record these videos, maybe to an encrypted USB stick or to something like Dropbox.

I'm more or less looking for an easy user experience. Im making this for my dad who's not the most tech savvy...so i need to take into account the fact that he is confused often

1. Any ideas on which SBC can definitely perform this functionality without any hiccups?

2. In regards to writing and recording- does the sbc record onto its own disk before moving it to the encrypted drive like a usb or into the cloud (dropbox)? Or does it write into the encypted volume?

Once again...the most important thing is nice and easy automation of this.



Thanks for your help, thoughts, ideas, suggestions. It feels like a tall order as I have to outline so much of this out in order to make it work well for my dad. I feel a bit overwhelmed but just going step by step.



Thanks

What you are asking is processor intensive, so likely you need the fastest processor & biggest amount of ram, also writing to usb will be slow, maybe use a HDD or SSD rather than pendrive for storage.

Originally Posted by fatmac What you are asking is processor intensive, so likely you need the fastest processor & biggest amount of ram, also writing to usb will be slow, maybe use a HDD or SSD rather than pendrive for storage.

Thanks for your response. Using the RPi as an example, wouldn't write capability of the USB port on the RPi dictate how quickly it could write to attached media? What if the file was written on the attached microSD then moved over to the attached media subsequently?

Originally Posted by fatmac What you are asking is processor intensive, so likely you need the fastest processor & biggest amount of ram, also writing to usb will be slow, maybe use a HDD or SSD rather than pendrive for storage.

So maybe the Odroid-C1 might be what i am looking for? It seems to outperform the Pi2 on some key performance benchmarks, encryption included.

I'm rather confused here why something needs to be near idiot proof, but also be encrypted "for Dad", who's easily confused.

Recommend you start with a Pi to become familiar with the type of recording you wish to do, therefore you can learn what sizes of files are required to capture what you're trying to capture in video and you'll be able to explore user applications which will perform the recording, so you can tune the capabilities to fit them with the user and their needs.

Then once you've learned about how well this does or doesn't work, you can next explore greater processing power as well as enhanced storage media, and next transfer capabilities. And then finally consider moving to use encryption if that's so important to you. Bear in mind that both video capture and encryption are processor intensive tasks.

Another option is to just look into DVR style recorders or digital cameras which can record at these rates onto media storage devices such as SD or Compact Flash cards.

Originally Posted by rtmistler I'm rather confused here why something needs to be near idiot proof, but also be encrypted "for Dad", who's easily confused. Recommend you start with a Pi to become familiar with the type of recording you wish to do, therefore you can learn what sizes of files are required to capture what you're trying to capture in video and you'll be able to explore user applications which will perform the recording, so you can tune the capabilities to fit them with the user and their needs. Then once you've learned about how well this does or doesn't work, you can next explore greater processing power as well as enhanced storage media, and next transfer capabilities. And then finally consider moving to use encryption if that's so important to you. Bear in mind that both video capture and encryption are processor intensive tasks. Another option is to just look into DVR style recorders or digital cameras which can record at these rates onto media storage devices such as SD or Compact Flash cards.

Fair enough, but it wasn't my intention to start a debate on what functionality a Luddite needs or doesn't need. The encryption part was my own addition specific to the subject of the recording.

I appreciate the thoughtful response on how I can work up to what it is I want to execute. Perhaps I should have been a little clearer on my credentials. I have been working with microcontrollers for years now. I am super comfortable with developing on these platforms so was undaunted by the microprocessor jump. My question was geared towards any recommendations on SBC's that could handle this job with aplomb.

Thanks