[mythtvnz] CPU required for Freeview HD

[graeme]

Ok I gave my aerial twitch  and can now get TV3

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq
2900000
root at mercury-mythbox:/home/graeme# cat 
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq 2900000

processor    : 1
vendor_id    : AuthenticAMD
cpu family    : 15
model        : 107
model name    : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+
stepping    : 2
cpu MHz        : 2900.000
cache size    : 512 KB
physical id    : 0
siblings    : 2
core id        : 1
cpu cores    : 2
fdiv_bug    : no
hlt_bug        : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 1
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca 
cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt 
rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic 
cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch ts fid vid ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps
bogomips    : 5831.57

40- 50% used, 74% idle is typical for 720p SD on TV1 - Advertisements

Olympics 720p HD lowest is 60% typically sits around 75-85% used and 60% 
idle
 highest spike 100% if large changes in screen content

Crappy movie TV3  1080i CPU typically 103%  110% peak, 45 % idle - 1.5 
second play, .5 second pause recurring.
Normal playback profile for deinterlacing used.

I managed to get to watch a recording once then the frontend crashes 
came back

2008-08-23 21:11:13.861 [h264 @ 0xb7006230]number of reference frames 
exceeds max (probably corrupt input), discarding one
2008-08-23 21:11:13.861 [h264 @ 0xb7006230]number of reference frames 
exceeds max (probably corrupt input), discarding one
2008-08-23 21:11:13.862 [h264 @ 0xb7006230]number of reference frames 
exceeds max (probably corrupt input), discarding one
2008-08-23 21:11:13.912 [h264 @ 0xb7006230]mmco: unref short failure
2008-08-23 21:11:13.916 Video timing method: USleep with busy wait
2008-08-23 21:11:13.963 [h264 @ 0xb7006230]mmco: unref short failure
Segmentation fault

Changing to a lower screen resolution than 1920x1080 doesn't lower the 
CPU usage

Transcoding either 720p or 1080i recordings to a more CPU friendly 
format fails.

So it look like I'm going to join the source fiddlers club if I want to 
watch TV3, one of them just had to choose 1080i !!

Barring that FFMpeg and Mythtv needs to get more multi threaded or I'm 
screwed...

Funny, 5 years ago I generally couldn't have cared less about TV3 but 
now most of what I watch is on it (sigh)

Hope that helps Steve, gee, aren't you glad you didn't buy that 5600+ 
... :'(
I have my doubts about any currently available AMD dual core being able 
to take TV3 on ...
A 3 Ghz  Intel Core 2 seems to be the way to go.