[mythtvnz] Now we have DVB-T working in MythTV...

[Paul Kendall]

On Monday 04 August 2008 18:02:32 Steven Ellis wrote:
> On 3/08/2008, at 7:57 PM, Robin Gilks wrote:
> > ...what would people recommended for a diskless highdef capable
> > frontend?
> >
> > That's about it as far as questions go - do the 6100 series nvidia
> > equipped motherboards (eg. a Gigabyte GA-M61PME-S2) have enough GPU
> > grunt
> > to handle the DVB-T H264 and the latest SD de-interlacers or should
> > I be
> > looking at a 8300 series integrated video solution (eg. Asus M3N-H/
> > HDMI
> > Motherboard).
> >
> > In either case, are there any small cases that won't break the bank
> > (I'm
> > planning on an external 12v brick with a 200w auto style PSU for
> > cool and
> > quiet!)
>
> I was talking to Keith Packard last week at OSCON about the joy of
> trying to decode 1080i H.264 frames on Linux compared with Windows.
> Basically for the next 6-12 months we need a damn fast CPU.
>
> Can anyone estimate the grunt required for full 1080i playback in AMD
> and Intel CPU form?

For an intel I use a 1.6GHz C2D and it occasionally stutters on 720p and 
struggles with 1080i. So, I would go with a 2.2GHz for even 2.4.

> For a combined frontend/backend solution I'm personally considering a
> Tri or Quad cpu setup so that we have N-1 CPUs for the graphics decode
> and a spare CPU for any backend housekeeping tasks.

Using multicore is not really going to give any benefits with ffmpeg/MythTV yet 
as they only use that on sliced h264, which ours is not!
So a Duo would be OK, but anything above that would be wasted.

> Next part is the capture device. My ideal would be the HVR2200 for DVB-
> T but that isn't ready yet. Also the HVR 3000/4000 units aren't
> mainstream either.

Personally I would go with a Nova-T 500 and an HVR-4000 so I get 3 DVB-T 
tuners and a satellite.

>
> We definitely live in "interesting times".
>
I am keeping a close eye on this gsoc project 
(http://www.bitblit.org/gsoc/g3dvl/index.shtml) as he is working on GPU 
accelerated decoding with GLSL (GL shader language), and it looks promising.

> Steve
>
Cheers,
Paul