[mythtv-users] Dual processors -- better than single fast processor?

[Cory Papenfuss]

 	I have used mythtv on both a dual celeron 300->450, and a duall PIII 
750->1GHz (see a pattern here?... :)  No single process of mythtv can utilize 
more than one cpu at present, but the nature of what mythtv does lends itself 
to multiple processes to some degree.  A 1GHz PIII is pushing it for both 
encoding (MPEG4) and playing at the same time.  The dual worked will in that 
situation (mythbackend took 90% cpu, mythfrontend + X approx 60-80% of the 
other).  If you were trying to do something fancy with the encode or really 
high resolution, you'd be bumping up against a single 1GHz PIII encoding.  I 
did on mine, and ended up with a 480x480 IIRC.  If you wanted full-tilt 720x480 
with deinterlacers, denoisers, etc, the 1GHz won't do.

 	Even with the dual, it tends to boil down to how fast the rest of the 
system is as well.  There's lots of data flying around (raw YUV over PCI bus 
being a huge one), so if you don't have things tweaked and good vid card, it's 
pushing it.  I've since gotten rid of the bttv card from my system (crappy 
hardware), so I only use the pvr-250.  I highly recommend the MPEG2 card, as it 
gave me better quality in addition to the reduced CPU load.

YMMV
-Cory

*************************************************************************
* The prime directive of Linux:  					*
* 	- learn what you don't know, 					*
* 	- teach what you do.						*
* 						(Just my 20 USm$)	*
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On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Jonathan Wiebe wrote:

>
> I'm curious what are your experiences?
>
>> From the documentation I've read a single PIII 1Ghz processor is able to
> encode mpeg4 and allow tv watching (live tv - encoding and decoding,
> with no encoding done in hardware).  If for example I wanted to build a
> backend server is it better to look at a dual PIII 1Ghz motherboard or a
> single processor board with a higher powered processor, say 2.6GHz?
>
> How mutltithread friendly is MythTv?
>
> Jonathan
>
>
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