[mythtv-users] commercially-produced mythboxes -- an idea

[Brandon Beattie]

> If you could build a working xvmc system, it would change the price of
> the package.  You would not longer need to buy a modern generation, ie. new,
> machine, as I would expect that the prior generation (sub-2ghz) would
> do HDTV with xvmc.   Have people with the faster epia systems had them
> display hdtv?  Prior-generation hardware is of course often not simply
> cheap, but hanging around spare, ie. free.

XvMC only doesn't work if you seek.  Also, it still takes about a 2ghz
system for displaying the video *only* if you're transcoding... read
below..
 
> Hard to escape the need for a big disk.  Though since almost all HDTVs
> owned by budget conscious people are no more than 1280x720, you can plan
> to transcode down all HDTV to this resolution mp4 -- but then xmvc is out.
> I don't have the figures on how much CPU it takes to play 1280x720 mp4.

1280x720 takes about a 1.9 ghz system.  You also only would save a
slight bit of space because you would only be transcoding 1080i, which
would be a pro since you would not be de-interlacing in real time.  A
con though is myth isn't smart enough yet to transcode to different
resolutions based on the original resolution.. so you would transcode
480i/480p video to 720p, which would take up more space..

If you're transcoding, you're using a LOT of cpu, and so you can't watch
HD and transcode at the same time with good results on a slower PC.  It
takes about 3.5x as long to transcode HD to 1024x576 in my tests (amd
2500) as the shows running length.  This means if you have a slower
system and record just 4-6 shows a day your system may be maxed out
24/7.

--Brandon