[mythtv-users] Dual-CPU/Core & MythTV

Devan Lippman devan.lippman at gmail.com
Sun May 8 01:19:36 UTC 2005


I run dual CPUs on my backend and I think if you've got the cash its
an awesome way to do things.  I have two P3 Tualatin 1.3GHz CPUs and
capture HDTV off my STB using firewire with no problem while running
transcoding and commercial flagging and streaming to the frontend.  I
like how it makes it so a really busy thread can get its own CPU and
the other threads are happy running on the other CPU.

Devan

On 5/7/05, Galen <galen at myhome.net> wrote:
> Been checking on the hardware... please correct me if I'm wrong here!
> 
> The potentially cost-viable CPU options with a few sample prices
> attached:
> 1) AMD Athlon MP (2800 2.13 GHz = USD ~197, can't find anything faster)
> 2) AMD Opteron (242 1.6 GHz = USD ~158, 244 1.8 GHz = USD ~203)
> 3) Intel Xenon (2.8 GHz = USD ~220, 2.66 GHz = USD ~199)
> (did I miss any cost-viable options?)
> 
> For each of these CPUs, what would the comfortable minimum be for
> HDTV playback only? (I will have an GeForce card, but I believe that
> I will lose XvMC acceleration if I want to do any fancy deinerlacing
> tricks. Is this correct?) I am trying to assess the price difference
> and practicality of a dual-CPU setup. Also, what anybody know sort of
> heat production are we talking about per-CPU here?
> 
> Does MythTV compile properly for 64-bit and actually offer any
> practical performance gains? (Or am I going to completely regret that
> I even *thought* of trying 64-bit code... I am thinking that may be a
> "yes" for the time being...)
> 
> -Galen
> 
> On May 7, 2005, at 3:03 PM, Galen wrote:
> 
> > I'm one of those lurkers... I'm not yet in possession of my own
> > MythTV box, but I'm rather familiar with *nix and am working on
> > plans (and finances) for an awesome HDTV MythTV box. When I get it
> > done, it will be killer. (I am, however, somewhat of a newbie when
> > it comes to x86 hardware. I've lived in RISC land too long...)
> >
> > I've been looking into the specifications for a MythTV system, and
> > it occurred to me, it seems like an awesome application for a dual-
> > CPU/core setup. HDTV decoding is pretty high-end in terms of system
> > demands, so purchasing much more CPU than required for decent HDTV
> > playback (~A64 3200, P4 3 GHz) gets really expensive, really fast,
> > and it's simply impossible to purchase twice the CPU required for
> > HDTV playback w/decent de-interlacing and various other functions.
> > More CPU means you can do more post-processing, commercial
> > flagging, maybe even background transcoding (with the proper nice
> > values, of course).
> >
> > It seems like a dual-CPU system would be an excellent solution to
> > this problem. Size the CPUs such that one CPU is able to
> > comfortably handle the single largest realtime function (HDTV
> > decoding), and then the other CPU is free so you can do some
> > *awesome* de-interlacing, commercial flagging, etc without ever
> > impacting the HDTV playback. The same effect would happen with dual
> > core CPUs, but they are only getting started. Dual CPUs are here,
> > today. I've done enough work with dual-CPU systems to realize that
> > while they don't offer "double" the performance for traditional
> > mono-threaded applications, for some multi-threaded applications
> > that rely on realtime response (i.e. video playback), they're
> > better than a CPU that's twice as fast.
> >
> > Does this make sense? I'm curious if anybody has tried this, and
> > with what CPU/motherboard? Any thoughts as to some optimal hardware
> > configurations (CPU speed/type/mobo)? What would my practical
> > options for de-interlacing be with a setup like this?
> >
> > -Galen
> > _______________________________________________
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> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
> 
> 
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> 


-- 
Thanks,
Devan Lippman <devan at lippman.net>


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