[mythtv-users] HDTV Hardware requirements

Dylan R. Semler dsemler at macalester.edu
Sun Feb 19 04:30:06 UTC 2006


Richard Shaw wrote:

>I'd like to take a poll and see what kind of hardware people are using 
>to view HDTV. I've been having some problems getting mine to function 
>properly but have been attributing it to some settings or tweaks since I 
>thought I had plenty of horsepower.
>
>Here's my stats:
>
>Athlon XP 2500+
>512MB PC3200 Ram
>Nvidia MX4000 64MB
>pcHDTV HD-3000
>Segate 250MB ATA-100 hard drive
>MythTV 0.19
>
>Here's my problem:
>I had problems with the video slowing down (or pausing) every 1-2 
>second. I enabled xvmc and the other tweaks ont he xvmc wiki. This 
>seemed to improve things but I still get pauses when the OSD pops up. 
>Everything seems to work well when I try using azap and mplayer. Is this 
>just due to the overhead of mythtv and the ring buffer?
>  
>
I have a very similar system
Pentium 4 2.23
512MB RD-RAM
Nvidia 4200 64 MB
pcHDTV HD-3000
myth 0.19 via atrpms
dual display (twinview) 1024x768 and 1280x1024

With this frontend, HD can be relatively smooth (1 prebuffering pause 
every 5-10 secs) but generally itl be 1 prebuffering pause every 1-2 
seconds.  I'm pretty sure I don't have xvmc as i'm running the newest 
nvidia drivers.   The SD channels do play perfectly.  Analog, however, 
is a much different story.  Also, check the nvidia readme, i thought 
that xvmc was only available for 4200 series cards and newer).

HDTV is very smooth on my laptop which is
Centrino 1.6 Ghz
512MB DDR(i think) RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 128 MB
pcHDTV HD-3000
myth 0.19 via atrpms
laptop display 1920x1200

where I rarely get a prebuffering pause

Both of these systems are getting fed by a backend that is
Pentium ~2 GHz
256-512 RAM
Nvidia 2200
pcHDTV HD-3000
myth 0.19 via atrpms
tv display via s-video (640x480)

I rarely do this but when I run a frontend from this computer on the tv, 
it behaves similarly to my other nvidia system (the one with the 4200 card).

I also get perfect playback of HD files with mplayer on any of these 
systems.

>Also, on that note, MythTV seemed to pick up many more channels than 
>atscscan, however, many of them do not work or seem to be transmitting 
>blank/black video. Is this normal? 
>
Those are probably music channels.  My mythtv and atscscan picked them 
up.  Try running them with azap and mplayer and see if it's just music.,

>I'm supposed to be able to import my channels.conf but I didn't see 
>anything in mythtvsetup to do this.
>  
>
mythtv-setup -> input connections -> (choose input) -> scan for 
channels, then change "scan type" to import channels.conf

Hope this helps.
Dylan


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