[mythtv-users] PIII 450-frontend: too slow?

[Andrew Lynch]

--- Kichigai Mentat <kichigai at comcast.net> wrote:

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> On Mar 12, 2006, at 14.01, kanetse at gmail.com wrote:
> 
[snip]
> >
> > You can play HD-content with an P3-1400?  I'm
> amazed.  From reading
> > this list, I thought one needed at least a 2.4 GHz
> processor.
> That's 2.4 GHz if you're not using an XvMC
> compatible video card.  
> XvMC handles MPEG-2 decoding in hardware (the video
> card's on-board  
> MPEG-2 decoder), so there's very little stress being
> up on the CPU.
> 
[snip]
> 


Hi,
It is a common misconception that you need a PC
powerhouse to run MythTV.  Yes, some tasks benefit
from high power processors, etc but most people can
use older hardware just as well.  The costs of older
hardware are significantly cheaper than new as well.

I am using AMICUS installed MythTV on an older box too
and it can handle standard definition (720x480 or
704x480) whether the source is an analog tuner (like
BT878 or PVR-150/250/350/500) or a digital tuner
(HD3000) no problem.  Many older machines can even do
1280x768 middle HDTV resolution.  Having a NVidia card
helps a lot but XvMC is really only needed for
1920x1080i HDTV on anything but 2.8GHz or faster.

One of the reasons that I have been writing AMICUS is
that I think a lot of older PCs could be reused as
PVRs. Unfortunately, installing MythTV on older
hardware can be a real pain so the installer script
idea was hatched.

This thread is great.  If you are interested in trying
AMICUS to install MythTV on your older low resource
PC, give it a try!

I could use some help developing and testing AMICUS.
Especially finding bugs on various hardware.  So far,
it supports BT8x8 tuners, PVR-150/250/350/500 tuners,
NVidia video cards, starting on LIRC (with ATI Remote
Wonder).  Am currently adding support for the pcHDTV
tuners like HD3000 etc.
  
http://amicus.sourceforge.net/

join up on the mailing list to discuss

https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/amicus-users

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

PS, AMICUS is not restricted to the US as there are
users and testers from all over the internet.  I know
there are users in UK/Europe using it successfully.