[mythtv-users] Cheap Possible Frontend

[Brian Wood]

On May 9, 2006, at 8:50 PM, Shawn wrote:

> Mike Angstadt wrote:
>>>> On 5/9/06, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> But I'm still wondering if you can get decent MPEG-4 playback.  
>>>>> That
>>>>> requires more CPU horsepower than MPEG-2. Unless it can do MPEG-4
>>>>> than I'll stick with my MediaMVP.
>>>>>
>>>> I used to do DivX on my PII 300 Windows PC.  I would have thought
>>>> 833's would cut it just fine (but I am no expert).
>>>>
>>> . Hmmm...
>>>
>>> That's a good data point.
>>>
>>> I have an old Dell PIII 500 Mhz. laptop. Guess I'll just have to try
>>> that and see how it does.
>>>
>>> I am assuming no "help" from the graphics subsystem.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I also used to watch divx movies on a PII 300mhz a few years ago  
>> under
>> windows.  I haven't tried anything on it recently in Linux, but an  
>> 866
>> should have enough horsepower.
>>
>> -Mike
>>
>>
> I run a PIII 800mhz with 512mb of ram.  I use a PVR-150 and the  
> video is
> fine.  I believe that's about the lowest anyone should go.

So that would be MPEG-2 video. I've seen slower machines play DVDs  
pretty well, and seen some really slow old Dell laptops with hardware  
MPEG decoders that did pretty well at it.

But I tend to agree with you that I certainly wouldn't purchase  
anything much slower than you mention, and remember a Myth system has  
to do other things besides playing back MPEG. I see that HogPaws  
suggests a PIII 733 as a minimum for using a PVR-350, presumably  
using its output, and they suggest a PIII 1.2Ghz. for a PVR-150.