[mythtv-users] My experience with HD video and the Nvidia 6200TC

[Jonathan Rogers]

Steven Adeff wrote:
> On 5/15/06, Jonathan Rogers <jonner at teegra.net> wrote:
>> Steven Adeff wrote:
>>> On 5/15/06, Jonathan Rogers <jonner at teegra.net> wrote:
>>>> James C. Dastrup wrote:
>>>>>> I am able to happily view high-definition (1080i and 720p) video
>>>>>> through MythTV. Here are the ingredients:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * A powerful-enough frontend. As I understand it, my Pentium 4 3.0GHz
>>>>>>  frontend/backend is just over the line in terms of having enough
>>>>>>  horsepower to display HD without XvMC. This is important, as I'll
>>>>>>  get to later.
>>>>>> * A supported video card. For HD, this generally means an Nvidia 5200
>>>>>>  (AGP) or 5300 (PCI Express; rare), or later; I have an Nvidia 6200
>>>>>>  TC with 128MB. ATI owners who want to display HD (as opposed to
>>>>>>  standard-definition) are, from what I understand, out of luck due to
>>>>>>  driver-support issues.
>>>>> ATI owners with a 9600 AGP or above and 128 MB video RAM will find
>>>>> HD works just fine using the fglrx drivers.  There is much documentation
>>>>> on the wiki and other places that no problem exists.
>>>> I am currently using a Radeon 8500 with the X.org 7.0 radeon driver and
>>>> an LCD TV connected via DVI. It works fine except that the Athlon64
>>>> 3700+ CPU is sometimes overloaded playing and deinterlacing 1080i. I
>>>> expect that to change when I switch the CPU to an Athlon 64 X2 3800+.
>>> Jonathan, what percentage of the CPU does X use and what percentage is
>>> Myth using? My 3200+ handles deinterlacing 1080i fine, but I've got a
>>> FX5200, I'm trying to get a handle on how much CPU the ATI Xorg driver
>>> uses compared to the nvidia drivers.
>> Playing a 720p movie, the "X" process takes about 50% CPU time and
>> "mythfrontend" about 30%. Playing 1080i show with Bob, "X" takes about
>> 53% and mythfrontend about 30% to 40%. Those percentages can vary quite
>> a bit with the program and even scene, which is why it usually keeps up,
>> but sometimes stutters.
> 
> strange to me that X takes up so much CPU on your system while it
> takes very little on mine. Are you sure Xv is enabled? Your Myth usage
> seems a bit lower than mine, but I'm running a 3200+, compared to your
> 3700+. Have you tried the fglrx drivers to see if they improve your X
> usage?

Another issue is that my 8500 card may be a little buggy. I've had it
for several years and already replaced the fan with a makeshift CPU fan.
I've seen messages about firmware problems in X logs. Strangely, moving
through MythTV menus is very slow, though playback is fine. The new 9000
card I tried navigated menus quickly, but played video slowly. I'm
thinking that maybe I should get a 9600 or 9700 if it is quiet.

Jonathan Rogers