[mythtv-users] HD Woes (was: Upgrade Options for $150)

Nate Crosno nate at crosno.net
Mon Jan 29 05:43:34 UTC 2007


Nate Crosno wrote:
> 
> Well, I've placed my order.  After searching around for several hours on 
> various sites, I'm still going with the Jetway board because it was the 
> only 939 board I could find with DVI out, plus it has component out, 
> which I'd like to try. It also had the nvidia chipsets.  After reviewing 
> some processor performance charts (with a grain of salt), I opted for an 
> Athlon 64 3400 at 2.2Ghz and a cheap heatsink/fan combo.  According to a 
> cpu chart that tested transcoding a DVD, it looks like that will be 
> about a 10% bump in performance over the 3200 I listed before. The 
> damage came to $137 out the door.
> 
> AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Venice 2.2GHz Socket 939
>    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103023
> JetWay J939GT3-PTD Socket 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX
>    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813153047
> 

So here's the status -- the Jetway board is fine so far, and everything 
is working great except 1080i.  XvMC never worked well for me, but with 
it turned on, I can just barely get 1080i to play in Myth, but it takes 
ALL the cpu. With XvMC off, 1080i pauses every 2-4 seconds.

I'm using "1280x720_60" for my xorg.conf mode. 720p will play in Myth at 
about 50% cpu with XvMC on and up to 60% with libmpeg2.  As a 
comparison, Xine only uses about 8% with xvmc for 720p and 45% for 1080i 
(with xvmc) and 60% using "-V xv".

I've also tried overclocking as high as the MB will go (2.9ghz), just to 
see if it made a difference, but it does not.

I've tried every permutation of OpenGL Vsync in myth and nvidia 
settings, plus the various buffering, interlacing, etc options I can 
think of, but nothing seems to make much of a difference on way or 
another. I'm stuck!  The system is still usable, but no more so than 
before the upgrade.  I just have to use the same xine work-arounds for 
1080i as I did before, but the whole point of the upgrade was to make 
those go away!

Can anyone with a similar setup send me detailed info about their 
configuration?  At this point, I am doubtful that throwing more money at 
it in the form of a faster processor would even help much. I think I 
have something configured wrong, but cannot put my finger on it.

Thanks!
-Nate

P.S. More info:

# uname -a
Linux localhost 2.6.16-gentoo-r6 #1 SMP Mon May 8 13:07:34 PDT 2006 i686 
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3400+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

xorg.conf:

Section "Monitor"
         Identifier   "Monitor0"
         HorizSync     15.0 - 46.0
         VertRefresh   59.0 - 61.0
         Modeline "1920x1080_60i" 74.25 1920 2008 2052 2200 540 542 547 
562 +hsync +vsync interlace

EndSection

Section "Device"
         Identifier  "Card0"
         Driver      "nvidia"
         Option      "NoLogo" "true"
         Option      "coolbits" "1"
         Option      "RenderAccel" "true"
         VendorName  "All"
         BoardName   "All"
         Option "XvmcUsesTextures" "false"
         Option "NvAgp" "0"
         Option "UseEvents" "True"
         Option      "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"
         Option      "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"
         Option      "FlatPanelProperties"   "Scaling = native"
         Option      "IgnoreDisplayDevices"  "TV, CRT"
         Option      "ExactModeTimingsDVI"   "1"
         Option      "UseEDIDDpi"     "0"
         Option      "UseEDIDFreqs"     "0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
         Identifier      "Screen0"
         Device  "Card0"
         Monitor "Monitor0"
         DefaultColorDepth 24
         SubSection "Display"
                 Depth   24
                 Modes  "1280x720_60"
         EndSubSection
EndSection



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