[mythtv-users] Status Update on SageTV HD Extender STX-HD100?

Scott D. Davilla davilla at 4pi.com
Tue Jul 1 01:52:28 UTC 2008


>On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 3:52 PM, Scott D. Davilla <davilla at 4pi.com> wrote:
>>>The goal would be to get a full mythtv frontend running on the sage
>>>extender. The GPL code released for the sage extender includes the
>>>patches to ffmpeg to enable it to use the hardware decoding, so i
>>>don't think that will be the most difficult part. Much more difficult
>>>(impossible?) would be getting to the point where we could run our own
>>>code.
>>
>>  That's interesting. If they have really included the patches to
>>  ffmpeg that enable hardware decoding, this would be the very first
>>  open source Linux box to offer hardware assisted mpeg4/h.265 decode.
>>
>>  There is nothing out there in the "open source land" that can do
>>  hardware assisted mpeg4/h.265 decode. Zero, nada, zip.
>>
>
>Maybe i got over anxious. Back when the link to the released code was
>posted i looked through the ffmpeg code that was posted and saw a
>whole bunch of "#ifdef EM8622" (The hardware decoding chip it uses).
>However now that i know more about the ffmpeg code and go back and
>look at it again i am a little disappointed. Seems the patches might
>be more related to working with a unit that has very little memory
>instead of using the hardware decoding. I really know very little
>about this type of stuff, so i could be wrong, but i am not as hopeful
>as i once was.

Bummer, I thought as much. Seems anyone with mpeg2 or h.246 hardware 
decoders tends to hold that info very closed. Roku did it with their 
Xillion based HD1000, Nvidia at least has XvMC for mpeg2 but h.264 is 
closed.

I'm not sure what is the big deal. Competitors already know how the 
other sides chips works and they already have any engineering docs. I 
know a guy that once worked for AMD cutting up Intel chips for 
reverse engineering using electron microscopes, he later changed jobs 
and went to work for Intel (wait for it) cutting up AMD chips for 
reverse engineering using electron microscopes. He said the amount of 
legal personnel present during leaving one job for the other was 
staggering. I refuse to believe that nvidia has never cut up an ATI 
chips.

Without hardware decode assist porting mythfrontend to the STX-HD100 
would be a useless exercise. Linux on the AppleTV would smoke it.




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