[mythtv-users] minimum specs for PCHDTV-5500?

Phil Bridges gravityhammer at gmail.com
Wed Mar 26 20:09:01 UTC 2008


On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 3:54 PM, Mary Strimel <mary.strimel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 3/26/08, Roger Heflin <rogerheflin at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Mary Strimel wrote:
> > > hello mythfolk,
> > > I have put a pchdtv-5500 into my myth box which consists of a 4-years
> old
> > > AMD Athlon 64 (I think the CPU is rated at 800 mhz).
> > >
> > > In theory, my box should be capable of recording from this card in HD.
> In
> > > fact PCHDTV minimum specs say 400 mhz pentium would be enough.
> > >
> > > As for playback, I downloaded an HD testfile - I forgot from where, it
> > > appeared to be a computer-animated short film that my computer played
> back
> > > in beautiful widescreen HD with no problems.  My video card is a nvidia
> > > fx-5200.
> > >
> > > So how come, when I try to record QAM from Comcast cable on this card,
> the
> > > results are unwatchable, blocky and hesitating to the point where it
> barely
> > > looks like tv?  (I think it is a resource problem, since when there is a
> > > still frame or very little movement, the blockiness reduces somewhat).
> I
> > > have tried to record, then stop and watch (so as not to be taping and
> > > playback simultaneously).  I have also tried XVMC playback, which seems
> to
> > > make no discernible difference in the results.
> > >
> > > Please try to resist telling me not to buy the pchdtv-5500, 'cause I
> think
> > > it's too late to return :)  Could it be that the specs on the PCHDTV
> site
> > > are just plain wrong?  Seems more likely I am doing something wrong.
> > >
> > > cheers,
> > > Mary
> >
> >
> > How fast is your machine and how much ram do you have?   Recording will
> work
> > fine on a 400Mhz machine, playback of HD will not work on that slow of
> box, I
> > *think* that playback of HD-1080i would require quite a bit more.
> >
> > My experience is that for playback you will need something quite a bit
> faster,
> > but this also depends on the resolution of what you are trying to
> playback,
> > 1920x1080 takes quite a bit more than 1280x720 does, what was the
> resolution of
> > the file that worked, and what was the resolution of the file that failed?
> >
> >
> >                              Roger
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
>
>  Thank you for the quick reply.  My machine has 1 GB of RAM.  Running "cat
> /proc/cpu" reports an AMD Athlon64 at 800 mhz.


What is the CPU description?  It should run much faster than a
perceived 800Mhz; it should play HD fine.


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list