[mythtv-users] Mac Mini Video Acceleration Question (h.264)

[Brian Wood]

On Thursday 13 August 2009 20:36:27 Bill Williamson wrote:

> But in all seriousness:
> -the CPU is not powerful enough to do good deinterlacing on 1080i
> -the GPU is not powerful enough "" "" """ ""
>
> What does that leave?  Has someone found a way to run shaders on the audio
> chip?

I seriously doubt it, but here's something I've been thinking about:

The video card and its drivers are probably the biggest bugaboo with Myth.

The Sigma Designs chips provide GREAT playback of any format I have thrown at 
them.

A device that uses a Sigma chip can now be had for under $100 US, which is 
less than a lot of video cards cost, or is at least the same order of 
magnitude in cost.

Why not have Myth simply output a stream, perhaps using the UPnP standard, 
that can then be played back by one of the devices using a Sigma chip?

So for about the same price, you get great playback, without having to fool 
with video drivers of any type, and consuming a lot less power in the 
process.

Just as very few people use their CPU to encode MPEG (we use PVRs or the 
like), there would be no need to use CPUs or GPUs to decode video files, use 
a chip specifically designed to do that job.

Just a thought, and there are probably reasons why it wouldn't work, but in 
theory...

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org