[mythtv-users] HD Homerun questions

Mark Knecht markknecht at gmail.com
Mon Jan 12 16:27:46 UTC 2009


On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 8:19 AM, Travis Tabbal <travis at tabbal.net> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 8:42 AM, Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> 1) Does the HD Homerun actually handle 1080p or are you limited to 1080i?
>
> There is no 1080p available for it to tune into, so 1080i is the max.  The
> only 1080p source right now is Blu-Ray from what I have read.

This is interesting as the HDHR site shows NBC and (I think) Fox in LA
as having 1080p signals.

Anyway, it's not that important. I was just curious about that part.

>
>> 2) How much backend CPU power is required to use this device? My
>> server is underpowered on the CPU side but does close to 60GB/S on the
>> hard drives. Will this be OK?
>
> Not much. The CPU just forwards the data on to the drives. So if they can
> keep up, you should be fine. The datastream maxes out at about 40Mbit/Sec
> with both tuners going. Your drives can push 60 GigaBYTES/Sec? :)

Ooops. Nope. 60MB/S. Still, it's enough for what you quote. Sorry
about the typo! ;-)


>
>>   I need to do some thinking about my frontend devices. Currently I
>> use a couple of underpowered Pundit-R boxes for our regular TVs but a
>> lot of our watching gets done on PC screens. Will I need to do a lot
>> of transcoding? One TV is 480p capable and is near the server. Could
>> the server become a front end and play 480p directly? What sort of
>> video card would be required for component output? Is there one? The
>> other is an old Sony SDTV. What do I do there? Any ideas are welcomed.
>
> How "underpowered" are we talking here? The ATSC stream isn't that hard to
> decode, but you do need a decent CPU (or GPU with VDPAU and Myth Trunk). All
> you can do is try. If it doesn't work, transcode or get a video card that
> can do XvMC or VDPAU.

Vintage Celeron. Still, if I Get the HDHR then all it can do is fail
and I move on from there as necessary.

The machine currently has two PVR-150's in it. I suspect that asking
it to record 2 SD channels, at the same time 2 HD channels, and
possibly play back 3 streams to different TVs in the house is asking
WAY too much of this little machine, but it might be fun to try it. As
I say, I could possibly use the Mac Mini with the HDHR as a secondary
backend.

>
> I just got an NVidia 9800 based card that has a component out dongle
> (Red/Green/Blue plugs). So they are out there. I've seen some fanless units
> as well for those that want to keep fan noise down.

I'll look around. thanks.

Cheers,
Mark

>
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