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

[Scott D. Davilla]

>>>>Are there any updates on this? My bit is getting all chomped on.
>>>
>>>There have been a few bumps in the road towards getting some of the
>>>necessary bits out the door. However, I can say that this isn't something
>>>that will be usable in the upcoming 0.22 release, it is 0.23 material.
>>
>>Is this the not-so-secret Broadcom add-in card (
>>http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17187536#post17187536
>>)?
>
>Heh, screw it, if Scott's talking about it on AVS Forum, there's 
>probably no sense in not talking about it here...
>
>Yes, we're talking about support for the Broadcom Crystal HD decoder 
>card. Not gonna say anything more than that right now though, I 
>think that's probably more than enough. :)

Me and my big mouth, I'm just too excited about this :)

Yes, this is the Broadcom Crystal HD decoder card. The mini pci-e and 
expresscard versions can be found on ebay. There will be osx, linux 
and windows driver/lib support for this hardware decoder. This 
support will be an open source solution.

The Crystal HD handles mpeg2, h.264 and vc1 video decode. Performance 
wise, I'm seeing bluray decode/display under the AppleTV ( 1GHz 
Pentium-m) taking about 50 percent CPU. That's right an AppleTV 
equipped with a Crystal HD decoder card can play bluray content 
without having to transcode. The CPU is all display handling as the 
decode is handled by the crystalhd.

A 1.6GHz MacMini (with coreduo) on the same bluray content is running 
at about 35 percent CPU (that's a one core percentage).

Before anyone asks, no, you can't try/test this, the driver/libs 
required are not public yet. And that's what we are working toward, 
the process is slow as there is another player involved besides 
myself and Jarod. And no we can't mention the other player right now 
but it should be obvious.

Scott