[mythtv-users] Better playback..... Athlon 2800+ or Pentium 4?

[Bruce Nordstrand]

On 20/10/09 6:15 AM, "Fred Squires" <fsquires at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Yeechang Lee <ylee at pobox.com> wrote:
>> Jean-Yves Avenard <jyavenard at gmail.com> says:
>>>> My current frontend is an AMD Athlon 2800+ Barton with 1Gb ram.
>>>> 
>>>> To play HD efficiently now I have a plasma, would it be better to
>>>> put the P4 on the frontend and move the AMD to server duties or
>>>> the other way round.
>>> 
>>> For playing HD it doesn't matter, neither of those processor would be
>>> fast enough to handle most HD codecs, mpeg2 sure, but that's it.
>> 
>> Given that he will be getting a 9400GT he'll presumably be using
>> VDPAU. I can't speak for the AMD, but I can testify that a four
>> years-old Pentium 4 3.0GHz with VDPAU is sufficient for a combined
>> frontend/backend. (As Jean-Yves says, the box can play HD MPEG-2
>> without VDPAU, but what's the point nowadays?) If you do go ahead and
>> break up the frontend and backend (as you should if you have a
>> choice), use the Pentium as the frontend.
> 
> I recommend going with the Pentium 4 as the Front End as well but
> mainly as a power saving measure. I have an Athlon 2500+ that plays HD
> MPEG-2 fine with XvMC and I'm sure it would work well with VDPAU. I'm
> pretty sure that the Pentium 4 is more power hungry than the Barton.
> So, if you're going to leave the backend running 24/7 but shut down
> the frontend when you're not using it it would make more sense to make
> the more power hungry machine the frontend.
> Fred
Thanks everyone for their responses, looks like the P4 will become the new
front end with a shiny new 9500GT on board and I will be trying VDPAU, the
Athlon 2800+ will be the replacement backend and the P3 1Ghz will be
relegated to the bedroom as an SD frontend only....

So many new things to learn now I have a TV capable of showing things like
they should..... And I thought I was all done with Myth box building :)

Cheers
Bruce