[mythtv-users] Can an Atom N270 1.6GHz decode SD video with yadif and scaling?

[Raymond Wagner]

On 10/23/2009 06:46, Paul Gardiner wrote:
> Hi,
> Anyone know if am Atom N270 1.6GHz has sufficient grunt to
> decode SD video, with yadif deinterlacing and scaling
> to 720p resolution? Or would that require some hardware
> assistance from the graphics card?

All video scaling is done by the graphics hardware, using the XVideo 
interface.  MythTV on any system without Xv would not be enjoyable.

What is 'SD video'?  Generally bitrate is more important than 
resolution, and codec most of all.  Certainly MJPEG is going to take far 
less processor than H.264.

> Also any chance of
> a little spare CPU to also run the backend?

Again, this depends on you and your needs.  The backend generally has 
three CPU intensive tasks: scheduling, recording, and jobqueue.  The 
jobqueue only matters if you intend to use it, which would be primarily 
commflagging and transcoding.  That chip will do neither in a hurry.  
Recording only matters if you use framegrabbers (CPU encoding).  MPEG 
encoders and digital tuners all produce a pre-encoded MPEG2 TS, and 
require next to no CPU.  Generally mythfilldatabase can run in minutes, 
and the scheduler in a fraction of a second, however you're talking 
about rather marginal hardware, and several tuners with a large lineup 
can really become a nuisance, holding the CPU for a long time.

Why are you set on the low end Atom?  An ION with hardware video 
decoding, or even a dual core N330 would both be a far better choice.  
Even better, you can get a respectable dual core AMD system for around 
the same price, and if you put the machine into standby when not in use, 
it will only consume a couple dollars more power per year than an Atom.