[mythtv-users] XvMC and libmpeg2 to be dropped in 0.25

[Robert McNamara]

We'd like to warn users that we are planning to drop XvMC and libmpeg2
decoding support from forthcoming MythTV releases. MythTV 0.25 will be
the first release without these features, so you still have several
months to upgrade hardware if you wish to continue running the latest
MythTV releases. Of course the newly released 0.24 will remain
available if either XvMC or libmpeg2 are important to you.
Why are we doing this?

XvMC - The primary reason is that the XvMC code is very hard to
maintain. It requires a lot special handling and does not support the
features which many of our other video rendering methods provide. Far
superior alternative hardware decoders such as Nvidia's VDPAU are now
supported. Crystal HD, ATI and Intel support are also on the MythTV
roadmap.

libmpeg2 - A high proportion of problems reported to us can be traced
back to libmpeg2, we want MythTV to be as stable as possible and the
advantages of libmpeg2 are outweighed by the negatives. Like XvMC, it
complicates the code in ways that make it harder to maintain.

Both - Additionally, the need for both features is largely gone. Even
the lowest cost CPUs which have been available in recent years can
easily manage playback of Standard and High-Definition mpeg2. Low
power CPUs such Intel's atom are usually supplied with Nvidia's ION
platform or can be used with discrete hardware decoding solutions such
as Crystal HD.

We believe that leaving these features behind will allow us to focus
our time more productively, making the improvements and adding the
features that a majority of users want to see.

N.B At some point in time, beyond 0.25, we'd like to drop XVideo
support in favour of OpenGL rendering. There will be more on that
subject when we have finalised our plans. Rest assured that we are
considering embedded platforms and work on supporting OpenGL ES is
already underway.

Robert
MythTV