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

[Brian Wood]

On Sunday, December 05, 2010 01:50:56 pm Newbury wrote:
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On 2010-12-05, at 11:28, Raymond Wagner <raymond at wagnerrp.com> wrote:
> > On 12/5/2010 09:33, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> >> I agree that VDPAU (and similar) and OpenGL are the way forward
> >> for HD
> >> content, but Xv and XvMC are still perfectly good for SD content.
> >> For example, I have a small TV in the Kitchen. There is no
> >> sensible reason for me to purchase a HD capable STB when the TV
> >> is only 17 inches and has no HDMI connector.
> > 
> > It has nothing to do with the content it is usable with, and
> > everything to do with the direction we want to take the
> > presentation of MythTV.  Xv has no OSD support to speak of.  Any
> > overlays must be rendered to the size of the video, converted to
> > YUV, and baked into the video.  XvMC has OSD support, but it is
> > very primitive, and ends up being more limiting than Xv.  The fact
> > that XvMC has been unnecessary for any desktop processor made in
> > the past five years, and $25 gets you a video card plenty capable
> > of handling the OpenGL painter, has just made the decision an
> > easier one.
> 
> This cuts off anyone using a laptop with an Intel video chipset. For
> quite a while ( versions 2.5 through 2.8) XvMC was turned off. In
> 2.9.1 it works reaonably making my 1.8Ghz X-61tablet a reasonable
> myth platform.
> 
> I would hate to lose that. And Lenovo does seem to make laptops with
> nvidia chipsets and Lenovo is the only maker offering the trackpoint.
> A Venn diagram of nvidia and trackpoint has no intersection!
> Geoff

Yeah. Many Myth users have "secondary" machines that might not meet 
today's standards.

It's like in the TV business, we all figured that everyone had a color 
set, and so we didn't worry too much about how things would look in B+W, 
forgetting that a lot of monochrome sets still existed in bedrooms, 
kitchens, kid's rooms etc.

Backwards compatibility is always desirable. Perhaps there should be a 
stripped down version of Myth's frontend that would still support the 
latest database schema and other protocols, but would run on minimal 
hardware, even without the latest bells and whistles, but still usable 
with a reduced feature set.

Myth is not just a Living Room experience anymore.