[mythtv-users] Revo 1600 looks even better now

[David Scammell]

On 23 February 2010 14:47, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Tuesday 23 February 2010 07:03:18 am Ian Oliver wrote:
>> In article
>> <51058d551002220735y42d4920fib9739a7d086a33e2 at mail.gmail.com>, Greg
>>
>> Oliver wrote:
>> > I still cannot find a reason to pay for the extra atom core.
>>
>> I went for the dual core on my backend as I want to do a lot of
>> simultaneous record/playback.
>
> Recoding and playing back takes almost no backend CPU, just disk I/O. Playback
> with the ION uses a small amount of CPU on the frontend.
>
> I doubt that any Atom-based backend would be using software encoding, so
> that's not a requirement. This would only apply to SD, since almost any HD
> source is already encoded, or done in hardware with a HD-PVR.
>
> Commflagging and transcoding are the major users of CPU for a backend, but I
> suspect even a dual-core Atom can't compete with the more mainstream CPUs.
>
> My personal benchmark for a backend is: can it do commflagging in real time?
> I've not heard any numbers for Atom backends, I doubt a single-core could do
> it, I don't know about a dual-core Atom.
>
> If you want an HD recording to be flagged and ready to watch as soon as it
> finishes, a single-core Atom is probably insufficient, so if that's your goal the
> dual-core is probably a good move if you're using an Atom for the B/E.
>
> But I see a Revo as a frontend device only, so even the single-core should be
> adequate for any purpose I can think of.
>
> I'd be interested in hearing results from people using a Revo as a backend.
> You'd be limited to USB tuners or an HDHR I'd think. The limiting factor would
> be the laptop-type HDD, but network or E-SATA storage would improve things I
> think.
>
> Here's a question, is it possible to use the ION, or the CrystalHD, to assist
> in transcoding, or are they just useful for playback decoding?
>

I've not attempted transcoding but my 3610 (dual core) appears to
commercial flag at twice the rate of broadcast, i.e a one hour program
is done in 30 minutes or so. UK SD mpeg2. This is while also recording
from a usb dvb stick, its a SBE. I'm only running a maximum of one job
at a time, don't know how that would scale up if I ran more than one
job on this machine at the same time. This commerical flags at
approximately the same rate as my MBE which is a P4 2.8Gz (HT) by way
of a comparison.

regards
dave