[mythtv-users] How MANY backend threads!?!?!? ***** AUTO-REPLY *****

[Brian Wood]

On Wednesday, October 13, 2010 04:26:34 pm Michael T. Dean wrote:

> 
> Actually, that post simply re-iterated the solution you provided
> yourself...
> 
> >  With 0.23 I'm getting much higher CPU usage when recording (avg 30-40%
> >  on my P3 900Mhz, previously about 10-20% on 0.21).
> >  This means I can't do "chase play" which I used to be able to do.
> 
> so, you said that your 2000/2001-vintage hardware is having problems
> running modern MythTV.  Therefore, don't run modern MythTV (or upgrade
> your hardware).
> 
> Some of us don't like the idea of constraining modern MythTV to only the
> basic tasks that can be accomplished with 10-yr old hardware.
> 
> Some of us want MythTV to do more than it did in 0.21.
> 
> Some of us want progress.
> 
> Those of you who want your grandfather's MythTV--unhampered by
> progress--can get exactly that by running your grandfather's version of
> MythTV.

Perhaps all true, though hardware can be bought today that runs at around 1Ghz., Via makes some CPUs at that speed, and we 
are starting to see a lot of ARM chips that run in that range, so it's really not "2000/2001 hardware".

The modern trend has been towards more power efficient hardware, not faster CPU speeds, as more and more people want to be 
kind to the planet, and realize that not all computers users are gamers.

The cost of running a Myth BE 24/7 needs to be taken into account, so the more information we can get about minimum 
hardware requirements and ways to reduce power consumption is very topical, and probably of interest to most if not all 
myth users.

But, I would still like to know if 32 backend threads is normal or not, and if so, what all those threads are doing to 
enhance our Myth experience.

It sounds like the OP was talking about a combo BE/FE system. If it's possible to reduce the power draw of such a system, 
perhaps with a minimal theme of some sort, and the ability to turn off features we may not want, this would be very topical 
as well.

A better description of what the OP was doing would help as well. If he was recording 3 sources with software encoding, 
and using software decoding to play back, I would not expect he could "chase" even an SD recording, even with a 2.4Ghz. 
P4.

The best thing about Myth is is flexibility, I would expect to need "modern" hardware to utilize all of the features with 
HD, but I would also expect I could build a minimal SD system and give up some features if I had to.