[mythtv-users] hardware considerations: fast CPU vs nvidia/vdpau?

[Raymond Wagner]

On Sat, 30 Jul 2011 19:04:35 -0700, Deyan <mythtv at bektchiev.net> wrote:
> On Jul 30, 2011 4:55 PM, "jedi"  wrote:
>  >
>  > On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 04:03:16PM -0500, Matt Garman wrote:
>  > > On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 12:07:15PM -0700, Jason Long wrote:
>  > > > I've been happy using zotac atom/ion boards for FE with vdpau...
>  > > > Handles 1080p and 5.1 audio fine. Only ~15 watts idle, mini-itx,
>  > > > quiet, USB thumb drive for the OS, or a SSD. My backend has quad
>  > > > core for transcoding and commercial flagging and a redundant
>  > > > storage array for the data, so it uses up quite a bit more power.
>  > >
>  > > Right, but my question is (cost aside) what's the advantage of an
>  > > atom+ion over e.g. an i3-2100 system?  They'll both have about the
>  > > same power consumption at idle, but the latter gives you a lot more
>  > > flexibility in terms of having a powerful general-purpose CPU,
>  > > rather than a weak CPU and an application-specific GPU.
>  > >
>  > > And with the ion, you're messing with the proprietary nvidia
drivers
>  > > (which, to their credit, are generally pretty painless to install)
>  > > and additional setup/configuration steps for making vdpau work.
>  >
>  >    Nvidia (and their blob driver) is still the best option even if
>  > you aren't planning on using the GPU to play all of your video. That
>  > sort of "overhead" is a bit of a constant regardless of what you
> decide
>  > in terms of your CPU.
>  >
>  >    Have any of the other xorg drivers improved (like intel) when it
> comes
>  > to dealing with HDTVs? I would be curious to see if using a modern
> intel
>  > embedded GPU is even an option with brute force decoding.
>  >  
> 
> I just bought a new Mac mini with the base configuration last week and
> immediately installed Linux on it and it runs just fine as a frontend
> using CPU decoding with deinterlacing QAM recorded MPEG2 US TV. It runs
a
> bit on the warm side but nothing too worrying. 
> 
> And it does use the embedded Intel graphics card. 

The big question is can it handle the OpenGL video renderer?  The Xv
blitter has some serious limitations, and should only be used as a last
resort.  Benchmarks put the Intel HD graphics at plenty powerful to run
OpenGL, but there have been mixed reports about driver difficulties in
Linux.