[mythtv-users] Do you build mythtv from source, and why?

[Frans Grotepass]

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:23:29 -0400
Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:

> On Mar 29, 2011, at 3:46 PM, jedi wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 03:18:59PM -0400, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> >> On Mar 29, 2011, at 10:27 AM, Frans Grotepass wrote:
> >> 
> >>> On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:47:58 +1100
> >>> Jean-Yves Avenard <jyavenard at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> 
> >>>> As for compilation flags; in these days and age; I doubt you
> >>>> would notice the difference performance wise following *tweaks*
> >>>> on the compiler
> >>> 
> >>> Is that so? The Atom that is often used in MythTV, a light weight
> >>> processor with a rich instruction set with many extensions for
> >>> multimedia processing should benefit by it. It is specifically in
> >>> this day and age with more extensive instruction sets that
> >>> sticking with just the i386 instruction set wastes the
> >>> functionality.
> >> 
> >> You're already Doing it Wrong(tm) if you're still running i386 and
> >> care that much about instruction set.
> > 
> >   There is an entire distribution based on the idea that you can't
> > really trust the distribution to build your stuff with all of the
> > right settings and more subtle tweaks you might want in order to
> > get the most out of your own hardware.
> > 
> >   Building your own copy of mythtv could be viewed as a milder form
> > of that approach.
> 
> And there are other distributions largely produced by a company that
> employs many gcc hackers, who provide the best possible options for
> each and every version of gcc to the distro's build tools. There might
> occasionally be tradeoffs, but 99% of the time, they only have any
> significant negative impact for people running crap hardware.

The big tradeoff is that they have to build to the lowest common
denominator. That affects the high end more than the low end. The low
end was just mentioned originally, since it is closer to its limits
and could thus use every little bit it on offer.