[mythtv-users] HDHomeRun - Comcast shut off clear QAM

[Andre Newman]

On 12 Dec 2013, at 16:57, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:

> On 12/12/2013 10:40 AM, Jay Ashworth wrote:
>> From: "Michael T. Dean"
>>>> Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, Mike, but what's that thing inside
>>>> the video card? :-) Are you actually suggesting that you care which card
>>>> the processor chip is mounted on?
>>> Not when VDPAU works, but since it doesn't always***, I still want to be
>>> able to watch what I want to watch, rather than what nvidia can handle.
>> Do you mean "VDPAU isn't guaranteed to work for all users who try it,
>> on the video card they have" or "VDPAU is prone to break randomly, even
>> on installations where it usually works, and is thus tactically
>> unreliable"?
>> 
>> The former I can live with; the latter is a) unacceptable, and b) not
>> what I had come to understand.
> 
> No, I mean, "VDPAU isn't guaranteed to work on all content, or with all applications".  VDPAU works great in MythTV on my PCIe GeForce GT220 (with CPU running in performance mode), but some content (such as that from my NBC affiliate) trips it up, making video playback/watching with VDPAU decode useless.

And when some other channel buys the same encoder as NBC… Or some encoder or multiplexer firmware update comes along that lets the broadcaster or cable headend fit an extra channel in the multiplex but uses some feature of H264 or even MPEG2 that VDPAU doesn't get along with you are stuck waiting for NVidia to fix it.



>  And, since there's no way for me to tell MythTV "only use VDPAU if the content came from channels other than this one," I need to use software decode (where /I/--or people smarter than me who work on ffmpeg and MythTV video decoders can change and fix the software).  And, even if MythTV allowed me to only use VDPAU on content from certain channels, I'd /still/ need a good CPU that can decode the high-bitrate MPEG-2 in software--or else I couldn't watch Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  So, while the Presentation portion of VDPAU is wonderful, the Decode portion leaves a lot to be desired.
> 
> I'll admit that I don't care that VDPAU decode doesn't work on most Flash/Silverlight stuff out there because I use other systems (Xbox 360, PS3, ...) to watch my Netflix and Amazon Instant Prime, and already saw a cat video once, so I don't need to watch YouTube.  :)  That said, VDPAU decode doesn't work on all other stuff--even "supported" formats, such as 1080i MPEG2 can be encoded such that VDPAU can't handle them--so I don't want to be reliant on VDPAU since I can't fix it myself.
> 
>>> And that's the whole point--if all your eggs are in one basket, then
>>> you're limited to what the basket-maker (nvidia, Google/Android,
>>> Apple/iOS, app makers, ...) decide to let you do. I'm really surprised
>>> how many, "The cable company should let me use the content the way I
>>> want," people on this list have no problems trusting nvidia or Google
>>> or Apple or ... to allow them to do the things they want to do.
>> Well, yes, but does anyone think that NVidia can *remotely* downgrade
>> my installed VDPAU capable card so that certain things will stop working?

No but not keeping up with the upgrades further up the chain is just as bad as a remote downgrade.


>> 
>> They're not exactly the same problem, are they?
> 
> No, and I haven't said that I expect any company to remove functionality from anything.  I'm only saying that having a system that can do what you want it to do--both now, and in the future when your wants change/expand--is the right approach for me.
> 
>>> *** Not only things like YouTube and other Flash stuff (and possibly
>>> more content people may have/want to use), but also even some broadcast
>>> MPEG-2 content (such as that from my NBC affiliate, received OTA--where
>>> VDPAU decode gives frequent (several per minute) bursts of blockiness
>>> and pixelization, but software decode (with VDPAU display) doesn't).
>> Indeed.
>> 
>> Well, the Circle Of Hardware drifts in and out of the CPU -- and certainly,
>> 4 and 6 core AMD 5400s ought to have the CPU to decode HD MPEG2 on-chip,
>> especially if you can pin the decoder there...  But dedicated hardware has
>> traditionally been a bit cheaper than the general purpose stuff, or it
>> wouldn't exist.  Having both options is good.
> 
> Yes, and if you have a system with an nvidia video card that's VDPAU compatible /and/ a good CPU, you have both options.  If you buy a system that can only decode the video you want to watch using VDPAU, you don't.  You may have /had/ both options when you went to purchase, but you took away one of them when you decided to get the underpowered system that's reliant on VDPAU.
> 
> Mike
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