[mythtv-users] Nvidia GPU for HP Microserver

[Stephen Worthington]

On Sun, 27 Jul 2014 21:55:16 +0100, you wrote:

>> Why not make your life easy and get firetv from staples and install xbmc?
>> the video card will run 30 to 60 and fire tv is 99 but staples has coupons
>> you can buy on ebay 30 off or 25 off. 
>
>Your first reply was quite helpful, this one not so. As I wrote I
>already have the Microserver running as a backend and want to add the
>frontend to it. Secondly, xbmc is nowhere near as good as mythfrontend
>when it comes to mythtv integration, mythfrontend "makes my life easy".
>
>> Don't get a 210 
>
>Why is that? I have a 210 in my current frontend and according to the
>setup wizard it seems to play HD just fine.

A 210 will not do playback of interlaced 1080i properly.  If you live
somewhere where the TV does not broadcast 1080i, then that may be OK
for you.  If you have a 210, you need to have a CPU powerful enough to
do the deinterlacing for you.  That used to mean, as a rule of thumb,
having to have a 3.0 GHz or above CPU, as it had to be able to do it
with one core.  But that might have changed.  Having your CPU do the
deinterlacing uses lots of electricity and creates plenty of heat, so
if you have fans, they will usually speed up a bit and make noise.
Having the GPU do the deinterlacing seems to be virtually free - it
does not seem to cost any noticeable extra energy use.

In the 200 series, you need a 220 for everything to work correctly.
They are available as silent boards, but I have no idea if you can
still get one in the form factor you need.  My normal height Asus
Bravo 220 takes up all of the next slot for its heatsink.

It has been reported that in the current Nvidia chipsets, a 610 is
capable of playing 1080i in its GPU without any CPU assistance.