[mythtv-users] Recommendations for Myth Frontend on Raspberry Pi?

[Tom Harris]

On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 10:20 AM, Peter Bennett <cats22 at comcast.net> wrote:

>
>
> On 03/16/2017 03:41 AM, Simon Hobson wrote:
>
>> Not that surprising.
>> Without the UI showing, once the video is playing then the CPU is
>> basically shovelling data from the network to the GPU and the GPU is doing
>> all the work.
>> Once you add the UI, then I suspect the CPU has to decode the video so it
>> can overlay the UI on it before feeding the decoded & modified video to the
>> GPU.
>>
> Not true. Video is decoded by the GPU whether the OSD is visible or not.
> If you select OpenGL for the OSD, the GPU does the work of overlaying it
> on the video. If you select "softblend" then MythTV code is using the CPU
> to merge the OSD into each frame.
> OpenGL is the better option, but it may require more memory allocated to
> the GPU.
>
>>   If there's any way to see the processor load in the GPU then I suspect
>> you'd see a corresponding drop.
>>
>> The ideal would be to be able to keep shovelling the raw data at the GPU
>> and have that overlay the UI as it decodes the video - but I suspect the
>> architecture of Mythfrontend would need some major remodelling to support
>> that.
>>
> Unfortunately it does a lot more than shovel data at the GPU. There is
> actually a lot of processing done between frames, regardless of whether the
> OSD is displayed.
>

Just following up with a status update after a few weeks usage.   I
switched my Pi3 from LibreEelec+Kodi to mythfrontend and I’ve been very
happy with it.  The UI is quite snappy and the skip ahead / skip back is
lightning fast, as one expects with mythfrontend.     It’s hard to beat the
Pi3 in terms of size/heat/power/noise/availability/cost for a MythTV
frontend.

A few notes/comparisons to the Kodi I had been using for the last year+:

- Setup:  LibreElec+Kodi is the winner in this department.  dd the image to
a µSD drive and enable the MythTV plugin and you’re done.  All the video
settings are like a simple STB.  The LibreElec tagline is “just enough OS
for Kodi”, and you can see that in the simplicity/efficiency.  MythTV
setup, as we know, is quite a bit more involved.

- UX: I’m not a fan of Kodi’s UI/UX.  Those odd overlay navigation menus
that pop up if you Esc out of playback, etc.   Mythfrontend is like
standard DVD/DVR menu navigation, and the playback skip ahead is so quick.
The one thing I had trouble adjusting back to is “Down Arrow = Skip
Ahead”.  With most devices down=back up=forward.

- Video Playback: Both are quite good.  I sometimes notice some judder in
mythfrontend on horizontal pans (e.g. sporting events, tracking players
down the court).  But, it’s subtle enough that I question whether it’s just
me, or the video wasn’t totally smooth.

- Audio Playback: Had to configure Stereo playback in mythfrontend.  Kodi
works with HDMI surround enabled.    This is a non-factor for me, stereo is
fine for my TV viewing.
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