[mythtv-users] New laptop - what video do I need for MythTV these days?

[Stephen Worthington]

My 8 year old GT70 laptop is dying - one hinge is gone and the other
is loose.  So I need to choose what to replace it with.  The GT70 has
a 17" screen and an Intel i7-3610QM processor with whatever Intel HD
graphics was around back then, and also an Nvidia GTX 670M GPU.  The
1920x1080 screen is 60 Hz - I do not think it has any other options.

So what sort of graphics that is available in a laptop now is
recommended for MythTV?  Obviously Nvidia will still work, but you
only seem to find them in gaming class laptops, and the version of
Nvidia chip is overkill for MythTV.  Is the Intel HD graphics in their
laptop processors now good enough to do full deinterlacing properly?
In my GT70, the Intel GPU was not quite there - it is not bad, but the
Nvidia GPU is perfect, so I always use that.  And what about the AMD
GPUs?  I have never used one with MythTV - are the ones available in
laptops good now?  Do the Linux drivers work properly?

And what about 4K?  I would hope to keep any new laptop I buy going
for at least the 8 years I got out of the GT70, so does that mean I
should be getting one with a 4K screen?  Or at least one that can do
4K on its HDMI port?  Currently, I do not have any 4K screens, and TV
here in New Zealand is only 1080i.  And I do not do Netflix or other
subscription TV that has a 4K option.  So deinterlacing is very
important, but 4K not so much yet.

The other thing about laptop screens now is that there seems to be
some that do higher frame rates, such as 120 or 144 Hz.  I do not need
that for TV, but if it means that the screen can adjust to different
frame rates and do 50 Hz for NZ TV instead of being stuck on 60 Hz,
that seems like an very good thing to have.

I am thinking that 17" is overkill and 15" is probably fine, but 17"
has worked well for when we are away on holiday and two people are
watching at the same time.

So is anyone using a modern laptop for MythTV and can tell me how well
it works?