<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 8:14 AM, ryan patterson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ryan.goat@gmail.com">ryan.goat@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Marc Barrett <<a href="mailto:mnealbarrett@cox.net">mnealbarrett@cox.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> For the purpose of fitting the requirements for playing back files from<br>
> a Hauppauge HD-PVR. Today, perhaps the quintessential "dual core"<br>
> processor is the "Core 2 Duo", and that is the one that most people with<br>
> HD-PVR's are probably using. But there are others, and I have not<br>
> kept up with new processors very well. (My systems all use Pentium 4s)<br>
><br>
> There are older processors which are still technically "dual core", and I was<br>
> wondering if they would work. There is the Pentium D, and the "Pentium<br>
> Dual Core". As well as many processors from AMD, but I admit that I know<br>
> very little about AMD. Which of these older "dual core" processor lines<br>
> would work, and how fast of a system would I need? For example, I saw<br>
> a Pentium D system at 3Ghz on Dell's outlet site for under $300. The<br>
> cheapest "Core 2 Duo" is about $400, for a 1.8Ghz system.<br>
><br>
><br>
<br>
</div></blockquote></div><br>My combined BE/FE is a Pentium dual core, /proc/cpuinfo says it's a Pentium D 2.66GHZ so I guess the Pentium D and Pentium dual-core are one and the same. It runs great, I can play back 1080i HD through my HDHomerun (So I guess that's MPEG-2?) with no issue. I'm using xVMC on an Nvidia PCI-E card.<br>
<br>I built the box myself with parts from Newegg. The reason I went with the Pentium is because it uses the Socket 775 interface, same as Core 2 Duos and Core 2 Quads (quad-core CPU). I paid something like $60 for the CPU a year ago, and when the Core CPUs get around that price, I can just drop a new C2D or C2Q in and not have to change anything else.<br>
<br>I have not tried H.264 with the system, and prior to VDPAU I was expecting it to be too slow. Once the magical convergence of VDPAU, HD-PVR and .22 hits the street it will probably need nothing more than a $40 video card, although now I'm thinking of sticking the box in a closet and getting a dedicated Atom-based FE. But I'm wildly diverging off-topic :-)<br>