Re[2]: [mythtv] Trading CPU for disk (capture using low cpu codec?)

Wayne Johnson mythtv-dev@snowman.net
Fri, 13 Dec 2002 11:44:17 -0600


Hello Henk,
           http://www.directron.com/blackdesktop.html is a case I own
that is both fairly nice and cheap at US$44. Guess everything's just a
little more expensive comparatively where you are.
Friday, December 13, 2002, 7:15:06 AM, you wrote:

>> Van: Isaac Richards <ijr@po.cwru.edu>
>> 
>>> On Thursday 12 December 2002 12:42 pm, Henk Poley wrote:
>>> I guess most of you saw the yesterday article on Slashdot, about the
>>> "DreamBox", http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/ .  It uses hardware
>>> record and playback of MPEG2 files (AFAIK). Just the price it a bit high
>>> at ~500 EUR, and it still needs a harddisk (that will make 650 EUR). 
>>> And this device cannot play CDs/DVDs since it doesn't have a DVD-drive.
>> 
>> Nope.  It uses a dvb card to grab the satellite stream, and so is only
>> useful in Europe.

HP> I happen to live there. It can also record normal cable TV. And, "nope" to
HP> what?

>>> BTW, >=800MHz Ezra and Eden processors are also quite capable of
>>> _playing_ DVDs (MPEG2) and DivX, even with their bad FPU-performance.
>>> These boxes (mini-ITX and book-PCs) are around for 200-400 EUR, all-in
>>> most of the time.  Misses a TV-in though, plus the harddisk that's too
>>> small, 10GB :-(
>> 
>> From the benchmarks I've seen, those boxes, even the new 933MHz ones,
>> can barely playback divx files.

HP> Hmmm, must be the mostly-emulated FPU...

HP> But anyways, PC Intern about the ECS i-Note IN22 (VIA C3 GigaPro):
HP> "Trotzdem meisterte der i-Note auch Multimediaaufgaben wie das Abspielen
HP> von Filmen oder Musik ohne problemen"

HP> In English: "The I-Note even does multimedia-playback like video or music
HP> quite nicely". Though that doesn't say anything about DivX in special...
HP> They ran it on Win2k.

>>> My bet is still that MythTV costs more, as long as you don't want
>>> everything. A nice looking silent MythTV-PC in the order of magnitude
>>> what Isaac uses cost 890-1020 EUR, AFAIK. Unless you go bargainshopping
>>> all around the internet, but that might show up not to save you that
>>> much.
>> 
>> About US$200 for the CPU, motherboard, and RAM to get something faster
>> than what I have.  Figure $50 for a decent tuner card, another $50 for an
>> older gf2 with a tv out, $50 for a cheap desktop case, and $100 for 80GB
>> of harddrive space.  Not terribly expensive.
>>
>> I think I spent about $80 getting the fan noise down to acceptable levels
>> -- quieter than my ps2 and gamecube, at least.

HP> Athlon XP 1800+   :  89.00
HP> 256MB DDR333-CL3  :  85.00
HP> (..alternate..)

HP> Adds to 174 EUR, pretty sloppy motherboard for ~40 euros. Cheapest ('good'
HP> one) I see are ~85 EUR. btw, 10 EUR more and you have faster DDR266-CL2.
HP> And off coarse SDRAM is about half the price per MB.

HP> No offence meant, but $50 for a case would probably buy you one you _need_
HP> to put in a closet, I guess. In my case ;) a desktop model won't fit (not
HP> enough space near TV).

>>> Wouldn't it be handy to make a general resize prog that can be piped to
>>> the actual encoder (you know, capture at 2x the resolution you record
>>> at). mjpeg has it built in, isn't? It might as well improve DivX
>>> compression since the uncompressed picture would be cleaner (less
>>> 'snow'). And future codecs will like it too.
>> 
>> I dunno, I'd think that resizing in software when you can just ask the
>> capture card for the lower resolution would be fairly silly.  I doubt
>> you'd get any better picture quality out of doing that.

HP> Someone told quite recently on the list that he experienced this.

HP>         Henk Poley <><
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-- 
Best regards,
 Wayne                            mailto:bigman1@alltel.net