[mythtv-users] Minimum CPU for separate backend

[Cory Papenfuss]

On Fri, 25 Jun 2004, Stephen Tait wrote:
>> For a pvr-x50, a 233MHz should be completely fine for a backend.
>
> Like everyone says, most backend processes use little or no CPU. Commercial 
> detection and transcoding do benefit from fast CPU's, but pretty much any 
> processor from the past 6 or 7 years should be able to handle the bulk of the 
> backend work.

 	I forgot about the commercial flagging.  I suppose if you were running 
it on a 233, you couldn't record more than 6 hours a day if you expected 
commericals to be tagged on time.  Of course, if you're recording and watching 
that much TV every day, I think you need to seriously reconsider your 
lifestyle!

  >
>> Be careful, though... My old dual Celeron 300->450 BP6 did not recognize 
>> my PVR-250.  I think it's a newer PCI revision (subtle little suckers)
>
> Different PCI revisions usually have the notches on the the PCI slots in a 
> different place so you (usually) can't physically fir the card in. The first 
> board I tried my 250 in didn't show it up either; this was due to there not 
> being enough free IRQ's to give the 250 one to itself.
>
 	Although I've seen that too (my dual athlon board has 64-bit 3.3v PCI), 
the PVR-250 fit into the BP6 fine.  It wasn't an IRQ conflict because I 
stripped it down to nothing, swapped vid cards with different AGP/PCI ones, and 
tries many different slots.  It just plain couldn't be seen.  I talked with 
another guy who saw the same thing... pci2.1 vs 2.2 or something?  Don't know 
exactly, but it's really subtle (except that it absolutely won't work... that 
isn't subtle!)

-Cory