[mythtv-users] CPU Performance required three dumb capture cards

[Adam Felson]

My multimedia computer's hardware is an asus a7v333, an athlon XP 2400,
and 512MB DDR 3200 memory.

When I had one video capture card (BT848), it ran like a champ able to
do 640x480 mpeg4 encoding and tv output in real time with about 55% cpu
load.
With two cards (second is a bt878), it maxes out the CPU and can't keep
up;  tv out will run with a 1/2 second pause every 4 seconds.

Right now I've got it set to encode using rjpeg at 480x480 resolution. 
It is set to "transcode after recording" and the transcode profile is
set to do mpeg4.  Is that how to set it up?  I have the
default/tv/highq/lowq profiles set to do rjpeg and the transcode profile
set to do mpeg4.  It seems to be mostly working although the system now
crashes a lot -- it can only go about day between crashes.  Crashes are
weird -- video stays up (audio will go in a loop), keyboard flashes and 
nothing ever gets written to a log file.

This morning I tried to watch a previously recorded show while two
channels were being recorded.  Mythtv couldn't keep up.

Sheesh:  I want to network this thing and be able to capture two
programs while watching a third.  It doesn't look like the fastest cpu
that I can put on that motherboard (athlon xp3200,333mhz fsb) will be
able to keep up.  My wife will kill me if I try to justify having two
servers.

-- 
Adam Felson <a.f.5 at pobox.com>