[mythtv-users] nVidia card choices, and processors for HDTV playback

[Scott Alfter]

On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 05:44:41PM -0800, Brad Templeton wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 05:08:56PM -0800, Scott Alfter wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 12:42:38PM -0500, Bill Smith wrote:
> > A couple of brands that use passive cooling on their 5200s are Gainward (in
> > my MythTV box) and Albatron (just bought one yesterday to replace an
> > All-In-Wonder Radeon).  I bought both of these at Fry's; they're probably
> > available elsewhere for a little less than the $70 I paid, but local
> > availability is a Good Thing.  Drivers are available for both x86 and AMD64.  
> 
> I got a gigabyte one for $52 a while back, check with froogle or shopper.com
> Passive cooling.  But unable to drive my HDTV over DVI, and others report
> the same thing on other cards with the same chip.

It works for me (the Gainward card is in the Myth box).

> I guess we need to ask, who is driving their HDTV with DVI at 1080i from
> an Nvidia FX 5200?  Is everybody failing or is it just a few, ie. some
> combination of the card/driver and the receiver chip in some TVs?

Native resolution for mine is 1280x768, so I've not tried anything
different.  I had a 720p modeline running on it briefly (I had another LCD
briefly that wanted 720p), but I've not tried 1080i.  I don't yet have a
HDTV source for it, but I figure I might as well get all the pieces in place
before 5 July rolls around.

> > On a sidenote, I downloaded the HDTV samples Jarod Wilson (?) had put up a
> > while back.  I was able to get the 1080i sample to play back smoothly for
> > the first time yesterday on a Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500, once I replaced the
> > AIW Radeon.  I suppose I could upgrade the MythTV box from its current
> > Athlon XP 2400 to an Athlon 64, but (1) I'm having trouble getting
> > mythfrontend running on Gentoo Linux for AMD64 and and (2) a processor
> > upgrade would be cheaper and simpler.  If I just get the fastest Athlon XP I
> > can find (Newegg lists a Barton-core 3200 with 512K cache), will this
> > provide smooth playback of 1080i HDTV?  (The 2400 I have now plays 720p
> > acceptably, but 1080i playback is jerky.)
> 
> So you have the myth player compiled for 64 bit?

Yes, but as soon as it starts playing video, the frontend crashes.  I'm
running 0.16, with the same ebuild (it's Gentoo) that's on the Myth box.

> Would be quite interested in your processor idle times on the AMD64 with
> the 64 bit version and the 32 bit if you are willing to try it.

I need to get the frontend running first.  I suppose I could just try
playing the clips in mplayer or xine, but I would need to either figure out
how to build 32-bit apps on an AMD64 system or copy binaries from an x86
system (the latter might be the easier way to go).  I can build 32-bit
binaries on x86 and install/run them on AMD64 (it's how I got LILO working), but
building 32-bit binaries on AMD64 (outside a 32-bit chroot, which I haven't
set up yet) is a little bit trickier.

  _/_
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