[mythtv-users] Re: xbox myth and hdtv

[Brad Templeton]

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 12:05:10PM -0800, Paul Mietz Egli wrote:
> Barry Smoke <barry at arhosting.com> writes:
> > Does myth frontend, running on xbox use the hdtv output to get better 
> > picture?
> 
> Yep.  I've got an XBox hooked up to a 37" Sharp AQUOS HD set and
> displaying at 480p.  My backend has a PVR-250 and records regular analog

480p is known as EDTV, it is not HDTV.

The CPU in the xbox certainly is incapable of doing a software decode
of HDTV, especially 1080i.   The nvidia graphics chip in the xbox
could do xvmc, but my attempts (not on an xbox) do do hardware decoded
1080i on such a CPU did not succeed, so I doubt the xbox could do it
but I have not tried an xbox itself.

Myth's xvmc support still has some issues as far as being able to seek,
with various other ones reported.

So my guess would be, unless somebody pipes up, that the answer is
no, you won't get HDTV from an xbox, though you could get fine EDTV.

The xbox is cheap and quiet but high end hardware is now costing not
a lot more than it, though it's not as quiet because it needs bigger
fans.

Right now if you want HDTV your curse is you need a big enough CPU to
need a fan you can probably hear, though there are lots of people who
sell fans and cases that are pretty quiet.   Even if the fan is quiet
when the CPU is idle, decoding will use most of your CPU and crank up
the heat.  So does commercial elimination or transcode.   I find it
amusing that, if I pass by the TV room just _after_ a show I have recorded
is on, the machine gets loud for a while.  I need to move commercial skip
to a different backend.