[mythtv-users] HD content playback on Mac Mini OS X

[Nicholas Bonfatti]

I can answer most of your questions, although I'm not a MythFrontEnd  
developer. JSYK, I've been running the front end on a PBG4 1.25Ghz w/  
512MB, but I don't use HD video. (comments inline)

On Jun 6, 2005, at 10:24 PM, Fox Hole wrote:

>
> First of all, thanks to the guys who have put together the Mac OS X  
> port.  It runs my analog recordings quite well, even though  
> skipping and jumping is painfully slow.  I could bare that, as I  
> can imagine that will only improve.  My biggest concern is HD  
> playback, and I'm sure this has been discussed thousands of times  
> already.  I am unable to playback HD content of any size, as the  
> poor mini can't seem to keep up.  In many cases, the content will  
> not even display a single frame.  Sometimes I'll hit bits and  
> pieces of the audio.

Yeah, pretty much.

>
> I bought the Mini as a frontend playback device.  Should I hold  
> onto the Mini in the hopes that it will be able to playback 1080i  
> content smoothly, or is the Mini unpowered?  Will MythTV ever be  
> able to take advantage of the MPEG-2 hardware decoding offered by  
> the video interface?  For me, PVR is the sole purpose of this Mini  
> and most of my recordings are HD.
>
There is the possibility of the hardware decoding being offered by  
the video interface (DVD Player uses it), but afaik, more than one  
developer has been having problems accessing that functionality -  
Apple hasn't published the APIs. I wouldn't rely on it happening soon.

> Have others had any luck with acceptable HD content playback?  For  
> the authors of the OS X port, is there a timeline for such  
> capability or am I living in a pipedream?

Not to be rude, but my vote goes to pipedream, sorry!

--Nick