[mythtv-users] MPEG2 Encoded Program Playback Performance w/VIA Unichrome xvmc

[Doug Lim]

I've got an EPIA MII-12000 with a Hauppauge PVR-350. I am using
 the S-Video port on the motherboard and the hardware MPEG2
 decoding of the Unichrome chipset.
 
 I've installed MythTV on Gentoo and in particular, I've followed
 the directions at
 
 http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Unichrome#5._Xorg_-_section_still_under_edit
 
 to get X.org patched for Unichrome xvmc support.
 
 The fact that xvmc support is working properly in general is confirmed
 by the fact that both DVD and MPEG2-encoded recorded program playback through
 xine (with -vo xxmc) are putting about 5% load on the CPU.
 
 Another indicator that MythTV is using VIA xvmc hardware MPEG2 decoding
 is that when that option is enabled in the MythTV setup, the OSD
 displays in greyscale (as described and patched for
 at http://www.ivor.it/mythtv/).
 
 When playing the same MPEG2-encoded recorded program under MythTV, I'm
 seeing mythfrontend putting about 30-40% load on the CPU (compared to
 50-60% load without enabling VIA hardware MPEG2 decoding).
 
 Is there anyone with a similar setup seeing the same or similar performance
 and does anyone know why there isn't as much of a performance improvement
 doing hardware MPEG2 decoding under MythTV as is observed playing the
 same content under xine with hardware MPEG2 decoding?