[mythtv-users] Graphics card recomendation

[Michael T. Dean]

On 08/24/2006 12:11 PM, Dylan Semler wrote:

> As of right now, my system seems to be too slow to handle HD.  When 
> running myth with XvMC, I get about 5 quick prebuffering pauses per 
> second on an HD channel.  Without XvMC I get much longer pauses at a 
> bit longer of an interval (one per second or so).  I'm hoping that I 
> can just upgrade my graphics card, but I'd like to see what the list 
> thinks first.  Currently, I run:
>
> P4 2.23 GHz
> 512 MB RDRAM  <-- ugh!
> 64 MB NVidia GeForce 4200
>
> According to the Nvidia driver's readme, the GeForce4 Ti models' XvMC 
> don't support "IDCT," only "motion-compensation."  While I'm not sure 
> what either of those terms mean, I believe that mine is a Ti model and 
> am hoping that IDCT is an integral part of processing HD streams.  So 
> I'm eyeing a 256MB 5200 for under $50.


Both Motion Compensation (MC) and inverse Discrete Cosine Transform 
(iDCT) must occur when decoding an MPEG-2 video stream.  So, if you're 
using XvMC and your card doesn't support iDCT, your CPU does it.

Mike