[mythtv-users] My experience with HD video and the Nvidia 6200TC

[Jonathan Rogers]

Steven Adeff wrote:
> On 5/15/06, Jonathan Rogers <jonner at teegra.net> wrote:
>> Steven Adeff wrote:
>>> On 5/15/06, Jonathan Rogers <jonner at teegra.net> wrote:
>>>> James C. Dastrup wrote:
>>>>>> I am able to happily view high-definition (1080i and 720p) video
>>>>>> through MythTV. Here are the ingredients:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * A powerful-enough frontend. As I understand it, my Pentium 4 3.0GHz
>>>>>>  frontend/backend is just over the line in terms of having enough
>>>>>>  horsepower to display HD without XvMC. This is important, as I'll
>>>>>>  get to later.
>>>>>> * A supported video card. For HD, this generally means an Nvidia 5200
>>>>>>  (AGP) or 5300 (PCI Express; rare), or later; I have an Nvidia 6200
>>>>>>  TC with 128MB. ATI owners who want to display HD (as opposed to
>>>>>>  standard-definition) are, from what I understand, out of luck due to
>>>>>>  driver-support issues.
>>>>> ATI owners with a 9600 AGP or above and 128 MB video RAM will find
>>>>> HD works just fine using the fglrx drivers.  There is much documentation
>>>>> on the wiki and other places that no problem exists.
>>>> I am currently using a Radeon 8500 with the X.org 7.0 radeon driver and
>>>> an LCD TV connected via DVI. It works fine except that the Athlon64
>>>> 3700+ CPU is sometimes overloaded playing and deinterlacing 1080i. I
>>>> expect that to change when I switch the CPU to an Athlon 64 X2 3800+.
>>> Jonathan, what percentage of the CPU does X use and what percentage is
>>> Myth using? My 3200+ handles deinterlacing 1080i fine, but I've got a
>>> FX5200, I'm trying to get a handle on how much CPU the ATI Xorg driver
>>> uses compared to the nvidia drivers.
>> Playing a 720p movie, the "X" process takes about 50% CPU time and
>> "mythfrontend" about 30%. Playing 1080i show with Bob, "X" takes about
>> 53% and mythfrontend about 30% to 40%. Those percentages can vary quite
>> a bit with the program and even scene, which is why it usually keeps up,
>> but sometimes stutters.
> 
> strange to me that X takes up so much CPU on your system while it
> takes very little on mine. Are you sure Xv is enabled? Your Myth usage
> seems a bit lower than mine, but I'm running a 3200+, compared to your
> 3700+. Have you tried the fglrx drivers to see if they improve your X
> usage?
> 

Yes, Xvideo is certainly working, as confirmed by xvinfo and mplayer.
You have an Nvidia card, right? The load split may be different due to
hardware and driver differences. In the end, the most important thing in
determining overall functionality is total system load. The fglrx driver
did seem to use a little less CPU time, but Bob deinterlace was
completely broken and my goal is to use all Free software if possible.

Jonathan Rogers