[mythtv-users] AMD Sempron 3000+ and HDTV

[Calin Brabandt]

On Sun, 2006-11-26 at 22:21 -0700, Mark Lehrer wrote:
> > I'm looking at a great deal on an nForce 3 Socket
754 Motherboard
> > and AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.80GHz processor.  What I'm
wondering is 
> > will that be enough horsepower to run HDTV in
1080i with no graphics
> > hardware acceleration?

Mark,  Matt's suggestion of more CPU power is a good
one.  XvMC will probably never result in perfect HD
playback for picky viewers.  I have XvMC working
fairly
well with a Sempron 2500/FX5200 and CPU power is not
the gating factor to smooth playback.  The CPU is not
fully loaded.  With audio set to /dev/null, (or other
onesense) HD playback is perfectly smooth.  There must
be A/V timing and sync issues that cause the video
ramerate changes or, even worse, prebuffering pauses.
I've never obtained perfectly smooth 1080i playback,
but 720p (ABC and Fox) is perfectly smooth.
Combinations of settings makes a huge difference (I've
played with many combinations of nvidia AGP, sync to
vblank MythOpenGL sync, extra audio buffering, etc.)
"Use Video as a Timebase" also helps, but then my
receiver loses SPDIF AC3 lock.  Slightly tweaking my
TV refresh rate from 60Hz with a modeline can
sometimes
make a difference and provide better AC3 lock.  (My TV
will sync at nearly 60Hz +/- 2Hz.

I've tried much faster CPUs with XvMC and it didn't
solve the 1080i problem.  XvMC on my Via P4M800Pro
mobo
(Openchrome drivers) was even more problematic and
I've
abandoned Unichrome Pro video for Myth.  We can always
hope XvMC on the new Intel X3000 graphics adapter will
someday work with Myth.  The drivers are in beta and
I've yet to try them out.  (I have a G965 mobo in 
the box.)

-Cal


 
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