[mythtv-users] How to tell if XvMC is working?

[matthew.garman at gmail.com]

If I select "Standard XvMC" as my preferred MPEG-2 decoder, how can
I tell if XvMC is actually working?

I.e., if it fails, will MythTV display nothing?  Or will it fall
back on another method?

I came across this thread:

    http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3942343.html

The post by RoundsToZero (near the bottom) says the line

    AFD: Opened codec 0x84b7150, id(MPEG2VIDEO_XVMC) type(Video)

is sufficient to show that XvMC is running and that the text

    VideoOutputXv: XvMCTex: Init failed

is meaningless.

By that claim, I have XvMC "working".  However, CPU usage is around
90% while watching recorded HDTV.  If I play one of the HDTV files
(recorded by mythbackend) directly with mplayer, ala

    mplayer -vo xvmc -vc ffmpeg12mc /path/to/video.mpg

Then I get around 30% CPU usage.

So, I don't understand if (1) XvMC simply isn't working, or (2) XvMC
is working, just sub-optimally.

FWIW, my hardware is an Abit NF-M2 nView motherboard.  Using onboard
GeForce 6150 graphics, 2x512 GB RAM, and Athlon 64 X2 3800+.
Outputting via DVI->HDMI cable at 1280x720.  (The CPU is fast enough
to do HD on its own, but I'd like the setup to be as optimal as
possible.)


Thanks,
Matt