[mythtv-users] Mac Mini Core Solo as FE/BE Combo?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 3/22/07, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 21 March 2007 17:16:25 Michael Freeman wrote:
> > On 3/21/07, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:
> > > On Sunday 11 March 2007 22:36:26 Byron Poland wrote:
> > > > On 2/26/07, Jarod Wilson <lists at wilsonet.com> wrote:
> > > > > Another follow-up... Until earlier tonight, my current frontend box
> > > > > actually had 2GB of RAM in it. I dropped it down to 1GB, and with
> > > > > blootube-wide as my GUI theme at 1920x1080p, swapping has returned.
> > > > > Playback is still generally smooth, but doesn't seem to start up as
> > > > > instantaneously. Its especially noticeable exiting a recording and/or
> > > > > the recordings screen, when it takes a second or two for the whole
> > > > > screen to repaint and the hard drive led flashes like mad. I'm now
> > > > > debating getting 2GB of RAM for my duo mini instead of just 1GB...
> > > >
> > > > Any word on how the 1.66 duo did outputing to 1080p? (with Myth on
> > > > Linux or OSX) I'm thinking of getting one.
> > >
> > > Been tied up with other stuff, the mini has just been sitting around
> > > doing nothing for the pas two weeks. Finally got the memory ordered late
> > > last week,
> > > supposed to be here today...
> >
> > I put a T7200 in my former Core Solo Mini and got Gentoo on it.
> > Playing the season premiere of 24 over the network from my current active
> > master backend worked really smoothly....according to top, one core was
> > pegged by X and the other was at 30% - used by mythfrontend.
> > IIRC, this was 720p.
> >
> > Any suggestions as to what I might have messed up to make X suck down so
> > much CPU?
> > It seems somewhat high.
>
> Which X driver are you using there? i810 or intel? You want the intel driver.
> I'm using the latest and greatest with xorg 7.2-ish.
>
> As for my progress... I got the 2GB of RAM into my mini last night, and at
> 1680x1050 resolution, playback of both 720p and 1080i stuff looks damned
> good. Didn't check cpu usage, but I doubt its all that different than before,
> likely just less iowait from swapping. Going to hook it up to my 1080p HDTV
> tonight to see how it fares there...

I don't know if you saw the other recent thread on this,  but the
1080p playback problems came up there, with a potential solution
(changing the default refresh to 60 instead of 150):
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/258121#258121

I'm traveling, so I haven't had a chance to test it myself, but if you
still have 1080p playback problems, it's worth a try.  With my MacBook
Pro (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, Radeon X1600 video) I was able to
replicate the jumpy video at 1080p, when I get home I plan on testing
the modification.


Also - did you jump right to 2GB, or did you try 1GB?  My Mini works
well with 1GB..  more memory is always better, but for others looking
to get a new mini they may be able to get buy with a less expensive
configuration.