[mythtv-users] Video Card Usage

[Bob]

Timothy M. Admire wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I am in the process of putting together a MythTV system with a 
> Hauppage PVR-350 in order to do the encoding and decoding of the 
> MPEG-2 video.  I am wondering if, since this card does the encoding 
> and output of the video, will the video card itself be doing much 
> work?  My GeForce card has an onboard fan, but I'd like to disconnect 
> that if the card is not going to be using much horsepower.
>
> Also, with the PVR-350, will all video from the system be output 
> through a coax cable on the card instead of/as well as through the 
> video card?
>
> Thank you!
>
> Tim

As an alternative to what everyone else said I have a 700Mhz Duron and 
can playback MPEG2 DVD with about 60~80% CPU use and a SD XviD with 
40~50% using xv assistance with mplayer in debian etch, but without 
MythTV overhead, so if you could get one of the (usually USB external) 
tv cards that record to an XviD type MPEG4 variant, as opposed to an 
h264 type, or MPEG2 (for the PVRs) you might not need to upgrade anything.

Alternatively, you could use a PVR150/500 and give it a go watching the 
MPEG2 with xv, if that fails upgrade the graphics card to one that can 
do XVMC, or if your not in a hurry you could transcode all recordings to 
a less demanding codec, then you could probably use your current hardware.

A third option is just to use the Athlon 600 box as a backend and watch 
from a more capable frontend.

Good luck