[mythtv-users] New Guy Says What?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 09/21/2007 12:26 PM, chris at idlelion.net wrote:
> From: "Mitch Gore" <mitchell.gore at gmail.com>
>   
>>> Issue 1: I can see a picture on all the local digital stations. 
>>> However, video playback is really slow, like 3 to 5 frames per second 
>>> on HD content; 8 to 12 on SD. The CPU is pegged as well, making me 
>>> think MythTV isn't using accelerated playback.
>>>       
>
>   
>> 1.7Ghz is going to be pushing it with HD.  You will most likely need to 
>> upgrade.  A better video card (nvidia 5200 or 6200) would help if you 
>> configure XvMC but even then its really close.  I once got HD working on 
>> a Athlon 1800 but just barely and ended up upgraded for a better user 
>> experience
>>     
>
>   
>> See here for more info:
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Configuring_HDTV
>>     
>
> Thanks Mitch! This page http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/XvMC seems to 
> show a 1GHz Thunderbird playing just fine using a GeForce 4MX. I'll look 
> into upgrading the video card, but my machine should also take a 2.8GHz P4 
> or even a 3.06GHz HT P4, but the latter are still pricey.
>
> Seems like my 3Ti just won't cut it.
>   

IIRC it only does Motion Compensation with XvMC, so the proc still has
to do iDCT (which is the harder part).  GF4 and above do both.  I'd
recommend a GF6x00 or better so it's supported longer (GF4 is already a
legacy GPU).

However, IMHO, if you're not doing software decoding (i.e. all on the
CPU), you lose too much useful functionality, so I'd recommend upgrading
the CPU.

>>> Issue 2: No sound at all from MythTV but sound works in other 
>>> applications. OpenArena works perfectly.
>> check you playback settings.  If i remember correctly its in 
>> Setup>Playback>TV playback or something like that.  You may need to 
>> configure you sound to use the right output (OSS, ALSA, Spdif etc.) 
>> Scroll through the options till you find one that works.
>>     
> Excellent. Will try this tonight.

I'm guessing it's an issue with a misconfigured ALSA. 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Configuring_Digital_Sound

Mike