[mythtv-users] MHEG issues (UK) - flickering, video resizing, mind the gaps!

[Sam Jacobs]

Hi all,

I've noticed a few issues with MHEG, and couldn't find any posts on
them, so here they are, in no particular order:

1. Some apps, always on Teletext's ones but I have seen it on BBCi
once or twice, flicker on and off the screen. It seems to be related
somehow to the updating of the screen (like the news ticker on page
100 of Teletext, and while it usually comes back on it's own it can
take a button press or two. What can be seen when the MHEG has
flickered off the screen brings me conveniently to the next issue:

2. When an app requests video to be rendered quarter-screen, the
frontend actually decodes and renders a copy of the same video stream
(CPU usage about doubles, but network activity stays the same). While
this probably isn't an issue on reasonably powerful frontends with SD
video (on my Mac, CPU usage is about 40% normally, and 80% when on a
BBCi page displaying 1/4-screen), it isn't very efficient and I'd
imagine things would suffer greatly with HD video.

3. The gaps! Obviously, it must be difficult to get everything laid
out correctly, and the engine does a great job at the moment, but
because of 2 the gaps are really obvious because the fullscreen video
shows through them!

Anyway, that's about it. Just thought I should sum these issues up,
since I couldn't find any posts on them and if nothing else this might
spark discussion on it.

Thanks,
Sam

-- 
Sam Jacobs on MythTV 0.21, UK Freeview, EIT-only EPG
mythbox: BE+FE, Mythbuntu 8.04, Athlon XP2000+ at 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM,
nVidia GeForce 4MX (proprietary driver)
tuners on mythbox: Nebula DigiTV PCI, Elgato EyeTV for DTT Stick
(Hauppauge Nova-T USB Stick in disguise!)
smbx: FE, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Macbook Intel Core Duo at 2.0GHz, 2GB RAM