[mythtv-users] mythfrontend HDTV performance on recent AMD chipsets (was Re: X2 5000 enough to play HD?)

[Chris Porter]

On Wednesday 27 August 2008 12:10:04 pm Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 08/27/2008 02:54 PM, kanetse wrote:
> > On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 11:36 AM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> >> The big overlap on the two motherboards (and the big disconnect from the
> >> previous) is the AMD chipset (versus the NVIDIA nForce on the previous
> >> mobo).  The AMD chipset is only /very/ recently supported (sometime
> >> after 2.6.21), so I'm starting to think that the chipset support is
> >> still too immature for the kind of work a Myth HDTV frontend needs to
> >> do.  I'm considering getting another mobo with an NVIDIA chipset.  (The
> >> really annoying thing is each time I do, I have to get another AM2+
> >> processor and some RAM so I don't waste the other mobo--which seem to
> >> work more than well enough for a "normal" non-Myth computer.  Oh well,
> >> the Biostar has become my new Myth dev box and was >>4x faster at
> >> compiling Myth than my old Athlon XP 1700+ dev box. :)
> >>
> >> I'll let you know once I figure it out.
> >>
> >> In all the above configurations, I'm using Linux kernel 2.6.26.2 and
> >> ALSA 1.0.17.
> >>
> >> Moral of the story, don't mess with a working Myth system... :)
> >>
> >> What chipset are you using?
> >
> > I'm using a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, which has, from what I read, is a
> > recent AMD 780G chipset.  Based on my observation that my CPU
> > utilization is nowhere near 100% on even one core of the CPU, that's
> > what lead me to believe the poor playback is not CPU-related.
>
> I agree completely.  My mobos have (Biostar A740G M2+) AMD 740G/SB700
> and (Asus M3A) AMD 770/SB600.  The kernel support for these chipsets
> (including yours) is very new, so I'm--once again--thinking the chipset
> support is the issue, as it's too immature for this application.
>
> On my system, I can do 1x playback (no timestretch) generally OK, but
> once I've transferred sufficient data (as previously mentioned, I
> definitely have issues by the time the frontend has received 50GiB via
> the LAN), even 1x playback gets prebuffering pauses and I have to reboot.
>
> Your experience--and having similar chipset--is providing a bit more
> motivation for me to go out and get another mobo...
>
> Do others see issues with recent AMD chipsets?  Have you found
> workarounds (kernel options)?
>
> Mike
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I am running a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H with an X2 4200 and 2GB of RAM and a 
Nvidia 6600 GPU w/ proprietary drivers. HD play back is excellent. CPU 
utilization is almost nothing playing back 720p or 1080i video via firewire. 
Early on when I first setup my system for HD in order to get smooth playback 
I had to enable aggressive sound card buffering and one other sound feature 
which is not normally checked. But since then with several MB changes in the 
same configuration I have no issues playing back HD content.