[mythtv-users] CPU not enough to drive 1080P? Core2duo

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Thu Feb 7 18:36:16 UTC 2008


On 02/07/2008 12:21 PM, aaron wrote:
> On 2/7/08, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
>   
>> My GeForce 4 MX 440 drives full 1080p.
> This might be asking the obvious, but it's all the "other stuff" ---
> such as main CPU power --- that determines how well 1080p content (or
> HD in general) will play, right?
>   

Right.  XvMC can only do so much for you, and it doesn't take much of a 
video card (by today's standards) to do XvMC for HDTV.  NVIDIA's drivers 
and cards have all done both iDCT and MC for XvMC since before the 
GeForce 4 generation, so any from there up would work ('til you get to 
the GeForce 8 generation, which drops XvMC support).

> Am I correct in my understanding that the 440MX will support XvMC?

Yep.  Though I wouldn't recommend using it.  See 
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/313381#313381 .  That 
user was trying to save money.  If you don't already have an MX440, 
you're better off with a 5200 or a 6200 or so.  My last purchase was a 
6200 (I'm not using the MX440, anymore) because the MX440 has been 
EOL'ed and the legacy drivers were broken (caused segfaults when playing 
Flash, i.e. at YouTube or Google video--not that I ever use them, but 
long story, so nevermind).  Instead of buying a 5200 (whose generation 
is next on the chopping block), I bought a 6200 to "skip" one EOL (I hope).

>  I'm
> pretty sure I'll need that to have a hope in heck of playing any HD on
> my system --- once I finally get my a TV. I've got an AthlonXP 2800+.
> :)
>   

I think you're right about that.  I know my XP 2400+ backend can't come 
anywhere near real-time playback of HDTV.  It can take as much as 2:1 to 
just commflag the HDTV it records.

Mike


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list