[mythtv-users] A paradigm shift is coming. Are you ready?

[Andrew Gallatin]

Brian Phillips [brian.phillips at gmx.net] wrote:
> one thing, the mode of outputting these MPEG2/MPEG4 streams to my
> television.  It seems that any nvidia after the 6 series (or earlier) will
> do, as long as you have a sufficiently good processor.  My question is, why
> do we need to purchase an $80+ processor to handle this stuff?  Why can't we
> get some hardware to do this decoding for us?  XvMC is offered as a way of

FWIW, I'm in the same situation as the OP.  I have a 3.0GHz P4 with an
Nvidia 5200 which has been (barely) playing back 1080i sitting next to
my TV for 3 years.

What I wish is that MythTV could work better with "extender" type
hardware.  I'd rather have some thin client in the $200 range with a
5-10W power envelope which does excellent playback via hardware
offloads than a PC sitting next to my TV.  But the lack of the MythTV
UI, and the lack features like commercial skipping on UPNP type
devices makes them a nonstarter for use with Myth in my house.

I'm actually thinking about jumping ship for Sage because of their HD
extender (which does comskip), since it will only cost me $280 for
perfect HD playback and will allow me to move all the PC hardware out
of the livingroom.  There was some talk of reverse engineering their
extender and using it with Myth, but I haven't heard much on that for
a while... I sure hope that happens.

Drew