[mythtv-users] minimum specs for PCHDTV-5500?

Bob Sully rcs at malibyte.net
Wed Mar 26 22:54:02 UTC 2008


> Message: 19
> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:46:38 -0400
> From: "Mary Strimel" <mary.strimel at gmail.com>
> Subject: [mythtv-users] minimum specs for PCHDTV-5500?
> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<f55c291a0803261146m40b1cd6dl3e494d33cc9245c0 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> hello mythfolk,
> I have put a pchdtv-5500 into my myth box which consists of a 4-years old
> AMD Athlon 64 (I think the CPU is rated at 800 mhz).
>
> In theory, my box should be capable of recording from this card in HD.  In
> fact PCHDTV minimum specs say 400 mhz pentium would be enough.
>
> As for playback, I downloaded an HD testfile - I forgot from where, it
> appeared to be a computer-animated short film that my computer played back
> in beautiful widescreen HD with no problems.  My video card is a nvidia
> fx-5200.
>
> So how come, when I try to record QAM from Comcast cable on this card, the
> results are unwatchable, blocky and hesitating to the point where it
> barely
> looks like tv?  (I think it is a resource problem, since when there is a
> still frame or very little movement, the blockiness reduces somewhat).  I
> have tried to record, then stop and watch (so as not to be taping and
> playback simultaneously).  I have also tried XVMC playback, which seems to
> make no discernible difference in the results.
>
> Please try to resist telling me not to buy the pchdtv-5500, 'cause I think
> it's too late to return :)  Could it be that the specs on the PCHDTV site
> are just plain wrong?  Seems more likely I am doing something wrong.


Mary:

I have two 5500s and am generally quite happy with them.  Your problem is
not the tuner card.  An Athlon 800MHz CPU is fine for recording, but is in
no way good enough for HD playback.  If you want to keep that machine I'd
suggest you use it as a backend, and get a frontend with a much beefier
CPU.

As an example, I have a 1080i TV which I run (with my Myth box, which is a
combined backend/frontend) at 720p (because I also use it as a computer,
and reading xterm text with 1080i gives me a headache).  At this
resolution, playback using the Athlon-64 4000+, which I overclock a bit
(2.6GHz) is good.  I have tried hooking this up to a monitor at 1080p, and
it's a no-go.  It does its best but sometimes loses audio/video sync.  At
a minimum, I'd suggest a dual-core (Intel or Athlon) 64-bit processor
running at 3+ GHz.  The new de-interlacers are nice but very CPU-hungry.

HTH
Bob




More information about the mythtv-users mailing list