[mythtv-users] vdpau worth it for hdtv?

[Ben Dailey]

On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Friday 13 November 2009 09:07:51 Kevin Johnson wrote:
>> Hi All:
>>
>> I understand how vdpau reduces cpu usage and that it will allow playing
>> h.264 videos and such. However, I am wondering if there is any real
>> advantage to "upgrading" if all you do is watch ota hdtv and xvid movies?
>> Will vdpau actually improve the picture quality?  Will using a playback
>> profile that utilizes vdpau produce a better picture than the same playback
>> profile that does not use vdpau?
>
> I would argue that it's worth it for SD as well as HD, the better quality
> de-interlacers alone make it worthwhile, especially since VDPAU-capable video
> cards are pretty reasonably priced.
>
> Unless, of course, you have an AGP system, no VDPAU cards seem to be available
> with that interface. Is it worthwhile to replace an entire system? That I
> can't answer, of course. It is for me, but assuredly not for some others.
>
> --
> Brian Wood
> beww at beww.org

I have had very good luck with PCI based VDPAU Capable cards in a
couple of systems which originally had AGP cards. I also agree that
the upgrade to hardware based de-interlacing  gives a much improved
benefit. I also received the benefit of my combined frontend/backend
being capable of commflagging while simultaneously playing back a
recording which, was previously not an option so I had to run a
version of the pausecommflagging script.

HTH,
Ben