[mythtv] request: OSX mythfrontend and winmyth for CVS backend

Joseph Caputo jcaputo1 at comcast.net
Thu Feb 3 05:33:38 UTC 2005


Joshua King wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> It's not that bad on my G3 iBook 900Mhz, not running a recent CVS (about 
> Nov when it all started working I think), but MPEG4 live TV is 
> watchable. Watched the tennis for a couple of minutes on Wednesday. 
> Recordings weren't watchable last time I tried, but they're RTJPEG and 
> its 802.11b networking* so I'm not worried about that yet.
> 
> Don't drop the G3 yet :)
> 
> Joshua King
> 
> * It's actually a 22mbps D-Link bridge to D-Link router with the iBook 
> on ethernet right now.
> 
> Jeremiah Morris wrote:
> 
>> On 27 Jan 2005, at 4:11 PM, Joseph A. Caputo wrote:
>>
>>> I thought as much, but how about MPEG-4 decoding?  Isn't that less
>>> CPU-intensive?  Has anyone tested performance for non-MPEG2
>>> mythfrontend playback?
>>
>>
>>
>> I did some very limited testing, and got a modest speed gain -- 
>> noticeable but not spectacular. IIRC that path was using Altivec 
>> routines for heavy lifting as well. So I wouldn't hold my breath, 
>> though I'd love to hear a G3 success story.

Well, I finally got everything built & running, and the results are not
promising.  I made a mirror of my recording storage directory on my
iBook so I could eliminate any network bandwidth issues right off the
bat (my backend is 802.11b).  Playing back MPEG-4 640x480 at 3300bps was
pretty much unwatchable -- my CPU was pegged.  Of course, this is a 
700MHz G3 iBook.

The other interesting data point was that mythfrontend sucked up 75% of 
my CPU just sitting idle at the main menu, and the UI was *very* 
sluggish, about as responsive as running mythfrontend to a remote X 
display over a slow connection.

-JAC


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