[mythtv] Mac OS X MPEG-2 Acceleration Status?

[galenz at zinkconsulting.com]

Hello,

It looks like some code has been developed for MPEG-2 acceleration  
under MythTV Mac OS X. I found this thread while searching around:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/183413

I am very interested in seeing Accellent-type (the original project I  
helped / pushed to get working under 10.4) MPEG-2 acceleration for  
Mac OS X implemented in a way that is usable and available to users,  
and I've been in contact with another programmer who shares this  
desire. There are millions upon millions of Macs, particularly PPC  
Mac Minis, all iBooks, and all PowerBooks that would love to be able  
to play back HDTV, but basically can't. I'm curious as to the status  
of the MythTV code in this department so that nobody goes out and re- 
invents the wheel, and if the wheel hasn't yet been invented, perhaps  
we can work together a little :)

As for the efficacy of Accellent, I can vouch for that. Using 0.3.1,  
no HD-resolution content, not even 1080p content, averages more than  
30% CPU utilization - on an older 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4! (For  
comparison, 720p in VLC with color conversion offloaded through  
OpenGL pegs my CPU and barely works - lower bitrate content sometimes  
plays well, but higher bitrate stuff stutters, and there's absolutely  
no hope for de-interlaced 1080i or 1080p playback.)

With Accellent, the video is just perfect and smooth, and doesn't  
suffer from the UI integration issues sometimes caused by traditional  
hardware accelerated video overlay techniques that are sometimes used  
for video acceleration. The only real problem with Accellent is that  
it's a proof of concept project that only handles video playback (no  
playback controls even) that's fed in via an MPEG program stream  
(i.e. .mpg file, not transport stream). It has a very simple demuxer,  
no audio playback capabilities, no video playback controls and some  
bugs in relation to framerate detection.

For the curious, here's the link to the Accellent project:
http://www.defyne.org/dvb/accellent.html

I would like to know who - if anybody - has been working on this Mac  
MPEG-2 acceleration, and if there may be other people interested in  
and capable of working on it. I believe that we could put all our  
heads together and turn out something of real value for everybody.

-Galen