[mythtv] R5000-HD

[Alan Nisota]

Most of these questions are myth-users related.  If you'd like to 
continue the discussion, mail me off-list, but I'll answer here this one 
time.

Info at quantum-sci.com wrote:
> I notice the R5000 uses the free Titan EPG, but I read somewhere that Myth uses one you have to pay for.  Is it not possible to use the actual DishNetwork EPG with MythTV? 
No this isn't really possible.  The R5000 works by snooping the data 
bus, and the ViP211 only puts the data it is currently using on the 
bus.  So you don't have program data very often, and you can't reliably 
capture it the once-a-day that it gets downloaded.  Schedules direct is 
quite reliable though in my experience.
> Is it possible to have Myth automatically transcode from TS to BD in background, and store the result where I assign?
I have no idea if the transcoder can do this.
>   I am just starting the build of my HTPC, so where should the power be for this system?
For H264, you need at minimum a dual-core machine (Minimum spec is 
probably an Athlon 4600x2 equivalent).  Video card won't matter much as 
long as it can do Xv in Linux (on board graphics are sufficient for both 
my AMD (nvidia 7150) and intel (G35) boxes.
> Can commercials indeed be eliminated automatically? 
I've not had much luck with this on HD material due to mythcommflag not 
playing nicely with CoreAVC.  I never figured out why that was though.
> When watching live TV do video and audio ever get out of sync?  Is there any sort of delay?
I haven't had this problem with the R5000.  Channel changing is quite 
slow though.  Surfing channels is painful, but who watches LiveTV anymore?
> What is this CoreAVC thing, and how come its function isn't built-in to Myth?  Can't Myth have everything?
>
>   
Dish broadcasts in H264-AVC using PAFF encoding with frame interlacing 
(I think, it's been a while).  As far as I know ffmpeg is still not 
capable of decoding that format properly.  CoreAVC can (and is 
significantly faster than ffmpeg, and multithreaded at an aproporate 
granularity, making the above mentioned 4600-X2 sufficient for decoding 
the HD material).  Unfortunately, CoreAVC is a binary Windows codec, and 
so it isn't the easiest or most stable thing to use within a Linux 
environment.  There are many cases where it doesn't work particularly 
well, but is overall acceptable given the other options (there aren't any).