[mythtv-users] Idiotic newby questions about Nvidia,PVR-x50's and mpegs

[J. Donavan Stanley]

michael brown wrote:

>J. Donavan Stanley wrote:
>  
>
>>>michael brown wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>1)  Can I get hardware decoding of mpeg by my video card to work?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Turn on the xvmc support in the settings.pro for MythTV.  It was once
>>>buggy, from what I understand, but there were some recent changes
>>>checked in that were supposed to make it more stable.  I've not
>>>tried it yet so I can't say one way or another.
>>>      
>>>
>
>Ok, I found this in my XF86 log file, a good sign I hope?
>
>(II) Loading extension XVideo
>(II) Loading extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
>
>Does this mean it should be present since there are no error messages
>following?
>  
>
It just means that the support is there for it.  Myth has to be told to 
use it. AFAIK.


>I use Gentoo, so I added nvidia to the USE variable and am now
>re-emerging mythtv.  I looked at the settings.pro file in the Gentoo
>"sand box" area and it looks like the XVMC is enabled.  I noticed that
>native LIRC support was commented out.  I kinda bootlegged LIRC onto my
>Gentoo box, so maybe thats why it's not enable.  At any rate, that's an
>insignificant problem right now.  If this frees up significant
>processor, I may go with the PVR card and keep my system as is.  I'd
>really like an upgrade though.
>
>  
>
Native LIRC support is another one of those things that has to be 
compiled in and is off by default (like native ALSA support and xvmc).  
It's not strictly required, and to be honest I couldn't tell you the 
benefits of enabling it.

>Thanks for the advice and help.  As for the AMD, I think I'll stick with
>the Celeron idea for now if I upgrade.  That leaves an easy path to a
>3.0 Ghz HT 800FSB P4 later on.  ;-))))  That's why my price estimate was
>kinda high, I was allowing for a good board (like a Gigabyte
>8IPE1000-Pro for right at $100.00)
>  
>
One thing to keep in mind, if you're planning on deploying this box as a 
true HTPC in your living room you're not going to want to go with the 
biggest baddest CPU you can put in one.  You'll either have heat or 
noise issues (or both).   With a PVR250 you'll use very little CPU to 
encode the recordings, xmvc will take additional load off of the CPU.  
The only task that'll have a serious impact on the CPU is transcoding, 
and that's really a matter of how fast do you want the transcoding 
completed.  If you're like me and your Myth box will be used for more 
than just a Tivo on sterroids, you'll want a bigger CPU that what's 
required for just MythTV but you've got to take the heat/noise into account.