[mythtv-users] PCI Graphics card and HDTV

[Rod Smith]

On Saturday 03 February 2007 17:35, Matt Jordan wrote:
> I am looking at a mini-ITX board with a 1.5GHz VIA processor.  To
> avoid the onboard GPU, would putting a nVidia GeForce FX5400 (128MB)
> in the PCI slot and using hardware decoding work for HDTV?
>
> This is planned to be a Frontend ONLY.

I can't be certain, but my suspicion is that a 1.5GHz VIA processor would be 
inadequate for HD playback, even with the help of a video card with XvMC 
support. My experience is with a 3.06GHz Celeron D, and I find that playing 
back HD content (to an NTSC TV for the moment, so not at full-resolution 
playback) takes 50-60% of my CPU time, according to top, just for 
mythfrontend, when XvMC is involved; X itself takes another 10% or so. Of 
course, if that VIA CPU is substantially faster on a per-cycle basis than an 
Intel Celeron, it might be fast enough, but my initial suspicion is that it 
won't be. I'd suggest you look at 3GHz or faster Intel CPUs or AMD CPUs with 
similar speed. AFAIK, VIA makes no CPUs in this speed range.

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com