[mythtv-users] What is a "dual core processor"?

Matt Emmott memmott at gmail.com
Thu Dec 4 14:09:18 UTC 2008


On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 8:14 AM, ryan patterson <ryan.goat at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Marc Barrett <mnealbarrett at cox.net> wrote:
> > For the purpose of fitting the requirements for playing back files from
> > a Hauppauge HD-PVR.  Today, perhaps the quintessential "dual core"
> > processor is the "Core 2 Duo", and that is the one that most people with
> > HD-PVR's are probably using.  But there are others, and I have not
> > kept up with new processors very well.  (My systems all use Pentium 4s)
> >
> > There are older processors which are still technically  "dual core", and
> I was
> > wondering if they would work.  There is the Pentium D, and the "Pentium
> > Dual Core".  As well as many processors from AMD, but I admit that I know
> > very little about AMD.  Which of these older "dual core" processor lines
> > would work, and how fast of a system would I need?  For example, I saw
> > a Pentium D system at 3Ghz on Dell's outlet site for under $300.  The
> > cheapest  "Core 2 Duo" is about $400, for a 1.8Ghz system.
> >
> >
>
>
My combined BE/FE is a Pentium dual core, /proc/cpuinfo says it's a Pentium
D 2.66GHZ so I guess the Pentium D and Pentium dual-core are one and the
same. It runs great, I can play back 1080i HD through my HDHomerun (So I
guess that's MPEG-2?) with no issue. I'm using xVMC on an Nvidia PCI-E card.

I built the box myself with parts from Newegg. The reason I went with the
Pentium is because it uses the Socket 775 interface, same as Core 2 Duos and
Core 2 Quads (quad-core CPU). I paid something like $60 for the CPU a year
ago, and when the Core CPUs get around that price, I can just drop a new C2D
or C2Q in and not have to change anything else.

I have not tried H.264 with the system, and prior to VDPAU I was expecting
it to be too slow. Once the magical convergence of VDPAU, HD-PVR and .22
hits the street it will probably need nothing more than a $40 video card,
although now I'm thinking of sticking the box in a closet and getting a
dedicated Atom-based FE. But I'm wildly diverging off-topic :-)
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