[mythtv-users] Low Power Frontends (in anticipation of nvidia's new API)

[Andy Zobro]

On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 8:50 PM, Brad DerManouelian
<myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
> On Dec 6, 2008, at 6:11 PM, Matthew Asplund wrote:
>
> Also, I have a question about the abilities of VDPAU.  Is it only h.264?  I
> have a system with 2 HDHomeRun units, and I have a potential front-end with
> a Sempron at 1.6 GHz.  Right now it cannot keep up with normal HD channels,
> and I would like to fix that, but they are mpeg2 streams, not h.264.  Will
> VDPAU help with them?
>
> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Njg4Ng
> "The formats supported by VDPAU are currently H.264, MPEG, WMV3, and VC-1."
> I remember reading that you need a 9xxx card to get VC-1 support.
>
> Oh, and also, if I upgrade to the dev versions, will I still be able to
> connect to my back end?  I know that with every previous upgrade, I have had
> to upgrade the back end to get compatability.
>
> Your frontend and backend versions must always mach.
> -Brad
>
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>

I was looking for a thread to latch on to to say SUCCESS!  I got my
Atom 330 board coupled with the 512MB Sparkle Fanless 8400GS PCI card
to play videos with VDPAU!  See specs here:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/VDPAU#User_results

I have a bit more customization to do, but the goal will be to have a
solid state (sdhc card) with the OS, and all mythtv content will be
stored on the backend.

So far I am extremely impressed with the difference that VDPAU made.
My sample videos (hdhr recordings) wouldn't even play (100% CPU used,
locked up mplayer).  However with VDPAU and myth trunk svn r19298 with
vdpau enabled, worked like a champ, using only 10-20% of the CPU.

This is very promising.  I can't wait for 0.22!

- AZ