[mythtv-users] Pentium M laptop as frontend for HDTV?

[Scott D. Davilla]

>Kevin Kuphal wrote:
>>  On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 12:24 PM, Scott D. Davilla <davilla at 4pi.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>  I'm looking for a frontend for my bedroom. Currently I have a laptop
>>>>  with a processor that is just barely too slow to do HDTV (it starts to
>>>>  stutter after about 10-15mins of playing back HDTV). I think its a
>>>>  Celeron M 1.6GHz with 1GB of RAM and a Intel 910GML graphics card.
>>>>  Other than the HDTV issue it runs fine, and it plays HDTV fine for
>>>>  those first 15mins, then it seems to need to "chill" for about
>>>>  10-15mins to "cool off" or it just stutters constantly.
>>>>
>>>>  So I'm looking to replace it. I'm looking at some laptops that have
>>>>  Pentium M's, up to 1.8GHz. I know the AppleTV has a 1.0GHz Pentium M
>>>>  and seems to do fine with 720p, but not so well with 1080 content, so
>>>>  I'm wondering if anyone knows what the minimum Pentium M required to
>>>>  smoothly play back 1080i with deinterlacing enabled is (since I'll be
>>>>  connecting it to a LCD monitor).
>>>  1.7 GHz Pentium-M or better would do fine if you had and nvidia
>>>  chipset. I have one here for cross-testing against the 1GHz Pentium-M
>>>  in the AppleTV. You will need an nvidia display card and not the 8xxx
>>>  or 9xxx as these do not have XvMC. A 5xxx, 6xxx or 7xxx will be fine
>>>  but watch your 6xxx choice as some do not have XvMC.
>>>
>>>  Since you have an 910GML video in the Laptop, you are out of luck,
>>>  maybe a fast Pentium-M without any deinterlacing enabled.
>>>
>  >> If you don't want to use XvMC, then any Core Duo Mobile will be fine,
>>>  the lower clock versions run cooler than the Pentium-M. But I don't
>>>  think you can put a Core Duo Mobile in a Pentium-M socket, you might
>>>  check though.
>>
>>
>>  I don't think this is the case anymore.  The Intel page lists the 910GML as
>>  a supported chipset and based on the information added to the Wiki recently,
>>  Intel is supporting XvMC on all their supported chipsets.
>>
>>  Kevin
>
>I (Geoff Newbury) was the one who updated the wiki, as a result of my
>testing of the recent release of the xf86-video-intel-2.3.0 driver by
>Intel. That driver enables XvMC on ALL Intel chipsets from the i810 up.
>
>It would be a lot cheaper for you to add XvMC capabilities to your
>laptop. It sounds like it is really close to being capable as it stands.
>
>The only oddity I have found is that the setup plays SD recordings from
>my PVR in green, if I try to use XvMC down at that level. So I use
>libmpeg from 0x0 to 720x480 and XvMC above there.
>
>The Wiki sets out the whole process. I gather that the usual suspects
>provide packages which are xvmc-ready, so you may not have to re-compile
>mythtv. You*will* spend some time fiddling with Playback Profiles, I
>suspect.
>

Nice, real world results, I'll have to check out the updates.