[mythtv-users] Core 2 Duo iMac, terrible performance as front end

[Todd Ignasiak]

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 7:42 AM, Matt Emmott <memmott at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 10:31 AM, jedi <jedi at mishnet.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>>     The AppleTV (nv based) and the Mini (Intel based) both seem to do
>> well enough. I quickly dumped ATI after using it on my first dedicated
>> frontend and will never use their stuff again.
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>
> So it's an ATI driver issue? Anything I can do? It seems a real shame that a
> pretty beefy machine like this can't push HD or even SD, when my less
> powerful Macbook laptop could render them just fine. I suppose I could
> install Ubuntu on it, I wonder if I can wedge it into my NTFS Windows 7
> partition via Wubi...

I don't think it is related to the video chipset.  Regardless of the
video chip, Mac OS X is not benefitting much from any sort of
acceleration/offload (as opposed to XvMC or VDPAU on Linux or DxVA on
Windows).  In Mac OS X, it's just doing software decoding.

I have tested HD video on my parents' 2.4GHz 24" iMac with ATI, and it
worked fine.   My primary frontend is a CoreDuo 1.66GHz Mac Mini with
Intel Integrated graphics, and it works fine with 1080i HD.

I would first double check the video decoder settings.  The default
settings are decent Linux options, but not good Mac options.    On my
mini, I have one entry for all resolutions,
Decoder: Standard
Video Renderer: quartz-blit
OSD Renderer: softblend