[mythtv-users] myth front end on new mac mini core 2 duo?

[Jason]

> Wait doesn't the "Quartz" acceleration option automatically use OS X's built in GPU 
> acceleration?  The latest Leopard I thought integrated that functionality right into 
> the video API.

I did a bit more testing tonight to see what I could see.

In the playback settings, I set the decoder to be "Mac hardware accelleration".  This gave choices of "quartz accel" and "opengl3" for the Video Renderer and the OSD Renderer.  No choices were available for de-interlacing.

In all cases with Quartz, playback was smooth and seemed OK.  It was definitely better than whatever it defaulted to.  The lack of deinterlacing was noticeable especially for SD and some HD content.

For various content types, here's some CPU load info:

SD (704x480):  ~15%
HD (CBS - 1920x1080):  ~70% 
HD (Fox - 1280x720):  ~60%
HD (FoodNet - 1920x1080):  ~60%
MKV (1280x720):  ~80%
DVD-ISO (720x480):  ~20%

I also noted that bringing up the program guide would inspire a frontend crash.  Not sure why this was.  The frontend version is relatively recent (r20215 from the -fixes branch).

For me, though, the lack of deinterlacing would be the deal-breaker for the OS X frontend.  The lower res content looked like teh poo.

Personally, I've got more Linux background than OS X, so in the short term, bending a Linux system to my will is a lot easier than trying to get everything working in OS X.

That said, the new mini is more than capable of taking on what's thrown at it.  Even if the accelleration can't help, there's enough CPU oomph to get you by.

The linux install I already have done on a 2nd partition with bootcamp is pretty easy, too.  I was able to shrink the OSX partition and put a 10GB linux drive on there with no real problems.  (rEFIT had some troubles seeing the boot CD, but a couple restarts got it to recognize it.)

From a power consumption perspective, this is what I observed on my killawatt:

Max during boot:  30W
Mythfrontend Idle (Linux):  17W
Mythfrontend Idle (OSX):  15W
Mythfrontend Playback (Linux - no VDPAU):  22 - 25W (depends on content)
Mythfrontend Playback (OSX - Quartz enabled): 20 - 30W (depends on content)

It's pretty close to the AppleTV I have, but it does peak higher.  I won't be surprised at all if the VDPAU playback consumption i close to 30 like the Quartz enabled playback under OSX.


I hope this is helpful to everyone.  I'm going to stick with my boy, Linux!  :)

Jason