[mythtv-users] Myth on WD HDTV Media Player for $99

[Brian Wood]

On Monday 12 October 2009 08:12:20 Andrew Gallatin wrote:
> Brian Wood [beww at beww.org] wrote:
> > There have also been posts about video files that can be played
> > flawlessly by a Sigma-based machine that Myth barfs on. I'm not saying
> > this is Myth's fault, or VDPAU's, or nVidia's, or anyone else's, just
> > pointing out that some people are having this sort of problem.
>
> I'm one of these people.  I bought an ION a few months ago, and it
> works great, except that Myth (with or without VDPAU)and XBMC,
> mplayer, etc barf on about 1/2 my HD recordings due to my local
> broadcasters using advanced MPEG2 telecine settings on their encoders.
> The same files play just fine on ION in 7MC, and also on a Sigma
> device.  I just wish I could get somebody interested in fixing it...

Hmmm, maybe you should move to my neck of the woods, where the local 
broadcaster (note the singular) can't afford an encoder with the fancy 
telecine features:-)

I think we all know that Myth's player is not perfect, but perhaps that's the 
price we pay for some of its nice features (commercial skip comes to mind). 
The problem is probably not just with Myth, but with some of the underlying 
software it depends on.

The Sigma chips have many years of commercial development behind them, and 
none of us expect that the Myth devs would agree to an NDA and do whatever 
might be required to utilize them.

I don't think its a case of a lack of interest, anyone reading your post would 
fix it in an instant, if they could. The fact that the problems effect only a 
small number of users is going to effect the priority, that's just the way it 
is.

I think it's a case of the last 1% requiring 99% of the work.

I've wondered if there might be a way for a Myth system to simply appear as a 
UPnP server, playable with Sigma-based devices, and the output of Myth's 
frontend would simply appear to be one long continuous file to the playback 
device.

The Broadcom device might solve at least some of your problems, only time will 
tell on that one.

Though it would be a pain, can you transcode the "bad" files to somehting oyu 
can use?

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org