[mythtv-users] Can an Atom N270 1.6GHz decode SD video with yadif and scaling?

[Paul Gardiner]

Christopher Kerr wrote:
>     Hi,
>     Anyone know if am Atom N270 1.6GHz has sufficient grunt to
>     decode SD video, with yadif deinterlacing and scaling
>     to 720p resolution? Or would that require some hardware
>     assistance from the graphics card? Also any chance of
>     a little spare CPU to also run the backend?
> 
>     Paul.
> 
> 
> Not sure if you'd get away with yadif deinterlacing, but otherwise it 
> ought to work.

Hmmm, without at least yadif, I don't think I'd be content with the
image quality.

> That said, you're better off paying a little more for an nVidia Ion 
> based system - that is, Atom + GeForce 9400, basically. Using VDPAU 
> accelerated playback on Myth 0.22 works excellently, with playback 
> placing almost no load on the CPU.
> 
> The Ion chipset also supports DDR2 800 (and potentially, though I 
> haven't yet seen a real motherboard which does it, DDR3 1333) which can 
> provide a noticable improvement over the DDR2 533 supported by the Intel 
> 945 chipset used with most Atoms.
> 
> That said, unless you need the small footprint provided by an Atom 
> "nettop", I'd recommend buying a cheap AMD chip and motherboard + a 
> Geforce 9400 (or the new GT 220). An Atom has so little processing power 
> that it may actually take more energy to run than a more powerful chip, 
> because it takes longer to do anything.

Wow! I've never seen the nettop before. That's really neat. And with
ION graphics processor, I'm then not worried about using yadif:
presumably there's no problem using Advanced x2 for Standard Def.
Maybe the nettop is what I should be looking at then.

Thanks,
	Paul.