[mythtv-users] Hauppage HD-PVR Driver, MythTV, or not enough grunt...

[Raymond Wagner]

On 4/2/2010 23:07, Troy Telford wrote:
> or if it's just that I don't have enough "grunt" (or in other words, enough CPU, given I'm running 1080p video and have a Core2 Duo @ 2GHz.)
>    

A 2GHz Core2 does not have enough grunt to decode full bitrate HDPVR 
content (13.5mbps).  With the improved ffmpeg libraries in 0.23, the 
minimum is somewhere around 2.5GHz.  Prior to the latest ffmpeg sync, 
the minimum is somewhere closer to 3GHz.  Since the HDPVR is an encoder, 
you can adjust the bitrate to be just below whatever your hardware 
supports, or you can get a new nVidia card, and decode it using VDPAU.

The HDPVR produces single sliced content, meaning the decoding is single 
threaded.  The HDPVR does not support 1080p capture, so you're actually 
doing 1080i and deinterlacing in software.  The deinterlacer can run in 
a separate thread, but it shouldn't be taking anywhere near one full 
core.  Is the frontend actually listed as pulling full load on both 
cores? Or is there some other application in the background (like an 
improperly configured X) pulling a lot of CPU.