[mythtv-users] frontend hardware - any reason not to use ion?

Andre Newman mythtv-list at dinkum.org.uk
Mon Jan 11 22:22:01 UTC 2010


On 11 Jan 2010, at 21:55, Nick F wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 7:38 AM, Andre Newman <mythtv-list at dinkum.org.uk> wrote:
>> If you are a fussy b** like me and some of my friends then don't get an ION, it's aggravatingly almost quick enough to do everything nicely but not quite...
>> 
>> I was lucky enough that a friend bought a Zotac ION mATX system before me, I then spent many hours at his place tweaking until it played HD material ok. He's very happy with it but I left glad that i hadn't bought one myself, things have improved smooth performance wise with 0.22 and running minimyth seemed to help a great deal, I understand that further progress is being made for .23 with vdpau that might make things better but it wasn't good enough for me a few weeks ago.
>> 
>> I have a mATX with an old 1.8Ghz C2D cpu and a GT220 and I'm very very happy with that, if I could find a mATX board that allowed a passive GT220 and a couple of PCI sat cards that would be an ideal small Myth system in my opinion.
>> 
>> I think that if you have an older or smaller HDTV (<1080p (full HD) res and <40") you might be very happy with an ION, big screen, fussy or videophile, forget it. IMHO.
> 
> I have a ION (330 dual core) with 2GB RAM in my 'cinema room' hooked
> up to a BenQ W5000 1080p projector going onto a 140 inch screen.  I'm
> not sure if I could be classified as a videophile - but both Blurays
> (1080p) and DVDs look pretty darn good on it (comparable at least to

Sounds very similar to here, except for the ION ;-)


> my local multiplex cinema).  I suspect 1080i sports would look better
> with the Advanced 2x deinterlacing

Lots better from what I've seen, certainly worth the extra $60 graphics card, results as good as a $3k scaler/de-interlacer  from 3 or 4 years ago. If you can afford that projector you can afford $60 for a GT220 to soup up the ION assuming it's got a suitable slot, once you've seen advanced 2x on that setup you won't regret it.

> - but I'm pretty happy with my
> setup.

Me too. :-)
> 
> The menus are plenty snappy enough.  My big gripe is HULU and flash
> video in general.  It sucks big time and is essentially unwatchable.

Well that's fundamental to the way flash works, I've worked with Adobe recently, it's not changing any time soon. If you want that stuff you need a fast cpu, high clock too as flash doesn't multi thread very well depending on the encode. I specced an i5 box for playing 1080p flash for a customer recently and it was only just up to the job with his encodes. Even with Flash 10.1 on Windows 7 (GPU acceleration, when it works) an Atom doesn't stand a chance.

Oddly enough I used my experimental MythTV box, (slave backend and vdpau frontend when it's not working for a living) on that project, as the customer's to hand gear wasn't fast enough and their buying procedures too slow.

The ION's ok for getting by with 1080i, results are great compared to what was possible not very long ago for Linux PC playback, thing is it can be really excellent for an extra few dollars/pounds/euros.

Andre


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