[mythtv-users] FE/BE on AppleTV
Raymond Wagner
raymond at wagnerrp.com
Sun Oct 3 03:01:22 UTC 2010
On 10/2/2010 22:21, david.w.smiley at gmail.com wrote:
> I bought an AppleTV with the intention of using it for MythTV (and
> Boxee), though I've been charmed by the native capabilities of the
> devise, so I'm not loving the idea of replacing it with a linux
> distro.
The original AppleTV was a 1GHz Pentium M, with XvMC capable nVidia
graphics, and 256MB of memory. It really didn't have enough memory to
run a high resolution frontend, so the UI was slow. Even with XvMC, it
was only capable of moderate bitrate MPEG2, so it failed on most HD ATSC
content. It made a pretty mediocre frontend.
The current AppleTV is a 1GHz ARM, with PowerVR graphics, and 256MB of
memory. Just as before, the CPU is really incapable of handling any HD
content. Just as before, there really isn't even enough memory to run a
frontend, much less a frontend AND backend. To top it off, it no longer
has a hard drive, nor does it have any connections you could use to
attach a hard drive. You're stuck with network-based storage. Boxee is
going to be an equally poor prospect for that device, and if you want an
example of the kind of performance you could expect, check out VLC for
the iPad.
The ATV has some form of hardware decoder, but it is undocumented, and
unusable by MythTV or any other third party media player. Your best bet
is to use the official software, use it as a UPnP frontend, and have
some other backend in a closet. Even then, the hardware decoder is
designed for content available through the iTunes media store, and will
be incapable of handling any of the digital recordings you may make with
your HDHomeRun. You will have to transcode that content to a format the
ATV can handle before being able to play it.
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