[mythtv-users] [old] Re: XvMC and libmpeg2 to be dropped in 0.25

[Bob Sully]

mythtv-users-request at mythtv.org wrote:
> Send mythtv-users mailing list submissions to
> 	mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> 	http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> 	mythtv-users-request at mythtv.org
>
>
> | From: Brian Wood <beww at beww.org>
> | Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 11:22:59 -0700
>
> | XvMC is an older hardware support method for mpeg2, it's pretty well
> | been replaced by VDPAU, and decoding mpeg2 in software is not all that
> | CPU intensive (pretty much anything over 500 Mhz. can handle it at SD
> | resolutions).
>
> [Sorry for reviving this old thread.  I'm way behind.]
>
> As I understand it VDPAU is only supported by the nVidia proprietary
> drivers on nVidia hardware.  I'd like something supported by open
> source on a wide variety of hardware.  I don't exactly have a
> candidate API: XvMC is too limited, VA API is apparently not there
> yet, XvBA is AMD-proprietary (I think), perhaps OpenGL isn't overkill.
>
> Some of my Myth boxes don't use nVidia hardware (a couple of those are
> old too -- no PCIe slot).  Of course I could stay at .24 (hey, I'm not
> all there yet) but I want to get all my Myth boxes running at the same
> level.  After all, Myth boxes are only supposed to talk to others that
> have the same version.


I have the same concerns...my BE/FE downstairs is a very capable machine
which handles pretty much everything Myth throws at it without difficulty.
 However, I have a Dell laptop upstairs which I am using as a frontend for
the bedroom HDTV.  It has an early Intel dual-core Intel CPU, 4G of RAM,
and an NVidia Quadro 140 video card.  While it *should* be able to do
VDPAU, it's never been quite there (I have tried just about every tweak,
with different VDPAU profiles (including Slim), but it stutters/hesitates,
and eventually bogs down to the point where it's unusable).  It does fine
with CPU++, however - as long as I'm not doing anything else CPU-intensive
at the same time.

I suppose that when 0.25 comes out I'll have to buy another small
frontend, unless I can figure out some way to get VDPAU working on this
machine.  Not a break-the-bank proposition, but I really don't need to be
spending more money on hardware right now.  Oh, well.

-- 
________________________________________
Bob Sully - Simi Valley, California, USA
http://www.malibyte.net
http://www.malibyte.com