[mythtv-users] HP microserver for BE? - streaming required

[Simon Hobson]

Thomas Pontoppidan wrote:
>I am considering a HP Microserver (probably N36L) to replace my 
>current backend hardware, but I am not sure if it will be powerfull 
>enough?
>
>The basic setup will be a headless BE with 2-4 DVB-C tuners 
>(HDHomerun). From what I have read there is no doubt the HP can 
>handle "basic" recording and commflagging tasks.

Indeed, it works very nicely for that - I have one with 2off HVR1300 
DVB-T tuners and it will handle at least 4 capture streams, 
comflagging 2 of them in real time, and while also playing back a 
recording to a remote frontend. All SD.

>My concern is if the Microserver will be able to support the new 
>streaming options with realtime transcoding?
>
>Source material is mostly MPEG2 SD (576i) but also some MPEG4 720P 
>content. Output format needs to be "something suitable for an iPad".
>
>Anybody has experience with the transcoding capabilities of the HP 
>Microservers?

I transcode stuff for iPad, and I find it runs at either 1/3 or 1/6 
of real time - I forget which now. I think it's 1/6 so it takes 6 
hours to transcode two 1 hour recordings when running 2 jobs.

The command I'm using (within a script) is :

time nice ffmpeg -i "${InFile}.mpg" -y -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -er 4 -f 
ipod -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ab 128k -ar 44100 -deinterlace -vcodec 
libx264 -vpre medium -vpre main -b 1200k -bt 1200k -maxrate 1200k 
-bufsize 1200k -level 30 -r 30 -g 90 -async 2 -threads 0 -v 0 
"${OutFile}.m4v.tmp"

Dunno what most of the options do, found it in someone's blog.

-- 
Simon Hobson

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