[mythtv-users] Chromebox as frontend?

[Joseph Fry]

>  > Can someone help me determine if a Celeron Chromebox has enough umph to
> > perform as a basic frontend?
>
> AFAIK no one has already declared success with such a system.
>
> VAAPI (required for the HD3000) is not quite as mature as the
> nVidia VDPAU drivers.  Some have gotten it to work with MythTV
> using the latest and greatest from the Intel site.  Your mileage
> will apparently vary.  You may end up spending more time on
> the hobby of MythTV(*) getting things to work acceptably than
> others.
>

As someone who is using VAAPI on Ingel HD graphics (Celeron G540), I
suspect that it would work, at least to a degree.  I have seen the intel
drivers cause the frontend to crash on some video files, and other
weirdness... but for the most part it runs well and seems to be improving
quickly.   Note that until you get to Intel HD Graphics 2000/3000, you
don't get VC1 decoding.


> Note that the HD3000 has a limited set of HW deinterlacing
> options currently available under Linux (Bob 2x and one-field)
> as I recall.  Depending on lots of issues and potential
> opportunities(**), this may, or may not, be an issue
> for you.
>

Definitely not strong in the video quality department, when your comparing
to NVidia.  But works great for my needs on my server as an occasional use
FE for casual watching of CNN and the like while I work in my office.


> (**) If you are going to display to a larger TV, you might(***)
>   be able to take advantage of it's better de-interlacing.
>   Some people are willing to accept the lower quality
>   de-interlacing as a reasonable tradeoff (in size, heat,
>   power, price, whatever).  Or, for some people, they
>   do not even perceive the artifacts that low quality
>   de-interlacing produces.
>

Haven't tested this with Intel drivers yet, but I have done this in the
past with lower power frontends... if you change modes to match the
content, the TV's deinterlacing should kick in... and in my experience the
TV's deinterlacing is relatively good considering that your system can get
away with almost no post-processing.

I used the actual installer application from:
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/2013/intelr-linux-graphics-installer-version-1.0.1
to
install the drivers.  It adds a repository so that you should only need to
use it once and your system will keep the drivers up to date from that
point.

Also note, that I used this on 12.04 without major issues.  I'm not sure
why it says 13.04 all over that page.
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