<--snip--> > > > > > > -I have seen that 2Ghz is recommended for an HD setup. Is this enough > > > > for a frontend/backend combo... when capturing via firewire? > > > > > > Actually, 3GHz is recommended for an HD setup. You can get away with less > > > on a frontend-only system, but an all-in-one box needs to do more than > > > just playback, so you'd be pushing it. > > > > I don't really NEED full HD quality. I will only be using SVIDEO > > output through an NVIDIA MX4000. > > I am just hoping to avoid the digital-->analog-->digital conversions > > by just using the firewire. > > > > Is it possible to record with firewire... but perhaps not capture at > > full HD quality? > > No. Recording HD is a matter of dumping the encoded-by-the-head-end mpeg2 > stream to a file on disk. Can't resize it at recording time. You can > transcode it to something smaller, but that's a rather time-consuming task, > and won't do you any good for live TV.
Too bad... but it makes sense. I didn't think it was possible, but would have hated myself if it was possible and I hadn't asked. > > If so, maybe I can get away with less than 3Ghz? It > > seems like the price breaks are currently just bellow that. > > With recent optimizations, while 3GHz is still recommended in your situation > (combined backend/frontend) for optimal performance, its certainly possible > you could get away with a bit less. I have a viewing-only system that is a > mere 1.53GHz (Athlon XP 1800) and it handles 720p programming fine (though > the cpu is pretty much pegged) and can *almost* keep up w/1080i and a deint > filter (frequent stutter, but almost watchable). I've done quite a bit of > work to tweak this machine to be able to get there though, its not something > I'd recommend to anybody. Its more just a challenge for me -- I have a very > under-utilized 2600 proc I could put in its place, but where's the fun in > that? :-) With regard to "recent optimizations", do you mean with using XV / XVMC or with optimization of MythTV code? > The odd thing with HD playback is that some folks with machines that should be > more than powerful enough encounter playback problems (stutter, pegged cpu), > while others (like myself) manage to get significantly slower systems > working, so there's more to it than just raw CPU power. Choice of motherboard > may have an impact, but I couldn't say definitively. Dunno about choice of > kernel, I haven't had a problem with either stock FC3 kernels or > hand-compiled ones. > > A 2.8GHz P4 is probably fairly safe, and you could even have success with 2.4, > but like I said, ymmv... Hyper-Threading seems to be a big win, you > definitely want a P4 w/HT. Good to know. I have heard that HT mileage varies greatly upon the application. It makes sense that it would work with this too.. Are there any recommendationso n FireWire PCI cards? I've been looking at all the usual places, just wanted to avoid any problematic ones. Thanks, Dave ---------------------------------------------------------------- Are Your Friends Lemmings? -- http://www.lemmingshirts.com _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users