[mythtv-users] re: Can I test pcHDTV on old hardware?

Erick Burtness erickb at burtnesseng.com
Sat Mar 20 15:47:45 EST 2004

Hey Brandon, thanks for the info. I just posted in another thread about my 
experiences so far, because another guy was asking about CPU requirements 
for the pcHDTV. I haven't had much luck with transcoding so far, but I'll 
keep trying.

Right now I'm wondering if anyone can explain why I'm seeing such different 
results playing back HDTV streams on various software. I'm using Myth to 
record from the pcHDTV, and then playing back the .nuv files, which as far 
as I can tell are just the transport streams captured by the card. Myth 
can't play back the stream very well at all on my CPU. Both audio and video 
stutter and drop frames badly. That's no surprise, as I didn't expect an 
800 MHz P3 to keep up.

The surprising thing is that VLC is able to play back the same file fairly 
well. It still drops some frames and it's a little jumpy, but it's actually 
fairly watchable, IMO. So why the big difference between the two? Does that 
mean that Myth's player has room for optimization as compared to VLC? I am 
using a VLC binary from Freshrpms.net, and I compiled Myth from CVS.


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