Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Hardware for HD Playback

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cstepe at ctdataservices

Aug 23, 2007, 8:51 AM

Post #1 of 11 (1836 views)
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Hardware for HD Playback

With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
really address the HD issue clearly. My current systems are a couple of
atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards and a HD Home run . my playback
was very choppy.
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mike at dividia

Aug 23, 2007, 9:01 AM

Post #2 of 11 (1794 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

Chris Tepe wrote:
> With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
> thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
> play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
> and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
> frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
> really address the HD issue clearly. My current systems are a couple of
> atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards and a HD Home run . my playback
> was very choppy.
> _______________________________________________
>
>
My backend is an athlon 2800 with an FX5200, its pretty old school. It
plays HD okay with XvMC on, playback can sometimes get choppy if
mythcommflag or something is running.

My remote frontend, which is where I do 95% of my viewing is also a
pretty old P4 2.4ghz with 2gigs of DDR and a GeForce 6600. I have zero
problems at all with it playing HD, but its just a frontend, so its not
doing any of the DB or recording stuff the backend does.

My point is this, you can have some pretty old hardware playing HD. It
helps a good bit if the backend and frontend are separated. Going
gigabyte might help too, though my runs fine on 10/100.

I think any new system you buy today should be fine playing HD stuff as
long as you get a good bit of RAM and a decent Nvidia card.

Mike
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daniel at agar

Aug 23, 2007, 9:29 AM

Post #3 of 11 (1799 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

> With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
> thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
> play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
> and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
> frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
> really address the HD issue clearly. My current systems are a couple of
> atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards and a HD Home run . my playback
> was very choppy.

Asus M2NPV-VM
X2 3800+
2 x 512MB DDR2

Thats all you need for an HD frontend/backend. Mobo has Nvidia 6150
onboard with tv out (svideo, composite) and dvi onboard. Also has onboard
gigabit lan and audio.

Daniel

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david at thegeorges

Aug 23, 2007, 9:31 AM

Post #4 of 11 (1793 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

On 08/23/2007 11:51 AM, Chris Tepe wrote:
> With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
> thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
> play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
> and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
> frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
> really address the HD issue clearly. My current systems are a couple of
> atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards and a HD Home run . my playback
> was very choppy.
>
You don't mention your output method to your HDTV. There are lots of
messages on this list about hardware. Probably your best bet for good
matches would be to search the archives for "hd motherboard".

In any case, if you can use VGA, DVI-D, or component out the Asus
M2NPV-VM with an Athlon X2 3600+ works great for HD and you don't need
to resort to xvmc. It includes onboard nVidia 6150 with the above
mentioned outputs. I have several of these boards and they work great.

If you need HDMI output, I also use the Biostar TF7050-M2. It doesn't
have component video output, but has VGA and HDMI output (and DVI-D
using the included HDMI to DVI adapter).

On my lunch break now, but if you search the list archives for the above
two motherboards you will see messages with more details that I and
others have left.

HTH,
David

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mark at knm

Aug 23, 2007, 10:37 AM

Post #5 of 11 (1789 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

> thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
> play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
> and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
> frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none

I went with the first generally available dual core CPU - an Athlon x2
3800. It was perhaps the best upgrade I have ever made (from a 3500+).
Hi Def started working beautifully.

I think you will be OK with anything dual core, and a decent built-in
NVidia chip. Mine is a 6150 and it is fine with 720p output, bob
deinterlacing from 1080i. If I were going to start over I would get
2G of RAM and a pchdtv.com 5500 capture card.

Do NOT try to skimp on the CPU and get a non-dual-core CPU. Even
hyperthreading would be a mistake IMO.

Mark

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normdugas at yahoo

Aug 23, 2007, 11:22 AM

Post #6 of 11 (1786 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

Mark Lehrer wrote:
>> thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
>> play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
>> and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
>> frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
>>
>
> I went with the first generally available dual core CPU - an Athlon x2
> 3800. It was perhaps the best upgrade I have ever made (from a 3500+).
> Hi Def started working beautifully.
>
> I think you will be OK with anything dual core, and a decent built-in
> NVidia chip. Mine is a 6150 and it is fine with 720p output, bob
> deinterlacing from 1080i. If I were going to start over I would get
> 2G of RAM and a pchdtv.com 5500 capture card.
>
> Do NOT try to skimp on the CPU and get a non-dual-core CPU. Even
> hyperthreading would be a mistake IMO.
>
> Mark
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
FWIW, I've been running a FE/BE box for nearly 2 years with HD
playback. Same system that I set up originally:
- Athlon XP 2500
- 1G Ram
- GeForce FX 5500
- Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
- PVR-350
- Firewire

The video card drives an LCD TV at 720p via VGA. The important part is
to get a video card that supports XvMC. ATI doesn't, Nvidia does.

Just thought I'd trow that out there. I don't see myself upgrading
anything on this system anytime soon. I can record from both my PVR-350
and firewire while watching an HD recording with no stuttering.

Norm

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mtdean at thirdcontact

Aug 23, 2007, 12:07 PM

Post #7 of 11 (1784 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

On 08/23/2007 01:37 PM, Mark Lehrer wrote:
> I think you will be OK with anything dual core,
>
Especially once the decoding libs get multi-threaded support (perhaps
0.21, perhaps later).

Mike

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newbury at mandamus

Aug 23, 2007, 12:25 PM

Post #8 of 11 (1783 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

Mike LaPlante wrote:
> Chris Tepe wrote:
>> With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
>> thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
>> play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
>> and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
>> frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
>> really address the HD issue clearly. My current systems are a couple of
>> atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards and a HD Home run . my playback
>> was very choppy.
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
> My backend is an athlon 2800 with an FX5200, its pretty old school. It
> plays HD okay with XvMC on, playback can sometimes get choppy if
> mythcommflag or something is running.
>
> My remote frontend, which is where I do 95% of my viewing is also a
> pretty old P4 2.4ghz with 2gigs of DDR and a GeForce 6600. I have zero
> problems at all with it playing HD, but its just a frontend, so its not
> doing any of the DB or recording stuff the backend does.
>
> My point is this, you can have some pretty old hardware playing HD. It
> helps a good bit if the backend and frontend are separated. Going
> gigabyte might help too, though my runs fine on 10/100.
>
> I think any new system you buy today should be fine playing HD stuff as
> long as you get a good bit of RAM and a decent Nvidia card.

And maybe this is a good time to consider just building a new frontend
box and moving the present backend box to some other physical location.
I am extremely happy with my Via SP13000 based BE/FE system, but if it
does not do the job for HD, and that looks jerky at present, then it's
37 watt draw will go the furnace room on an UPS, in an old case, and the
Silverstone LC11M will get a new motherboard and (likely) Intel Core Duo
CPU and it will net-boot..no hard drive.

Geoff

R. Geoffrey Newbury

Helping with the HTTP issue
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/">HTTP</a>
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charrig_mythtv at bellsouth

Aug 23, 2007, 12:27 PM

Post #9 of 11 (1780 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

Daniel Agar wrote:
>> With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
>> thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
>> play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
>> and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
>> frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
>> really address the HD issue clearly. My current systems are a couple of
>> atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards and a HD Home run . my playback
>> was very choppy.
>>
>
> Asus M2NPV-VM
> X2 3800+
> 2 x 512MB DDR2
>
> Thats all you need for an HD frontend/backend. Mobo has Nvidia 6150
> onboard with tv out (svideo, composite) and dvi onboard. Also has onboard
> gigabit lan and audio.
>
> Daniel
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
I can second this configuration, it connects to a sony lcd rptv via
dvi->hdmi. Everything works great.
Does HD and everything else without a glitch.

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maillists.mythtv at gmail

Aug 23, 2007, 1:51 PM

Post #10 of 11 (1785 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

On Friday 24 August 2007 04:31, David George wrote:
> On 08/23/2007 11:51 AM, Chris Tepe wrote:
> > With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
> > thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
> > play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
> > and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
> > frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
> > really address the HD issue clearly. My current systems are a couple of
> > atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards and a HD Home run . my playback
> > was very choppy.
>
> You don't mention your output method to your HDTV. There are lots of
> messages on this list about hardware. Probably your best bet for good
> matches would be to search the archives for "hd motherboard".
>
> In any case, if you can use VGA, DVI-D, or component out the Asus
> M2NPV-VM with an Athlon X2 3600+ works great for HD and you don't need
> to resort to xvmc. It includes onboard nVidia 6150 with the above
> mentioned outputs. I have several of these boards and they work great.

I've recently put a machine together around the M2NPV-VM. Currently it is
doing BE/FE but will eventually be a diskless FE. I've only been using for
SD but it works fine.

A couple of things worth mentioning:

There is no onboard S/PDIF, you need to purchase a little expansion board.

The heatsink on the onboard graphics is small.
Running fancontrol to quiet the cpu fan results in a _very_ hot chip and
surrounding board. No stability problems but I've only run it for maybe 3
hours at a time. It can't be good to be that hot. Airflow when the cpu fan
is fullspeed is enough to keep it cool though. Until I get a quieter HSF
I've got a cardboard duct going to a case fan. I moonlight as a breakfast
cereal duct designer for NASA so this might not be an appropriate solution
for those without access to the requisite precision machine-shop.

Bob
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bill at bbqninja

Aug 23, 2007, 4:24 PM

Post #11 of 11 (1775 views)
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Re: Hardware for HD Playback [In reply to]

On 8/24/07, Daniel Agar <daniel[at]agar.ca> wrote:
> > With the change from Zap2it to SD probably requiring an upgrade I'm
> > thinking of upgrading my hardware as well to support HD recording and
> > play back. I'm looking for some recommendations as to MB, CPU, Memory
> > and Video Card. I will eventually have 1 master backend/frontend and 2+
> > frontends. I've looked at the hardware databases on the web but none
> > really address the HD issue clearly. My current systems are a couple of
> > atholon 2300+ w/ nVidia gforce cards and a HD Home run . my playback
> > was very choppy.
>
> Asus M2NPV-VM
> X2 3800+
> 2 x 512MB DDR2
>
> Thats all you need for an HD frontend/backend. Mobo has Nvidia 6150
> onboard with tv out (svideo, composite) and dvi onboard. Also has onboard
> gigabit lan and audio.

I own two of these (albiet with 4400+s, as they were cheap at the
time) with the lower wattage athlon64X2s and a super-whisper-quiet
powersupply (120mm fan going slowly) and it's the PERFECT frontend.
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