Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

2010 Mac Mini?

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km at mathcs

Jul 18, 2010, 4:04 PM

Post #1 of 25 (2009 views)
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2010 Mac Mini?

I know there was discussion about this when it first came out, but I
wonder what the current thinking is.

Does the 2010 Mac Mini run Linux well, and is the graphics well suited
to Mythtv on Linux?

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jarod at wilsonet

Jul 18, 2010, 7:14 PM

Post #2 of 25 (1964 views)
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Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Ken Mandelberg <km [at] mathcs> wrote:
> I know there was discussion about this when it first came out, but I wonder
> what the current thinking is.
>
> Does the 2010 Mac Mini run Linux well, and is the graphics well suited to
> Mythtv on Linux?

You need a fairly new kernel (latest 2.6.34.y stable may work now, not
sure, 2.6.35 definitely will) to get un-borked sata support, and hdmi
audio may or may not work... It definitely does NOT work with the
nouveau driver, but then, for myth, you'd want the nvidia driver
anyway. So it *should*, at least theoretically, be quite good (albeit
expensive) as a linux mythtv frontend in the relatively near future,
if it isn't already. Really though, I think an ion2 box is probably
more cost-effective and just as functional wrt mythtv under linux.

--
Jarod Wilson
jarod [at] wilsonet
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jedi at mishnet

Jul 18, 2010, 7:38 PM

Post #3 of 25 (1964 views)
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Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 07:04:36PM -0400, Ken Mandelberg wrote:
> I know there was discussion about this when it first came out, but I
> wonder what the current thinking is.
>
> Does the 2010 Mac Mini run Linux well, and is the graphics well
> suited to Mythtv on Linux?

If you are set on a Mac of some sort, perhaps you could get yourself
one of the older nv9400 based ones and save yourself some bucks and trouble.

[deletia]
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km at mathcs

Jul 19, 2010, 7:01 AM

Post #4 of 25 (1942 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

>> > I know there was discussion about this when it first came out, but I wonder
>> > what the current thinking is.
>> >
>> > Does the 2010 Mac Mini run Linux well, and is the graphics well suited to
>> > Mythtv on Linux?
> You need a fairly new kernel (latest 2.6.34.y stable may work now, not
> sure, 2.6.35 definitely will) to get un-borked sata support, and hdmi
> audio may or may not work... It definitely does NOT work with the
> nouveau driver, but then, for myth, you'd want the nvidia driver
> anyway. So it*should*, at least theoretically, be quite good (albeit
> expensive) as a linux mythtv frontend in the relatively near future,
> if it isn't already. Really though, I think an ion2 box is probably
> more cost-effective and just as functional wrt mythtv under linux.
>
> -- Jarod Wilson jarod [at] wilsonet

Actually, I already run a Linux myth backend/frontend on an older mac
mini (the intel only one just prior to nvidia). I have a need to
relocate it, and wondered if a new 2010 mac mini would be an improved
substitute.

I'm not wedded to a Mac mini. Is there a box with a similar small quiet
footprint that would be better for a Linux frontend/backend?
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chmeredith at gmail

Jul 19, 2010, 7:29 AM

Post #5 of 25 (1943 views)
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Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Ken Mandelberg <km [at] mathcs> wrote:
>
>>> > �I know there was discussion about this when it first came out, but I
>>> > wonder
>>> > �what the current thinking is.
>>> >
>>> > �Does the 2010 Mac Mini run Linux well, and is the graphics well suited
>>> > to
>>> > �Mythtv on Linux?
>>
>> You need a fairly new kernel (latest 2.6.34.y stable may work now, not
>> sure, 2.6.35 definitely will) to get un-borked sata support, and hdmi
>> audio may or may not work... It definitely does NOT work with the
>> nouveau driver, but then, for myth, you'd want the nvidia driver
>> anyway. So it*should*, at least theoretically, be quite good (albeit
>> expensive) as a linux mythtv frontend in the relatively near future,
>> if it isn't already. Really though, I think an ion2 box is probably
>> more cost-effective and just as functional wrt mythtv under linux.
>>
>> -- Jarod Wilson jarod [at] wilsonet
>
> Actually, I already run a Linux myth backend/frontend on an older mac mini
> (the intel only one just prior to nvidia). I have a need to relocate it, and
> wondered if a new 2010 mac mini would be an improved substitute.
>
> I'm not wedded to a Mac mini. Is there a box with a similar small quiet
> footprint that would be better for a Linux frontend/backend?

This seems to have the popular specs for a good FE:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119017&cm_re=ion-_-56-119-017-_-Product
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jedi at mishnet

Jul 19, 2010, 8:07 AM

Post #6 of 25 (1943 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 10:01:17AM -0400, Ken Mandelberg wrote:
>
> >>> I know there was discussion about this when it first came out, but I wonder
> >>> what the current thinking is.
> >>>
> >>> Does the 2010 Mac Mini run Linux well, and is the graphics well suited to
> >>> Mythtv on Linux?
> >You need a fairly new kernel (latest 2.6.34.y stable may work now, not
> >sure, 2.6.35 definitely will) to get un-borked sata support, and hdmi
> >audio may or may not work... It definitely does NOT work with the
> >nouveau driver, but then, for myth, you'd want the nvidia driver
> >anyway. So it*should*, at least theoretically, be quite good (albeit
> >expensive) as a linux mythtv frontend in the relatively near future,
> >if it isn't already. Really though, I think an ion2 box is probably
> >more cost-effective and just as functional wrt mythtv under linux.
> >
> >-- Jarod Wilson jarod [at] wilsonet
>
> Actually, I already run a Linux myth backend/frontend on an older
> mac mini (the intel only one just prior to nvidia). I have a need to
> relocate it, and wondered if a new 2010 mac mini would be an
> improved substitute.
>
> I'm not wedded to a Mac mini. Is there a box with a similar small
> quiet footprint that would be better for a Linux frontend/backend?

The current mini is probably overkill for your requirements.

A Revo or other ION nettop would probably be perfectly suitable.

I run a Revo as a BE/FE myself.
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jarod at wilsonet

Jul 19, 2010, 8:47 AM

Post #7 of 25 (1931 views)
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Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 11:07 AM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 10:01:17AM -0400, Ken Mandelberg wrote:
>>
>> >>> �I know there was discussion about this when it first came out, but I wonder
>> >>> �what the current thinking is.
>> >>>
>> >>> �Does the 2010 Mac Mini run Linux well, and is the graphics well suited to
>> >>> �Mythtv on Linux?
>> >You need a fairly new kernel (latest 2.6.34.y stable may work now, not
>> >sure, 2.6.35 definitely will) to get un-borked sata support, and hdmi
>> >audio may or may not work... It definitely does NOT work with the
>> >nouveau driver, but then, for myth, you'd want the nvidia driver
>> >anyway. So it*should*, at least theoretically, be quite good (albeit
>> >expensive) as a linux mythtv frontend in the relatively near future,
>> >if it isn't already. Really though, I think an ion2 box is probably
>> >more cost-effective and just as functional wrt mythtv under linux.
>> >
>> >-- Jarod Wilson jarod [at] wilsonet
>>
>> Actually, I already run a Linux myth backend/frontend on an older
>> mac mini (the intel only one just prior to nvidia). I have a need to
>> relocate it, and wondered if a new 2010 mac mini would be an
>> improved substitute.
>>
>> I'm not wedded to a Mac mini. Is there a box with a similar small
>> quiet footprint that would be better for a Linux frontend/backend?
>
> � �The current mini is probably overkill for your requirements.
>
> � �A Revo or other ION nettop would probably be perfectly suitable.
>
> � �I run a Revo as a BE/FE myself.

Yeah, an Acer Aspire Revo, Zotac Mag, ASRock ION330 or similar would
be significantly cheaper and about on par as far as functionality. The
latest mac mini has slightly more capable graphics than any first-gen
ion, but really only an issue for running the highest quality vdpau
deinterlacer on 1080i material (at least, my understanding is that the
geforce 320m may be able to do advanced 2x hardware deint). An ion2
may be equally capable though, and at least zotac's ion2 box can be
had for about half the cost of the mac mini.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173005

(Some assembly, or at least, the addition of memory and disk (if
wanted), required).

I'd actually rather like one of those myself, and already have memory
and disk laying about... Hm...

--
Jarod Wilson
jarod [at] wilsonet
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km at mathcs

Jul 19, 2010, 3:48 PM

Post #8 of 25 (1927 views)
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Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

The ATOM/ION mini boxes suggested are intriguing. However, I didn't see
a firewire on any so far.

I use the mini as a backend and frontend. My video sources are an
HDHomerun for clear QAM, and a firewire to a Comcast box for encrypted QAM.

Besides the firewire issue, is the a dual atom enough to handle
recording 3 or 4 streams at once? Is it powerful enough for commercial
marking?
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beww at beww

Jul 19, 2010, 4:36 PM

Post #9 of 25 (1921 views)
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Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Monday, July 19, 2010 04:48:26 pm Ken Mandelberg wrote:
> The ATOM/ION mini boxes suggested are intriguing. However, I didn't see
> a firewire on any so far.
>
> I use the mini as a backend and frontend. My video sources are an
> HDHomerun for clear QAM, and a firewire to a Comcast box for encrypted QAM.
>
> Besides the firewire issue, is the a dual atom enough to handle
> recording 3 or 4 streams at once? Is it powerful enough for commercial
> marking?

Recording generally takes little or no CPU, since the streams are already encoded by the broadcaster or an HD-PVR, it's
really just a question of disk I/O.

Several folks here are running Atoms as combo FE/BEs and say they work, as far as transcoding or commflagging I guess it
would depend on how much of a hurry you were in for the results.
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jyavenard at gmail

Jul 20, 2010, 1:22 AM

Post #10 of 25 (1910 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

Hi

On 19 July 2010 04:14, Jarod Wilson <jarod [at] wilsonet> wrote:
> if it isn't already. Really though, I think an ion2 box is probably
> more cost-effective and just as functional wrt mythtv under linux.

But ion2 is too slow for using the best vdpau deinterlacers..
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jedi at mishnet

Jul 20, 2010, 7:31 AM

Post #11 of 25 (1886 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 05:36:06PM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> On Monday, July 19, 2010 04:48:26 pm Ken Mandelberg wrote:
> > The ATOM/ION mini boxes suggested are intriguing. However, I didn't see
> > a firewire on any so far.
> >
> > I use the mini as a backend and frontend. My video sources are an
> > HDHomerun for clear QAM, and a firewire to a Comcast box for encrypted QAM.
> >
> > Besides the firewire issue, is the a dual atom enough to handle
> > recording 3 or 4 streams at once? Is it powerful enough for commercial
> > marking?
>
> Recording generally takes little or no CPU, since the streams are already encoded by the broadcaster or an HD-PVR, it's
> really just a question of disk I/O.
>
> Several folks here are running Atoms as combo FE/BEs and say they work, as far as transcoding or commflagging I guess it
> would depend on how much of a hurry you were in for the results.

I would not do commflagging on an ION box. In general, flagging is something
that I would avoid doing on boxes that sit next to a TV. I would not want that
activity impacting frontend performance, or creating fan noise or generating
extra heat.

Although I've got a pretty good wired network and distribute things around
the house any way I like. The box that does most of my flagging sits in the
den next to the master backend.

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ctreleaven at cogeco

Jul 20, 2010, 7:43 AM

Post #12 of 25 (1887 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

At 11:47 AM -0400 7/19/10, Jarod Wilson wrote:
>Yeah, an Acer Aspire Revo, Zotac Mag, ASRock ION330 or similar would
>be significantly cheaper and about on par as far as functionality.

How much power does these other systems use at idle? The intel Minis have always been pretty frugal with electricity. I think the latest version only uses 13W at idle which is excellent.

Craig
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jedi at mishnet

Jul 20, 2010, 8:01 AM

Post #13 of 25 (1891 views)
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Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 10:43:37AM -0400, Craig Treleaven wrote:
> At 11:47 AM -0400 7/19/10, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> >Yeah, an Acer Aspire Revo, Zotac Mag, ASRock ION330 or similar would
> >be significantly cheaper and about on par as far as functionality.
>
> How much power does these other systems use at idle? The intel Minis have always been pretty frugal with electricity. I think the latest version only uses 13W at idle which is excellent.

...depends.

These boxes tend to have nice accessable power switches.

If you don't want them using any power, just turn them off.

The lack of any power switch what-so-ever on the AppleTV always bugged me.
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gregcope at gmail

Jul 20, 2010, 10:32 AM

Post #14 of 25 (1867 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On 20 Jul 2010, at 15:43, Craig Treleaven <ctreleaven [at] cogeco> wrote:

> At 11:47 AM -0400 7/19/10, Jarod Wilson wrote:
>> Yeah, an Acer Aspire Revo, Zotac Mag, ASRock ION330 or similar would
>> be significantly cheaper and about on par as far as functionality.
>
> How much power does these other systems use at idle? The intel
> Minis have always been pretty frugal with electricity. I think the
> latest version only uses 13W at idle which is excellent.
>
> Craig
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

I think my dual core revo with dual tuner was 18w so not much more.
This is without any tuning to tweak power consumption.
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gregcope at gmail

Jul 20, 2010, 10:36 AM

Post #15 of 25 (1861 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On 20 Jul 2010, at 15:31, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 05:36:06PM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
>> On Monday, July 19, 2010 04:48:26 pm Ken Mandelberg wrote:
>>> The ATOM/ION mini boxes suggested are intriguing. However, I
>>> didn't see
>>> a firewire on any so far.
>>>
>>> I use the mini as a backend and frontend. My video sources are an
>>> HDHomerun for clear QAM, and a firewire to a Comcast box for
>>> encrypted QAM.
>>>
>>> Besides the firewire issue, is the a dual atom enough to handle
>>> recording 3 or 4 streams at once? Is it powerful enough for
>>> commercial
>>> marking?
>>
>> Recording generally takes little or no CPU, since the streams are
>> already encoded by the broadcaster or an HD-PVR, it's
>> really just a question of disk I/O.
>>
>> Several folks here are running Atoms as combo FE/BEs and say they
>> work, as far as transcoding or commflagging I guess it
>> would depend on how much of a hurry you were in for the results.
>
> I would not do commflagging on an ION box. In general, flagging
> is something
> that I would avoid doing on boxes that sit next to a TV. I would not
> want that
> activity impacting frontend performance, or creating fan noise or
> generating
> extra heat.
>
> Although I've got a pretty good wired network and distribute
> things around
> the house any way I like. The box that does most of my flagging sits
> in the
> den next to the master backend.

My febe dual core revo commflags at 56fps so very near real time.
Make no noticable noise/heat. This was in a dvb sd feed of reasonable
quality (but not HD). It did not appear to affect frontend
performance. I use vpdau have 2gb ram and an esata video drive.
Mysql/os is on the internal drive.
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jedi at mishnet

Jul 20, 2010, 2:09 PM

Post #16 of 25 (1861 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 06:32:08PM +0100, Greg Cope wrote:
> On 20 Jul 2010, at 15:43, Craig Treleaven <ctreleaven [at] cogeco> wrote:
>
> >At 11:47 AM -0400 7/19/10, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> >>Yeah, an Acer Aspire Revo, Zotac Mag, ASRock ION330 or similar would
> >>be significantly cheaper and about on par as far as functionality.
> >
> >How much power does these other systems use at idle? The intel
> >Minis have always been pretty frugal with electricity. I think
> >the latest version only uses 13W at idle which is excellent.
> >
> >Craig
> >_______________________________________________
> >mythtv-users mailing list
> >mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> >http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
> I think my dual core revo with dual tuner was 18w so not much more.
> This is without any tuning to tweak power consumption.

At "idle" the asrock 330 draws 30 Watts.

It "peaks" at 36 Watts when playing 720p HD-PVR recordings.

[deletia]

Interestingly enough, trying to run Hulu Desktop doesn't seem to
cause it to draw a great deal of power despite using up every spare CPU
cycle. Nor does divx decoding.
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jarod at wilsonet

Jul 20, 2010, 2:20 PM

Post #17 of 25 (1861 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:22 AM, Jean-Yves Avenard <jyavenard [at] gmail> wrote:
> Hi
>
> On 19 July 2010 04:14, Jarod Wilson <jarod [at] wilsonet> wrote:
>> if it isn't already. Really though, I think an ion2 box is probably
>> more cost-effective and just as functional wrt mythtv under linux.
>
> But ion2 is too slow for using the best vdpau deinterlacers..

Oh? Well that blows. Saw a review that said something about it being
slower, but also something about having double the shaders, so I'd
hoped... Bleah. I'll just keep using my uatx box w/a gt220 in it.

--
Jarod Wilson
jarod [at] wilsonet
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jarod at wilsonet

Jul 20, 2010, 2:23 PM

Post #18 of 25 (1860 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 5:09 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 06:32:08PM +0100, Greg Cope wrote:
>> On 20 Jul 2010, at 15:43, Craig Treleaven <ctreleaven [at] cogeco> wrote:
>>
>> >At 11:47 AM -0400 7/19/10, Jarod Wilson wrote:
>> >>Yeah, an Acer Aspire Revo, Zotac Mag, ASRock ION330 or similar would
>> >>be significantly cheaper and about on par as far as functionality.
>> >
>> >How much power does these other systems use at idle? �The intel
>> >Minis have always been pretty frugal with electricity. �I think
>> >the latest version only uses 13W at idle which is excellent.
>> >
>>
>> I think my dual core revo with dual tuner was 18w so not much more.
>> This is without any tuning to tweak power consumption.
>
> � �At "idle" the asrock 330 draws 30 Watts.
>
> � �It "peaks" at 36 Watts when playing 720p HD-PVR recordings.
>
> [deletia]
>
> � �Interestingly enough, trying to run Hulu Desktop doesn't seem to
> cause it to draw a great deal of power despite using up every spare CPU
> cycle. Nor does divx decoding.

All the atom freq scaling and power savings functionality is reserved
for the netbook-targeted atom. The desktop ones don't do much of
anything in the way of power savings, don't do any freq scaling, etc.
Because, you know, who wants power savings when you're plugged into
the wall all the time? (Intel missed the boat on this one, imo, but
maybe they'll wise up eventually).

--
Jarod Wilson
jarod [at] wilsonet
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nikos.f at gmail

Jul 22, 2010, 12:29 PM

Post #19 of 25 (1791 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod [at] wilsonet> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 5:09 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
>> � �Interestingly enough, trying to run Hulu Desktop doesn't seem to
>> cause it to draw a great deal of power despite using up every spare CPU
>> cycle. Nor does divx decoding.
>
> All the atom freq scaling and power savings functionality is reserved
> for the netbook-targeted atom. The desktop ones don't do much of
> anything in the way of power savings, don't do any freq scaling, etc.
> Because, you know, who wants power savings when you're plugged into
> the wall all the time? (Intel missed the boat on this one, imo, but
> maybe they'll wise up eventually).

Talking about Hulu. Is anyone successfully playing Hulu / BBC iPlayer
/ flash video on an Atom/ION? I have a Zotac (330 dual core with ION)
and it struggles really badly. Is there a trick to getting flash to
work (I know there is no hardware acceleration) with an ION?

Thanks
Nick
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jedi at mishnet

Jul 22, 2010, 2:25 PM

Post #20 of 25 (1788 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 02:29:31PM -0500, Nick F wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod [at] wilsonet> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 5:09 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
> >> � �Interestingly enough, trying to run Hulu Desktop doesn't seem to
> >> cause it to draw a great deal of power despite using up every spare CPU
> >> cycle. Nor does divx decoding.
> >
> > All the atom freq scaling and power savings functionality is reserved
> > for the netbook-targeted atom. The desktop ones don't do much of
> > anything in the way of power savings, don't do any freq scaling, etc.
> > Because, you know, who wants power savings when you're plugged into
> > the wall all the time? (Intel missed the boat on this one, imo, but
> > maybe they'll wise up eventually).
>
>
> Talking about Hulu. Is anyone successfully playing Hulu / BBC iPlayer
> / flash video on an Atom/ION? I have a Zotac (330 dual core with ION)
> and it struggles really badly. Is there a trick to getting flash to

I have tried it on my Asrock 330 boxes and it's pretty unusable.

> work (I know there is no hardware acceleration) with an ION?

[deletia]
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nikos.f at gmail

Jul 22, 2010, 6:19 PM

Post #21 of 25 (1782 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 4:25 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 02:29:31PM -0500, Nick F wrote:
>> On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod [at] wilsonet> wrote:
>> > On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 5:09 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
>> >> � �Interestingly enough, trying to run Hulu Desktop doesn't seem to
>> >> cause it to draw a great deal of power despite using up every spare CPU
>> >> cycle. Nor does divx decoding.
>> >
>> > All the atom freq scaling and power savings functionality is reserved
>> > for the netbook-targeted atom. The desktop ones don't do much of
>> > anything in the way of power savings, don't do any freq scaling, etc.
>> > Because, you know, who wants power savings when you're plugged into
>> > the wall all the time? (Intel missed the boat on this one, imo, but
>> > maybe they'll wise up eventually).
>>
>>
>> Talking about Hulu. �Is anyone successfully playing Hulu / BBC iPlayer
>> / flash video on an Atom/ION? �I have a Zotac (330 dual core with ION)
>> and it struggles really badly. �Is there a trick to getting flash to
>
> � � I have tried it on my Asrock 330 boxes and it's pretty unusable.

Yeah - I guess this is the main reason for sticking with a Mac Mini,
rather than going the ION/ION2 route. I have an older mac-mini (CD
upgraded to a C2D with intel graphics). It plays back flash just
great, but can't deal with h.264 material and hi-def mpeg2 (running
OSX). And my ION plays back h.264 great, but chokes on flash.
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beww at beww

Jul 22, 2010, 7:16 PM

Post #22 of 25 (1766 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Thursday, July 22, 2010 07:19:34 pm Nick F wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 4:25 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 02:29:31PM -0500, Nick F wrote:
> >> On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod [at] wilsonet> wrote:
> >> > On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 5:09 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
> >> >> Interestingly enough, trying to run Hulu Desktop doesn't seem to
> >> >> cause it to draw a great deal of power despite using up every spare
> >> >> CPU cycle. Nor does divx decoding.
> >> >
> >> > All the atom freq scaling and power savings functionality is reserved
> >> > for the netbook-targeted atom. The desktop ones don't do much of
> >> > anything in the way of power savings, don't do any freq scaling, etc.
> >> > Because, you know, who wants power savings when you're plugged into
> >> > the wall all the time? (Intel missed the boat on this one, imo, but
> >> > maybe they'll wise up eventually).
> >>
> >> Talking about Hulu. Is anyone successfully playing Hulu / BBC iPlayer
> >> / flash video on an Atom/ION? I have a Zotac (330 dual core with ION)
> >> and it struggles really badly. Is there a trick to getting flash to
> >
> > I have tried it on my Asrock 330 boxes and it's pretty unusable.
>
> Yeah - I guess this is the main reason for sticking with a Mac Mini,
> rather than going the ION/ION2 route. I have an older mac-mini (CD
> upgraded to a C2D with intel graphics). It plays back flash just
> great, but can't deal with h.264 material and hi-def mpeg2 (running
> OSX). And my ION plays back h.264 great, but chokes on flash.

Does anyone have an idea what the minimum CPU spec might be to play back flash glitch-free?

Can the existing flash decoders take advantage of multiple cores?

No hardware acceleration for flash kind of sucks, and I'm not holding my breath waiting for the promises to be fulfilled.

I know there are on-the-fly transcoding solutions, they take a fairly beefy (Windows) machine (ca. a 3.2Ghz. core), but I
guess you don't have to run it 24/7, just when you need it, or use a VM.

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jedi at mishnet

Jul 23, 2010, 6:07 AM

Post #23 of 25 (1753 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 08:16:41PM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> On Thursday, July 22, 2010 07:19:34 pm Nick F wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 4:25 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
> > > On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 02:29:31PM -0500, Nick F wrote:
> > >> On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod [at] wilsonet> wrote:
> > >> > On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 5:09 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
> > >> >> Interestingly enough, trying to run Hulu Desktop doesn't seem to
> > >> >> cause it to draw a great deal of power despite using up every spare
> > >> >> CPU cycle. Nor does divx decoding.
> > >> >
> > >> > All the atom freq scaling and power savings functionality is reserved
> > >> > for the netbook-targeted atom. The desktop ones don't do much of
> > >> > anything in the way of power savings, don't do any freq scaling, etc.
> > >> > Because, you know, who wants power savings when you're plugged into
> > >> > the wall all the time? (Intel missed the boat on this one, imo, but
> > >> > maybe they'll wise up eventually).
> > >>
> > >> Talking about Hulu. Is anyone successfully playing Hulu / BBC iPlayer
> > >> / flash video on an Atom/ION? I have a Zotac (330 dual core with ION)
> > >> and it struggles really badly. Is there a trick to getting flash to
> > >
> > > I have tried it on my Asrock 330 boxes and it's pretty unusable.
> >
> > Yeah - I guess this is the main reason for sticking with a Mac Mini,
> > rather than going the ION/ION2 route. I have an older mac-mini (CD
> > upgraded to a C2D with intel graphics). It plays back flash just
> > great, but can't deal with h.264 material and hi-def mpeg2 (running
> > OSX). And my ION plays back h.264 great, but chokes on flash.
>
> Does anyone have an idea what the minimum CPU spec might be to play back flash glitch-free?

I have seen reports that the Asrock 330 can be overclocked and that this
will get smooth results with flash/hulu but, my attempts to do this have not
ever succeded. When I turn on overclocking in the asrock BIOS, Ubuntu won't
boot at all. I get a kernel error.

[deletia]
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jarod at wilsonet

Jul 23, 2010, 8:23 AM

Post #24 of 25 (1744 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 10:16 PM, Brian Wood <beww [at] beww> wrote:
> On Thursday, July 22, 2010 07:19:34 pm Nick F wrote:
>> On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 4:25 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
>> > On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 02:29:31PM -0500, Nick F wrote:
>> >> On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod [at] wilsonet> wrote:
>> >> > On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 5:09 PM, jedi <jedi [at] mishnet> wrote:
>> >> >> � �Interestingly enough, trying to run Hulu Desktop doesn't seem to
>> >> >> cause it to draw a great deal of power despite using up every spare
>> >> >> CPU cycle. Nor does divx decoding.
>> >> >
>> >> > All the atom freq scaling and power savings functionality is reserved
>> >> > for the netbook-targeted atom. The desktop ones don't do much of
>> >> > anything in the way of power savings, don't do any freq scaling, etc.
>> >> > Because, you know, who wants power savings when you're plugged into
>> >> > the wall all the time? (Intel missed the boat on this one, imo, but
>> >> > maybe they'll wise up eventually).
>> >>
>> >> Talking about Hulu. �Is anyone successfully playing Hulu / BBC iPlayer
>> >> / flash video on an Atom/ION? �I have a Zotac (330 dual core with ION)
>> >> and it struggles really badly. �Is there a trick to getting flash to
>> >
>> > � � I have tried it on my Asrock 330 boxes and it's pretty unusable.
>>
>> Yeah - I guess this is the main reason for sticking with a Mac Mini,
>> rather than going the ION/ION2 route. �I have an older mac-mini (CD
>> upgraded to a C2D with intel graphics). �It plays back flash just
>> great, but can't deal with h.264 material and hi-def mpeg2 (running
>> OSX). �And my ION plays back h.264 great, but chokes on flash.
>
> Does anyone have an idea what the minimum CPU spec might be to play back flash glitch-free?
>
> Can the existing flash decoders take advantage of multiple cores?
>
> No hardware acceleration for flash kind of sucks, and I'm not holding my breath waiting for the promises to be fulfilled.

You won't have to hold your breath too much longer, I swear.

http://git.wilsonet.com//crystalhd.git?a=commitdiff;h=ba77ae3fc62f85d616aaea776ee3ef02b0aeefc3

--
Jarod Wilson
jarod [at] wilsonet
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beww at beww

Jul 23, 2010, 10:01 AM

Post #25 of 25 (1744 views)
Permalink

Re: 2010 Mac Mini? [In reply to]

On Friday, July 23, 2010 09:23:48 am Jarod Wilson wrote:

> >
> > No hardware acceleration for flash kind of sucks, and I'm not holding my
> > breath waiting for the promises to be fulfilled.
>
> You won't have to hold your breath too much longer, I swear.
>
> http://git.wilsonet.com//crystalhd.git?a=commitdiff;h=ba77ae3fc62f85d616aae
> a776ee3ef02b0aeefc3

Nice. I even have a CrystalHD module in my Revo frontend. Seemed potentially more useful than a WiFi module.

Now I am starting to appear less blue in the face :-)

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