<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 2:35 PM, Travis Tabbal <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:travis@tabbal.net">travis@tabbal.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 10:23 AM, Joe <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jfwd@phlobus.net" target="_blank">jfwd@phlobus.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
So I'm in the market for an upgrade, and I was curious if anyone
had some recommendations on what features I should look for. More
specifically: </blockquote></div></div></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="Ih2E3d"><br><br></div>What's your content source? ATSC isn't too hard to decode on modern parts. I used an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with enough CPU left over to do a commflag job in the background. H264 on the other hand, is a CPU hog. I had to upgrade to an X2 6000+ to get the job done. So far, the HD-PVR users are reporting 3Ghz to be about what you need. I've found that the new CPU can decode anything I've thrown at it, though some streams do sometimes hit about 85% CPU on one of the cores. I suspect that's due to the stream not having "slices" so it has to use a single core for most of the work. </blockquote>
<div><br>Content source is over-the-air ATSC broadcast - not sure of the resolution/encoding rate that the stations around here use (CT-USA), but if there's some way to find out I could post back. Is there a utility that I could point at one of the recorded mpeg files that will show the details of the encoding? It might shed some light as to why some play smooth and some do not.<br>
<br>At any rate, I have a dedicated back end, so the system I'm looking to upgrade is just a front end. It's currently a sempron 2800+ socket 754 @ 1.6 ghz (basically spare parts that I had). It's more than enough for SD broadcasts.<br>
<br>Interestingly, all recordings play back OK if I watch them as recorded shows - live TV is where the issue shows up. The picture and audio stutter when watching live TV on some HD channels, other HD channels are OK. If I watch a recorded show from the same channel (even if it's recording the show at the time) it will play back fine. Given that CPU usage is at 100% even during "good" playback, I assumed that live TV puts just enough extra load so the system cannot keep up.<br>
<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">I haven't seen any issue with noise, but that's more about the case and fans. I'm using a nice Antec case </blockquote>
</div><br>This is why I was hoping to use a low power part when I upgrade - less power means less heat and less air movement needed to maintain the same temperature. There are some pretty quiet fans out there, but you can't beat one that doesn't have to spin.<br>
<br>My current thought is that I'll just order the highest-clocked athlon X2 or Core2 duo I can find at <= 45W thermal power.<br><br>Thanks to everyone for all the input!<br>-Joe<br><br>