[pvrusb2] Performance Report for HVR-1950 on slow CPU (Intel 2x750 P3)

[Roger]

= Insite for slow CPU(s) when viewing ATSC TV =
Intel 2x750 P3, 1G RAM, NVidia GeForce 7600 GS

(Usage of XvMC is REQUIRED to meet system requirements of streaming live
TV!)

Once XvMC is configured for either mplayer or MythTV, video is watchable
with CPU 28-68% usage (probably depending on stream resolution ;-).
Seems to hang around 30% most times as most streams are still using the
smaller resolutions. ;-) 


= Mplayer =
Mplayer seems to have some audio/video sync issues, even though CPU
usage is only 30-40%. :-/

Using Mplayer requires media-tv/linuxtv-dvb-apps to be installed.

# dvbscan /usr/share/dvb/atsc/us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSB
>> /etc/mplayer/channels.conf

$ cat ~/.mplayer/config
[default]
vo=xvmc
vc=ffmpeg12mc

$ mplayer dvb://{copy paste an entire entry
from /etc/mplayer/channels.conf}

ie:
$ mplayer dvb://KTVF:545028615:8VSB:49:52:3


= MythTV =
I had some problems setting up MythTV (mythtv-setup) for using the
HVR-1950.  I knew it had the usual MPEG Analog tuner type, but couldn't
figure-out which capture card type to use for the ATSC tuner within the
HVR-1950.  Finally figured it out to be "IVTV DB" and just used the
defaults (used "tone" for signal detection?).

Also enabled EIT (but am noting mythbackend will hold this open while it
scans, making the analog side unusable.)

EIT program data seems to work great for my needs.  Currently only one
day of programming data -- sorry mike, I'm a penny pincher these days! 

>From here, I could probably easily setup repeatable recorded items.

Seems we really need a MythTV (mythtv-setup) 

Changing channels for the HVR-1950 takes ~5 seconds before streaming
begins using MythTV.  (/shrugs/ maybe I've got something misconfigured
in mythtv-setup.)


= Initial Final Thoughts =
This thing is TINY (compared to the ol' PVRUSB2)!

It also comes with an IR Blaster extension cord, which might be quite
handy.

All channels were detected, unlike previous years with other digital
ATSC tuners, only some channels were received -- using a good quality
Channel Master roof top antenna too!  MythTV seems to fail to detect
Signal Strength.  (Although, my DTV box states I have 100% on all
channels with only one falling intermittently to 90% at times.)

Thank God for XvMC (soon to be deprecated feature) else I would *NOT* be
able to watch the live stream without upgrading to an entirely new
computer!!!

(For regular a regular ATSC TV Tuner, got me a Channel Master and it's
of extremely better quality then the cheap piece of cr*p I bought last
year.  Changing channels on this box is very robust.)

-- 
Roger
http://rogerx.freeshell.org