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 Post subject: Integrated Graphics?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:30 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:25 am
Posts: 3
Hello, I'm starting to spec out hardware for a FE/BE KM box. I've read the newest integrated graphics from AMD (790GX) and NVIDIA (GeForce 8300) offer good support for HD video. I think this would be a great solution to keep power, noise and heat down. However, I have found only one post from a user trying to use one of these. There might be others but most posts only list the motherboard, not the northbridge on the motherboard, so the forum search isn't effective. Is anyone else using the new integrated graphics? I've often heard LINUX driver support is better with NVIDIA than AMD. Does that also hold true in this case?

Also, please point me to an explanation of the differences between the three tuner cards listed as recomendations for the Dragon v2 build.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:49 pm 
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Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 11:55 pm
Posts: 1206
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
I'm using nVidia graphics (7025) which works great on HD. But there is one drawback -- no support for XvMC. Since my processor has enough juice to decode using the software alone, it hasn't impacted my ability to watch TV. But all things being equal, I'd like to at least have the option of trying XvMC.

The nVidia website says that cards that do NOT support their "PureVideo" feature do NOT support XvMC. What they don't say is if ALL cards which DO support PureVideo also support XvMC. The reason that's important is because the next level up chipset is the 7050, and I have heard reports that it also does not support XvMC, even though it does support PureVideo.

It's all a confusing morass.

I have no idea how good AMD/ATI support is these days. In recent history it was believed that ATI cards had lackluster support for linux, but I don't know if that has improved or not. I have avoided ATI cards successfully for many years because of it.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:14 pm 
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Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:00 am
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Location: Arlington, MA
Liv2Cod wrote:
I'm using nVidia graphics (7025) which works great on HD. But there is one drawback -- no support for XvMC.

Really? Have you added the Extensions section to disable composite output? That made it work for me and my old FX5200 and even older MX4 video... I would have thought anything newer would work too...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:14 pm 
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Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Sad, but true. Nothing newer than GeForce 7000 supports XvMC (according to the myth wiki). Even the built-in versions of the 7000 have spotty support, as mentioned above.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:39 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:11 pm
Posts: 100
Location: MA, USA
What qualifies as enough horsepower? I've got an Athlon X2 3800 and NVidia 7050, and at least on an R5.5 upgrade I can't view HD content at all. :(

I tried the latest NVidia drivers to no avail. I'm getting grief from the wife because the machine has been unusable for a couple of days...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:29 am 
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Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:42 pm
Posts: 410
Location: middleton wi usa atsc
jimmyfergus wrote:
What qualifies as enough horsepower? I've got an Athlon X2 3800 and NVidia 7050, and at least on an R5.5 upgrade I can't view HD content at all. :(
I think you should have enough horse power for HD without XvMC.

What do you mean, can't view hd content at all? Live? recorded? Cable? Over the air? Does it crash? Is it jerky? Is it black screen? What's your display? HD TV? 720p? 1080i? S-video?


Try going to: Utilities/setup->setup->TVsettings->Playback
On the third screen (playback profiles) select CPU++
On the first "If rez" line select "edit"
Under "decoder" select either standard or libmpeg2. Libmpeg2 works best for me even though I don't have an AMD processor.
On the next screen select Bob(2x) for the deinterlacer.
See if that helps HD viewing.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 12:45 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:25 am
Posts: 3
I found three reviews on Phornix .com:

On the NVIDIA GeForce 8200:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_8200&num=1

On the Radeon HD 3300:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_rhd3300_790&num=1

On the Intel GMA X4500HD:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_x4500hd&num=1

Looks like I'm sold on the IGP from Intel based on the conclusion from the final article.
Quote:
While the Intel GMA X4500HD isn't for Linux gamers, this is an ideal solution for solely desktop users, those looking to build a Home Theater PC (HTPC), or those deeply concerned about open-source support. The Intel GMA X4500 series works great for desktop applications with the choice of either XAA or EXA 2D acceleration and we had found no significant slow-downs or other problems while testing out this IGP with the latest git code. Those interested in the X4500 series for media playback, the xf86-video-intel driver supports both X-Video and X-Video Motion Compensation. In comparison, neither of the latest graphics cards from NVIDIA or ATI supports XvMC with the closed-source or open-source drivers. XvMC is currently limited to MPEG-2 decode offloading, but hopefully not too far away that will be extended to support more video formats. The Intel GMA X4500MHD should also serve very well in notebooks. Finally, all of Intel's Linux support is backed by open-source software and even free software fanatics tend to be pleased by these open Intel drivers.

The same-day support for the GMA X4500 series on Linux is great to see, but this doesn't mean users should immediately buy these products if you are inexperienced with building X.Org drivers and Mesa from source. Without that support, users of these new IGPs and HDMI/DisplayPort connectors will need to use the VESA driver, which is less than ideal. Fortunately, by the distribution refreshes this fall, the updated Intel support should be widespread and result in an "out of the box" experience. Aside from the graphics, you will also need to use a very recent distribution using the Linux 2.6.25 or 2.6.26 kernel for supporting Serial ATA on the ICH10 motherboards.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:01 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:11 pm
Posts: 100
Location: MA, USA
jzigmyth wrote:
jimmyfergus wrote:
What qualifies as enough horsepower? I've got an Athlon X2 3800 and NVidia 7050, and at least on an R5.5 upgrade I can't view HD content at all. :(
I think you should have enough horse power for HD without XvMC.

What do you mean, can't view hd content at all? Live? recorded? Cable? Over the air? Does it crash? Is it jerky? Is it black screen? What's your display? HD TV? 720p? 1080i? S-video?


Thanks for your help - I could neither watch live or recorded 720p Cable QAM (HDHomerun), outputting 720p resolution over HDMI. It was very jerky, top said 130-140% CPU. Turns out I was on the CPU+ profile. I don't think I ever set that manually, but it may have been chosen for my previous motherboard pre Knoppmyth update.

Switching to another propfile got good recording playback last night. CPU++, Normal and High Quality all work as configured with somewhere in the region of 70% CPU.

However, trying to watch live TV is still terrible (very jerky). Is there a different set of settings for live playback which I have to find and set? I'll have to search some more...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:08 pm 
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 7:07 pm
Posts: 821
Location: Melbourne, Australia
jimmyfergus wrote:
However, trying to watch live TV is still terrible (very jerky). Is there a different set of settings for live playback which I have to find and set? I'll have to search some more...


How much RAM do you have? How much is the graphics chip taking? Check the CMOS settings for this. The integrated graphics boards use borrowed RAM.

Mike

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