Over this weekend I have had a chance to properly try out MythTV with Freeview so here is an update on where i am at for now.
Firstly I did a major hardware sawp, moving my Antec PSU, 3800 and Nvidia 8600GT to my main box in return for a cheap X-Power PSU and 5200 X2. The X2 provides more grunt for software decoding H.264, enough to work in Windows but not myth as will be seen.
So with Mythubuntu 8.04.1 + latest upgrades, including from Paul Kendall's repository, I monitered the CPU usage over SSH whilst testing out the channels. I got around 40%-70% CPU overall, obviously the SD channels where lighter on the CPU than HD with TV3 causing the max load.
However despite not maxing out the CPU TV3 was unwatchable, freezing for half a second every 1-2 secs. This is a problem a few others with similar CPU's on the mythnz mailing list have and the solution is changing the 'skiploopfilter' settings, I think forcing myth to drop frames rather than lag. However what is required to make this change is beyond my current Linux/GNU abilities so I am putting this project aside for the moment. What also contributed to that decision is reports from others about frequent frontend crashes, something I don't want on a HTPC that gets regular use.
So now I am re-installing Mediaportal (the change in graphics cards did something weird to the Windows install) and will work on getting Mythbuntu installed onto my old IDE drive so I can have my USB drive back.
When I am prepared to figure out rebuilding patches etc, or Paul sets up a GUI to make these changes (as he indicated he may) I will revisit this. Until, MP it is. It may not be perfectly stable, or make every recording I schedule (NCIS 2 weeks ago came back with just the xml file, no .ts at all!), but the codecs work better for obvious reasons.
I am glad just to have something that works, support is very limited for these MPEG 4 codecs and will be for a while yet.
Security Expert Finds A Wrench In The Internet - NPR
Telecom NZ releasing an All You Can Eat mobile plan
Though for north of $400 a month you will want to be pigging out. Tomorrow, Telecom NZ is set to announce a new all you can eat call plan. I am told it is north of the $400 a month mark by the time Aunty Helen and her taxation warlords add thei... (more in the full post)
Xero is going international
Wellington-based Xero is going international, according to a release in the NZSX and a blog post. Xero is a listed company in the NZX and this is from the official announcement:
Xero wishes to advise that by early 2009 it will release a global version of its award-winning online accounting software.
Xero is choosing to disclose this part of its strategy now in order to openly respond to growing international sales enquiries.
Earlier this week Xero was named as one of the world's Top Ten Best Application User Interfaces of 2008 by Nielsen Norman Group, the US-based analysts and experts in software design.
'King of usability' and award judge Jakob Nielsen commented about Xero: "Making accounting fun? That's an award-winning design."
The award has led to a surge in interest from small businesses internationally asking when Xero will be available in countries outside its initial target markets of New Zealand, the UK and Australia.
Xero is a web-based accounting software-as-a-service platform. Sounds boring, but they managed to create an easy to use, good looking software that works for the company owner and for the accountant.
GPS Units Help Thieves Find Jackpot
When you go out shopping, or to a baseball game, or wherever, odds are fair that you lock your car doors when you leave. You probably want to protect your...
Intel-powered Yahoo! TV Widgets screenshots
These are some pictures I took from the show floor just after the Yahoo! TV Widgets announcement during the Intel Developer Forum San Francisco 2008:
And below a zoom in the Yahoo! TV Widgets area:
And more pictures of different TV Widgets:
This box is based on the new Intel Media Processor CE 3100, pairing an Intel Pentium M processor core at 800MHz and 256K L2 Cache, with multi-stream high-definition video decoding and processing hardware, including support for MPEG-2, H.264 and VC-1 with HDMI 1.3a output, and featuring advanced 4-field per pixel motion-adaptive de-interlacing and 9-tap, 128-phase, independent horizontal and vertical scalers.
It also adds a 3-channel 800 MHz DDR2 memory controller supporting tiled memory mapping and channel interleaving, dedicated multi-channel dual audio DSPs with support for 7.1 surround sound implementing advanced audio codecs, including support for Blu-ray requirements.
The media processor also features a 2-D/3-D Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500 supporting multi-threaded dual universal scalable shader architecture for pixel/vertex processing, accelerated BLTs/Alpha BLTs, programmable anti-aliasing and compliance with industry-standard APIs: OpenGL ES 1.1, Open GL ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.0.
Google Street View car in Wellington
I was told today the Google Street View car is going around Wellington. here are some pictures, taken on the move, showing the camera on top of the car, and a couple of side shots showing the Google logo:
Thanks to Evan for sending in the pictures!
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