System requirements for mvp

[stefan]

Ok, this has been discussed in the past, I know, but still...

Do I generally need more horsepower on my gbpvr box in order to watch stuff on an MVP than if I just use software decoding and use tv-out on my graphics card, or is it the other way around?

I'm thinking about getting an MVP to get better picture quality, but don't want to get it and then realize that stuff works worse than it does today

I also assume my computer will not be good/fast enough to show divx/xvid on an MVP ...

[djtaylor]

The MVP just gets sent the MPG file so I would have thought it's either no different or much less, certainly when it comes to screen overlay.

You don't say what your processor spec is but you could always transcode the divx stuff before watching it.

David.

[stefan]

The MVP just gets sent the MPG file so I would have thought it's either no different or much less, certainly when it comes to screen overlay.

You don't say what your processor spec is but you could always transcode the divx stuff before watching it.

David.

Thank's, David. That's what I figured, too, but I wanted to make sure. Wish I knew someone I could borrow an MVP from and try for myself...

Regarding my specs, it's in may sig Seriously, though, the Epia 10000 has a 1 Ghz processor, which corresponds roughly to a Intel 600 Mhz processor... transcoding on before hand would be a reasonable solution, yes.

[djtaylor]

Well if you want to pay the postage and leave me a deposit of some sort, you can borrow one of mine. Postage might be more than it's worth though.

I wouldn't think you have a problem, let me put it this way, right now my wife is watching something upstairs via an MVP, meanwhile the box is running comskip against the same programme.

When comskip just finished, the machine is running at between 80 to 99% idle time.

David.

[stefan]

*laughs*... well, postage may be a *tad* too much I'll think some more, and then decide later... back to work... thank's for your input, though.

[reedmikel]

FYI - a few months ago I bought a 2nd MVP unit at my local Radio Shack for $40...

[Chris.Day]

The native stuff (MPEG1, MPEG2, MP3, JPEG etc.) isn't a problem - provided that the I/O performance of the system is decent (i.e. the hard drive isn't being thrashed by another process) practically any CPU speed, within reason, should be do-able. DivX may be more of a push; I don't really get satisfactory results on my Pentium III 1.0GHz system.

[stefan]

What about OSD? On my computer the recording get's really choppy when any OSD is displayed. Would that get better/worse/stay the same using the MVP with the same computer as a server? I guess that depends on whether it is creating the OSD that is "hard" on the processor, or if it is displaying it that is hard on the processor?

[Cyb]

I think the menus/OSD are going to be really slow on your system, iirc I read that gbpvr generates the screen as an image and then sends it to the MVP to display so the responsiveness is directly related to CPU power & network performance.

If you use the native formats the MVP supports for playing files it should be OK, as Chris Day mentions, hard drive & network performance permitting.

[stefan]

Yeah... well, I'll have to think some more, I guess... still wish I could try before I buy