CPU recommendations for Hauppauge HD PVR?

[potatocouch]

My system doesn't seem to be able to handle the Hauppauge HD PVR. The CPU gets pegged at 100% when recording.

My system specs are:
AMD BE-2350 2.1GHz
2GB RAM
Radeon HD 3450 @ 1360x768 resolution

What are your recommendations for a socket AM2 processor (preferably a low-power one)? Will going to quad-core help? I'd like to get something fast enough that I can use with MythTV (in case I can't resolve my DVD playback issues in Windows).

[dark_half]

The encoding is handle at the hardware level on the HD PVR. I would think that if you have high CPU utilization that there may me a different problem. If you are talking about playback that is a different issue. If you are running Vista and using EVR you can offload the decoding to the video card.

[whurlston]

As dark_half said, the HD PVR is doing the encoding so you definitely should not be seeing much CPU utilization while recording. The 3450 should easily be able to handle playback unless you are using a decoder that does software only decoding.

[potatocouch]

I'll try doing a fresh install of everything and try again. It's possible the high CPU % was for playback... it's been a long while since I tried so my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Before doing the fresh install thing, I wanted to make sure that my CPU was up to snuff. When I put that system together, it was only intended to handle standard def.

From what you guys are saying, the HD PVR and video card should offload most of the encoding/decoding... so my dual core 2.1 CPU should be enough??

[potatocouch]

Forgot to ask...

What decoder can I use that will do hardware decoding with the 3450?

[whurlston]

For the H.264 files produce by the HD PVR, you can use the ArcSoft Video Decoder if you installed the bundled software. Just select it in Config in the dropdown for H.264

[pBS]

i'm running same video and i get great results with either cyberlink pdvd7,8,9 or ffdshow for h264..
ffdshow doesn't fully accell it, but it comes so close i have no problems with only a 1.6ghz c2d with almost no cache on it...800 fsb..

if using xp then ati avivo codec will let you use full accell on mpeg2, ffdshow does well there also..[make sure to set nv12 colorspace and use mpeg2lib instead of avcodec 4 mpeg2]

[potatocouch]

I reinstalled everything fresh with Windows 7 RC and latest drivers. My CPUs are at ~20% in time shift mode using the Arcsoft decoder. Everything is nice and smooth now.

I think I didn't set the Arsoft decoder to use DXVA the first time around, so I wasn't getting hardware acceleration for video. DVXA2.0 is what I have it set to right now.

Thank you dark_half, whurlston, and pBS.