Unfortunately I don't think Boxee will ever be able to play HDTV content on the AppleTV - even in Linux. Here's the breakdown:
- Boxee doesn't support XVMC and I doubt it ever will. XVMC is "old" technology. It is not supported on the newer nVidia chips. - The newest technology for offloading video decoding to the GPU is called VDPAU. - Boxee recently added support for VDPAU, but... - VDPAU is only supported on the newer nVidia chips. nVidia has no plans to back-port support for VDPAU to older chips such as the 7000 series used in the Apple TV. I think this is due to limitations in the capabilities of the older GPUs. I tried playing HDTV content in Boxee a while ago and found the CPU in the AppleTV just doesn't have enough horsepower to pull it of. On Aug 17, 2009, at 11:43 AM, iitywygms wrote: > > It currently works partially, at least for me. > Playing back hdtv channels is iffy. Which is why I asked this > question on this forum. > > http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=9951 > > On Aug 16, 10:22 pm, Will Koehler <[email protected]> wrote: >> I thought MythTV integration in Boxee wasn't working any more. How do >> you get the Mythbackend tuners to show up? Are you able to play HDTV >> content in Boxee? >> >> On Aug 17, 2009, at 12:51 AM, iitywygms wrote: >> >> >> >>> Wow, I am surprised! I figured the atv os would be a better choice >>> because it is built for the hardware. Glad I asked. >>> Guess I will stick with my current setup. I already have ubuntu >>> installed and working. I just recently figured out how to get the >>> mythbackend tuners to show up in boxee. So I thought maybe the atv >>> was a good choice. >>> Thank you all for the answers. >>> Until atv os is more capable, I will stick with ubuntu. >> >>> On Aug 16, 4:32 pm, Will Koehler <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> If you want to watch HD TV on the ATV you will need Linux. The >>>> CPU in >>>> the Apple TV is not powerful enough to decode HD TV on its own. >>>> Linux >>>> allows you to offload some of the work decoding the HD stream to >>>> the >>>> nVidia GPU using a technology called XVMC. As Phil stated below, it >>>> works beautifully. >> >>>> Boxee doesn't support XVMC, nor does the ATV OS (a watered down >>>> version of OS X). >> >>>> I recommend going with Mythbuntu. It's a ton of work but that's >>>> half >>>> the fun, right? >> >>>> -Will >> >>>> On Aug 16, 2009, at 5:14 PM, Phil Chadwick wrote: >> >>>>> The ATV OS doesn't play normal HD movies, but a crippled version >>>>> sent via iTunes (lowered FPS). >> >>>>> when I was contemplating the same thing, I decided to go mythtv on >>>>> the ATV as it supports XVMC- the ability to offload mpeg2 decoding >>>>> to the Nvidia graphics card. I don't believe the native Apple TV >>>>> OS >>>>> does this. >> >>>>> I can play 1080i mpeg2 shows (Captured via HDHR) perfectly on the >>>>> ATV w/ Mythtv and XVMC. >> >>>>> ----- Original Message ---- >>>>> From: iitywygms <[email protected]> >>>>> To: atv-bootloader <[email protected]> >>>>> Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2009 2:07:50 PM >>>>> Subject: [atv-bootloader] would you run boxee on ubuntu, or native >>>>> atv os? >> >>>>> So I have a choice to make. >>>>> I want to use the atv as a media center frontend. I have a mythtv >>>>> backend that has movies, videos, etc. >>>>> What would be a better frontend for this? Considering all I >>>>> want to >>>>> do is watch recorded tv and movies, plus listen to music and watch >>>>> hulu. >>>>> I do not need to schedule shows or anything like that. >>>>> I THINK I should run the standard atv os, and install boxee to >>>>> watch >>>>> the recorded tv shows from the myth backend and hulu >>>>> OR, I could install ubuntu and mythfrontend. But I think the >>>>> atv os >>>>> will be better at watching most hd movies because atv os is >>>>> designed >>>>> specifically for the hardware on the apple tv box. >>>>> What would you do? Keep the atv os and use boxee, or install >>>>> ubuntu >>>>> and mythtv and boxee? >> >> > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/atv-bootloader?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
