And so it is that I bid a fond farewell to my HD1000. It's died for the third time and quite frankly, I've gotten tired of fixing it or rather hearing from my SO that the Roku is broke again. Such a nice product, too bad it was totally abandoned by Roku. And the new Roku products are crippled and much too limiting for me.

It's replacement is an AppleTV running Mythbuntu using atv-bootloader (that's developed by me by the way) see http://code.google.com/p/atv-bootloader/ if you are interested. Mythbuntu can handle 1080i mpeg2 using XvMC (another solution of mine) plus it's a real mythfrontend. Other options include XBMC for Linux, Boxee (Linux) and soon XBMC for Mac and Boxee (Mac) running under the AppleTV OS as a launch-able application. And of course, just about any other Linux distro you might want to install.

$199 refurbished from the Apple Store. Refurbished items at the Apple store carry the same warrantee as new and both of the ones I got I were packaged and looked just like a new one. This is a great deal with respect to the hardware. I've never found any thing in a similar physical size, noise output and video/audio/network capabilities that offers a better solution or price point.

This bring the total up to three, my original one that I cracked open and swap hard drives for AppleTV hardware/software development . Since I've created atv-bootloader, one does not have to open up AppleTVs any more to install AppleTV plugins or install/boot Linux distros so the two new ones will stay sealed.

Scott

Scott
Sorry to hear your hd1000 has failed again (are you selling it?). I have 3, 2 with morex power supplies installed by me, the other by Matt's service as it had a broken U12 VR too.

I still use them a lot and strangely enough prefer them as a frontend to my actual mythtv frontend, (call me weird but I guess because I fiddled a lot with mythroku to get it where I like) and coding in mythtv seemed like a huge learning curve that was a moving target that was traveling faster then me!.

I have followed your appletv work which looks great and a nice quiet solution. I wish it could playback the h.264 from the hauppauge hdpvr as then I would invest in one. I haven't got a hdpvr yet as I am waiting to see how the hardware/software needed to play its recordings settles down.

Best,
James

Hi jm_maclaren,

I do have to say many thanks for your work on mythroku, it has been the number one app on my HD1000 before I retired it. Have not thought about selling it, don't think I could get much for it without being in working condition. This one is running an external ATX power supply with U12 replaced and heatsinks on all the internal power regulators. Very hacked ;)

If you want it, it's yours for the shipping costs. It might be an easy fix (or not), stuck in a reboot cycle right now. Since the AppleTV can handle 1080i mpeg2 (and I have three of them), I really don't have any need for the HD1000 anymore.

I'm also interested in the hauppauge hdpvr. I do wish the Linux devs when for a USB user driver rather than a kernel driver. Might have to do it myself ;) The i/o can be easily handled in user land as it's just streams the video in.

720p h.264 is quite doable with mplayer under Linux on the AppleTV. For high bit-rate you do need to use the skiploopfiler. Mplayer also has an interesting overlay capability that is not used very much. At some time, I'd like to talk without about the possibility of a mythroku type app that uses mplayer as an output app for a simple mythfrontend on the AppleTV platform. Sort of a very super light weight mythfrontend.

Im trying to follow all the ATV alternative firmware/ui/plugin. From what I read, I thought I saw that high bitrate HD was not possible due to the low horsepower of the CPU since no video drivers to exploit the GPU.
Did I miss something ?
Patrick S.

1080p h.264/mpeg4 is not possible at the current time.

High bitrate is possible with the skiploopfile ffmpeg switches under mplayer under Linux. I'm currently investigating the limits of 720p h.264 under the AppleTV OS with mplayer and other apps that use ffmpeg.

Scott
I an very interested in your remarks about h264/720p. As I read the output from the hdpvr is a complicated to decode h264 - hence the high cpu horsepower needed. Have you tested some of the test 720p files taken from the hdpvr with success? There are some posted on the mythtv users forum.

As my hdtvs are both 720p screens I have my cable boxes set to output at 720p. So if 720p output from the hdpvr could be played on the appletv that would be quite something.

Please do post the results of your tests!

I haven't seen much quality degradation with the skiploopfilter flag set
Thanks and I'd be happy to help with any development work.


James

All the sample from the hdpvr that I have seen are all max bit rate recordings that might be fine for purists but are quite impractical from the storage point of view. I've not seen any samples of recordings at practical bit-rates.

The big question to me is how low can you go before seeing artifacts that make viewing distasteful or annoying. No one seems to want to put up a series of snips that show the effect of the various bit-rates hdpvr can record at 720p. Just because you can record at a max bitrate and are that much closer to perfection, is it really worth all that trouble when you can never really do a perfect bit copy in the first place?

The Apple Movie Trailers at 720p look pretty good to me but others complain about the low bit-rates and that it is 720 and not 1080p. They still look great and so do full length Apple HD movies.

There's a point where even though it's possible, it's not practical. Is that extra 5-10 percent that you can't really see worth it?

A while back I was into very expensive audio equipment. Yes, to a point I could hear a difference as the cost increased, then it when into snake oil theory. Magic stones that brighten the highs when placed on top the amplifier. And these rocks cost $400 dollars, each. That's when I said, enough is enough and my system sounds great and is good enough for me.

davilla wrote:

Hi jm_maclaren,

I do have to say many thanks for your work on mythroku, it has been the number one app on my HD1000 before I retired it. Have not thought about selling it, don't think I could get much for it without being in working condition. This one is running an external ATX power supply with U12 replaced and heatsinks on all the internal power regulators. Very hacked

If you want it, it's yours for the shipping costs. It might be an easy fix (or not), stuck in a reboot cycle right now. Since the AppleTV can handle 1080i mpeg2 (and I have three of them), I really don't have any need for the HD1000 anymore.

I'm also interested in the hauppauge hdpvr. I do wish the Linux devs when for a USB user driver rather than a kernel driver. Might have to do it myself The i/o can be easily handled in user land as it's just streams the video in.

720p h.264 is quite doable with mplayer under Linux on the AppleTV. For high bit-rate you do need to use the skiploopfiler. Mplayer also has an interesting overlay capability that is not used very much. At some time, I'd like to talk without about the possibility of a mythroku type app that uses mplayer as an output app for a simple mythfrontend on the AppleTV platform. Sort of a very super light weight mythfrontend.

I would be interested buying your dead roku for the shipping costs. Please drop me a note to maclaren at tulane dot edu with the details

Thanks
James