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Razor_109 · 2011-02-04, 22:16

At the moment i'm looking for a small formfactor htpc/xbmc-client for my bedroom to serve 1080p video's but in the future should also be able to display Live-TV.

I know Live-TV or PVR-support is not available on the ATV2, but my question is about possible future plans of the devs and possible hardware restrictions of the ATV2.

One of the most important requirements for using the ATV2 as PVR-Client would be the possibility to deinterlace 1080i streams. Is it to be expected that in the future the ATV2 would be able to deinterlace these kind of streams and functions as an XBMC-PVR client? Or is this not possible due to hardware restrictions? When it will be possible this would make me rush to a store and buy myself an ATV2 Big Grin

Razor_109 · 2011-02-08, 23:34

*Bump*

Anyone has a clue about (possible future) ATV2's hardware capability's for deinterlacing 1080i?

**keith** · 2011-02-09, 00:18

de-interlacing 1080i should be possible, provided it's in MPEG4 AVC format like H264, x264, etc.

If it's mpeg 2 tho, there is some issues with that and no short-term fix is near.

If this is a dealbreaker, I would wait until at least atv2 is merge into mainline, then we'll have better idea of what is hardware limitations and what is not.

Razor_109 · (This post was last modified: 2011-02-09, 13:15 by Razor_109.)

Well my 1080i DVB-streams are in H264 indeed, not MPEG-2 so this should be no problem for the hw-acceleration. But i guess deinterlacing is not (yet) part of the acceleration/code written for the ATV2-chip.

Software deinterlacing of 1080i is quite a no go i guess for the small ARM chip, so it would only work when the chip itself is capable of deinterlacing (like Nvidia Ion?) so a specific hw-deinterlacer could be written in the future?

[Edit]
Anyone currently in the possession of an ATV2 with XBMC who is willing to try an 1080i H264 clip and see the performance of the ATV2 and possible dropped frames? I could upload an 1080i clip of my DVB-stream when needed.

piotr · 2011-02-09, 16:46

Razor_109 Wrote:At the moment i'm looking for a small formfactor htpc/xbmc-client for my bedroom to serve 1080p video's but in the future should also be able to display Live-TV.

I know Live-TV or PVR-support is not available on the ATV2, but my question is about possible future plans of the devs and possible hardware restrictions of the ATV2.

One of the most important requirements for using the ATV2 as PVR-Client would be the possibility to deinterlace 1080i streams. Is it to be expected that in the future the ATV2 would be able to deinterlace these kind of streams and functions as an XBMC-PVR client? Or is this not possible due to hardware restrictions? When it will be possible this would make me rush to a store and buy myself an ATV2

I have almost the same setup (tvheadend on ubuntu server + xbmc on AppleTV) and i can confirm that live-tv DOES work for SD channels.

Razor_109 · 2011-02-09, 22:16

Can somebody currently using the ATV2 try and play this file and report the performance at this current state and if hw-accel is working?

http://rapidshare.com/files/447068171/10...stream.mkv

Speshuled · 2011-02-21, 08:38

I have a few 1080i videos that I got from the net, the apple tv is not playing them very well.

I am a noob, just got it today, but I'm trying to play a Conan episode and it's not working. It has to buffer the video every few seconds. Perhaps there's better system settings I should be trying?

toitle · (This post was last modified: 2011-02-21, 10:13 by toitle.)

Razor_109, the file you posted has a severe stutter/lag and audio issues with the atv2.

atv2 - wired ethernet - 4.2.1 - gp6.1 - from gigabit w/samba

Speshuled · 2011-02-21, 17:10

toitle Wrote:Razor_109, the file you posted has a severe stutter/lag and audio issues with the atv2.

atv2 - wired ethernet - 4.2.1 - gp6.1 - from gigabit w/samba

I never tried that file but tried several other 1080i videos last night, all stutter and lag. The video has to buffer every few seconds. I tried pausing the video for up to 10 minutes to see if it would buffer ahead, but after about 10 seconds it stutters again. I tried messing with the deinterlacing settings within the video settings on the OSD and no luck.

So far it plays 720p and 1080p fairly well from what I can tell. I also tried 1080p DTS which has a slight stutter on occasion, but I haven't noticed it too badly and it seems to get better as the video plays. I still need to do more testing. I haven't tried 720p DTS yet.

All files were x264 mkv files streaming over wired Ethernet. Computer runs win7. ATV2 4.2.1

Razor_109 · 2011-02-21, 17:32

@toitle
Thanks for trying, do you think the file i posted fails to play because of the same buffer-problems Speshuled is talking about?

@Speshuled
Thanks for the information, you have x264 1080i files?

@both
Can you see whether or not the file is being played with hardware acceleration? (onscreen/codecinformation) or is it not?

Can any of the iOS developers maybe shed a light on this, and the possible expectations for the furture? will this improve or will 1080i never be possible on the ATV2? When it would it would someday make a hell of a client for PVR!

Speshuled · 2011-02-21, 18:53

Hmm, perhaps they're not x264 mkv files like I thought they were. Now that I'm on my computer and looking at the file I see its not...

This was the file I was trying to play:
Conan 2011-01-31...1080i HDTV DD5.1 MPEG2-TrollHD.ts

All of the other files that couldn't play were also .ts files. I did a little more investigating a few minutes ago. ATV2 doesn't play nice with .wmv files either.

How would I go about checking the onscreen/codecinformation?

Razor_109 · 2011-02-21, 23:11

Ah ok, its MPEG2 so there is no Hardware acceleration for that. Try my stream which i uploaded, should be MPEG4 (H264) which should be hw-accelerated i guess.

http://rapidshare.com/files/447068171/10...stream.mkv

For onscreen/codecinfo on linux it's the "o" button, i wouldn't know how to enable this in the iOS build Confused

Razor_109 · 2011-05-12, 15:07

Anyone can tell me the current state of the ATV2 branch? Is it deinterlaceing by GPU already? Or wont this ever be possible to play 1080i MPE4/H264 files?

Maybe a dev could shed a light on this deinterlacing matter and what to expect of the ATV and other iOS devices.

Thanks!

davilla · 2011-05-12, 18:33

Razor_109 Wrote:@toitle
Can any of the iOS developers maybe shed a light on this, and the possible expectations for the furture? will this improve or will 1080i never be possible on the ATV2? When it would it would someday make a hell of a client for PVR!

We are at the mercy of Apple when it comes to HD mpeg2. So as much as I shake the crystal ball, damm thing won't fess up.

Razor_109 · 2011-05-14, 18:49

davilla Wrote:We are at the mercy of Apple when it comes to HD mpeg2. So as much as I shake the crystal ball, damm thing won't fess up.

Understood, but what about 1080i MPEG4? That's being accelerated i guess? The big question is what about hardware deinterlacing? Anything in the magic ball about that? Wink

ATV would be the perfect little DVB-Client for my home if it only could handle 1080i streams! (MPEG-4)