I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead with my planned system: Asus A8N-VM CSM w/A64 3200+ and pcHDTV3000. I've found several posts that claim that the A64 3200+ is barely sufficient for playing HDTV, even though that's what the KnoppMyth Reference Platform uses. But, what I'm going to be doing is watching digital cable (my local cable provider, Comcast in the SF Bay Area, gives me unencrypted digital versions of many free analog channels) on my Samsung SP-R4232, which is an EDTV that claims to support HTDV input (it has an HDMI as well as VGA input). Suppose I configure my X server to be 848x480, which is the native resolution of the TV -- will it be harder on the CPU to scale, say, 1080i down to 848x480, or will it be harder to render the full 1080i and let my TV downsample it? Would there be a quality difference? And, if I did run the X server at 1080i, what would happen to SD or 720p sources I try to watch? They'd have to be scaled up, right? So, I guess the scaling on the Myth box is going to happen no matter what I do? Is it easier on the CPU to scale up or down? My gut says it'd be better to get the video card running at the native resolution of the TV. Also, wouldn't any de-interlacing be done at the lower resolution, and wouldn't that also help CPU load?

Thanks for any tips. I know a few of you out there are using this motherboard/CPU combination, I'd love to hear if it's fast enough for you.

-Joel

Yes, it should be.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

I second that.

I use a 3200 and playing 1080i programing at a 720p resolution yields about a 60% CPU util.

My next HD frontend is planned to be a 3000, as it will save me 60 bucks.

Glad to hear it, thanks everyone. I've ordered my system, and all the parts should be coming soon, except the case, which is backordered . I look forward to being up and running soon, though.

-Joel