Powermac G4 + Radeon 9800 = HD Video?

[jwt]

I have a 1.5 GHz Powermac G4 and want to use it as a HD DVR, probably in conjunction with an El Gato product, and play it back on my Hi-Def set. The Radeon 9800 specs page says it does DTV/HDTV decoding. Does anyone have experience playing HD content with this setup?

 

[Jade Cambell]

I have a 1.5 GHz Powermac G4 and want to use it as a HD DVR, probably in conjunction with an El Gato product, and play it back on my Hi-Def set. The Radeon 9800 specs page says it does DTV/HDTV decoding. Does anyone have experience playing HD content with this setup?

With 1080p video, you'll be lucky to get 10 frames per second with that setup. It's not the video cards fault. It's the CPU.

 

[slu]

From Elgato eyeTV Hybrid and eyeTv 250 System Requirements:

Note: 720p or 1080i HD features require a Dual PowerPC G5 or an Intel Core Duo processor. Analog TV recorded via software encoder, quality depends on CPU performance.

 

[CubeHacker]

You are not going to get acceptable HD performance from a G4 unless you have a dual and limit yourself to 720p. Video card won't make a difference at all - its all CPU work.