Re: [mythtv-users] How I got great quality TV-out on my nVidia MX4000
Jeroen Brosens wrote: I already went through the effort of making a VGA-SCART converter cable (I can provide schematics and photo's if you'd like) hoping that it would bring me the ultimate in MythTV viewing. But it didn't. It gives the best colors (separate R/G/B and sync) and sharpness of all possible methods, but... no smooth motion - on my setup that is. Some of you may recall my postings about struggling to get either bobdeint working on my SiS video (ASUS Pundit) or completely bypass the TV-out that can't handle interlaced video properly. When I finally got the modeline right for the VGA-SCART cable to work I was hoping that the video encoded by my PVR-250 (interlaced material) would play back 1:1 on the TV. Somehow, it gave the same blurry motion that kerneldeint or linear blend, or even 'no deinterlacing' produces, not 50 fields/sec but 25 frames/sec. Not even close to the perfect display you get using bobdeint. As an extra, the ultra sharp picture really made the MPEG artifacts clearly visible which isn't a pretty sight too, not to mention not being able to monitor the boot procedure because of the garbled image. So the cable wasn't really that hard to make and it only cost me 5,- but I found the results rather unsatisfying. See also an earlier post from me on this: http://www.mail-archive.com/mythtv-dev@mythtv.org/msg03975.html I gave up after trying *every* combination of driver/cable/modeline/X11 video output device/eating shoes and decided to buy a nVidia card after Staffan Pettersson persuaded me (thank you): http://www.mail-archive.com/mythtv-dev@mythtv.org/msg04131.html The card is due to arrive friday, so I can finally get OpenGL vsync+XvMC+bobdeint working. And what about YUV *Progressive* input - is there a way to get it out of VGA connector in the similar way how TV out of VGA was made? My TV supports this and since it is Progressive (my TV is 100Hz tube), I suppose it will solve most of problems with interlacing/deinterlacing. Does anybody know the details of YUV Progressive format? Best regards Radek Svoboda ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
[mythtv-users] Progressive YUV on TV?
Hi, my 100Hz TV Panasonic has progressive YUV input (3 cinches for Y,U,V). I'd like to output the image from PC (ASUS Pundit) in this format, perhaps with some (passive) support from hardware convertor. Is this possible? Radek Svoboda [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://freeman.web2001.cz ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] OT: Flashing Pundit BIOS to 1009 KILLED IT! :(
Jeroen Brosens wrote: I made a 2 MB bios flash bootable cd image for the ASUS Pundit which works neatly, but you need to input the bios file name when it's booted... maybe you could teach yourself the keystrokes to operate it blind or add a batch file to the cd image which does that for you. It contains bios versions 1008 (stable) and 1009 (beta). I run 1009 since it came out and haven't encountered any problem so far. Please let me know if you want the cd image. It's just 2 megs anyway, Unfortunately, I do not believe it will work. The BIOS is totally dead, it will not boot from CD probably, but surely it does not initialize the keyboard nor read the keyboard .. it just freezes. I am looking for somebody good in electronics to externaly flash the EEPROM. I also found a tip about hot-swapping the BIOS chips, but I did not convince yet my friend to put his precious chip into possible risk of such operation. Radek Svoboda [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://freeman.web2001.cz ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] OT: Flashing Pundit BIOS to 1009 - RESOLVED
I did find a local HW service company which flashed my BIOS externaly in 3 minutes for $5 - really good deal. My Pundit is now working again with 1009 BIOS. The technicial examined the BIOS content prior to flashing the and said that it contained total mess - so beware of Windows flashing utilities. Do not be lazy as I were to prepare Freedos bootable CD. Anyway, I am now lucky with my Pundit running again. Thank goes to all who helped! Best regards Radek Svoboda ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] pundit-r temperatures
emory wrote: I have the same setup (Celeron D 2.6 GHz, pundit R, 7200 RPM HD, SBLive) and I get a about 49 C at maximum CPU, and the fan speed goes up to 2800 RPM or so. I tried to put arctic silver on, but it didn't really seem to help much. One thing that I found helps is to make sure the IDE cable from the HD and CDROM drive is tucked away underneath the hard drive and not obstructing the PSU fan. This probably increases the HD temperature, but it allows the air flow to be better. In general, I agree with the responses to this post: the celeron D just generates way too much heat to be run quietly in the Pundit-R. Since I finally got my Pundit running, I can compare the temperatures. I put old Northwood core Celeron 2.0 GHz into it and it keeps CPU at 34C when idle. Very nice. More interestingly (and not so nice), the Q-Fan control does not seem to work. The fan spins at 1850-1950 RPM whole the time, regardless of the CPU temperature. When I disable Q-Fan, it jumps up to noisy 3500 and remains there. What may be wrong? If I run intensive tasks, I get about 51C at the cpu .. and the fan is still quiet .. not very safe, I guess. BTW, how low can the fan speed go in your Q-fan mode? Best regards Radek Svoboda ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
[mythtv-users] OT: Flashing Pundit BIOS to 1009 KILLED IT! :(
Hi everybody, today, I tried to flash (using ASUS windows Update utility from the file) the Pundit BIOS from the 1005 to latest release found on the web - 1009. During the flash process it failed to verify - checksum failed. I tried multiple times, but without success. So I did exit, thinking that it did not confirm the write .. what a MISTAKE .. on the reboot, the machine was dead (and still is). The fans spins at full speed, no VGA image, .. totally dead. Please, did somebody experienced the similar problem? Is there any solution I can do? I tried to remove battery and shortcut the appropriate pins, but it did not helped at all. Please help ... Radek Svoboda ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] OT: Flashing Pundit BIOS to 1009 KILLED IT! :(
From what I've read you should never use a Windows application to flash your BIOS. There should be bootable floppies available to do this. You could try getting the boot floppy, google for instructions, but if there's not enough BIOS left to boot then you maybe have a worthless motherboard now. Sorry about that. Its hard to use floppy on Pundit, as it does not support them. Radek Svoboda ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] Pundit OR Pundit-R ?
Krunoslav Pisacic wrote: I use Pundit with SIS drivers from - you can achieve small amount of overscan using SisCtrl tool. There you can streatch and move picture. It is still not as large as real TV, but it eliminates black bars. Quality is in my opinion just fine. Any it has DVI output, so you can connect it to some fancy LCD/plasma TV. Unfortunately, I have none of such cool TV's. A 100Hz Panasonic must be sufficient for my Pundit. :) If there are no black borders, why is it not as large as on real TV? Pundit is imho a little bit easier to setup, and bit more supported under linux. I have PVR250 and DVB Nexus-S card, and I haven't had any problems with it - besides putting Nexus-S inside which required a little bit of case-bending and modifying a CPU cooler exhaust with a saw. You must note, that it is not quiet as I would want it to be (this applies to both Pundits). Don't buy too fast processor - it will be noisy. I have P4 2.4 and processor fans is most of the time on its slowest speed. When it hits constant cpu usage of more that 70% is goes as 2500rpm, which is definitely noticeable. My college has a Pundit-R with P4 3Ghz, it is from boot at a higher speed. I have heard that best processors for it would be old core Celerons 2.4 or 2.6. Case fan could be a source of some noticeable noise too depending of components you put in. I plan to use Celeron-D .. because its for the same price as old Northwood Celerons .. and I believe the FSB of 533MHz and doubled cache will be more than beneficial when encoding to MPEG-2 (realtime) and to MPEG-4 (offline, in 2 passes), as I plan. So it means that Northwood core is cooler than Prescott one on the same frequency? Radek Svoboda [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://freeman.web2001.cz ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] Pundit OR Pundit-R ?
Radek Svoboda wrote: emory wrote: I concur with Krunoslav -- when used with the Prescott cores, the Pundits are not virtually silent as ASUS or some users may claim. I have a 2.66 GHz Celeron D with a PVR 250, Seagate Barracuda, SBLive, and an 8x DVD burner in my pundit, and it is pretty noisy. When watching Live TV on myth, i use about 35% CPU, which causes the small case to go up to 48 degrees C, which bumps the CPU fan 2500 RPM CPU fan, at which point things become very noisy (especially the PSU fan). the speed of the Celeron D is pretty amazing -- but I would much rather wait for stuff to compile/encode than have a noisy box next to my TV. So I would go with the old-school Celerons. They are 10-15 deg C cooler and have 30 W less power. Unfortunately, they seem to be impossible to get now. Resellers here offer only 2.0 GHz version as the last item with Northwood core. Does more GHz mean more dissipated temperature, or the warmth of the CPU just depends on the usage? I found the answer by myself, in the Intel Celeron Celeron-D technical specification. It confirm previous statements by the list contributors and may be useful to the others: Celeron Northwood ... thermal power varies .. 52W (2.0GHz)-68W (2.8GHz) Celeron Prescott ... thermal power fixed at 73W It looks like Prescotts are all the same inside, just locked differently. Pitty. Radek Svoboda [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://freeman.web2001.cz ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
[mythtv-users] Pundit OR Pundit-R ?
I plan to use Pundit (used) or Pundit-R (brand new) as both backend and frontend machine for MythTV. I plan to use Celeron-D 2.4 GHz with fast CL2 memory in it and cheap Genius TV Wonder (Philips SAA7134 chipset). Please, could you help me to choose, what will be better: Pundit (PB-2400) or Pundit-R? 1) TV-Out quality? I plan to TV-out in PAL using builtin chipset. Which has better quality? 2) Celeron 533MHz (D) support? I've heard rumours that old Pundit does not support these Prescott processors. Seems strange to me, as they claim 533 FSB bus speed support for both Pundits. 3) SPDIF sound output ? Has old Pundit also 5.1 audio in the digital output, or just when using analog output? 4) Fan quality ? In one review I saw the Pundit-R has copper CPU heatsink, instead of alluminium one in Pundit. Is this true? 5) 1Gbit LAN ? Some time ago I thought that Pundit has builtin 1Gbit LAN Broadcom card. Now, the specs for both state just 100 Mbit. Are there old Pundits with 1Gbit LAN? Thank you very much for help Radek Svoboda http://freeman.web2001.cz ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
Re: [mythtv-users] Pundit OR Pundit-R ?
Jason Koeninger wrote: Yes, the Pundit is supported by his drivers. Assuming I haven't misunderstood his site, the SiS 651 in the Pundit does not have the Chrontel which means that overscan is not supported, but the drivers still work with it. I've run it with and without the CHTVOverscan setting, and it doesn't change anything. Here's the information from his site on CHTVOverscan: This option is for systems with a Chrontel TV encoder only. The driver auto-detects the BIOS setting for TV over/underscan. If your BIOS lacks such an option, use this one to choose whether you want overscan or underscan. Please note: For some reasons, Chrontel did not bother to implement a real full-screen TV mode for PAL. So, although the name overscan should indicate a TV image without black bars around, such bars still exist even in overscan mode. They are, however, smaller than in underscan mode. NTSC overscan is really full-screen. Valid values are yes (overscan) or no (for underscan). The PAL information may be interesting to the original poster. Additionally, this thread provides information about Chrontel and the SiS 651 in the Pundit: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/31322#31322 Best Regards, Jason Koeninger JJ Computer Consulting Interesting. I always thought that there are just deinterlace and HW quality problems with SiS in Pundit, and that overscan is working fine. Is there any old Pundit user running its TV-Out in PAL mode without the black border on TV? If there is, what drivers are used? From this point of view, it seems that Pundit-R would be better choice. It seems that now there are some TV-Out drivers working with kernels = 2.6.8, aren't they? Radek Svoboda [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://freeman.web2001.cz ___ mythtv-users mailing list mythtv-users@mythtv.org http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
