Re: [mythtv-users] Guide data setup for mixed ATSC/QAM & NTSC backend? Multiple xmltv feeds needed?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/29/06, Daniel Kristjansson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Sun, 2006-01-29 at 14:19 -0500, Michael T. Dean wrote:> On 01/29/2006 01:59 PM, Todd Ignasiak wrote:> > I am trying to clean up my MythTV configuration a bit.  Part of that> > effort is to use a single Zap2it / xmltv guide account, so I can deal
> You have two Myth video sources, one for SDTV and one for HDTV channels?What most users do is set up several listings on the same zap2it accountwith slightly different zip codes. So if your neighborhood is in 10023,
you can use the neighboring neighborhoods 10022, 10024, etc foradditional listings, since you probably get the same OTA/Cable signalsas your immediate neighbors.Thanks for the reply.  I didn't realize that zap2it/xmltv supported multiple listings per account.   I added a new listing for the few digital channels, and I think that should be good.   Zap2it had seperate listings for Comcast Cable & Comcast Digital,  so I didn't need to use another zip code.
The analog channels worked great with the xmltv listings.  mythfill database automatically found the data for the right channels, since there is no ambiguity in the frequency / channel number.The digital / HD channels were not as easy,  the Comcast channel numbers are in the 700's, but the actual channel frequencies are 79, 116, 117 (two HD channels per QAM channel).   The scan  showed channels like 2#1 and 2#2, and for one channel it picked up the PSIP data and used the virtual channel numbers.    So, I ended up with one set of channels from the scan, and one set from xmltv, each with partial data. I edited the mysql database by hand to make sure all channels had the correct xmltvid, mplexid, atscsrcid, etc. But, I'm sure there must be an easier way.

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[mythtv-users] Guide data setup for mixed ATSC/QAM & NTSC backend? Multiple xmltv feeds needed?

[Todd Ignasiak]

I am trying to clean up my MythTV configuration a bit.  Part of that effort is to use a single Zap2it / xmltv guide account, so I can deal with the expiration less frequently (with two, it seems like it's always expiring).  I have four tuners, all hooked to my cable TV connection.  The two SD tuners (PVR-500 card) can record all the analog channels (2-63).  The two ATSC/QAM tuners can record the handful of HD channels (79,116,117;  which breaks out into five visible HD channels), and cannot do SD (at least not as I have it set up.  I wouldn't want them to do SD anyway, as they don't have MPEG encoders.)
But, with my config now, it seems that MythTV doesn't know the difference between the channel types, and tries to record SD with the HD tuner, and HD with the SD tuner.  I have the TV format set to ATSC on my HD channels, and I was hoping that would allow MythTV to associate those channels with the HD capable tuners.  
I'm sure others have this same setup.  What is the recommended "best practice" for associating channels/guide data with the best tuner card?   Must I go back to my config with two guide sources, each limited to the relevant stations the tuners can receive?
Thanks for any input.
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Re: [mythtv-users] whats the best graphics card for HD playback?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/24/06, Steve Adeff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Tuesday 24 January 2006 15:43, Todd Ignasiak wrote:> On 1/23/06, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> > On 1/23/06, Steve Adeff <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> > > On Monday 23 January 2006 16:35, Todd Ignasiak wrote:> > > > On 1/23/06, Greg Estabrooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > > > I have been surprised that the Dxr6 / EM8621 video decoder cards> > > > > > haven't gotten any traction with the MythTV crowd.   It seems to> > >> > > be an
> > >> > > > > > ideal> > > > >> > > > > card> > > > >> > > > > Got a link to these cards?   Maybe I've just being blind (wouldn't
> > >> > > be the> > >> > > > > first time) but all I can find are the chips themselves and not> > > > > commercially> > > > > available pci cards with them onboard.
> > > >> > > > The only one I found is the AllWell EM6821 PCI card,  their site has> > >> > > some> > >> > > > links to docs for it ( 
http://www.allwell.tv/ ).> > > >> > > > Other links with info:> > >> > > 
http://www.mpeg-playcenter.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t> > >=534> > >> > > >3> > > >> > > >> > > > 
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/em8620Lseries.htm> > >> > > whoa, thats awesome, too bad its not actually being made...> >> > Do you mean the Allwell card?   I know some vendors are pretty aggressive
> > in pre-announcing.  But, it explicitly says "WMV9 and High Definition PCI> > decoder released" on their home page.> >> > I e-mailed the contact on the allwell site.  We'll see if I get any
> > pricing or availability information back.>> I got  a response from AllWell sales.   The "EM8621 PCI Card" is on their> price list for $125.>> But, he said that the drivers are not included, apparently Sigma Designs
> requires purchase of their SDK to get access to the drivers (I read> something about them flip-flopping on this in forum discussions of the> card,  the drivers were available, then removed, then back, etc.)
>> He is working with a third party software company to provide a bundle with> the card & linux software.  He estimated the bundle would be available in> mid march.>>> Hopefully this card won't be completely limited by Sigma's software
> licensing restrictions.  To me, it seems like open drivers would be an> enabler for selling a lot more of their chips..   But, apparently they> don't see it that way.especially considering Sigma has already stole from the OSS community.
Either way, I can't wait for this card to come out if it will be able tosupport MythTV's menus and OSD.Did they say anything about this?No, he didn't give details on what they were doing. I did recommend that he look into MythTV.  If he's looking for a proof of concept implementation for those third party software companies..   That card was obviously designed for PVR usage,  and unless Microsoft changes MCE to support hardware decoders, MythTV seems like a no-brainer for that chip/board.

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Re: [mythtv-users] whats the best graphics card for HD playback?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/23/06, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 1/23/06, Steve Adeff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
On Monday 23 January 2006 16:35, Todd Ignasiak wrote:> On 1/23/06, Greg Estabrooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > I have been surprised that the Dxr6 / EM8621 video decoder cards
> > > haven't gotten any traction with the MythTV crowd.   It seems to be an> > > ideal> >> > card> >> > Got a link to these cards?   Maybe I've just being blind (wouldn't be the
> > first time) but all I can find are the chips themselves and not> > commercially> > available pci cards with them onboard.>> The only one I found is the AllWell EM6821 PCI card,  their site has some
> links to docs for it ( http://www.allwell.tv/ ).>> Other links with info:>> 

http://www.mpeg-playcenter.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=534>3>>> 
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/em8620Lseries.htm
whoa, thats awesome, too bad its not actually being made...Do you mean the Allwell card?   

I know some vendors are pretty aggressive in pre-announcing.  But, it explicitly says "WMV9 and High Definition PCI decoder released" on their home page.   I e-mailed the contact on the allwell site.  We'll see if I get any pricing or availability information back.
I got  a response from AllWell sales.   The "EM8621 PCI Card" is on their price list for $125.But, he said that the drivers are not included, apparently Sigma Designs requires purchase of their SDK to get access to the drivers (I read something about them flip-flopping on this in forum discussions of the card,  the drivers were available, then removed, then back, etc.)
He is working with a third party software company to provide a bundle with the card & linux software.  He estimated the bundle would be available in mid march.Hopefully this card won't be completely limited by Sigma's software licensing restrictions.  To me, it seems like open drivers would be an enabler for selling a lot more of their chips..   But, apparently they don't see it that way.

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Re: [mythtv-users] whats the best graphics card for HD playback?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/23/06, Steve Adeff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Monday 23 January 2006 16:35, Todd Ignasiak wrote:> On 1/23/06, Greg Estabrooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> > > I have been surprised that the Dxr6 / EM8621 video decoder cards
> > > haven't gotten any traction with the MythTV crowd.   It seems to be an> > > ideal> >> > card> >> > Got a link to these cards?   Maybe I've just being blind (wouldn't be the
> > first time) but all I can find are the chips themselves and not> > commercially> > available pci cards with them onboard.>> The only one I found is the AllWell EM6821 PCI card,  their site has some
> links to docs for it ( http://www.allwell.tv/ ).>> Other links with info:>> 
http://www.mpeg-playcenter.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=534>3>>> http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/em8620Lseries.htm
whoa, thats awesome, too bad its not actually being made...Do you mean the Allwell card?   
I know some vendors are pretty aggressive in pre-announcing.  But, it explicitly says "WMV9 and High Definition PCI decoder released" on their home page.   I e-mailed the contact on the allwell site.  We'll see if I get any pricing or availability information back.

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Re: [mythtv-users] whats the best graphics card for HD playback?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/23/06, Greg Estabrooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have been surprised that the Dxr6 / EM8621 video decoder cards haven't> gotten any traction with the MythTV crowd.   It seems to be an ideal card Got a link to these cards?   Maybe I've just being blind (wouldn't be the
first time) but all I can find are the chips themselves and not commerciallyavailable pci cards with them onboard.The only one I found is the AllWell EM6821 PCI card,  their site has some links to docs for it ( 
http://www.allwell.tv/ ).Other links with info:http://www.mpeg-playcenter.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5343
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/em8620Lseries.htm
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Re: [mythtv-users] whats the best graphics card for HD playback?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/22/06, sean darcy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 1/21/06, Michael T. Dean <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> Frank Lynch wrote:>> >On 1/21/06, Chris Ribe <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> >> >> >>I'm in a similar situation to you, Frank, and I am looking for an answer to> >>the same question.> >>> >>From what I've gathered so far, the NVidia 5200 series seem to work the
> >>best.  I'd like to hear more confirmation on that before I go drop $40 on> >>one, though.> >>> >>> >Does the amount of video ram play a factor?> >The 5200 seems to come with either 128 or 256mb of ram.
> >I'd like to have my graphics card do as much work as possible, I want> >ot keep my cpu for tasks like commercial flagging (and occasional> >transcoding).> >> >> RAM is not a problem.  It's primarily important for 3D rendering with
> many textures, so the 128MB will work well (be way more memory than you> need) for HD MPEG-2 decoding.>> As far as best card goes, the best card is one whose drivers support the> functionality you need.  Right now, this means NVIDIA.  Don't get ATI.
>> The 6xxx series (at least some of them--there may be one or two> "holdovers" in the group) of NVIDIA cards use pixel shaders for Xv> (instead of the video overlay used by previous generations).  Myth has
> been designed to work well with the video-overlay-based Xv (including> providing an ability to adjust hue/saturation/brightness), and still has> work to be done for providing better support for the PS-based video.
> Therefore, you're probably better off going with a 5200 than a> 6800+--unless, of course, you want to do some GLSL programming for> Myth...  ;)>> Also, you won't get better MPEG-2 performance (including display of
> software-decoded MPEG-2 /and/ hardware-assisted MPEG-2 decoding with> XvMC) from a "faster" or newer card.  And, on the bright side, the 5200> is dirt-cheap compared to the newer-generations of cards, so save your
> money and go for a 5200.>I had a 6600 because I'm trying to drive an HDTV at  1080i, and itcame with component out.I had intermittent success.  myth and the nvidia drivers are like the
Bickersons. They only get along enough to stay together. And newnvidia drivers seem to cause more problems than they solve.So now that I'm looking for a new mb for a myth frontend, I'm lookingfor a non-nvidia card that
plays well with myth ( which means that open source is *really* important );does hw MPEG-2 decoding;and has component out at 1080i.I'd also like MPEG-4 decoding and 1080p - if possible.AND, I'd like it to have drivers that are in 
Xorg-7.0.0.So, if I'm off nvidia I certainly don't want ATI since they haveproprietary drivers and even more problem reports than nvidia. I havean old 8500dv, which I really like and is fully supported by xorg, but
doesn't do hw decoding or 1080i tv out.First up was intel 945g integrated video. Supports hdtv, 1080p andmpeg-2 hw decoding. No mention if it supports mpeg-4 decoding, so Iassume it doesn't.  Also supports hdtv component out through a "Media
Expansion Card".  Sounds good, but it turns out there are NO MediaExpansion Cards" available. AverMedia announced one for 3q2005 ( evenwon an Intel rpize for it!), but it's not been released ( or died
somewhere ) and the MSRP is $199!!!Next I looked at via unchrome pro: mpeg-2, mpeg-4, 1080p ( so I assumeit's 16:9). Drivers in xorg-7.0. But.. didn't find any with componentout, the unichrome drivers have split ( 
unichrome.sf and openchrome),and the mpeg-4 is only for boards with the via c7. Finally it appearsvia really isn't supporting ( assisting) the xorg drivers which don'tsupport mpeg-4.The Unichrome chip is supposed to have support for YPrPb in hardware according to the S3/VIA datasheets.   I've never tried one, so I don't know if the drivers expose support for this, or if it can be done with a simple breakout cable.
At least in theory, the Unichrome looks like a great MythTV chip,  full MPEG2 hardware decoding, and MPEG4 acceleration.   I'm hoping to find a Socket939 Unichrome board when I next upgrade my MythTV box, so I can try the Unichrome, and fall back to an NVidia add-in card if that doesn't work well.
 Sorta stuck. I guess I'm going to do the intel 945g with avga->component breakout box.
I do realize this is only a intel solution.Should be a better choice somewhere.I have been surprised that the Dxr6 / EM8621 video decoder cards haven't gotten any traction with the MythTV crowd.   It seems to be an ideal card for an HTPC.   MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV9, and 
H.264 hardware decoding;  DVI and YPrPb output;  some level of Linux support from the product developer..Prior to moving to MythTV, I used a receiver with a hardware decoder in Windows (MIT MDP-100/120/130), so I'm a big fan of hardware offload.   The MDP-1x0 could display HD programs with extremely low overhead on the host machine, and had smooth playback regardless of what the host was doing (as long as the host can keep up with DMA'ing a trickle of data to the card).

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Re: [mythtv-users] Using DVD VIDEO_TS directories on disk with MythTV?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/20/06, Michael T. Dean <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>  On 01/20/2006 02:39 PM, Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> > On 1/19/06, *Steve Hodge* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> wrote:
> >
> > On 1/20/06, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
> > > The file layout is something like:
> > >
> > >  /XMas_2002/VIDEO_TS/{*.IFO, *.VOB}
> > >  /Wedding/VIDEO_TS/{*.IFO, *.VOB}
> > >
> > > Where the top directory is the name of the DVD, the second is always
> > > VIDEO_TS, and the DVD data files are below that.  Ideally, I
> > would like to
> > > treat the top dir as the title, and associate a JPEG image with
> > that, and
> > > have a view launched that treats VIDEO_TS as a DVD.
> >
> > You could try having a single directory somewhere with links to the
> > vob files in each subdirectory. You could write a shell script to
> > create the links automatically from the top directory names.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks for the response.
> >
> >  The VOBs all use the same filenames, so there would be conflicts.
> > But, I guess the links could use different names.  But, then it would
>  > break the relationship between the IFO file and the VOB data.  So, DVD
> > menus and language support would be broken.
> >
> > If I go this route, I think I would change my DVD's to single file
> > videos, either one huge VOB, MPEG2 file, or  H.264 file.The
> > downside there is that I lose DVD Menus, chapters, etc.
>
> How about:
>
> ln -s /path/to/XMas_2002 /myth/videos/XMas_2002.dvdrip
>
> with a command that plays it back like:
>
> xine --no-splash --auto-play=fhq dvd:%s
>
> associated with the ".dvdrip" extension
>
> And, you might want to check out
>
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/142951#142951
>
> (if you do the offline stuff, use the updated prompt_for_media script at
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/143035#143035 ).


 Thanks for all the tips.   I ended up trying the directory renaming. 
I added a '.DVD' extension to the DVD directories and added that file
type to the videos area.

After a bit of tweaking with the xine settings, it's working pretty well.

Now, I just need to get the xine keymap settings configured to work
with my MythTV/lircd settings, and I'll be all set.
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Re: [mythtv-users] Using DVD VIDEO_TS directories on disk with MythTV?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/19/06, Steve Hodge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 1/20/06, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> The file layout is something like:>>  /XMas_2002/VIDEO_TS/{*.IFO, *.VOB}>  /Wedding/VIDEO_TS/{*.IFO, *.VOB}
>> Where the top directory is the name of the DVD, the second is always> VIDEO_TS, and the DVD data files are below that.  Ideally, I would like to> treat the top dir as the title, and associate a JPEG image with that, and
> have a view launched that treats VIDEO_TS as a DVD.You could try having a single directory somewhere with links to thevob files in each subdirectory. You could write a shell script tocreate the links automatically from the top directory names.
Thanks for the response.  The VOBs all use the same filenames, so there would be conflicts.  But, I guess the links could use different names.  But, then it would break the relationship between the IFO file and the VOB data.  So, DVD menus and language support would be broken.
If I go this route, I think I would change my DVD's to single file videos, either one huge VOB, MPEG2 file, or H.264 file.    The downside there is that I lose DVD Menus, chapters, etc.
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[mythtv-users] Using DVD VIDEO_TS directories on disk with MythTV?

[Todd Ignasiak]

I have several DVDs saved on my file server as VIDEO_TS directories with their associated IFO and VOB files saved in there.  I am currently using my Mac Mini to play them with the Apple DVD player & Matinee as a launcher.
I have begun looking into MythTV options for handling this data,  but as far as I can tell it doesn't integrate into MythTV very well.The file layout is something like: /XMas_2002/VIDEO_TS/{*.IFO, *.VOB}
 /Wedding/VIDEO_TS/{*.IFO, *.VOB}Where the top directory is the name of the DVD, the second is always VIDEO_TS, and the DVD data files are below that.  Ideally, I would like to treat the top dir as the title, and associate a JPEG image with that, and have a view launched that treats VIDEO_TS as a DVD.
Has anyone already come up with a solution for this within MythTV?   If not, any pointers towards other good Linux solutions?
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Re: [mythtv-users] Replacing MythTV remote... anyone have any experience with RS 15-2136 (or 15-2137?)

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 1/16/06, obscure information. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'm looking at the FC4 guide provided by Jarod, and his information regarding using a Radio Shack remote piqued my interest, as I'm really not satisfied with the remote that came with my PVR-150, and I'd like to use the same remote for Myth that I do for my other duties.
The thing is, I just don't find that remote 15-2116 he was using very aesthetically pleasing :)Yeah, it's not pretty.   But, it works well. I used to have a 15-2116, but then I moved to a URC-6131 "PVR Remote", because I liked the layout.
The thing I didn't like about the Kameleon is the lack of physical buttons.   I also have a Phillips Pronto remote, and I end up rarely using it because it just has the touch screen, and I need to hit the backlight and look at the remote any time I need to do anything.  With the 2116 or 6131, I can do it by feel.   I know it seems like a small issue.  But, for me it translated into much better usability.
I used the JP1 tools to make my URC-6131 emulate my FusionHDTV remote, which works great with lircd and mythtv.The one drawback of the URC-6131 is that it cannot learn IR commands.  So, if a device code doesn't exist for what you want, it becomes difficult.
So I've gone to Radio Shack's site and was looking at the Kameleon line, and I'm pondering buying either a 15-2136 (
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103081&cp
) or a 15-2137 (
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103082&cp).  Obviously, I'd prefer the 2137 since it has the ability to control 6 devices instead of 4, but I'll settle for whichever one becomes available at Radio Shack first.  I'm curious if anyone has had any success setting up one of these remotes?  I looked around quite extensively, but aside from some IRC chatter I found in Google referencing mythtv and the 15-2136, I'm unable to find any information about successful use of one of these remotes.
I'm pretty sure if I absolutely had to, I could download the RC-5 codelist from lirc.com and fire up irw and start the long tedious process of figuring out the key mapping, but I'm hoping someone here has already gone through that agony.
As always, any input is greatly appreciated!Thanks,~Drew

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Re: [mythtv-users] Lost Setup option in MythTV menu

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 12/19/05, Kevin Kuphal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Todd Ignasiak wrote:> Somehow, I've managed to lose the menu item to configure MythTV> options (this is with several recent SVN versions).  Anyone else solve> this issue before?>> On my main menu, I have a "Utilities/Setup" option.  But, when I go in
> there, the title is "Utilities and Settings", and the options are "TV,> Music, Videos, DVD, Images, Games".   I don't have any place to set> all the various MythTV configuration settings.Any guesses?
Not to sound condescending, but have you scrolled down past games?Thanks.   Apparently not all the necessary keys are mapped in my lircd setup.  UP/DN didn't scroll to any other entries.  So, I got the keyboard out and
poked around a bit there, and PgUp/PgDn exposed the missing entries. 
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[mythtv-users] Lost Setup option in MythTV menu

[Todd Ignasiak]

Somehow, I've managed to lose the menu item to configure MythTV options (this is with several recent SVN versions).  Anyone else solve this issue before?On my main menu, I have a "Utilities/Setup" option.  But, when I go in there, the title is "Utilities and Settings", and the options are "TV, Music, Videos, DVD, Images, Games".   I don't have any place to set all the various MythTV configuration settings.    Any guesses?

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Re: [mythtv-users] A good quiz game for those party nights, for linux??

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 12/10/05, Sami Röppänen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:



  
  



Hi,

Just a thought... I dont know if you people know these touchscreen quiz machines laying around the service stations and restaurants... I admit I am a bit addicted to the quiz part of those machines, and can't understand why nobody hasn't made them into linux games.. What is more fun than that with some good friends...
That sounds like a very cool concept for an HTPC environment..  It works well with a simple infrared remote control selection interface.   It would seem to be pretty straightforward to display the question text, then after two clicks (to avoid accidentally exposing the answer) display the answer.    Basically, "Trivial Pursuit" on a TV display (I don't know if Trivial Pursuit is available in Finland..   It's a popular board game in the 
U.S., based around trivia questions).Tracking the progress on a gameboard might be a little trickier.Adding pictures, music, or video to the trivia could also make for some interesting capabilities, and works well with the MythTV concept.
I suppose a basic trivia quiz game would be very easy to do as a web application..  Simply linking the questions & answers would be no problem.    Probably the biggest difficulty would be to get a good database of trivia questions.

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Re: [mythtv-users] HDTV questions

[Todd Ignasiak]

In the U.S., HDTV is broadcast as MPEG2.  The articles I have read
about HDTV in Europe have said MPEG4 (probably H.264 / MPEG4.10 / AVC)
will be used.  H.264 takes much more CPU horsepower to decode.   A
3GHz P4 may not ave the horsepower to decode it.

On 12/8/05, Steve Adeff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Thursday 08 December 2005 13:19, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > Well seeing as HDTV looks to be coming to the UK next year
> > ( http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/01/telewest_goes_live_with_hdtv/ )
> > and we're looking at buying a new HDTV 'ready' TV[1] (1080i) I'm planning
> > to get HDTV playback set up on my myth box. Only problem is I don't know
> > where to start!
>
> wait till HDTV becomes available before buying a TV. The States are just
> beginning to see 1080p sets hit the market, by the time you get HDTV in the
> UK I'm sure they'll be there as well, and the prices for HDTV's will drop in
> general. No reason to get it now if you won't really be able to use it and
> the prices will go down.
>
> > I'm currently running a P4 2.8GHz with 1Gb, twin Nova-T's and a 128Mb AGP
> > Nvidia MX440 with the TV out of composite (AV) at 1024x768 and running SuSE
> > 10.0/mythtv 18.1 Disk space is er plenty (2TB+ if need be)
>
> I'd suggest upgrading the video card to a 6xxx series NVidia GPU. Most support
> component output that will let you use 1080i, or if you do end up with a
> 1080p you will be able to set your resolution to 1920x1080 and output via the
> HDMI port. Again, wait and see where the market is when its time.
>
> > I've got a few questions that some of our US cousins might be able to help
> > me with :-)
>
> Your being too kind, I prefer bastard children ;-)
>
>
> > 1) How is HDTV connected? Looking at the specs for the TV we're thinking of
> > there's Composite (AV), Y/C (S-Video), ANT (RF), Component (Y/Pb/Pr) and
> > SCART (which you don't have in the US).
> > What type is used for HDTV (or doesn't it matter)?
>
> Component and DVI/HDMI. SCART, S-Video, and Composite don't have the bandwidth
> availability for HDTV over the wires used.
> Component is an analog method (basically a modified S-Video for higher
> bandwidth. I still maintain S-Video with higher bandwidth abilities would be
> better than component but I digress...).
> HDMI/DVI is "digital". HDMI is the best. Basically, the more HDMI inputs the
> better.
> Oh, and Firewire. Some HDTV's will have firewire inputs. relatively useless
> for connecting a computer right now, but great for some cable boxes and DVHS
> decks.
>
> > 2) Will the MX440 be powerful enough or will I need a newer card?
> see above.
>
> > 3) Am I likely to need more processing power (I've got a 3GHz P4 in another
> > box I could swap over if need be but would I need more than that).
>
> the 2.8 should be fine. Wait till the time comes and see if the cost of a
> faster CPU is worth it.
>
> > 4) Are my existing recordings going to look awful (PAL 768x576).
> yes. most SD material looks bad on HDTV even when its all digital. My dad has
> a 50" Sony Grand Wega III (oh. my. god. is it nicejealous) and with his
> SD cable channels it looks ok considering the source, and possibly better
> than a 50" SD TV would, but once you get used to HDTV you'll consider it
> pretty poor...
>
>
> > 5) Am I just wasting my time? Seeing as the recordings (for probably at
> > _least_ 8 months until HDTV actually gets here) would still be in SDTV
> > would I even notice any difference?
>
> Wait till HDTV gets there then look into it again.
>
>
> > I'm assuming that HDTV recording is going to need a HDTV compatible tuner
> > card and even assuming they put HDTV out on the freeview channels the
> > Nova-T's just won't cut it but I'm hoping the new box would have a firewire
> > out or by that time there would be a UK HDTV card.
>
> The European TV technology is so drastically different than the States your
> best bet is to wait and see how they plan on doing things.
>
> > [1] One of these
> > http://www.samsung.com/uk/products/television/crt/ws32z308paxxeu.asp
>
> www.avsforum.com
> don't buy home theatre equipment without first referencing this forum. They're
> a bunch of perfectionists, but they understand budgets. I usually just post
> similar to:
> "I've got $xx to spend on a Y. What are some of my best options?" and
> you'll get good responses of models to look into.
>
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Druid
> >
>
> hope this helps.
>
> --
> Steve
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Re: [mythtv-users] alternative GPU - graphics cards with open sourcedrivers question

[Todd Ignasiak]

For more info on the S3 graphics, check out the OpenChrome project and mailing lists.  They have a lot of info on the various chips and the subtle differences in features/support.I think the easiest (maybe only) way to go is to get a motherboard with Unichrome video.
Also,  I think S3 Graphics is owned by VIA, aren't they?   Are they at risk for going under?On 12/8/05, Bob <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Todd Ignasiak wrote:> I looked into these a while back, and I was unable to find any
> standalone video cards available for purchase.  With the video> processing capabilities they have, the S3 products would make ideal> HTPC video cards.>>   As you mentioned, the Unichrome is available integrated into many
> motherboards.   S3 also announced a couple new models recently, the> S25 and S27.I belive these are PCI Express modelshttp://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/index.jsp
 but I'm sure someonecould put them on an AGP card with a converter like some of the Nvidiacards, I think it's the 6600s that are natively PCI-E but have AGPversions available through the magic of a little chip.
> If you can find one, there are still a few questions..  Does the> driver from the unichrom project support these chips?   Do the> standalone cards have the same MPEG decoder capabilities as the
> unichrome?Don't know but I'd have thought their'll be plenty of similaritiesthough one big difference is going to be in memory handling, I'm prettysure the on-board unichrome GPU uses some of the system RAM but an
expansion card model won't.  As for the MPEG stuff, the specs claimacceleration and given the man hours involved in developing such afeature it's probably the same~ish but I'm speculating.> I currently use an Nvidia FX5200 (it's fanless, and supports XvMC
> MPEG2 acceleration).   But, I would like to replace it with a card> that has open source drivers.. if something is out there.Me too, lets hope a the turnover provided by the VIA boards is enough to
stop S3 going under (as everyone on /. seems to think it will) until amajor card fab puts the chips on something we can buy and thus promotebetter support for open source software from hardware manufacturers.
--tveeprom: Hauppauge: model = 34132, rev = J158,tveeprom: tuner = Philips FM1236 MK3 (idx = 58, type = 4)tveeprom: audio_processor = MSP3416 (type = 14)(new type Model 401)model name  : mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP Processor
cpu MHz : 2277.214cache size  : 512 KB(Plenty o' grunt on an ECS k7s5a MB)Knoppmyth R5A16 (unmodified)http://mysettopbox.tv/CHANGELOG.txt
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Re: [mythtv-users] alternative GPU - graphics cards with open source drivers question

[Todd Ignasiak]

I looked into these a while back, and I was unable to find any
standalone video cards available for purchase.  With the video
processing capabilities they have, the S3 products would make ideal
HTPC video cards.

  As you mentioned, the Unichrome is available integrated into many
motherboards.   S3 also announced a couple new models recently, the
S25 and S27.

If you can find one, there are still a few questions..  Does the
driver from the unichrom project support these chips?   Do the
standalone cards have the same MPEG decoder capabilities as the
unichrome?

I currently use an Nvidia FX5200 (it's fanless, and supports XvMC
MPEG2 acceleration).   But, I would like to replace it with a card
that has open source drivers.. if something is out there.

On 12/6/05, Bob <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Most people round here like Nvidia GPUs as the drivers (though closed)
> work and they support XvMC (as long as you're not 64 bit yet), I gather
> some of the older (R250) Radion chips work as well and have open source
> drivers, as does one of the old Matrox cards, but for people who which
> to vote with their wallet and support companies that release open source
> drivers, the only current options are S3 and Intel.
>
> I know some people use the UniChrome GPUs with VIA boards, and others
> have Intel chip-sets with on-board graphics, but I don't want to change
> my Motherboard, I can't find a source of S3s DeltaChrome S8 AGP graphics
> cards and I don't think the Intel GPUs come on separate cards.
>
> The s3s http://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/delta_chrome/ look
> perfect, they have HDTV output, moderate 3D performance (enough for SNES
> emulators?), can be passively cooled and have open source drivers.
>
> Has anyone used a DeltaChrome based graphics card with Myth, what's it
> like and where can I get one?
>
> Thanks
>
> PS. I'm not bashing Nvidia or ATI, I have a bunch of cards from both and
> don't want this to turn into a flame war, but I do like the idea of a
> pure system and I hate the current beta driver, benchmark massage,
> shenanigans which can't happen with an open source driver.
>
> --
> tveeprom: Hauppauge: model = 34132, rev = J158,
> tveeprom: tuner = Philips FM1236 MK3 (idx = 58, type = 4)
> tveeprom: audio_processor = MSP3416 (type = 14)
> (new type Model 401)
> model name  : mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP Processor
> cpu MHz : 2277.214
> cache size  : 512 KB
> (Plenty o' grunt on an ECS k7s5a MB)
> Knoppmyth R5A16 (unmodified)
> http://mysettopbox.tv/CHANGELOG.txt
> MythTV 0.18.1
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Re: [mythtv-users] XVMC Support for Intel 810

[Todd Ignasiak]

If I remember correctly,   the Intel 810/815 chips don't support the full MPEG2 acceleration capabilities.

XvMC supports offload of MPEG2 Motion Compensation (which is the "MC"
in XvMC) and iDCT (inverse Discrete Cosine Transform).   iDCT
is the more CPU intensive component of the two.   But, I
think the i810 only offloads the MC.   So, you probably won't
get much boost out of XvMC on that platform.

A Google search turn up this page, which talks about the capapilities
of various cards with DxVA, the Windows equivalent to XvMC:
http://www.elecard.com/technology/dxva.shtml    (Note
that it doesn't include the newer NVidia GeForce 4MX or GeForce FX
cards, which support full iDCT offload in Linux.)
On 12/4/05, Jeff Clemens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
So from what i've read, XVMC was originally developed for the
Intel 810 chipset, but I can't seem to find any information on how to
get it working with anything but nVidia video cards.  
 
I'm running FC4 on a fairly underpowered (700Mhz) box.  I
actually have 2 of the same boxes, but one uses a PVR350 and therefore
uses the accelerated output, but my other box uses VGA for display, and
I get really choppy video without XVMC.  If I enable XVMC in the
setup screen, I get "Can't initialize Video" messages when trying to
playback a recording.

 
Any tips/tricks that anyone on here knows about?
 
Thanks,
 
Jeff

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Re: [mythtv-users] More HD stuttering

[Todd Ignasiak]

I display all my programs on a 1280x720p LCD panel, with my output
resolution set to 1280x720 @ 60fps.Both 1080i and 720p work just
fine.
In fact, 1080i is working better than 720p for me, because I get some
stuttering when the OSD is up with 720p when using XvMC.  Without
XvMC, playback is completely reliable with both 1080i and 720p, it
just takes more CPU power.

Scaling the video to the display resolution seems to be a pretty easy
job for the system.   I'm not sure what portion of that is done in
software/cpu versus what is done on the video card.  But, It is
certainly much less intense than scaling and recompressing the
MPEG2/MPEG4 video.


My System: Athlon64 3200+ 768MB RAM, NVidia FX5200, Nvidia drivers
7676, Gentoo X86-64, Linux kernel 2.6.14.   MythTV - latest SVN.





On 12/2/05, Chris Trown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Jean Connelly wrote:
> >
> > Regarding:
> >
> >   The system is a 3.06 GHz P4 running Fedora Core 3.  The video Card
> > is a NVidia 5200FX.  For capture, all I have is a HD3000.  I've checked
> > that DMA is working on all the drives.  I built mythtv from stable
> > source, 0.18.1.  I used the following configure options:
> >
> > --enable-xvmc --enable-opengl-vsync --enable-dvb
> > --dvb-path=/lib/modules/2.6.12- 1.1381_FC3smp/build/include
> > --disable-firewire --disable-joystick --disable-ivtv --enable-proc-opt
> > --disable-xvmc-vld --enable-opengl-vsync
> >
> >
> > I have close to an identical system; and I have what is probably
> > equivalent stuttering.  HDTV (live or recorded) is totally unplayable in
> > myth.  I have tried with and without opengl sync.  I can't find the xvmc
> > option in the gui with this myth version to disable xvmc for testing.
> > Recorded 1080i plays badly (with frequent pauses and never with audio
> > sync) in mplayer with xvmc and ffmpeg12mc and plays even worse without
> > xvmc.  I'll try transcoding my latest sample clips to see if they are
> > fine when played back at standard resolutions.
> >
> > I've got
> > 3.06 GHz P4 (which is a 533Mhz FSB chip)
> > 512 MB Ram
> > BE7-RAID mobo
> > Nvidia 5200FX
> > Fedora Core 3
> >
> > Night before last's myth svn.  No deinterlacing requested.
> > Prebuffer pauses all over the place.
> >
> > I think what we really need is an hdtv playback test suite external to
> > myth to get better benchmarks on actual system performance.  From
> > previous posts to the list ("well I got *my* P4 1.4Ghz system to
> > playback hdtv") I think that my system *should* be able to playback hdtv
> > without issue, but perhaps there are some motherboard weaknesses or such
> > that make it impossible.
> >
>
>   After some tinkering, I found out what the problem was.  I think.
>   I was trying to play a 1080i stream on a 720p screen.  What I think
> was happening was that the 1080i stream could not be rendered using XVMC
> to 720p.  It had to me done in software, ie: the CPU.  When I changed
> the display to 1920x1080, XVMC kicked in and the image played nicely, so
> long as it was done by root.  No, I wasn't using xrandr.  I will when I
> get everything going under Core 4.
>
>   This prompted my to "upgrade" to Core 4 so I can get realtime
> priority threads via PAM.  I don't really consider it an upgrade.  My
> experience is that Core 4 has more issues than Core 3.  Case in point,
> try compiling 18.1 stable with GCC4.  But I like the idea of running
> mythfrontend as root more distasteful than the problems.
>
> Chris...
>
> --
> "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little
> temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" -- Benjamin
> Franklin
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Re: [mythtv-users] More HD stuttering

[Todd Ignasiak]

I have been playing around with this a bit lately.   I'm running in x86-64 mode, but the behavior may be similar.   Also, I'm using the SVN from last night, 7996.- With OpenGL Sync 'ON', I get stuttering whenever XvMC is enabled.  The Standard decoder works fine with OpenGL Sync, but not XvMC.
- With OpenGL Sync 'OFF', and XvMC 'ON';  1080i playback works great.  No stuttering at all.- With OpenGL Sync 'OFF' and XvMC 'ON'; 720p playback is great, until the OSD comes up.  Then, my audio/video stutters until a second or two after the OSD goes away.
On 11/23/05, Chris Trown <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:  And combing, for that matter.  I posted yesterday asking some questions.  I looked into the
suggestions, but I don't think they apply.  I didn't supply enough info.So, here we go.  As much detail as I know.  Hopefully, somebody canpoint me in the right direction.  I'm a bit at a loss as to where to go
next.  The system is a 3.06 GHz P4 running Fedora Core 3.  The video Cardis a NVidia 5200FX.  For capture, all I have is a HD3000.  I've checkedthat DMA is working on all the drives.  I built mythtv from stable
source, 0.18.1.  I used the following configure options:--enable-xvmc --enable-opengl-vsync --enable-dvb--dvb-path=/lib/modules/2.6.12-1.1381_FC3smp/build/include--disable-firewire --disable-joystick --disable-ivtv --enable-proc-opt
--disable-xvmc-vld --enable-opengl-vsync  I'm getting stuttering and combing when playing HD.  The CPU ismaxing out at 99% when playing.  The clips I am testing with are1080i(CSI).  I've tried using XvMC with BOB Deinterlacing filter.  I've
also tried using libmpeg2 with the kernel and linear blend filter.Nothing seems to help and the CPU always goes through the roof.  Here is the output from "mythfrontend -v playback".  I have "Use
XvMC for playback" checked and bobdeint filter selected.2005-11-22 21:46:49.885 New DB connection, total: 1Total desktop width=1280, height=720, numscreens=12005-11-22 21:46:49.891 Using screen 0, 1280x720 at 0,0
2005-11-22 21:46:49.895 mythfrontend version: 0.18.1.20050510-1www.mythtv.org2005-11-22 21:46:49.896 Enabled verbose msgs : important general playback
2005-11-22 21:46:50.016
 max_width: 1280 max_height: 7202005-11-22 21:46:50.066 Switching to square mode (blue)2005-11-22 21:46:50.630 Joystick disabled.2005-11-22 21:46:50.688 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.2005-11-22 21:46:
50.976 Connecting to backend server: localhost:6543(try 1 of 5)2005-11-22 21:46:50.986 Using protocol version 152005-11-22 21:46:50.997 Starting media monitor.2005-11-22 21:47:10.304 All Programs2005-11-22 21:47:
12.199 detectInterlace(Detect Scan, Detect Scan, 29.97,1088) ->Interlaced Scan2005-11-22 21:47:12.199 Interlaced: Interlaced Scan  video_height: 1088  fps: 29.972005-11-22 21:47:12.200 Estimated bitrate = 0
2005-11-22 21:47:12.431 Image size. dispxoff 0, dispyoff: 0, dispwoff:0, disphoff: 02005-11-22 21:47:12.431 Image size. imgx 0, imgy: 0, imgw: 1920, imgh: 10802005-11-22 21:47:12.435 waiting for prebuffer...
2005-11-22 21:47:12.571 prebuffer wait timed out..2005-11-22 21:47:12.571 waiting for prebuffer...2005-11-22 21:47:12.719 prebuffer wait timed out..2005-11-22 21:47:12.719 waiting for prebuffer...2005-11-22 21:47:
13.155 New DB connection, total: 22005-11-22 21:47:13.217 detectInterlace(Detect Scan, Detect Scan, 29.97,1088) ->Interlaced Scan2005-11-22 21:47:13.217 Interlaced: Interlaced Scan  video_height: 1088  fps: 
29.972005-11-22 21:47:13.288 Estimated bitrate = 02005-11-22 21:47:13.296 Opening audio device '/dev/dsp'.2005-11-22 21:47:13.297 Opening OSS audio device '/dev/dsp'.2005-11-22 21:47:13.307 Over/underscan. V: 0, H: 0, XOff: 0, YOff: 0
2005-11-22 21:47:13.316 Using XV port 2402005-11-22 21:47:13.321 Image size. dispxoff 0, dispyoff: 0, dispwoff:1280, disphoff: 7202005-11-22 21:47:13.321 Image size. imgx 0, imgy: 0, imgw: 1920, imgh: 1080
2005-11-22 21:47:13.931 Changing from None to WatchingPreRecorded2005-11-22 21:47:13.933 Using deinterlace method bobdeint2005-11-22 21:47:13.934 Using realtime priority.2005-11-22 21:47:14.035 nVidiaVideoSync: VBlank ioctl did not work,
unimplemented in this driver?2005-11-22 21:47:14.035 DRMVideoSync: Could not open device/dev/dri/card0, No such file or directory2005-11-22 21:47:14.036 Set video sync frame interval to 333662005-11-22 21:47:
14.036 Using audio as timebase2005-11-22 21:47:14.036 Video timing method: RTC2005-11-22 21:47:14.036 Refresh rate: 16882, frame interval: 333662005-11-22 21:47:14.036 waiting for prebuffer...2005-11-22 21:47:
14.172 prebuffer wait timed out..2005-11-22 21:47:14.172 waiting for prebuffer...2005-11-22 21:47:14.857 waiting for prebuffer...2005-11-22 21:47:14.992 prebuffer wait timed out..2005-11-22 21:47:15.063 waiting for prebuffer...
2005-11-22 21:47:15.199 prebuffer wait timed out..2005-11-22 21:47:15.270 waiting for prebuffer...2005-11-22 21:47:15.406 prebuffer wait timed out..2005-11-22 21:47:15.477 waiting for prebuffer...2005-

Re: [mythtv-users] Performance of the HD MPEG2 decoders

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 11/18/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 11/18/05, Cymen Vig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On 11/18/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > On 11/17/05, Robert Tsai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > 
> > > > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/127168
> > > >
> > > > --Rob
> > >
> > > Thanks for the link.  I missed that thread in all my searches.  There
> > > is a lot of good AMD64 info there.
> > >
> > > I guess ffmpeg is optimized for 64 bit, libmpeg2 is not, so that
> > > explains the performance I'm seeing.
> > >
> > >
> > > Now, if I could find a solution for the stuttering related to XvMC +
> > > OSD, I would be all set.
> >
> > What version of mythtv are you running? The current stable release has
> > the known bug with XvMC and the OSD. If you use the SVN version
> > (search around -- I think 7738 or 7739 was the latest before Live TV
> > was disabled for development work *) you'll get a grayscale OSD but
> > the stutter is pretty much gone.
> >
> > Maybe the above is common knowledge but I was surprised to see the
> > option to enable XvMC but no warnings about the stutter issue. Perhaps
> > I missed a glaring warning and rationally, an 0.18.1 release is
> > supposed to have issues so I'm not *too* surprised.
> >
> > (*) I'm not certain about this -- maybe Live TV is fixed in current SVN.
> >
>
> I'm using SVN 7737, which was shortly before Live TV was disabled, but
> I don't think it was the last one before the change.   I'll check
> it out tonight & see if I'm getting the grayscale OSD  (gray OSD would
> be fine with me, if it enabled smooth playback all the time).
>

Apparently the stuttering is related to the format of video being played.

I tried a few more tests tonight,  and I found that with 1080i content
("My Name Is Earl", NBC, 1080i) the OSD doesn't impact the video in
XvMC mode.  The playback is very good, regardless of the OSD, the
playback is solid.

When I switch to a 720p program ("Lost", ABC, 720p), any time the OSD
comes up, I get the audio/video stuttering while the OSD is up and for
a couple seconds after it goes off.


Performance with XvMC:
1080i, XvMC ON, Deint OFF, OpenGL Sync Off: User: ~42%, sys: ~6%, idle: ~50%
1080i, XvMC ON, Deint(bob) ON, OpenGL Sync Off:  User ~44%, sys: ~6%, idle: ~50%
720p, XvMC ON, OpenGL Sync Off: User 25%, sys: 4%, idle: 71%

I'm not sure why the performance is the same on 1080i with
deinterlacing on and off.
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Re: [mythtv-users] Performance of the HD MPEG2 decoders

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 11/18/05, Cymen Vig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 11/18/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On 11/17/05, Robert Tsai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > > http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/127168
> > >
> > > --Rob
> >
> > Thanks for the link.  I missed that thread in all my searches.  There
> > is a lot of good AMD64 info there.
> >
> > I guess ffmpeg is optimized for 64 bit, libmpeg2 is not, so that
> > explains the performance I'm seeing.
> >
> >
> > Now, if I could find a solution for the stuttering related to XvMC +
> > OSD, I would be all set.
>
> What version of mythtv are you running? The current stable release has
> the known bug with XvMC and the OSD. If you use the SVN version
> (search around -- I think 7738 or 7739 was the latest before Live TV
> was disabled for development work *) you'll get a grayscale OSD but
> the stutter is pretty much gone.
>
> Maybe the above is common knowledge but I was surprised to see the
> option to enable XvMC but no warnings about the stutter issue. Perhaps
> I missed a glaring warning and rationally, an 0.18.1 release is
> supposed to have issues so I'm not *too* surprised.
>
> (*) I'm not certain about this -- maybe Live TV is fixed in current SVN.
>

I'm using SVN 7737, which was shortly before Live TV was disabled, but
I don't think it was the last one before the change.   I'll check
it out tonight & see if I'm getting the grayscale OSD  (gray OSD would
be fine with me, if it enabled smooth playback all the time).
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Re: [mythtv-users] Performance of the HD MPEG2 decoders

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 11/17/05, Robert Tsai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 17, 2005 at 03:43:52PM -0800, Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> > I have seen several reports of performance expectations with the
> > various MPEG decoders, and what I am seeing is not exactly what
> > other people have seen, so I wanted to start a discussion here.
> > Also, I thought others might be interested in the performance
> > numbers from a typical system (if anyone has performance info from
> > other CPUs, or Unichrome XvMC, please post)..
> >
> > The main unexpected issues I see are:
> > - libMPEG2 uses much more CPU than the Standard decoder on my system.
> > (libmpeg2:80%, Standard: 50%, XvMC: 28%).   The 'help' info in the
> > GUI, and several posts here, say that libMPEG2 should be have lower
> > CPU requirements.Perhaps this is an x86-64 issue.
>
> You're confirming what other people have reported on other 64-bit
> systems (ffmpeg a.k.a. "standard" is more CPU-efficient):
>
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/127168
>
> --Rob

Thanks for the link.  I missed that thread in all my searches.  There
is a lot of good AMD64 info there.

I guess ffmpeg is optimized for 64 bit, libmpeg2 is not, so that
explains the performance I'm seeing.


Now, if I could find a solution for the stuttering related to XvMC +
OSD, I would be all set.


>
>
> -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iD8DBQFDfWUc18A6pRrdKfkRAqkIAKDNv5g/PzZgWzhtVT5AvFm+Y4kOTQCgiMxf
> IvLftNvwpZ6VlJ1badI5ty4=
> =iaQn
> -END PGP SIGNATURE-
>
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] Which is the best HDTV Tuner Card

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 11/17/05, Tom Dombrosky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 11/17/05, Nathan Allen Stratton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On Thu, 17 Nov 2005, Steve Adeff wrote:
> >
> > > the website never gets updated, the HD3000 DOES support QAM, I've been
> using
> > > it this way for about 2 months now.
> > >
> > > QAM is used by cable companies, so if you recieve your HDTV via a cable
> line
> > > then you would use QAM(most likely QAM256).
> >
> > You only get local right? I think at least Comcast scrambles all the other
> > HDTV making the new QAM support not worth a lot.
> >
> > -Nathan
> >
> >
>
>  Comcast has more unscrambled channels than Cox did for me.  ESPN-HD, INHD1,
> INHD2, DISC-HD, TNT-HD, and CSN-HD are all in the clear.
>

This differs per region..  My Comcast provider used to have ESPN-HD,
InHD1 and InHD2 in the clear, and they just started scrambling it a
month or two ago.

The locals remain unscrambled.  But, those can be received for free
with a decent antenna.
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[mythtv-users] Performance of the HD MPEG2 decoders

[Todd Ignasiak]

I have seen several reports of performance expectations with the
various MPEG decoders, and what I am seeing is not exactly what other
people have seen, so I wanted to start a discussion here.   Also, I
thought others might be interested in the performance numbers from a
typical system (if anyone has performance info from other CPUs, or
Unichrome XvMC, please post)..

The main unexpected issues I see are:
- libMPEG2 uses much more CPU than the Standard decoder on my system. 
(libmpeg2:80%, Standard: 50%, XvMC: 28%).   The 'help' info in the
GUI, and several posts here, say that libMPEG2 should be have lower
CPU requirements.Perhaps this is an x86-64 issue.

- In XvMC mode, playback is great until anything comes up on the OSD. 
When that happens, the audio/video becomes choppy until a couple
seconds after the OSD goes away.

- With XvMC and OpenGL-Sync enabled together, the audio/video is
choppy all the time,  I never get smooth playback


Performance Info:

System:  Athlon64 3200+, ASUS K8V Deluxe Motherboard, NVidia FX5200
Graphics card (AGP 8X), Receiver Cards: HD3000, FusionHDTV3, PVR-500.
 Software:  Gentoo x86-64 OS, kernel 2.6.14, NVidia Drivers 7676,
MythTV SVN 7737.

HD Content being used:  720P recording of yesterday's episode of Lost,
on ABC (I'll try some performance tests with 1080i content next).

- Standard MPEG Decoder,  OpenGL Sync ON, Real-Time priority ON,
De-Interlacing OFF (I'm testing with 720P, but I turned it off anyway,
to avoid any potential problems).
 CPU usage:  user: 51%, sys: 5%, idle: 44%
  Video Quality:  good, Audio Quality: good.   OSD effect on playback: None

- libMPEG2 Decoder, OpenGL Sync ON, Real-Time priority ON, Deint: Off
  CPU Usage: u: 72-80%, sys: 4-5%, idle: 19-25%
  Video: good, Audio: good, OSD effect: none

- Standard XvMC Decoder, OpenGL Sync Off, Real-Time ON, Deint OFF
  CPU: u: 28%, sys: 3-4%, idle: 65%
  Video: Good, Audio: Good, OSD effect:  Audio & Video stutter while
OSD is up and for a few seconds after it goes off screen.

- Standard XvMC Decoder, OpenGL Sync ON, Real-Time ON, Deint OFF
  CPU: u:20% sys:2% idle: 78%
   Video: choppy, Audio: choppy,  OSD effect: none - it's already choppy.
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Re: [mythtv-users] Which is the best HDTV Tuner Card

[Todd Ignasiak]

The DVico "FusionHDTV 3 QAM" and FusionHDTV 5 Gold and Lite are also
supported in Linux.

Recent updates to the kernel also added support for the ATI HDTV
Wonder (although I don't know if that device supports QAM). --
There should be good info on all of these cards in the archives of
this mailing list.


I have been using an HD3000 and FusionHDTV3 in my system for several
months, both of which work great for receiving unscrambled QAM
channels.

I used the Fusion card because I had it from my previous windows HTPC.
  I bought the HD3000 because they are a Linux-only company, and have
contributed a lot to Linux HDTV support.


On 11/17/05, Robert Kennedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> According to the online docs,  MythTV supports two HD TV Tuner Carrds --
> pchdtv HD-3000 and the Ai2PC card.
>
> It looks like the ai2PC card is no longer being made.  Instead, the company
> is selling the AirStar-HD5000-PCI ATSC/8VSB HDTV PCI Card.
>
> Does MythTV support the HD5000-PCI ATSC/8VSB HDTV PCI Card?
>
> Which is better -- the HD-3000 or the HD5000-PCI ATSC/8VSB HDTV PCI Card?
>
> I see the HD5000-PCI ATSC/8VSB HDTV PCI Card supports QAM; whereas, it looks
> like the HD-3000 does NOT support QAM.
>
> Is QAM  support important?
>
> Rob
>
>
>
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] nVidia and XvMC

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 11/15/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > When I try to fire up watching live TV with XvMC hardware acceleration
> > enabled, I get an X11 BadAlloc error with my nVidia 6200 TC and XOrg
> > 6.8.2.
> > I'm running a subversion branch with 0.18 fixes, and my system is
> > configured
> > with 2 HD-3000s and the latest NVIDIA x86-64 drivers.  The processor is an
> > AMD Athlon 64 3200+, and I have 1 GB of ram in it.  When I disable the
> > XvMC
>
> Has anyone ever gotten XvMC working on a 64 bit native AMD64 machine?  I
> was under the impression that it just didn't work yet.

I sometimes use XvMC on my x86-64 system.   It does work, though it
has its issues.

My machine is very similar to the original poster's (Athlon64 3200+,
Nvidia FX5200, Nvidia 7676 drivers,  Gentoo x86_64, MythTV svn 7337;
HD3000, Fusion3HDTV, PVR-500).   But, I can get smooth playback
without XvMC running:  libmpeg2=80%user / 10% idle,  Standard
Decoder=60%user / 30% idle, XvMC=25%user / 60% idle.

However, I don't use XvMC very much, because every time an
OnScreenDisplay comes up, the audio stutters until a second or two
after the OSD goes off.   So, every time I skip a commercial, it takes
a while to smooth out.  Other than that, the video decoding works very
well.


As for the OP's "X11 BadAlloc error",  this is a longstanding issue in
the x86-64 NVidia driver.   NVidia has been told about it a long time
ago, but it has remained unresolved for several driver releases (ain't
those closed source binary drivers great!). The workaround is to
repeatedly try to start an XvMC decoder, after 20+ failures, it will
eventually succeed.  Then, XvMC will work until you restart X11.I
use an XvMC capable mplayer app to keep trying XvMC until it succeeds.



I should probably look into OSD options, to get rid of the XvMC
problems..  I would gladly take a less attractive OSD in exchange for
smooth playback while leaving lots of CPU available for commercial
flagging or other Linux tasks.
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Re: [mythtv-users] Slightly OT: AOpen to ship miniPC

[Todd Ignasiak]

That would make a nice frontend box...I would prefer to stick with
my Mac Mini, but it doesn't have the horsepower for HD.

I wonder what kind of video chip it uses, and if it has any MPEG2,
MPEG4, or AVC acceleration.


On 11/1/05, Kevin Kuphal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> "AOpen is talking some serious smack when they blowhard about their Mac
> mini
> 
> knockoff, the MiniPC, being a "perfect example of AOpen's
> innovation."... a $399 configuration which flaunts Linux-based Linspire
> and a whole suite of desktop and internet apps preloaded onto the
> MiniPC... considering AOpen can also fit in what they call the "the
> latest" Pentium M (2.26 GHz?), DVD burner and additional S-Video,
> component, and composite connectors for connectivity to your home
> entertainment system, we're feeling ok about it."
>
> Add this as one more possible MythTV box
>
> http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000820066107/
>
> Kevin
>
>
>
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] High Memory Learning Remote

[Todd Ignasiak]

The best price/performance remote controls I have found are the "JP1" remotes.
JP1 refers to the header that is left on the remote, which is used for factory
programming and has been reverse engineered to allow for customization of the
remote.   They are sold under the Radio Shack name, or the "One for All"
remotes sold at other retailers.    There are some Windows apps that allow 
programming of the remote using a small cable from the PC to the remote.
The learning curve is a bit steep, but for an inexpensive option it's
hard to beat.  ( http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/ ).


The Philips Pronto remotes are expensive, but offer complete flexibility.  You
can create custom display graphics, script complex functions, and learn/build
almost any IR command.


One that I am looking into now is the Philips RC9800i.  It combines a
universal remote, limited multimedia support, and WiFi.   It has some EPG
(electronic programming guide) support, but I don't know if that would work
with MythTV.   The possibilities with this device are certainly interesting..
( http://www.homecontrol.philips.com/ )
On 10/18/05, Calvin Harrigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi all, I've been reading through the archives looking for a suitableremote control to replace the one I'm using now.  The main reason isthat the current remote has such a small memory foot print.  I'm using a
learning remote control with a wireless keyboard pickup.  This worksgreat except that it can only learn about 8  keys before running out ofmemory.  So what kind of remote controls are you guys using that learns
enough to have full numeric and directional control.  I've thought aboutgoing the lirc route, but I use a lot of myths functionality, games,video, dvd, etc.  Getting lirc to work seemlessly with all those options
(seperate programs) doesn't quite work.  I'd like to stay with keyboardinputs.  To that end, I've even considered writing a keyboard driverthat can listen on the serial port for data to transmit directly to the
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Re: [mythtv-users] Re: Need suggestion for Frontend only fanless solution

[Todd Ignasiak]

I have a 1.42GHz Mac Mini, with 1GB of RAM.   It doesn't have
the horsepower to support HD MythTV frontend functionality (for MPEG2
HD material,  for MPEG4 or AVC HD material it wouldn't even come
close).

The Mini has a Radeon video chip,  so it could offload MPEG2
processing.  But, Apple does not provide open APIs for this. 
Their DVD player can/does use the MPEG2 acceleration, from back in the
days of 300MHz CPUs which couldn't keep up with DVD
decoding.   But, no other apps can use
it. That's really disappointing, because with
MPEG2 accel, the Mini would make a great MythTV frontend.
On 10/8/05, Brad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Just as point of reference, I occasionally use my Mac (a powerbook g41.25Ghz) as a wireless frontend for MythTV. I'd have to say that itworks great. I guess it is pretty comparable to (perhaps a littlebetter than) the Mac Mini in terms of performance, and I have
absolutely no problems with the MythFrontend binary for Mac. I'm onlyrunning SD but it works really well. I *think* I could run HD, but Ihave no real basis for that assumption. I think its reasonable toassume that a Mac Mini would not be able to do HD. Apple did,
however, increase the RAM included with the mini - which should besufficient for a frontend and OSX, they have two models with built-inWiFi and Bluetooth as well. Finally, there is a rumour currently thatApple is silently upgrading the processor speed as well. The official
Apple page is here:  http://www.apple.com/macmini/I've considered many of the other options that have been mentionedhere as well. For me the Roku, although great in terms of size,
price, and quietness - its a no-starter for me because it doesn'tsupport the full MythFrontend functionality. I don't think itspossible to get it to play MPEG4, DiVX, .AVIs, etc. which is probably60% of my usage.
I do have a Pundit (original, not "-R") and am very happy with it --but I'm not sure if those are still available. I asked a local shopabout getting another one and they said they've been discontinued
(although I think it may still be possible to track some down). Ihave my Pundit sitting, literally, 18 inches from my ear right nowand I can barely hear a whisper from it. Although it is a little tooloud with a DVD in it cranking away at 16X, but that's to be expected.
I like the Mac as a frontend and, if I couldn't source anotheroriginal Pundit (which would be cheaper) then I would seriouslyconsider getting a Mac Mini for this purpose. Its a little moreexpensive, but I haven't seen anything else that can compare in terms
of form factor and looks. Also, it would take me about 15 minutes -tops - from taking the Mac Mini out of the box to have it workingwith my backend.  Even with all my experience with the Pundit, Iwould set aside an afternoon to get that configured, tweaked, and
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Re: [mythtv-users] ROKU

[Todd Ignasiak]

The Roku is designed as a media player.   It has an
integrated HD MPEG decoder, which lets it handle the video even with
its 300MHz MIPS CPU.  It does not really the horsepower to do a
lot of backend functions - not to mention the lack of any storage or
high speed inputs for receivers.


But, it looks to be a pretty ideal platform for a
front-end. For me, a small / quiet / cheap
front-end like the Roku means that I could get away with using a big,
loud, clunky beige box PC for the backend with a few receiver cards and
tons of disk.  Stick it in the basement, and view content over the
network with the Roku.
On 10/7/05, bill peck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 10/7/05, Josh Burks <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 10/7/05, bill peck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 10/7/05, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> > Recent discussions about the PhotoBridge peeked my interest. How about> setting one> > up as a diskless slave backend? That might get us a way to capture

> component HDTV> > sources. Suddenly it would be an alternative method for satallite and> cable users.> >> > Just a thought, I have no idea if the hardware would allow this. With some
> > encouragement from some ROKU users who have a clue how the hardware is> > configured, I could be convinced to buy one and try it.> >> > Marvin>>  The  HD1000 from Roku has no way to capture component video.  The component
> inputs you see in the pictures are for pass through.It has USB though. How 'bout a Plextor ConvertX for the tuner? Add ahub and an external drive and you've got a near-complete BE/FE system.How cool would that be? I don't own one yet, but I'm trying to
convince the wife that I _NEED_ it :)Josh

its only usb 1.1, not fast enough for video capture 
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Re: [mythtv-users] Need suggestion for Frontend only fanless solution

[Todd Ignasiak]

One frontend I've been looking into is the "Roku Photobridge HD" (
http://www.rokulabs.com/products/photobridge/index.php ).  
It's a media player for HDTV's.  It is Linux based, and has a
hardware MPEG2 decoder onboard.  They encourage open source
developement on their platform, and someone has ported the MythTV
frontend.
He has made some big improvements lately, and I'm thinking of picking
up the Roku box to give it a try.  Check out "mythroku" at 
http://mythroku.blogspot.com/




On 10/5/05, Reza Naima <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Anyone know of a good, inexpensive fanless frontend barebones system Iget get for mythtv?  Something with a bit of extra power would be goodfor the HD viewing.  And most importantly, something with some decently
supported hardware - I'm tired of digging through source to get variousdrivers to work better with mythtv.Thanks!Rezap.s. If I can this to boot of PXE (?) so it doesn't need an HD, thenthat would be even better!
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[mythtv-users] Customize remote control numbers in playback mode?

[Todd Ignasiak]

I finally got my DVico USB IR receiver to work with MythTV a few weeks
ago.  Now, I'm looking into some ways to optimize the controls..

On my old MyHD receiver card (windows only) it had a nice feature
where you could set the number keys to do other operations.   So, when
you're not in Live-TV mode, you could set the number keys to be
varying levels of FF/REW jumps.   This is very handy for jumping
through several commercials.

On the MyHD remote, you would remap the leftmost keys (1,4,7) to
REW's, and the grid of 6 other numbers to be varying FF's.


Is there any way to do this in MythTV?  Are there key codes for FFx2,
FFx4, etc?I looked through keys.txt and didn't see any.
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Re: [mythtv-users] best way to edit out comercials on a windows box after mythtv has recorded show and copied to windows

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 9/12/05, Kevin Kuphal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> 
> >On 9/12/05, Ryan Kremser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>As per the subject, i'm looking for the best software package (better if
> >>freeware) to edit out comercials using a windows xp computer.  I want to
> >>keep the files in mpeg2 so that i can burn them to dvd after, just without
> >>the comercials.  I've looked around and found quite a few but all of them
> >>seem to have conflicting reviews some recomended others say to keep away.
> >>So any suggestions are welcome.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >I'm not sure if you're talking about SD or HD video.But, for HD,
> >there is a good utility called HDTVtoMPEG2, which allows you to edit
> >HDTV transport streams to remove commercials or otherwise trim them
> >down.
> >
> >http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~balazer/HDTVtoMPEG2/
> >
> >
> >It has a nice visual representation of the MPEG content, showing the
> >data as a bar, with the portions to be removed shown in a different
> >color than the remaining data. This provides a quick sanity check
> >on the commercial removal -- if two removals are too close or too far
> >apart it may point to an error or a missed commercial. This would
> >be a great feature to have with the MythTV automatic commercial
> >flagging.
> >
> >
> Perhaps you have never edited a recording in MythTV.  Watch something,
> click M or MENU to bring up then menu and select Edit Recording.  You
> can load your commercial skip list into the cutlist by pressing Z I think.
> 
> Kevin

No, I haven't edited, only used the auto commercial flagging.   
Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out tonight.
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Re: [mythtv-users] best way to edit out comercials on a windows box after mythtv has recorded show and copied to windows

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 9/12/05, Ryan Kremser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As per the subject, i'm looking for the best software package (better if
> freeware) to edit out comercials using a windows xp computer.  I want to
> keep the files in mpeg2 so that i can burn them to dvd after, just without
> the comercials.  I've looked around and found quite a few but all of them
> seem to have conflicting reviews some recomended others say to keep away. 
> So any suggestions are welcome. 

I'm not sure if you're talking about SD or HD video.But, for HD,
there is a good utility called HDTVtoMPEG2, which allows you to edit
HDTV transport streams to remove commercials or otherwise trim them
down.

http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~balazer/HDTVtoMPEG2/


It has a nice visual representation of the MPEG content, showing the
data as a bar, with the portions to be removed shown in a different
color than the remaining data. This provides a quick sanity check
on the commercial removal -- if two removals are too close or too far
apart it may point to an error or a missed commercial. This would
be a great feature to have with the MythTV automatic commercial
flagging.
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Re: [mythtv-users] Video problems after pausing Live TV with 720p?

[Todd Ignasiak]

Thanks Jack,  at least hearing that someone else is seeing similar
issues gives me a bit more confidence that my system is not just
totally screwed up.


For what it's worth,   I sometimes see symptoms similar to what you
are describing, in tuning or changing channels.   But, I frequently
upgrade to the latest svn release, so the behavior I see changes
frequently.

Last night I could not get MythTV to change channels.  When I went to
live TV, it would show the initial channel it tuned, but if I tried to
change to another channel, the backend would generate a ton of error
messages about not getting data from the dvb device. So, with
mythweb, I selected two seperate HD channels to record simultaneously
(I have an HD3000 and a FusionHDTV3 tuner cards) and that worked
great.   I could go in and view recorded programs, but just not live.

On 9/6/05, Jack Perveiler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I see something similar to this problem.  I haven't seen it after a pause, but
> I DO see it SOMETIMES when I change to a 720p channel.  Sometimes it works 
> just
> fine, other times it seems like the deinterlacer has screwed up somehow (no
> xvmc, bob deinterlace w/opengl vsync).  I don't have any evidence it's the
> deinterlacer, but the effect looks like a deinterlacer gone wild.  Exiting to
> the menu then going back to LiveTV fixes it for me.
> 
> I haven't seen it after a pause because switching channels itself seems to be
> problematic for me (pcHDTV 3000, 0.18.1).  Sometimes it works just fine, and
> other times (about every 6th channel change) I get terrible colors and a
> picture so botched you can't make out anything on it (usually a bunch of pink
> and green blocks on the screen).  A friend down the street has identical
> behavior with a different distribution (KnoppMyth vs FC4), although he also 
> has
> a pcHDTV 3000.  When this problem occurs I have to restart the backend or all
> future recordings will be pink, green, and unrecognizable :)
> 
> Oddly enough, both problems are on live TV only.  Recordings work just great.
> Why myth can play back a recording just fine but not live tv (which is really 
> a
> recording, the ringbuffer) and change channels to record perfectly every time
> but not to watch live (which is really to record to the ringbuffer) is beyond
> me.  One of these days my wife + kid will go out of town and I'll have some
> time to update to svn and check out the source.  Until then I have no room to
> complain :)
> 
> These 2 issues have caused me to totally abandon HDTV live tv for the time
> being.  I've heard there's a ton of DVB re-work going on in SVN, so I'm hoping
> they gets fixed along the way.
> 
> Sorry I don't have anything helpful to add, but nobody responded to your
> original post and I wanted to at least let you know you aren't crazy :)
> 
> --Jack
> 
> --- Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > Is anyone else seeing problems viewing live HDTV, when resumbing
> > playback after pausing?
> >
> > The video is playing fine, then I pause, and resume after a while,
> > then the video gives a weird effect, where it looks like two images,
> > with one offest 50% vertically (the image is displayed twice, with one
> > shifted up half way).It then sort of flickers back and forth,
> > displaying both images.   It continues in this mode until I change the
> > channel.   If I change back to the problem channel and display live
> > tv, it works fine -- until I pause again.
> >
> > I have only been able to reproduce this on 720p channels (ABC, Fox,
> > ESPN).  1080i stations don't seem to show the same effect.
> >
> > My display is a 1280x720 LCD panel.   XvMC is disabled.   NVidia
> > FX5200 card with 7676 drivers.  Running on Gentoo x86-64 with the
> > latest svn snapshot of MythTV (I have tried this with several versions
> > over the last couple weeks).
> >
> > Anyone else seeing this?
> > ___
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> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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[mythtv-users] Video problems after pausing Live TV with 720p?

[Todd Ignasiak]

Is anyone else seeing problems viewing live HDTV, when resumbing
playback after pausing?

The video is playing fine, then I pause, and resume after a while,
then the video gives a weird effect, where it looks like two images,
with one offest 50% vertically (the image is displayed twice, with one
shifted up half way).It then sort of flickers back and forth,
displaying both images.   It continues in this mode until I change the
channel.   If I change back to the problem channel and display live
tv, it works fine -- until I pause again.

I have only been able to reproduce this on 720p channels (ABC, Fox,
ESPN).  1080i stations don't seem to show the same effect.

My display is a 1280x720 LCD panel.   XvMC is disabled.   NVidia
FX5200 card with 7676 drivers.  Running on Gentoo x86-64 with the
latest svn snapshot of MythTV (I have tried this with several versions
over the last couple weeks).

Anyone else seeing this?
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Re: [mythtv-users] mplayer - no matching codec with xvmc driver

[Todd Ignasiak]

I get this same error with the current mplayer / ffmpeg cvs code.
I couldn't find a configure option to get it to build the xvmc
portions.


On 9/1/05, MagicITX <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> 
> On 8/31/05, Robin Gilks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > 
> > > Robin Gilks wrote:
> > >
> > >>Greetings
> > >>
> > >>Almost got my sp13000 frontend to work correctly apart from CPU load on
> > >>mpeg4 videos with mplayer.
> > >>
> > >>Has anyone ever actually got mplayer to work with the xvmc driver on an 
> > >>Epia m/b? If so, what version of ffmpeg did you use as this is a circle
> > >>I've been round so many times now trying to get the magic "-vo xvmc -vc
> > >>ffmpeg12mc" to work!
> > >>
> > >>Cheers
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > > Doesn't the video decoding chipset on Via EPIA motherboards only help
> > > with MPEG2? I haven't tried the xvmc-patched mplayer with MPEG2 either,
> > > so I can't help much there I'm afraid. 
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > > Jon
> > >
> > Hi Jon
> > 
> > The SP13000 uses a CN400 rather than a CLE266 chipset and this has mpeg4
> > as well as mpeg2 decode - thats why I bought it!!
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > Robin Gilks 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ___
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> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> > 
> 
> I don't think it can work with the current ffmpeg.  When I tried running
> mplayer with xvmc I got:
>  
>  Forced video codec: ffmpeg12mc
>  Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
>  Cannot find codec 'mpegvideo_xvmc' in libavcodec...
>  
>  I looked through the code and don't find mpegvideo_xvmc.  Some ffmpeg
> documents say mpegvideo_xvmc had problem.  It may have been removed, don't
> know.  I've put a couple messages on the ffmpeg list but got no replies.
> 
> -- 
> Tim
> www.magicitx.com
> 
>  
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> 
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Re: [mythtv-users] Re:Front end choice: Mac Mini versus VIA EPIA. Mac OSX remote control?

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 8/31/05, Nick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 8/31/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I have a Mac Mini, and I think it's great.   The form factor is
> > unbeatable, and I don't think I could make a Mini-ITX box for near the
> > same price.   I use mine for all the Apple Apps (iTunes, iMovie, iDVD,
> > etc.) and general Unix functions.   But, not for MythTV.
> >
> > I use MythTV for HD material, which makes the Mini a no-go.   The
> > 1.42GHz CPU in mine is not fast enough to decode/display HDTV
> > material.The mini's ATI Radeon video hardware does have support
> > for MPEG2 acceleration, unfortunately Apple has chosen not to open an
> > API into this functionality.   So, HD is out of reach for the Mini.
> 
> I'd be amazed if the hardware didn't have MPEG2 acceleration/iDCT
> support (I'd think all ATI cards for the past several years have had
> this in hardware). Whether or not it is implemented in their driver is
> another story.

Yeah,  that's what I said.   The Mini, and most other Macs have video
chips that support iDCT offload.   Unfortunately, Apple does not allow
access to that hardware via any standard API.

So, HD applications, like the EyeTV viewer, have system requirements
MUCH higher than they really should.

A 1GHz P4 should be able to easily handle 1080i/720p MPEG2 playback,
if they can use the MPEG2 acceleration.Without the hardware
assist, the requirements are much higher.
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Re: [mythtv-users] Re:Front end choice: Mac Mini versus VIA EPIA. Mac OSX remote control?

[Todd Ignasiak]

I have a Mac Mini, and I think it's great.   The form factor is
unbeatable, and I don't think I could make a Mini-ITX box for near the
same price.   I use mine for all the Apple Apps (iTunes, iMovie, iDVD,
etc.) and general Unix functions.   But, not for MythTV.

I use MythTV for HD material, which makes the Mini a no-go.   The
1.42GHz CPU in mine is not fast enough to decode/display HDTV
material.The mini's ATI Radeon video hardware does have support
for MPEG2 acceleration, unfortunately Apple has chosen not to open an
API into this functionality.   So, HD is out of reach for the Mini.

On 8/31/05, Adam Felson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> From: Fred Squires <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Front end choice: Mac Mini versus VIA
> >   EPIA. Mac OSX remote control?
> >On 8/31/05, Andrew Morley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >> While most people have the idea that Macs are expensive, it seems
> to
> >> me that a Mac mini actually costs less than an EPIA system with a
> >> comparably nice looking case. However I'm not so confident that I
> >> can turn a Mac mini into a completely remote-controllable system.
> >> With no serial ports, I can't see how I can use it with LIRC.
> >There
> >> are USB-based remote control receivers for Mac use, but they come
> >> with remote controls with only very few buttons and I don't expect
> >> they can be used with any other remote.
> >>
> 
> >I don't know about the other usb receivers for the Mac, but you can
> >use other remotes with the keyspan.
> 
> lirc 0.7.2 now has support for the streamzap usb remote under
> linux-2.6 and it works like a champ.   I dunno if the lirc_streamzap
> usb driver will run on a non-intel platform.
> 
> As far as the EPIA is concerned, a bigger problem than a motherboard
> fan is having a case fan.  I bought a case that uses a fan and it
> could be heard two rooms away and was louder than a fridge.  I toned
> it down with a 60 ohm resistor and now it is much more reasonable,
> but I have to be carefull that the fan vents are unobstructed or the
> system will overheat.   The shuttle-pc is a far superior solution to
> itx/epia.  Quieter and uses modern cpus and desktop drives.
> 
> 
> Please reply to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page
> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
> 
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Re: [mythtv-users] Dvico MCE style remote + LIRC?

[Todd Ignasiak]

I have the DVico USB IR receiver, though I don't know if it's the
'MCE' version..

The kernel driver appears to work for me.  I get a /dev/usb/hiddev0
device, and if I 'cat' it, I can see garbage output as I press keys on
my IR remote.

But, I don't see any sign of lircd seeing the IR commands.   irw or
irrecord don't show any inputs.

Is there any special config needed for the DVico receiver (I
configured it for the USB->DVico device before compiling).   Any
reccomendations for debugging lircd connections to the USB device?

On 8/28/05, Andrew Speer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I was able to get this remote working by doing the following:
> 
> 1 .. Patching the lirc 0.7.2 code using the diff provided below (very simple).
> 
> 2 .. Building lirc to use the "Linux Input Layer" driver
> 
> 3 .. Starting the lirc daemon with the option "-d /dev/hiddev0" to tell it to
> use the right dev file, instead of /dev/input/event0
> 
> 4 .. Using the lircd.conf file attached (very similar to the existing MCE
> remote lircd.conf, hex codes just transposed and moved over a few bits).
> 
> For the reference of others the remote looks like this:
> 
> http://www.eyo.com.au/img/ups,kvm,usb/hdtv5remote.jpg
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> Andrew Speer
> 
> 
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> 
> 
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] New NVidia drivers, 7676.. not much changed.

[Todd Ignasiak]

Yeah, I primarily use software decoding, because of the XvMC issues. 
My system is not as beefy as yours (Socket754 3200+) but it can handle
a single HD stream (though, I think my playback is smoother with
XvMC..  I see a 'judder' effect on panning scenes with software
decode).

But, with the capability there in the hardware, I would like to take
advantage of it.   I'm hoping it would let my relatively modest system
be able to handle PiP with two HD streams,  postprocessing while
viewing other material, or any random Linux function running without
effecting MythTV.


Prior to MythTV, I used a "MyHD" card in windows.  It had a hardware
decoder, so I got used to doing HD with low CPU overhead..  I'm trying
to get close to that effect in Myth.

On 8/24/05, Isaac Richards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Wednesday 24 August 2005 02:07 pm, Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> > I noticed that Nvidia posted a new driver version, 7676, a week or so ago.
> >
> > I downloaded the AMD64 version, hoping to get reliable XvMC operation,
> > but it didn't have any noticeable improvements on my system.
> >
> >
> > XvMC still fails to initialize.I didn't bother messing with it any
> > more, but I assume it's still the same behavior as 7667, where you
> > have to try initializing it 20+ times, then finally you get lucky and
> > it works.  After that it works every time.
> 
> What do you need XvMC for on an amd64 system?  I can pretty easily decode,
> deinterlace, and display three 1080i streams simultaneously with pure
> software decoding on my dev system.  Might be able to do four with a little
> tweaking, if I cared to.  Granted, it's a dual-core 4400+, but that's similar
> enough to two 3500+ chips that I can't imagine 1080i not playing smoothly in
> software on almost any xp 64.
> 
> On this machine, one 1080i stream doesn't even trip the powernowd thresholds,
> so the cpu stays downclocked/volted to it's minimum level - at that point,
> I'd rather keep load on the CPU and off of the video card so the videocard
> doesn't start adding more heat to the system.
> 
> Isaac
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Re: [mythtv-users] New NVidia drivers, 7676.. not much changed.

[Todd Ignasiak]

This is a good illustration of the need for open source drivers..

This has been one of the biggest hurdles in using my AMD64 system. 
All the open source kernel, apps, etc. work great.The one piece of
closed software, the video driver, becomes an effectively unsolveable
problem.

It's too bad there is not an open source alternative.  I would drop
the Nvidia stuff in a heartbeat.

On 8/24/05, David Ellis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Yeah - this little bug has been reported to Nvidia several times.I
> really wish they'd get around to fixing it.
> 
> Bah,
> 
> David
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Todd Ignasiak
> Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 2:07 PM
> To: mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> Subject: [mythtv-users] New NVidia drivers, 7676.. not much changed.
> 
> I noticed that Nvidia posted a new driver version, 7676, a week or so ago.
> 
> I downloaded the AMD64 version, hoping to get reliable XvMC operation,
> but it didn't have any noticeable improvements on my system.
> 
> 
> XvMC still fails to initialize.I didn't bother messing with it any
> more, but I assume it's still the same behavior as 7667, where you
> have to try initializing it 20+ times, then finally you get lucky and
> it works.  After that it works every time.
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> 
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> 
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[mythtv-users] New NVidia drivers, 7676.. not much changed.

[Todd Ignasiak]

I noticed that Nvidia posted a new driver version, 7676, a week or so ago.

I downloaded the AMD64 version, hoping to get reliable XvMC operation,
but it didn't have any noticeable improvements on my system.


XvMC still fails to initialize.I didn't bother messing with it any
more, but I assume it's still the same behavior as 7667, where you
have to try initializing it 20+ times, then finally you get lucky and
it works.  After that it works every time.
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Re: [mythtv-users] I'm so frustrated. (PVR-500)

[Todd Ignasiak]

I got my PVR-500 working, after some initial difficulties. 
Unfortunately, I was thrashing through so many different changes, I
can't say with confidence what the key issues were for me..Also, 
I am using Gentoo x86-64, not KnoppMyth..But, here are some of the
things I tweaked to get mine working:


- These page have good info:

http://www.bitbenderforums.com/~ralpha6/knoppmyth/knoppmythtv.htm
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4704

- Check the order of modules loaded.  I also have an HD3000 and a
FusionHDTV3 in mine,  and changing the order of modules loaded
effected which cards worked.I'm still playing with this.. as it is
now, when I reboot I need to rmmod ivtv, then re-load it to get it to
work.

- Specifying tuner type in module parameters (in /etc/modules.conf). 
When I had the wrong tuner type (or no tuner specified) I got black &
white video, or hung video.

  options ivtv ivtv_std=0 tuner=57,57 tda9887=-1,0,0 ivtv_debug=1
  options cx25840 i2c_enable=-1,1,1

- Use ivtvctl to set the pvr-500 in the right modes:

 /usr/local/bin/ivtvctl -d /dev/video0 -u 1 -f width=720,height=480 -p 6
 /usr/local/bin/ivtvctl -d /dev/video1 -u 1 -f width=720,height=480 -p 6

- check for messages like "ivtv: i2c client addr: 0x44 not found for
command 1074029571! " in your dmesg output.   Re-loading ivtv resolved
this for me.

Good luck,
Todd

On 8/18/05, Richard Bronosky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> So I tried to buy hardware specifically to have a good MythTV
> experience.  ( See setup here http://www.bronosky.com/index.php?p=21 )
> I have obviously failed.
> 
> I've installed KnoppMyth R5A16, and followed these instructions for ivtv
> http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4822#28248  I used
> ivtv-0.3.7d.  I got HcwMakoA.ROM & HcwFalcn.rom off of the latest CD
> posted on http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_mce.html
> 
> I'm getting the "reddish static fade in, fade out" problem.  I'm hearing
> people talk about loading the ivtv module with different parameters.  I
> don't know what loading a module is, or how to change parameters.  I
> hear people talking about modules.conf and modprobe.conf...
> 
> This is just too much for me to figure out right now.  I don't feel like
> I know enough to know what I need to learn.  I'm not dead set on
> KnoppMyth, but I am dead set on the hardware described above.  Can
> someone please tell me the easiest way to get a viewable video signal
> from a PVR-500 using mplayer or something?  I just need a little victory
> to feel good about this project again.
> 
> 
> --
> 
> 
> Thank you for your time,
> --==<< R i c h a r d   B r o n o s k y >>==--
> 
> Nearly all viruses and spyware are designed to use Microsoft internet
> products.  Protect yourself by avoiding Internet Explorer &
> Outlook/Outlook Express.
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Re: [mythtv-users] TV lasts 1 second then dies

[Todd Ignasiak]

I had a similar symptom (1/2 second of video, then hang) when I first
set up my PVR-500.

The solution for me was changing the tuner type (specified in the
options when the 'ivtv' module was loaded). I found people using
several different settings documented on various forums/sites, and
some were wrong.After changing to the correct tuner, I got video.

Can you capture video directly from the video0 device, to verify the
card is working?  ( cat /dev/video0 > /tmp/video.mpg )   At least that
way you can narrow it down to a driver problem or a MythTV problem.

On 8/6/05, James Colannino <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hey everyone.  I've been googling around trying to find a solution to
> this, but haven't found one yet :(  I did find one thread where someone
> had the same problem
> (http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=30704&;) but nobody found a
> solution.  Basically, I can view TV for about half a second or so,
> afterwhich the image freezes, mythfrontend doesn't respond for about
> 10-20 seconds, and finally I'm dropped back to the Watch TV menu entry.
> I ran mythfrontend in a console and got the following errors:
> 
> 2005-08-06 11:53:12.251 New DB connection, total: 1
> Total desktop width=1280, height=1024, numscreens=1
> 2005-08-06 11:53:12.256 Using screen 0, 1280x1024 at 0,0
> 2005-08-06 11:53:12.258 mythfrontend version: 0.18.1.20050510-1
> www.mythtv.org
> 2005-08-06 11:53:12.259 Enabled verbose msgs : important general
> 2005-08-06 11:53:12.554 Switching to square mode (abstract)
> 2005-08-06 11:53:13.006 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
> 2005-08-06 11:53:14.455 New DB connection, total: 2
> 2005-08-06 11:53:14.470 Connecting to backend server: 127.0.0.1:6543
> (try 1 of 5)
> 2005-08-06 11:53:14.478 Using protocol version 15
> 2005-08-06 11:53:14.513 Using protocol version 15
> 2005-08-06 11:53:16.925 Opening audio device '/dev/dsp'.
> 2005-08-06 11:53:16.925 Opening OSS audio device '/dev/dsp'.
> 2005-08-06 11:53:16.936 Using XV port 145
> 2005-08-06 11:53:17.065 The realtime priority setting is not enabled.
> 2005-08-06 11:53:17.086 Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
> 2005-08-06 11:53:17.469 Video timing method: SGI OpenGL
> 2005-08-06 11:53:18.043 prebuffering pause
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.092 ReadStringList timeout (quick).
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.093 WriteStringList: Bad socket
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.093 ReadStringList: Bad socket
> Remote encoder not responding.
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.093 WriteStringList: Bad socket
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.093 ReadStringList: Bad socket
> Remote encoder not responding.
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.097 WriteStringList: Bad socket
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.098 ReadStringList: Bad socket
> Remote encoder not responding.
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.176 Changing from WatchingLiveTV to None
> 2005-08-06 11:53:37.179 Changing from None to None
> 
> It's really frustrating me :(  Here's the output of the backend log:
> 
> Starting up as the master server.
> Error getting inputs for the capturecard.  Perhaps you have
> forgotten to bind video sources to your card's inputs?
> us-bcast is defined, but isn't attached to a cardinput.
> Starting up as the master server.
> Error getting inputs for the capturecard.  Perhaps you have
> forgotten to bind video sources to your card's inputs?
> us-bcast is defined, but isn't attached to a cardinput.
> Starting up as the master server.
> Error getting inputs for the capturecard.  Perhaps you have
> forgotten to bind video sources to your card's inputs?
> us-bcast is defined, but isn't attached to a cardinput.
> Starting up as the master server.
> Error getting inputs for the capturecard.  Perhaps you have
> forgotten to bind video sources to your card's inputs?
> us-bcast is defined, but isn't attached to a cardinput.
> 
> It says that us-bcast (the name of my video source) isn't attached to
> the input on the card, but it is (I attached it to Tuner 0).  Does
> anyone have any ideas?  Has anyone else had a similiar problem, and even
> better, has anyone solved it?  Thanks very much everyone :)
> 
> James
> --
> My blog: http://www.crazydrclaw.com/
> My homepage: http://james.colannino.org/
> 
> "You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth
> without it." --G. K. Chesterton
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Re: [mythtv-users] Re: XvMC output not working

[Todd Ignasiak]

I'm seeing basically this same behavior..At first, XvMC will fail,
XVMC_DEBUG gives me an "Authentication Failed" error.If I keep
re-trying mplayer, eventually XvMC will successfully start, and it
will work with other apps after that until I reboot.

I have seen other reports of this behavior, but no solutions..


On 7/31/05, Romain Kang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have found that iteratively trying to connect to Xvmc seems to work.
> Sometimes it has taken as many as about 20 tries.  Here's the script I use:
> 
> #! /bin/sh
> TESTFILE=$HOME/romain/xvmc/kqed.ts
> MAXTRY=100
> MPLAYER_FLAGS="-vo xvmc -vc ffmpeg12mc -really-quiet yes"
> STATUS="Failed"
> 
> i=0
> while [ $i -le $MAXTRY ]
> do
> i=$(($i+1))
> mplayer $MPLAYER_FLAGS $TESTFILE
> if [ $? = 0 ]; then
> STATUS="Succeeded"
> break
> fi
> done
> echo "$STATUS after $i tries."
> 
> 
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Re: [mythtv-users] Experiences with XvMC

[Todd Ignasiak]

Is Unichrome2 different than Unichrome Pro?

The Abit KV-80 specs say: "Integrated UniChrome Pro Graphics with
2D/3D/Video controller"

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=238

The VIA pages on their chipsets with "Unichrome Pro" make plenty of
mention of MPEG2 decode, and HDTV: 
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/p4-series/pm800/


On 8/2/05, Brad Fuller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> 
> Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> 
> >Is there anywhere all of this current status info is covered?  The
> >K8M800 has "Unichrome Pro" integrated graphics,  and I see mentions of
> >XvMC support for Unichrome Pro.  But, will these two work together?
> >
> >
> Yeah, it would be nice to know more about this.
> I have a K8M800-MLVF and I couldn't get the video working on itat all
> for Mythtv l(ast october.) So, I got a cheap MX440 board with SVideo and
> used that.
> I still have FC2 running on it but will upgrade soon.
> 
> The K8M800 doc states the following for the Onboard Graphics features:
> 
> Integraded UniChrome2 3D/2D graphics controller
> Integrated S3 Graphics with 2D/3D acceleration
> 
> no mention about "Unichrome Pro" nor MPEG2.
> 
> brad
> 
> 
> >
> >
> >On 8/2/05, David Collett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>BEWARE:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>decoding.  From the unichrome sourceforge project site says:  "It
> >>>provides support for VIA CLE266 and KM400/KN400. K8M800 and
> >>>PM800/CN400 support is still limited."  I'm not sure if that
> >>>statement is up to date.  I have seen messages from people using the
> >>>CN400.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>That statement is refering to the Unichrome X driver, NOT XvMC
> >>specifically, the next paragraph refers to Unichrome XvMC, and only
> >>explicitly mentions CLE266.
> >>
> >>I have a KM400, which is a great board for the price, but it does not
> >>have MPEG2 hardware accel (XvMC). It does have working Xv, though it
> >>is still a relatively new driver and may not work out-of-the-box in
> >>some distributions.
> >>
> >>Dave
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
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Re: [mythtv-users] Experiences with XvMC

[Todd Ignasiak]

Is there anywhere all of this current status info is covered?  The
K8M800 has "Unichrome Pro" integrated graphics,  and I see mentions of
XvMC support for Unichrome Pro.  But, will these two work together?



On 8/2/05, David Collett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> BEWARE:
> 
> > decoding.  From the unichrome sourceforge project site says:  "It
> > provides support for VIA CLE266 and KM400/KN400. K8M800 and
> > PM800/CN400 support is still limited."  I'm not sure if that
> > statement is up to date.  I have seen messages from people using the
> > CN400.
> 
> That statement is refering to the Unichrome X driver, NOT XvMC
> specifically, the next paragraph refers to Unichrome XvMC, and only
> explicitly mentions CLE266.
> 
> I have a KM400, which is a great board for the price, but it does not
> have MPEG2 hardware accel (XvMC). It does have working Xv, though it
> is still a relatively new driver and may not work out-of-the-box in
> some distributions.
> 
> Dave
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] Experiences with XvMC

[Todd Ignasiak]

No,  it uses the VIA K8M800.   The CLE266 is the oldest chipset that
had this.  I believe it was more limited than the later chipsets
(maybe this is the one that didn't support HD..  the others do.)

There are several VIA chipsets that support the hardware MPEG2
decoding.  From the unichrome sourceforge project site says:  "It
provides support for VIA CLE266 and KM400/KN400. K8M800 and
PM800/CN400 support is still limited."  I'm not sure if that
statement is up to date.  I have seen messages from people using the
CN400.



On 8/1/05, Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> On Aug 1, 2005, at 9:13 PM, Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> 
> > The Unichrome integrated graphics chipsets are available on more than
> > just Mini-ITX boards.  VIA makes P4, Athlon, and even Athlon64 boards
> > with the Unichrome video.
> 
> Is this with the CLE266 chip? I thought that was the only one that
> supported XvMC which is why I ask. Again, I could be wrong (
> under construction
> 
> --
> Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> AIM: BlueCame1
> 
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] Experiences with XvMC

[Todd Ignasiak]

The Unichrome integrated graphics chipsets are available on more than
just Mini-ITX boards.  VIA makes P4, Athlon, and even Athlon64 boards
with the Unichrome video.

This seems like an interesting option to me.It allows for the most
offloading of MPEG2 processing, while still using a fast CPU for
everything else in the system.


S3/VIA also has standalone video cards (Deltachrome and Gammachrome)
but I don't know if they support full hardware decoding.


-- Also, I am confused on the controversy about open source from VIA. 
 Are the Unichrome drivers completely open source?  Or, do they rely
on binary code from VIA for full support? A fully open source
driver would be a big plus over the Nvidia drivers.

On 8/1/05, Donavan Stanley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 7/31/05, Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Oh yeah, one more thing :) I thought I read that some or all of the
> > unichrome chips had a limitation on video out where they could not
> > output 1280x720 (720p) video or above. Obviously this is a problem if
> > you're trying to hook your unichrome based board to a HDTV that wants
> > to accept either 720p or 1080i input sources.
> 
> On a mailing list that gets archived and searched quite often it's
> best NOT to post things you thing you read as it confuses things.
> Next thing you know you've got people quoting your post in irc saying
> "I read that some guy said he thought that they didn't do HDTV".  ;)
> 
> For the record, the Unichrome Pro chipset DOES offer hardware
> acceleration of HDTV streams as well as MPEG4 acceleration.  (Though
> the open source drivers don't support MPEG4 acceleration).
> 
> That being said, unless you REALLY want/need the mini-ITX form factor,
> you're much better off with a Celeron and a decent nVidia AGP based
> graphics card.  The mini-ITX based systems make great little silent
> frontends but they're seriously lacking in the horsepower needed for a
> good general Myth box.
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Re: [mythtv-users] XvMC output not working

[Todd Ignasiak]

It's working for me with svn image 6963.Although, I have a
persmissions problem I haven't debugged yet -- it only works when run
as root.

Gentoo  x86-64
Athlon 64 3200+
Nvidia FX5200, 128MB, fanless
Nvidia driver 7667

I also get the stuttering when the OSD is displayed.  Sometimes the
stuttering doesn't stop,  but usually it only happens when the OSD is
up.

On 8/1/05, Mark Schuren <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> works for me too on two boxes, great video quality and very low
> cpu load, but the OSD looks ugly and the video/audio starts
> stuttering for the time the OSD is displayed.
> 
> Myth 0.18.1
> Mandrake 10.2
> NV driver version 7667
> 
> nVidia FX5600 (Gainward, 256MB DDR) / FX5200 (onboard, shared RAM)
> AthlonXP 3000+ / 2400+
> 
> When the OSD stuff is fixed, I think the XvMC stuff is really
> worth using it instead of xv.
> 
> Ray Lischner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > > Anyone who has this working - What Video card are you using? (maybe I
> > > could just upgrade/downgrade the video).
> >
> > XvMC works for me (OSD sometimes causes jittery A/V, but that's the only
> > problem I have)
> >
> > Myth 0.18.1
> > Suse 9.3
> > version 7167 of nVidia drivers
> >
> > nVidia FX 5200 (Asus)
> > Athlon XP 2000+
> > HD-3000 DVB
> > --
> > Ray Lischner
> >
> 
> 
> 
> This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
> 
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Re: [mythtv-users] Experiences with XvMC

[Todd Ignasiak]

Hi Scott,

I've been doingh the same analysis on HD playback .   I've been doing
XvMC with an FX5200 AGP card.  When it's working well, it's very good.
 But, I get the "prebuffering pause" issues, which causes choppy
playback.

I'm surprised that you were able to do HD playback via the PCI bus.  I
didn't think the bandwidth was sufficient for [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  Maybe XvMC changes the equation a bit..  Can you still get decent HD
playback without XvMC?

Another thing I'm interested in is the 'Unichrome' display adapters. 
This S3/VIA video chips do full MPEG decoding, not just the iDCT+MC
done with XvMC.  I don't know if it is any more/less capable with
things like de-interlacing.   Also, the 'Unichrome' version is
integrated into the motherboard, I don't know if they have the same
capabilities in their add-in cards.   Prior to moving to MythTV, I
used a 'MyHD' card in Windows.  It had a hardware MPEG decoder, which
did a nice job of scaling and de-interlacing, which almost no CPU
requirements.   I would love to find something similar for MythTV.



On 7/31/05, Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Having been on the list for some time I was familiar with nvidia +
> xvmc combination and wanted to try it out. I picked up an evga
> GeForce FX 5200 PCI adapter and stuck it into my SIS based P4
> Northwood 2.4GHz Pundit system. (Note: not the Pundit-R) Setup was
> done under Gentoo 2005.0 using all stable packages with kernel 2.6.12-
> r4. I wanted to put down some notes for others who might be
> considering the same.
> 
> My goal was to evaluate the xvmc + nvidia playback quality for future
> HDTV use. For playback I used xine-lib 1.1.0 and xine-ui 0.99.4 along
> with a few 1920x1080i and 1280x720p clips. I also used some standard
> DVD video to compare xv with xvmc processing. My viewing was focused
> around deinterlacing and artifacts that might be seen from post
> processing. For a display I used DVI out at 1280 x 720 to my
> Panasonic PT-L500U projector.
> 
> Setup of nvidia + xvmc on Gentoo is well documented and went off
> without a hitch using nvidia-kernel 1.0.7667. Over all I was
> impressed with the results. Using xvmc I was able to easily playback
> 1080i clips with about 35% cpu use. Considering the low end PCI bus
> on the Pundit system board and the low end GPU on the FX 5200.
> 
> I had two issues that for me are critical.
> 
> When using xvmc with Xine none of the OSD overlays would work. This
> meant no on screen information, subtitles, or closed captions during
> playback. I didn't investigate this to much however I think it could
> be worked around. One possibility seems to be with the Xine xxmc
> support.
> 
> XvMC appears to do very simple one-field deinterlacing in hardware.
> Xine 1.1.0 has experimental XvMC bob deinterlace support which I
> enabled and saw some improvements. I compared various DVD (480i
> content) scenes played via Xv with Xine deinterlace post processing
> and XvMC with hardware deinterlace. It was pretty clear to me that Xv
> with deinterlace post processing was producing a much better picture
> than XvMC using hardware deinterlacing.
> 
> Based on my testing I think using nvidia + xvmc could be acceptable
> when dealing with HDTV streams but should be avoided for standard
> NTSC 480i content or where ever else it isn't absolutely needed. The
> best solution, from an image quality standpoint, would be to avoid
> XvMC and use a powerful system to handle the HDTV content decoding
> and playback. Obviously that solution brings with a host of other
> problems dealing with heat and noise.
> 
> Right now I'm unsure of which direction I'll go in. I know I will be
> scraping my pundit and setting up a full FE/BE in a nice HTPC case
> like the ones Silverstone makes. The cheap solution, for me, is to
> get a socket 478 ATX board that supports my existing P4, memory, and
> other hardware then add in a quality Nvidia AGP based adapter.
> Considering the prices of nice looking HTPC cases and silent power
> supplies this might be the way to go as an interim step.
> 
> --
> Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> AIM: BlueCame1
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [mythtv-users] XvMC output not working

[Todd Ignasiak]

I had this issue with when using NVidia 7667 drivers, and MythTV 0.18.1.

After upgrading to the latext svn (development) release of MythTV,
XvMC began working.


-- While trying to debug this issue, I read other reports of XvMC
working for other people with MythTV 0.18.1.   So, there may be some
way to make it work. But, for me, upgrading took care of the
problem.

On 7/28/05, Dave <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Anything new on this issue?
> I've been setting up an AMD64 3000+ system and seem to be having the
> same issues as everyone else:
> 
>  Unable to create XvMC Context, status(11): BadAlloc
> 
> The only difference is that I always seem to get the error, whereas
> others mentioned it happening intermittently.
> 
> I guess I'll have to go without XvMC for now.
> 
> Dave
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[mythtv-users] HDTV Picture in Picture

[Todd Ignasiak]

I just added a second HD receiver card to my MythTV box.  To test both
receivers, I opened up a Picture-in-Picture window.   It was close,
but it was a bit beyond my Athlon64 3200+'s capabilities.  It was
stuttering a bit on pans and dropping some frames.

Has anyone else done PiP with two HD streams?  What kind of horsepower
is needed?
I suppose this would be a good job for a dual core system.

A few questions/thoughts that I had on this are:

- Can XvMC accelerate both video streams?  I have an NVidia FX5200
card, with XvMC enabled, is it benefitting both channels?

- Are the VIA / S3 Unichrome video chips available as standalone
cards, rather than just integrated into chipsets?   Or, do any of the
other S3 cards that support the full MPEG2 decoding?   These could
greatly reduce the horsepower needed for decoding two streams.


- Any other things to look into for MPEG2 acceleration?
   I noticed that mplayer, with XvMC, has quite a bit lower CPU
utilization than MythTV.
   How about x86-64 mode,  apparently ffmpeg is optmimized for x86-64,
is there anything like this available, or in the works, for MythTV?
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[mythtv-users] Mythweb patch to add more fields for editing QAM channels

[Todd Ignasiak]

I don't know what the scope of mythweb is, or if there are other plans
for solving the issues involved with QAM channel configurations.  
This may or may not be usefule for general inclusion, but, several of
us were having difficulties in configuring QAM channels that were not
recognized in a channel scan.  So I wanted to post the patch in case
others can use it.

Basically, I added a few fields to the mythweb channel configuration
page, to make updating some channel settings easier.  The added
variables are:

xmltvid:  Not directly related to QAM configs.  But, the xmltv
listings had different channel numbers than what showed up in channel
scans.  So, manually assiging the right xmltvid to the scanned channel
was useful.

mplexid:  This refers to the entry in the "dtv_multiplex" table, where
the frequencies for the scanned channels are defined.  So, if InHD is
on channel 105, which is 68100Hz, you find the dtv_multiplex entry
for 68100, and use that mplexid in the channel config.

serviceid: As far as I can tell, this equates to the subchannel in the
transport stream.e.g. InHD is on 105-1 and InHD2 is on 105-2, so
the serviceid for InHD is 1.

atscsrcid: In the scanned channels, this value is more random.  It may
relate to the PIDs for the audio or video in the transport stream
(that's just a guess).  But, this value seems less important, as I can
tune channels when I leave this value set to 0.


-- The patch was made against the svn rev 6910, from 7/23/05.


mythweb_vars.patch
Description: Binary data
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Re: [mythtv-users] DViCO FusionHDTV DVB (ATSC/QAM) and MythTV

[Todd Ignasiak]

Check the Linux-DVB mailing list, there are some recent posts by Mac
Michaels and Michael Krufky regarding Fusion5 support.I think that
the driver for the Fusion5 is in progress now.

I think the HD3000 will support QAM.   It appears that people have had
difficulty making it work, but I haven't tried yet.  I'll post a
message with my results after I give that a try.


On 7/26/05, Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> On Jul 26, 2005, at 2:43 PM, Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> 
> > Some people were having trouble getting the FusionHDTV3 QAM cards
> > working with MythTV.  So, here is a short summary of how I got
> > MythTV working with my FusionHDTV3 card. This process should be
> > similar for other DVB cards.  I am able to receive both Over-
> > The-Air broadcasts (ATSC broadcasts using 8VSB) and clear channels
> > on my Comcast cable system using QAM256.
> 
> Todd -
> 
> Thanks for the write up. I understand you have the Fusion HDTV3 from
> your post. I'm wondering if anyone has experince with the Fusion
> HDTV5 ATSC. The first question is of course, how well supported is it
> under Linux? Patching the kernel doesn't bother me, I'm asking about
> driver stability and image quality.
> 
> I realize the PCHD3000 is the "safe bet" as it is well supported
> under Linux and appears to have an active development community
> behind it. I don't hear as much about the Fusion HDTV5 ATSC under
> Linux but I'm attracted to the updated hardware on the Fusion HDTV5
> ATSC board.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> --
> Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> AIM: BlueCame1
> 
> 
> 
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[mythtv-users] Re: [linux-dvb] DViCO FusionHDTV DVB (ATSC/QAM) and MythTV

[Todd Ignasiak]

Hi Jack,

My experience has been that the MythTV scan will not find channels
that don't have PSIP data.  On my cable system, all the local channels
are rebroadcast without modification, which includes the PSIP data.  
MythTV finds these channels.   There are several cable-only HD
channels which are broadcast without PSIP data, and MythTV does not
find them.

In these cases, I edited the channel data to point MythTV to the
frequencies where I knew the channels were.There was just another
post asking about this on the list.   I'll post some mods for
mythweb to help with this, and some more info on the changes, as soon
as I can.

-Todd

On 7/26/05, Jack Kolesar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Darn.  Hit the enter button accidentally. Anyway, there is the drop
> down in Knoppmyth as well which is running 0.18.1 of MythTV.  I
> haven't been able to lock a QAM Signal yet though. It was working in
> M$ XP.  I've also noticed that the isolation between the OTA and Cable
> portions of the Fusion card is pretty poor.  Just plugging Cable in
> will make me loose several OTA Signals. Todd,  what do you mean about
> manually entering the QAM channels.  Will it not be able to find them
> on a scan without PSIP?
> 
> __
> Jack Kolesar
> AMDPower.com
> http://www.amdpower.com
> 
> On 7/26/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On 7/26/05, Michael Krufky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > If you want to test out the new version of the driver without waiting
> > > for the new kernel, follow instructions for using the merge scripts
> > > located at:
> > > http://linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index.php/How_to_build_from_CVS
> >
> > Thanks for the pointer.  I will try this out after I attempt the next
> > challenge -- getting my pchdtv.com HD3000 card working in the same
> > system.
> >
> > > > Then, do a QAM scan, which should result in more channels found.  If
> > > > your cable company is broadcasting the PSIP channel data, the
> > > > channels should be automatically detected.  For channels without PSIP
> > > > data, you will need to manually edit the channel data (in the mysql
> > > > database) to enable those channels.
> > >
> > > How can we tell mythtv whether to scan using VSB or QAM ??? Is this one
> > > of the newer features found in the new subversion release of mythtv?  I
> > > cannot find a method for this in my gentoo version of mythtv.
> >
> > It is one of the options on the Channel Scan page.I don't have
> > access to that system right now,  but I believe there is a pull-down
> > menu for selecting ATSC or QAM256 scan types in the channel scan page.
> >   This was in all the versions I have tried.
> >
> > ___
> > linux-dvb mailing list
> > linux-dvb@linuxtv.org
> > http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linux-dvb
> >
> 
> 
> --
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] Possible to manually add QAM channel information?

[Todd Ignasiak]

I posted a bit of information on this in the pchdtv.com forum: 
http://www.pchdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=882

Basically, there are two tables you need to be concerned with,
"channel" and "dtv_multiplex".  Channel has the basic channel mapping
info, with xmltvid, and refers to an entry in dtv_multiplex.  The
dtv_multiplex entry has the actual channel frequency.


I modified the channel configuration in mythweb to allow editing of
the relevant channel fields.  I will try to create a patch for that
tonight, so you can use that if you want.That would still not
address the entry in the dtv_multiplex table, which is normally
created when doing the channel scan.


On 7/26/05, bmerrill Merrill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I would like to get QAM working with MythTV.  I am able to watch QAM HDTV 
> from my cable provider using a combination of dvb-apps, dvbtraffic and 
> mplayer but scanning for the channels using the latest MythTV cvs doesn't 
> seem to work, i.e. it doesn't detect the channels on the first pass and gets 
> "stuck" on subsequent scanning of existing transports.  My understanding from 
> the few scant threads I've been able to find on the subject seem to indicate 
> that my cable provider is not transmitting certain information that Myth 
> requires.  I have tried calling them and speaking to the engineers but have 
> not been able to make much headway through the red tape, though my limited 
> knowledge on what exactly is missing probably doesn't help either.
> 
> However, I was wondering, if I have collected all the relevant info from 
> dvb-app such as Video PID, Audio PID, etc, would it be fairly straight 
> forward to manually add that information directly into MySQL?  I am certainly 
> no expert with MySQL but I think I could figure  out the relevant commands if 
> someone could point me in the direction of the relevant table(s) that I would 
> need to modify.  But of course if someone knows the actual command that would 
> be very much appreciated as well.  Or is there perhaps an even easier way 
> than modifying MySQL directly?  Or should I not waste my time trying, i.e. a 
> fix is imminent?
> 
> Thank you for any help.
> 
> 
> 
> ___
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> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> 
> 
>
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[mythtv-users] Re: [linux-dvb] DViCO FusionHDTV DVB (ATSC/QAM) and MythTV

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 7/26/05, Michael Krufky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> If you want to test out the new version of the driver without waiting
> for the new kernel, follow instructions for using the merge scripts
> located at:
> http://linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index.php/How_to_build_from_CVS

Thanks for the pointer.  I will try this out after I attempt the next
challenge -- getting my pchdtv.com HD3000 card working in the same
system.

> > Then, do a QAM scan, which should result in more channels found.  If
> > your cable company is broadcasting the PSIP channel data, the
> > channels should be automatically detected.  For channels without PSIP
> > data, you will need to manually edit the channel data (in the mysql
> > database) to enable those channels.
> 
> How can we tell mythtv whether to scan using VSB or QAM ??? Is this one
> of the newer features found in the new subversion release of mythtv?  I
> cannot find a method for this in my gentoo version of mythtv.

It is one of the options on the Channel Scan page.I don't have
access to that system right now,  but I believe there is a pull-down
menu for selecting ATSC or QAM256 scan types in the channel scan page.
  This was in all the versions I have tried.
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[mythtv-users] DViCO FusionHDTV DVB (ATSC/QAM) and MythTV

[Todd Ignasiak]

Some people were having trouble getting the FusionHDTV3 QAM cards  
working with MythTV.  So, here is a short summary of how I got MythTV  
working with my FusionHDTV3 card. This process should be similar  
for other DVB cards.  I am able to receive both Over-The-Air  
broadcasts (ATSC broadcasts using 8VSB) and clear channels on my  
Comcast cable system using QAM256.



- Linux OS Install.  I used Gentoo AMD64.  (Basic OS install &  
setup..  load standard packages + requirements for MythTV)

  -  Xorg, KDE, MySQL, etc.

- Update kernel to 2.6.13rc3-mm1, which includes FusionHDTV and  
general DVB updates.
   - Make sure to include modules for Video4Linux, DVB, Conexant  
2388x (plus DVB), and lgdt3302 frontend


- Rebuild NVidia drivers for new kernel

- In Gentoo's /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6, I load:

cx88-blackbird
dvb-core
lgdt3302
cx88_dvb

- use "dvb-apps" to confirm that card is recognized and functional.   
Check the docs in the dvb-apps package for details and channel config  
files.  I am using the QAM/Cable channel frequency configs here.


  - azap -r C79 -c QAM_Channels.conf
- this should output lines showing "FE_HAS_LOCK", like the  
following:
status 1f | signal ffa2 | snr  | ber  | unc  |  
FE_HAS_LOCK


  - Leave azap running, and in another terminal run "dvbtraffic", it  
should show information about the PIDs seen in the transport stream  
on that channel.


--- Once you've confirmed that the card is functioning correctly, go  
on to the MythTV setup.


- Install MySQL, set to run on system startup, set root password
  - Follow mysql setup:  http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv- 
HOWTO-6.html  ( Install MySQL, start server, set admin account and  
define password, input the MythTV schema with  mc.sql, set basic  
access privilegs so MythTV can talk to database)
  - Setting root password is not covered in the MythTV document,  
MySQl docs cover this: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/default- 
privileges.html


- Install MythTV.   Most Linux distro's will have a recent version  
available via their package manager.   Depending on the build options  
used to create the available package, it may or may not have all the  
necessary options (DVB support is needed,  XvMC support is useful,  
etc.).
  - I used subversion (svn) to grab the latest development snapshot  
( see http://cvs.mythtv.org/ ), or grab a tar file of the source for  
the current stable version from mythtv.org
  - Use 'configure' to set up mythtv with needed options ( --enable- 
dvb --enable-xvmc --enable-lirc --enable-proc-opt --enable-opengl- 
vsync  )

 - make
 - make install


Run mythtv-setup

Basic Setup:
- entered mysql user/passwd defined above
- Backend setup, ATSC TV Format  us-cable frequencies

Capture Card Setup:
  Type: DVB
(Should show card 0 as DViCO FusionHDTV 3 Gold-Q -- or similar)

Video Sources:
  Name video source and input zap2it account information.   Retrieve  
Lineups


Input Connections:
  Select Video source defined above.
  Set "Starting Channel" to a known valid channel you receive.  If  
MythTV starts up and cannot tune a channel, it doesn't react well.


Scan for Channels.
  First, select an ATSC scan, to scan for OTA/8VSB channels (even if  
you're using QAM / Cable --- (Is this still necessary?))


Then, do a QAM scan, which should result in more channels found.  If  
your cable company is broadcasting the PSIP channel data, the  
channels should be automatically detected.  For channels without PSIP  
data, you will need to manually edit the channel data (in the mysql  
database) to enable those channels. 
   
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Re: [mythtv-users] Widescreen TV thumbnail view in program guide is not centered

[Todd Ignasiak]

Thanks.I am using the svn version from a few days ago, but I'll
grab the latest now.

On 7/20/05, John Clabaugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 7/20/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I initially used the default theme.  Then, I switched to Minimalist-wide.
> >
> >
> > On 7/20/05, John Clabaugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > On 7/20/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > I am receiving HDTV channels in my MythTV system (tried both 0.18 and 
> > > > svn).
> > > >
> > > > When I go to the program guide, while viewing live TV, the small
> > > > window showing the current program does not properly display 16:9
> > > > video most of the time.  Most of the time, the video is shifted to the
> > > > right, cutting off much of the image.
> > > >
> > > > I think it worked correctly at least part of the time when I first set
> > > > it up.  But, now it always shows up distorted.
> > > >
> > > > Is there some setting I'm missing?
> > > > ___
> > > > mythtv-users mailing list
> > > > mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> > > > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> > > >
> > > Which theme are you using?
> > > ___
> > > mythtv-users mailing list
> > > mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> > > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> > >
> >
> There is currently quite a bit of work being done to tweak the
> Minimalist-wide theme.  If you want, you can grab the latest version
> from svn to try it out.
> ___
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] Widescreen TV thumbnail view in program guide is not centered

[Todd Ignasiak]

I initially used the default theme.  Then, I switched to Minimalist-wide.


On 7/20/05, John Clabaugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 7/20/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I am receiving HDTV channels in my MythTV system (tried both 0.18 and svn).
> >
> > When I go to the program guide, while viewing live TV, the small
> > window showing the current program does not properly display 16:9
> > video most of the time.  Most of the time, the video is shifted to the
> > right, cutting off much of the image.
> >
> > I think it worked correctly at least part of the time when I first set
> > it up.  But, now it always shows up distorted.
> >
> > Is there some setting I'm missing?
> > ___
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
> Which theme are you using?
> ___
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[mythtv-users] Widescreen TV thumbnail view in program guide is not centered

[Todd Ignasiak]

I am receiving HDTV channels in my MythTV system (tried both 0.18 and svn).  

When I go to the program guide, while viewing live TV, the small
window showing the current program does not properly display 16:9
video most of the time.  Most of the time, the video is shifted to the
right, cutting off much of the image.

I think it worked correctly at least part of the time when I first set
it up.  But, now it always shows up distorted.

Is there some setting I'm missing?
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Re: [mythtv-users] Myth tv ready for FC-4 ?

[Todd Ignasiak]

Do Fedora Core 4 users notice any difference in decoding performance
(especially for HD material)?   I believe they jumped to gcc 4.0 in
FC4, which is supposed to produce code that performs below that
produced by gcc 3.4.

Bonus points:  How about FC3/FC4 differences in x86-64 systems?

On 7/20/05, Todd Bailey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> thanks,
> 
> I'll give it a try
> 
> - Original Message -
> From: "Matt Goebel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Discussion about mythtv" 
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 11:09 AM
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Myth tv ready for FC-4 ?
> 
> 
> > I've got Mythtv up and running on FC4.  There's nothing special to do...
> > Setup is 100% identical to that of FC3 if you use Jarod's Fedora+Myth
> > howto.
> > The only "special" thing I had to do was specify the atrpm-testing branch,
> > since when I set things up two weeks ago there weren't any stable rpms.
> > Now they all appear to be in stable too.  Check the drivers for your
> > hardware and see if those are available.  I have all PVR250's (ivtv).
> >
> >> OK, once again, and right on schedule fc-3 is corrupted beyond anything
> >> but
> >> a full reinstall.
> >> I am wondering since fc-4 had been out for a while I might as well burn
> >> the
> >> cd's and upgrade to the latest.
> >> Is myth fc4 ready, meaning it will install what it's needs to run or will
> >> I
> >> have to recompile a fair bit of code to get a install completed?
> >> Any gotchas to avoid ?
> >>
> >> tia
> >>
> >> ___
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> >> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> >> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > ___
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> > mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> 
> ___
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> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] HD

[Todd Ignasiak]

On 7/20/05, Ted Healey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I finally got my pcHDTV3000 running.
> 
> 1) Although my CPU never gets above like 93% in live tv, i get
> stuttering with the Prebuffering pause message. I tried chmod +s on
> the frontend, moved the pause files location to my fastest disk,
> ensured DMA was on, no dice.
> 
> At some point I will buy a new motherboard and CPU I guess. Although I
> would've thought the CPU would be pegged, so I am not totally sure
> that's it. It's an XP 2000+ I believe.

I'm not sure that it's a CPU power issue.   I see this on my MythTV
system I just set up (Athlon64 3200+, NVidia FX5200 with XvMC,
dedicated drive for ringbuf in DMA mode, etc..).   I get the
prebuffering pause messages sporadically.   Sometimes I get stutters
on one channel, but not on others.  At this point, I'm not really
sure what is the trigger for the stuttering.

When my video is running smoothly, I can do many other things on the
system, without impacting the video.   A couple days ago, I had an HD
program playing via Live TV, and was ssh'd into the system and
compiling the Qt libraries.  The video was flawless, no glitches,
pauses, etc..

> 2) So I enabled XvMC, which works pretty well. The OSD gets all
> garbled and painted wrong but that is preferable to the stutter. I've
> read that the image is worse with xvmc turned on but it looks pretty
> good to me and it seems stable so far.

I still occasionally get the stutter with XvMC.I don't know about
differences in image quality.
 
> 3) I am still fixing the channels, it looks like I wound up with one
> full set with no frequencies but valid xmltvids (from zap2it i guess)
> and another set that must've come from the automatic scan in
> mythtv-setup. hopefully i can merge the two, is that what is supposed
> to happen?

The same thing happened to me.   I ended up modifying MythWeb, to add
the attributes for xmltvid, mplexid, atscsrcid, etc. Then, I
combined the fields into one entry for each channel, with all the
necessary data.   I also used this to add some channels that my cable
system carried without PSIP data, so they were not found in the
channel scan.

 
> Thanks
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Re: [mythtv-users] OT: Indoor OTA HDTV Antenna Recommendations

[Todd Ignasiak]

First, find out what frequencies your digital TV stations are one. 
Many areas have only UHF broadcasts (14-69), which uses a different
antenna type than VHF (2-13).Also, if all your stations are
broadcast from one location, a highly directional antenna (like the
Silver Sensor) will work well. For me,  the Radio Shack Double
Bowtie UHF antenna worked much better than any other I tried (it's
available in their catalog, but not in stores without a special order.
  It's less than $20).

Even in a city/apartment, some outdoor antennas may be usable.   In an
apartment I lived in, I used the ChannelMaster 4228 on my balcony. 
It's a 4 bay bowtie antenna, and it's very flat,  so I just tacked it
to the wall.   The "squareshooter" may also fall into this category.


But, in a city center with big buildings, there are a lot of
variables.  Dead spots or multipath from surrounding buildings can be
challenging.I would first try a few cheap indoor antennas from
stores with good return policies, hopefully you'll be able to get a
bunch of channels easily since your so close to the transmissions.




On 7/20/05, al <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a good indoor OTA HDTV antenna?
> 
> According to antennaweb.org, I live ~6.2 miles from a bunch of OTA
> stations (center city Philadelphia). I'm on the 10th floor of an
> apartment building, so an outdoor antenna is not an option.
> 
> Are these Terk models any good?
> 
> http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=terk+antenna+hdtv&pid=4694681141821754546
> 
> --
> Biostar M7NCG 400
> AMD Athlon XP 2000
> PVR 350
> HD 3000
> nVidia GeForce4 MX 440
> S-vid out to SD TV
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Re: [mythtv-users] Live & Recorded TV hangs & failures on amd64

[Todd Ignasiak]

There is a known problem with pthreads in Debian based AMD64 systems. 
I have installed the patch, and I no longer get the black screen /
failed live-tv viewing.   Here is a link with some more info, and a
MythTV patch to work around it:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64/2005/03/msg00940.html


Based on all the search hits I got on this issue, I know it has
frustrated others, and I certainly spent a lot of time diagnosing it. 
  It would be nice to have some sort of method to help people with
these, and other, known issues.   Such as:  a support
document/database listing issues per platform;  A check in 'configure'
that does a "if arch=athlon64 and distro=debian then warn user about
problem he will definitely have but is hard to solve"; or some
#ifdef's in the code to incorporate the workaround for the problem
cases.


On 7/16/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I am seeing very similar behavior on my Ubuntu x86-64 box (I sent a
> message about it yesterday).
> 
> I have around a 20% success rate for getting video when starting the
> front end and going to live tv.  Most of the time it just hangs in
> black screen.   The backend appears to be working, as I can view the
> video in the ringbuf using vlc or mplayer.   It's just the connection
> to the frontend that appears to be messed up.
> 
> I also googled a couple more reports of behavior like this with x86-64 boxes..
> 
> Other than this, MythTV has been excellent for me.
> 
> -Todd
> 
> On 7/15/05, jgmtfia Mr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I have setup a new amd64 3200+ with debian etch (testing) as a remote
> > frontend.  I am using the subversion trunk.  In general I am getting
> > very strange things happening.  I am using a 2.6.12 kernel.
> >
> > Some of the problems include, when selecting to watch live tv, myth
> > will hang on a black screen, and stay hung.  No verbose output, just
> > hangs.  Same problem with watching recordings.
> >
> > Some times it does produce verbose output:
> >
> > mythtv$ mythfrontend
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.326 New DB connection, total: 1
> > Total desktop width=1600, height=1200, numscreens=1
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.338 Running in a window
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.347 Using screen 0, 1600x1146 at 0,27
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.360 mythfrontend version: 0.19.20050712-1 www.mythtv.org
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.360 Enabled verbose msgs : important general
> > Total desktop width=1600, height=1200, numscreens=1
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.511 Running in a window
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.511 Using screen 0, 1600x1146 at 0,27
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.522 Switching to square mode (Iulius)
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.693 Joystick disabled.
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:20.750 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:22.166 New DB connection, total: 2
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:22.203 Connecting to backend server:
> > 192.168.2.24:6543 (try 1 of 5)
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:22.228 Attempting to change from None to WatchingLiveTV
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:22.239 Using protocol version 17
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:23.370 taking too long to be allowed to read..
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:42.367 StartPlayer() -- error
> > 2005-07-16 00:25:42.425 LiveTV not successfully started
> >
> > and then hangs on the black output screen.
> >
> > And some times it works:
> >
> > mythtv$ mythfrontend
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.489 New DB connection, total: 1
> > Total desktop width=1600, height=1200, numscreens=1
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.502 Running in a window
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.511 Using screen 0, 1600x1146 at 0,27
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.525 mythfrontend version: 0.19.20050712-1 www.mythtv.org
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.525 Enabled verbose msgs : important general
> > Total desktop width=1600, height=1200, numscreens=1
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.672 Running in a window
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.672 Using screen 0, 1600x1146 at 0,27
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.673 Switching to square mode (Iulius)
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.859 Joystick disabled.
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:42.907 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:44.016 New DB connection, total: 2
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:44.052 Connecting to backend server:
> > 192.168.2.24:6543 (try 1 of 5)
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:44.076 Attempting to change from None to WatchingLiveTV
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:44.087 Using protocol version 17
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:45.235 taking too long to be allowed to read..
> > 2005-07-16 00:26:47.278 Opening audio device 'default'.
> > X Error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes) 8
> >   Major opcode:  142
&g

Re: [mythtv-users] Reliability problems when switching to view live tv

[Todd Ignasiak]

This turned out to be a known problem with pthreads in Debian based
AMD64 systems.  Unfortunately, it took a lot of time to figure that
out..

Here is a link to an old mailing list entry describing the problem and
a patch to fix it:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64/2005/03/msg00940.html


On 7/16/05, Todd Ignasiak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thanks for the response.   I tried adding that line to my xorg.conf,
> but I still get the video problems.
> 
> I can always open the ringbuf file with vlc.  So, I know the data is
> there, and VLC can reliably open the video output. It seems like a
> communications problem between the frontend and backend.
> 
> On 7/15/05, Kim Wall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> >
> > > But, I have probably a 20% success rate in actually viewing live TV.
> > > Most of the time, I only get a blank screen and have to kill
> > > mythfrontend to get out of it.
> >
> > I believe this may be an issue with the nvidia driver...  I found that
> > adding:
> >
> > Option "RenderAccel" "off"
> >
> > to the device section of the XF68Config seemed to cure it.
> >
> >
> > kim.
> > ___
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> > mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] Linux Compatable USB dongles

[Todd Ignasiak]

The FusionHDTV card comes with a USB IR receiver and remote,  and
there are patches to make it work with Linux and lirc.

You can get the receiver+remote for $9 here:
https://www.digitalconnection.com/store/Product_Details.asp?ProductCode=DFREMOTE

Note:  I can't say how well it works in Linux..  I have the remote,
but haven't configured lirc to use it yet.

On 7/15/05, Bearcat M. Sandor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hey folks,
> 
> I'm looking to buy a little USB irda.  I had one at one point, but it was
> not operable with linux (i think it was a cisco chipset).
> 
> Does anyone know of some irds usb dongles that work well. Even if i only
> know what chipsets work, i should have plenty of choices.
> 
> Thanks all.
> 
> 
> 
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>
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Re: [mythtv-users] Reliability problems when switching to view live tv

[Todd Ignasiak]

Thanks for the response.   I tried adding that line to my xorg.conf,
but I still get the video problems.

I can always open the ringbuf file with vlc.  So, I know the data is
there, and VLC can reliably open the video output. It seems like a
communications problem between the frontend and backend.

On 7/15/05, Kim Wall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> 
> > But, I have probably a 20% success rate in actually viewing live TV.
> > Most of the time, I only get a blank screen and have to kill
> > mythfrontend to get out of it.
> 
> I believe this may be an issue with the nvidia driver...  I found that
> adding:
> 
> Option "RenderAccel" "off"
> 
> to the device section of the XF68Config seemed to cure it.
> 
> 
> kim.
> ___
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> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
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Re: [mythtv-users] Live & Recorded TV hangs & failures on amd64

[Todd Ignasiak]

I am seeing very similar behavior on my Ubuntu x86-64 box (I sent a
message about it yesterday).

I have around a 20% success rate for getting video when starting the
front end and going to live tv.  Most of the time it just hangs in
black screen.   The backend appears to be working, as I can view the
video in the ringbuf using vlc or mplayer.   It's just the connection
to the frontend that appears to be messed up.

I also googled a couple more reports of behavior like this with x86-64 boxes..

Other than this, MythTV has been excellent for me.

-Todd

On 7/15/05, jgmtfia Mr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have setup a new amd64 3200+ with debian etch (testing) as a remote
> frontend.  I am using the subversion trunk.  In general I am getting
> very strange things happening.  I am using a 2.6.12 kernel.
> 
> Some of the problems include, when selecting to watch live tv, myth
> will hang on a black screen, and stay hung.  No verbose output, just
> hangs.  Same problem with watching recordings.
> 
> Some times it does produce verbose output:
> 
> mythtv$ mythfrontend
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.326 New DB connection, total: 1
> Total desktop width=1600, height=1200, numscreens=1
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.338 Running in a window
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.347 Using screen 0, 1600x1146 at 0,27
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.360 mythfrontend version: 0.19.20050712-1 www.mythtv.org
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.360 Enabled verbose msgs : important general
> Total desktop width=1600, height=1200, numscreens=1
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.511 Running in a window
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.511 Using screen 0, 1600x1146 at 0,27
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.522 Switching to square mode (Iulius)
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.693 Joystick disabled.
> 2005-07-16 00:25:20.750 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
> 2005-07-16 00:25:22.166 New DB connection, total: 2
> 2005-07-16 00:25:22.203 Connecting to backend server:
> 192.168.2.24:6543 (try 1 of 5)
> 2005-07-16 00:25:22.228 Attempting to change from None to WatchingLiveTV
> 2005-07-16 00:25:22.239 Using protocol version 17
> 2005-07-16 00:25:23.370 taking too long to be allowed to read..
> 2005-07-16 00:25:42.367 StartPlayer() -- error
> 2005-07-16 00:25:42.425 LiveTV not successfully started
> 
> and then hangs on the black output screen.
> 
> And some times it works:
> 
> mythtv$ mythfrontend
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.489 New DB connection, total: 1
> Total desktop width=1600, height=1200, numscreens=1
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.502 Running in a window
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.511 Using screen 0, 1600x1146 at 0,27
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.525 mythfrontend version: 0.19.20050712-1 www.mythtv.org
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.525 Enabled verbose msgs : important general
> Total desktop width=1600, height=1200, numscreens=1
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.672 Running in a window
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.672 Using screen 0, 1600x1146 at 0,27
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.673 Switching to square mode (Iulius)
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.859 Joystick disabled.
> 2005-07-16 00:26:42.907 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
> 2005-07-16 00:26:44.016 New DB connection, total: 2
> 2005-07-16 00:26:44.052 Connecting to backend server:
> 192.168.2.24:6543 (try 1 of 5)
> 2005-07-16 00:26:44.076 Attempting to change from None to WatchingLiveTV
> 2005-07-16 00:26:44.087 Using protocol version 17
> 2005-07-16 00:26:45.235 taking too long to be allowed to read..
> 2005-07-16 00:26:47.278 Opening audio device 'default'.
> X Error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes) 8
>   Major opcode:  142
>   Minor opcode:  14
>   Resource id:  0x1cb
> 2005-07-16 00:26:47.316 Couldn't get the color key color, and we need it.
> You likely won't select(17, [3 4 5 10 16], [], [], {0, 0}) = 1 (in
> [5], left {0, 0})
> read(5, "\0", 1)= 1
> ioctl(3, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> select(17, [3 4 5 10 16], [], [], {0, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
> nanosleep({0, 1}, NULL) = 0
> ioctl(5, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> write(6, "\0", 1)   = 1
> ioctl(3, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> select(17, [3 4 5 10 16], [], [], {0, 0}) = 1 (in [5], left {0, 0})
> read(5, "\0", 1)= 1
> ioctl(5, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> write(6, "\0", 1)   = 1
> write(3, ";[EMAIL PROTECTED]@"..., 76) = 76
> ioctl(3, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> select(17, [3 4 5 10 16], [], [], {0, 0}) = 1 (in [5], left {0, 0})
> read(5, "\0", 1)= 1
> nanosleep({0, 1}, NULL) = 0
> ioctl(5, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> write(6, "\0", 1)   = 1
> ioctl(3, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> select(17, [3 4 5 10 16], [], [], {0, 0}) = 1 (in [5], left {0, 0})
> read(5, "\0", 1)= 1
> nanosleep({0, 1}, NULL) = 0
> ioctl(5, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> write(6, "\0", 1)   = 1
> ioctl(3, FIONREAD, [0]) = 0
> select(17, [3 4 5 10 16], [], [], {0, 0}) = 1 (in [5],

[mythtv-users] Reliability problems when switching to view live tv

[Todd Ignasiak]

I recently set up my first MythTV system (Linux-2.6.13-rc3, x86-64,
FusionHDTV card, Linux DVB interface, NVidia FX5200).  When it works,
it works great..  very impressive feature set.

But, I have probably a 20% success rate in actually viewing live TV. 
Most of the time, I only get a blank screen and have to kill
mythfrontend to get out of it.   I restart the frontend and backend
processes, and try it a few more times, eventually I will get lucky
and I will get the live TV stream.  When that happens, it usually
works fine from then on, until I exit live viewing and try to go back
again..

I think the card is providing data,  as the ringbuffer file is
growing, and I can even view the video in it with vlc or mplayer.


Is this typical of other HDTV implementations?From what I hear,
the DVB drivers for ATSC/QAM are relatively new,  could it be related
to the driver status (although, if that were the case, why would the
backend still be getting data)?

Any pointers are greatly appreciated.
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[mythtv-users] Overlay issues in file playback

[Todd Ignasiak]

I am seeing a problem when playing recorded files, where if I Alt-Tab
to another window like xterm, the box where the xterm window was is
now a black box in the video after switching back.So, if any other
window is shown on top of the video, I can't see the video in that
area any more.

Strangely, I don't see this effect at all when viewing live video.  I
can switch back and forth between windows without any problem. Is
anyone else seeing this?


My system info:
MythTV Version: latest svn snapshot from last night.  I also saw this
using 0.18.1
Linux/Kernel:  Ubuntu linux, x86-64,  kernel 2.6.13-rc2-mm1 (using
this version for a needed DVB driver)
Video:  NVidia FX5200, with Nvidia 1.0-7667 drivers.  I see this
effect both with XvMC on and off.
Card: FusionHDTV3 QAM, using DVB driver
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Re: [mythtv-users] De-interlacing on a non-interlaced display

[Todd Ignasiak]

(I'm a MythTV newbie,  so maybe I'm just missing something in the
config.  But, anyway, here is my observation so far.)

I have noticed similar issues on my ATSC / QAM MythTV box.   When
deinterlacing is on, I get weird effects on the OSD.  I also see
effects on progressive content (720p stations, like Fox-HD, ABC-HD,
and ESPN-HD).

I had assumed that the de-interlacing would adapt to the video source,
and turn off processing when doing progressive content.  Apparently
this is not the case,  but that would be an excellent feature
enhancement.

On 7/14/05, jason bright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I think this is a fact of life but just asking in case:
> 
> Does anybody else have problems with the de-interlacing messing up the OSD?
> 
> The story:  I have a DVB-T myth box connected up via DVI to a plasma
> screen. I almost never turn on the deinterlacing. Most of the time
> it's not needed [depending on the broadcast source].
> 
> Certain times there will be very bad/obvious interlacing issues.
> Usually with rolling credits, crawling news tickers, or for some
> reason The Simpsons really shows it..
> 
> In those cases I've tried the bob de-interlacing and it improves the
> image quality, but at the same time the on screen guide now becomes a
> flickery jittery mess.
> 
> Any body else see this? It's like the OSD is put through the
> deinterlacer instead of being added after.
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