After spending quite some time investigating this issue, with the conclusion that changes in the way XvMC VLD is used in mythtv is the likely source of this problem. The fact that xine runs smoothly also indicates in this direction. The message "Unable to create XvMC Surface." is actually harmless in the way that mythtv uses it, but set me on the wrong foot completely.
I was trying to find out the differences in the way mythtv and xine use XvMC when pressure from the family forced me to revert to running the previous version (mythbuntu 7.10 on the backend --now unsupported -- and mythdora 4.0 on the frontend). Things I tried: 1. When upgrading the frontend to mythbuntu 7.10 (years ago) things didn't work smoothly, so back then I decided to use mythdora 4.0. Therefore I tried mythdora 10.21, but unfortunately this gave me the same kinds of errors. See http://www.mythdora.com/?q=node/4768. 2. Since by now I was convinced that this is a mythtv related problem, I asked some questions on the mythtv users mailing list http://www .gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/381950?#381950, http://www .gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/383536?#383536 with no final resolution. 3. I decided to file a bug report on mythtv, but that quickly went nowhere.http://cvs.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/6624 After this I threw in the towel. I'm still running mythbuntu 7.10 and mythdora 4.0, but I still would very much like to upgrade -- especially since 7.10 is now longer supported, making it impossible to install additional packages. ** Bug watch added: mythtv.org bug tracker #6624 http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/6624 -- [CLE266] [jaunty] Cannot create openchrome XvMC Surface in mythfrontend https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/371512 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs