Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD

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sharris at synthys

May 1, 2005, 11:18 AM

Post #1 of 20 (3598 views)
Permalink

Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD

I'm just livid. The wife is away and inspired by everyone else's WAF comments and the fact that Chris Kennedy has done an awesome
job lately of getting all the bugs worked out of the ivtv driver so there are no more freezes.....Fry's is 3 miles from my house, a
dangerous combo.

I purchased a new motherboard/cpu combo upgrading the AMD Athlon 1800+ to an Intel P4 2.4GHz. Spent about 4 hours getting it all
working again, verifying that I had basic MythTV system working before even trying the DVD. This morning I tried the DVD and still
the same error with mplayer "YOUR SYSTEM IS TOO SLOW TO PLAY THIS". Errrrr. I'm using a PVR-350 and of course don't have xvideo
available, so I've got to use -vo x11 on my mplayer. I'm trying ogle now, and while it hasn't completely died like mplayer there
are obvious frame drops. CPU load is fairly low, .5-.66, I would have expected it to be a lot more considering the cpu is having to
do all the decoding.

Can anyone offer any recommendations? I'm so close to having an awesome mythtv system, one that even the wife approves of, the only
thing lacking is DVD playback.

Thanks,

Scott

gravityhammer at gmail

May 1, 2005, 11:24 AM

Post #2 of 20 (3493 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

On 5/1/05, Scott Harris <sharris [at] synthys> wrote:
> I'm just livid. The wife is away and inspired by everyone else's WAF comments and the fact that Chris Kennedy has done an awesome
> job lately of getting all the bugs worked out of the ivtv driver so there are no more freezes.....Fry's is 3 miles from my house, a
> dangerous combo.
>
> I purchased a new motherboard/cpu combo upgrading the AMD Athlon 1800+ to an Intel P4 2.4GHz. Spent about 4 hours getting it all
> working again, verifying that I had basic MythTV system working before even trying the DVD. This morning I tried the DVD and still
> the same error with mplayer "YOUR SYSTEM IS TOO SLOW TO PLAY THIS". Errrrr. I'm using a PVR-350 and of course don't have xvideo
> available, so I've got to use -vo x11 on my mplayer. I'm trying ogle now, and while it hasn't completely died like mplayer there
> are obvious frame drops. CPU load is fairly low, .5-.66, I would have expected it to be a lot more considering the cpu is having to
> do all the decoding.
>
> Can anyone offer any recommendations? I'm so close to having an awesome mythtv system, one that even the wife approves of, the only
> thing lacking is DVD playback.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Scott

Have you tried using Xine? Also, is DMA active on your DVD-ROM?
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

sharris at synthys

May 1, 2005, 11:26 AM

Post #3 of 20 (3471 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

> is having to do all the decoding.
> >
> > Can anyone offer any recommendations? I'm so close to having an
> > awesome mythtv system, one that even the wife approves of,
> the only thing lacking is DVD playback.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Scott
>
> Have you tried using Xine? Also, is DMA active on your DVD-ROM?
>
>

Working on installing xine now, but the last time I tried with the older
CPU it was just as unreliable as mplayer.

Definitely have DMA on, on dvd and all HDDs.

[root [at] pv sharris]# /sbin/hdparm /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
HDIO_GET_MULTCOUNT failed: Invalid argument
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument

catfather at donpoo

May 1, 2005, 11:43 AM

Post #4 of 20 (3488 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

On 5/1/05, Scott Harris <sharris [at] synthys> wrote:
> I purchased a new motherboard/cpu combo upgrading the AMD Athlon
> 1800+ to an Intel P4 2.4GHz. Spent about 4 hours getting it all
> working again, verifying that I had basic MythTV system working
> before even trying the DVD. This morning I tried the DVD and still
> the same error with mplayer "YOUR SYSTEM IS TOO SLOW TO PLAY
> THIS". Errrrr. I'm using a PVR-350 and of course don't have xvideo
> available, so I've got to use -vo x11 on my mplayer. I'm trying
> ogle now, and while it hasn't completely died like mplayer there
> are obvious frame drops. CPU load is fairly low, .5-.66, I would
> have expected it to be a lot more considering the cpu is having to
> do all the decoding.

If you think Fry's is dangerous I would recommend you avoid any Apple
Store OS release party. Having just walked away with a new G5, a new
12" PowerBook, and fresh copies of Tiger I'm wondering where I left
my sanity last Friday. On the other hand, it's been a hell of a fun
geek-out-weekend.

Regarding your play back issue, most likely I would have to say it's
a DMA problem. You've got plenty of CPU to do what you want to and in
fact I use both xine and mplayer with a 16x DVD drive to get flawless
playback.

Another suggestion once you're 100% sure DMA isn't the issue. You
might try also to play a DVD w/o any audio just to see what happens.
Maybe the problem is more an issue with the way you're decoding the
sound which is causing mplayer to drop frames to keep the video and
audio in sync.

Lastly, try using mplayer and playing a DVD from a terminal outside
of MythTV. The nice verbose output of mplayer is great for
understanding the problem. I'm sure no one would mind you pasting
that to the list.

--
Scott <catfather [at] donpoo>
AIM: BlueCame1

ian at duckland

May 1, 2005, 12:01 PM

Post #5 of 20 (3483 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

On Sun, 2005-05-01 at 11:26 -0700, Scott Harris wrote:
> Definitely have DMA on, on dvd and all HDDs.
>
> [root [at] pv sharris]# /sbin/hdparm /dev/hdc
>
> /dev/hdc:
> HDIO_GET_MULTCOUNT failed: Invalid argument
> IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
> unmaskirq = 0 (off)
> using_dma = 1 (on)
> keepsettings = 0 (off)
> readonly = 0 (off)
> readahead = 256 (on)
> HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument

Hmm... you should probably do the following:

hdparm -c3 -u1 /dev/hdc

That'll set unmaskirq to on and set IO_support to 32-bit. That'll help.
Also, hook up a monitor and see if mplayer still complains. That'll
narrow down the problem to whether it's the 350, mplayer, or the drive.

-I

sharris at synthys

May 1, 2005, 2:45 PM

Post #6 of 20 (3472 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

>
> If you think Fry's is dangerous I would recommend you avoid
> any Apple Store OS release party. Having just walked away
> with a new G5, a new 12" PowerBook, and fresh copies of Tiger
> I'm wondering where I left my sanity last Friday. On the
> other hand, it's been a hell of a fun geek-out-weekend.

To try and fix this whole mess of not having xvideo support for
the pvr-350, I was willing to go to Costo and get the $1000 LCD
Tv that one of the other members recommended ;) We all know
who put a stop to that.

>
> Regarding your play back issue, most likely I would have to
> say it's a DMA problem. You've got plenty of CPU to do what
> you want to and in fact I use both xine and mplayer with a
> 16x DVD drive to get flawless playback.

My DVD drive is considerably older, maybe only 4-6X. I wonder
if that would hurt?

>
> Another suggestion once you're 100% sure DMA isn't the issue.
> You might try also to play a DVD w/o any audio just to see
> what happens.
> Maybe the problem is more an issue with the way you're
> decoding the sound which is causing mplayer to drop frames to
> keep the video and audio in sync.

Playing without audio (-nosound) produced a similar picture to
all the other players, but the audio doesn't go out of sync now ;)
And there also isn't a single error, so you might be on to something
with the audio killing it.

>
> Lastly, try using mplayer and playing a DVD from a terminal
> outside of MythTV. The nice verbose output of mplayer is
> great for understanding the problem. I'm sure no one would
> mind you pasting that to the list.
>

Always use this trick when debugging, it extremely useful.
Below is my log file from my last mplayer attempt. The
audio goes out of sync after about 5 minutes and I get this error
Ogle and xine do better (especially ogle) but there is still some
frame dropping.

mplayer dvd:// -fs -zoom -vo x11
MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.4.3 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel Pentium 4/Xeon/Celeron Northwood (Family: 8, Stepping: 3)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1

Linux RTC init error in ioctl (rtc_irqp_set 1024): Permission denied
Try adding "echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq" to your system startupscripts.
Opening joystick device /dev/input/js0
Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0 : No such file or directory
Can't init input joystick
Setting up LIRC support...
mplayer: could not open config files /home/sharris/.lircrc and /etc/lircrc
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to read LIRC config file ~/.lircrc.
You will not be able to use your remote control.
Playing dvd://.
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.8 for DVD access
Reading disc structure, please wait...
There are 17 titles on this DVD.
There are 21 chapters in this DVD title.
There are 1 angles in this DVD title.

libdvdread: Attempting to retrieve all CSS keys
libdvdread: This can take a _long_ time, please be patient

libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.VOB at 0x0000012f
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_0.VOB at 0x000004ba
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB at 0x0000052a
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_02_1.VOB at 0x0000053f
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_03_1.VOB at 0x000014ec
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_04_0.VOB at 0x00002245
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_04_1.VOB at 0x00011a67
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_05_1.VOB at 0x001d4e2a
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Get key for /VIDEO_TS/VTS_06_1.VOB at 0x001fddc1
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
libdvdread: Found 6 VTS's
libdvdread: Elapsed time 0
DVD successfully opened.
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO: MPEG2 720x480 (aspect 2) 29.970 fps 9800.0 kbps (1225.0 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52
Using SSE optimized IMDCT transform
AC3: 5.1 (3f+2r+lfe) 48000 Hz 448.0 kbit/s
Using MMX optimized resampler
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 448.0 kbit/29.17% (ratio: 56000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [a52] afm:liba52 (AC3-liba52)
==========================================================================
vo: X11 running at 720x480 with depth 24 and 32 bpp (":0.0" => local display)
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred csp: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
VDecoder init failed :(
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm:libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
==========================================================================
Checking audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/s16le -> 48000Hz/2ch/s16le...
AF_pre: 48000Hz/2ch/s16le
alsa-init: 1 soundcard found, using: default
alsa: 48000 Hz/2 channels/4 bpf/65536 bytes buffer/Signed 16 bit Little Endian
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bps)
Building audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/s16le -> 48000Hz/2ch/s16le...
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred csp: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [x11] 720x480 => 720x540 Planar YV12 [fs] [zoom]
SwScaler: using unscaled Planar YV12 -> BGRA special converter
A: 1.0 V: 0.6 A-V: 0.372 ct: 0.040 16/ 13 ??% ??% ??,?% 10 0
demux_mpg: 24000/1001fps progressive NTSC content detected, switching framerate.
A: 25.5 V: 25.0 A-V: 0.475 ct: 2.479 601/598 16% 81% 2.1% 573 0

************************************************
**** Your system is too SLOW to play this! ****
************************************************

Possible reasons, problems, workarounds:
- Most common: broken/buggy _audio_ driver
- Try -ao sdl or use the OSS emulation of ALSA.
- Experiment with different values for -autosync, 30 is a good start.
- Slow video output
- Try a different -vo driver (-vo help for a list) or try -framedrop!
- Slow CPU
- Don't try to play a big DVD/DivX on a slow CPU! Try -hardframedrop.
- Broken file
- Try various combinations of -nobps -ni -forceidx -mc 0.
- Slow media (NFS/SMB mounts, DVD, VCD etc)
- Try -cache 8192.
- Are you using -cache to play a non-interleaved AVI file?
- Try -nocache.
Read DOCS/HTML/en/video.html for tuning/speedup tips.
If none of this helps you, read DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports.html.

alsa-play: xrun of at least 149.021 msecs. resetting stream 3.3% 1139 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 352.024 msecs. resetting stream 4.2% 1178 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 5.892 msecs. resetting stream% 5.5% 1179 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 71.105 msecs. resetting stream 5.7% 1242 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 89.936 msecs. resetting stream 6.4% 1256 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 25.266 msecs. resetting stream 7.2% 1257 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 390.148 msecs. resetting stream 7.3% 1268 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 6.871 msecs. resetting stream% 8.6% 1269 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 199.229 msecs. resetting stream 7.5% 2012 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 39.620 msecs. resetting stream 8.0% 2030 0
alsa-play: xrun of at least 3025.447 msecs. resetting stream8.4% 2055 0
alsa-uninit: pcm closed 4.425 ct: 8.702 2093/2090 15% 81% 12.2% 2056 0

Exiting... (Quit)

sharris at synthys

May 1, 2005, 3:01 PM

Post #7 of 20 (3481 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

>
> Hmm... you should probably do the following:
>
> hdparm -c3 -u1 /dev/hdc
>
> That'll set unmaskirq to on and set IO_support to 32-bit.
> That'll help.

I added this to my rc.local so it will set it each time, thanks.

> Also, hook up a monitor and see if mplayer still complains.
> That'll narrow down the problem to whether it's the 350,
> mplayer, or the drive.
>

Via a monitor mplayer, xine and ogle all look great. Sound
doesn't get out of sync with mplayer. I've used the following
commands to test both from the 350 and from the monitor:

ogle -u cli /dev/dvd
mplayer dvd:// -fs -zoom -vo x11
xine -f -I -V xshm --audio-driver alsa --no-logo --no-splash dvd://

I've tried various settings on mplayer and xine (still messing with
Xine a bit as I've not used it as much). With mplayer I've tried
-ao oss etc, -ni, and of course framedrop, which helps but then you
get dropped frames.

sharris at synthys

May 2, 2005, 8:52 AM

Post #8 of 20 (3481 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

>
> I purchased a new motherboard/cpu combo upgrading the AMD
> Athlon 1800+ to an Intel P4 2.4GHz. Spent about 4 hours
> getting it all working again, verifying that I had basic
> MythTV system working before even trying the DVD. This
> morning I tried the DVD and still the same error with mplayer
> "YOUR SYSTEM IS TOO SLOW TO PLAY THIS". Errrrr. I'm using a
> PVR-350 and of course don't have xvideo available, so I've
> got to use -vo x11 on my mplayer. I'm trying ogle now, and
> while it hasn't completely died like mplayer there are
> obvious frame drops. CPU load is fairly low, .5-.66, I would
> have expected it to be a lot more considering the cpu is
> having to do all the decoding.
>
> Can anyone offer any recommendations? I'm so close to having
> an awesome mythtv system, one that even the wife approves of,
> the only thing lacking is DVD playback.
>

Well I've spent some more time playing with various settings on
Xine and mplayer without much luck. Xine certainly seems to be
working the best but last night I ripped a dvd and then let Xine
play it and then went to bed. I awoke to the usual "too many frames"
dropped from Xine.

I'm using this command for xine:
xine -f -I -V xshm --audio-driver alsa --no-logo --no-splash dvd://

One thing that was recommended was to try different -V settings.
>From my xine --help I see I have these installed:

-V, --video-driver <drv> Select video driver by id. Available drivers:
dxr3 aadxr3 xv opengl caca xshm aa none xxmc
sdl vidix vidixfb fb xvmc

How does one know which is the best choice for video driver aside from just
trying them all?
Is there a matrix some place?

Thanks for everyone's help.

knowledgejunkie at gmail

May 2, 2005, 9:47 AM

Post #9 of 20 (3461 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

On 5/2/05, Scott Harris <sharris [at] synthys> wrote:
>
>
> >
> > I purchased a new motherboard/cpu combo upgrading the AMD
> > Athlon 1800+ to an Intel P4 2.4GHz. Spent about 4 hours
> > getting it all working again, verifying that I had basic
> > MythTV system working before even trying the DVD. This
> > morning I tried the DVD and still the same error with mplayer
> > "YOUR SYSTEM IS TOO SLOW TO PLAY THIS". Errrrr. I'm using a
> > PVR-350 and of course don't have xvideo available, so I've
> > got to use -vo x11 on my mplayer. I'm trying ogle now, and
> > while it hasn't completely died like mplayer there are
> > obvious frame drops. CPU load is fairly low, .5-.66, I would
> > have expected it to be a lot more considering the cpu is
> > having to do all the decoding.
> >
> > Can anyone offer any recommendations? I'm so close to having
> > an awesome mythtv system, one that even the wife approves of,
> > the only thing lacking is DVD playback.
> >
>
> Well I've spent some more time playing with various settings on
> Xine and mplayer without much luck. Xine certainly seems to be
> working the best but last night I ripped a dvd and then let Xine
> play it and then went to bed. I awoke to the usual "too many frames"
> dropped from Xine.
>
> I'm using this command for xine:
> xine -f -I -V xshm --audio-driver alsa --no-logo --no-splash dvd://
>
> One thing that was recommended was to try different -V settings.
> >From my xine --help I see I have these installed:
>
> -V, --video-driver <drv> Select video driver by id. Available drivers:
> dxr3 aadxr3 xv opengl caca xshm aa none xxmc
> sdl vidix vidixfb fb xvmc
>
> How does one know which is the best choice for video driver aside from just
> trying them all?
> Is there a matrix some place?

Scott,

Which driver you use is dictated by the video card being used, and the
capabilities of the driver for that card. You will not use all of
these drivers (that xine supports) with all cards. I would suggest
using x11 and xshm for non-acclerated cards, and xv for accelerated
cards (or xvmc if the driver supports that).

Having read this thread, I am assuming that your video card does not
have TV-Out support, or that it does and you are not happy with it..
When I originally installed my system last year after months of
lurking in the various mailing lists, I tried to get everything
working over the PVR-350 card. Live TV and recorded program played
perfectly (in terms of quality, but not system speed), but I had
problems playing back DVDs and virtually all DivX and XVid video files
with MythVideo because of the missing acceleration in the ivtv X
driver..

My other big problem was the the TVout support for my video card
(integrated Radeon 9100IGP) was nonexistent except for a binary hack a
determined user had come up with for an old version of the driver.
Couple of weeks back ATI released their latest driver and another hack
was crafted to again get working TVout for the 9100 card, so I gave it
a whirl.

I decided to bite the bullet finally and go for *what works today*.
Using the TVout of the video card and not the PVR-350 (on a celeron D
2.4G/512MB system) everything came alive after I had moved away from
the ivtv non-accelerated X driver. Playback of video and seeking
within myth is now *much* snappier. The system actually responds
instantly unlike before when seeking ahead in recordings could take
30s or more. Mythvideo now plays all videos perfectly (using xv and
alsa) and no problems yet with mythDVD either.

This has also finally got the WAF sorted out - as a nerd is was cool
to be able to use the 350 for all output, but as >50% of the time the
system is used for non live/recorded-mythtv is was severely hampering
its usefulness. Now I have a fully functioning myth box that does
everything I want it to and no more nagging *why doesn't this work*
...

I'm still hoping the ivtv X driver will get xv support at some point
in the future after Hauppauge reveal more of their secrets and will
get it going again if this is the case, but at the moment I am more
happy to have everything working and no more stress *trying* to get it
to work using solely the 350 output.

The 'third way' is to run mythtv over your video card's tv-out and
employ the decoder on the 350 for live tv and recordings via another
connection to your TV\VCR. This will then give top notch playback
quality of TV through the 350, and accelerated playback of everything
else via your video card.

HTH,
Nick
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

sharris at synthys

May 2, 2005, 10:13 AM

Post #10 of 20 (3473 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

>
> Scott,
>
> Which driver you use is dictated by the video card being
> used, and the capabilities of the driver for that card. You
> will not use all of these drivers (that xine supports) with
> all cards. I would suggest using x11 and xshm for
> non-acclerated cards, and xv for accelerated cards (or xvmc
> if the driver supports that).
>
> Having read this thread, I am assuming that your video card
> does not have TV-Out support, or that it does and you are not
> happy with it..
> When I originally installed my system last year after months
> of lurking in the various mailing lists, I tried to get
> everything working over the PVR-350 card. Live TV and
> recorded program played perfectly (in terms of quality, but
> not system speed), but I had problems playing back DVDs and
> virtually all DivX and XVid video files with MythVideo
> because of the missing acceleration in the ivtv X driver..
>
> My other big problem was the the TVout support for my video
> card (integrated Radeon 9100IGP) was nonexistent except for a
> binary hack a determined user had come up with for an old
> version of the driver.
> Couple of weeks back ATI released their latest driver and
> another hack was crafted to again get working TVout for the
> 9100 card, so I gave it a whirl.
>
> I decided to bite the bullet finally and go for *what works today*.
> Using the TVout of the video card and not the PVR-350 (on a
> celeron D 2.4G/512MB system) everything came alive after I
> had moved away from the ivtv non-accelerated X driver.
> Playback of video and seeking within myth is now *much*
> snappier. The system actually responds instantly unlike
> before when seeking ahead in recordings could take 30s or
> more. Mythvideo now plays all videos perfectly (using xv and
> alsa) and no problems yet with mythDVD either.
>
> This has also finally got the WAF sorted out - as a nerd is
> was cool to be able to use the 350 for all output, but as
> >50% of the time the system is used for non
> live/recorded-mythtv is was severely hampering its
> usefulness. Now I have a fully functioning myth box that does
> everything I want it to and no more nagging *why doesn't this
> work* ...
>
> I'm still hoping the ivtv X driver will get xv support at
> some point in the future after Hauppauge reveal more of their
> secrets and will get it going again if this is the case, but
> at the moment I am more happy to have everything working and
> no more stress *trying* to get it to work using solely the 350 output.
>
> The 'third way' is to run mythtv over your video card's
> tv-out and employ the decoder on the 350 for live tv and
> recordings via another connection to your TV\VCR. This will
> then give top notch playback quality of TV through the 350,
> and accelerated playback of everything else via your video card.
>
> HTH,
> Nick

Nick, this is awesome info, thanks. You are 100% correct that my video
card doesn't not have a TV out connector. I've been stubbornly trying to
get all output to work from the PVR-350.

So I understand correctly, are you saying in your configuration you watch
all
live tv via the PVR-350 (in and out) and then any recorded programs use the
non-PVR-350 video card?

jm at jmason

May 2, 2005, 12:23 PM

Post #11 of 20 (3470 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

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Nick writes:
> The 'third way' is to run mythtv over your video card's
> tv-out and employ the decoder on the 350 for live tv and
> recordings via another connection to your TV\VCR. This will
> then give top notch playback quality of TV through the 350,
> and accelerated playback of everything else via your video card.

FWIW, that's what I've done. Seeing as I googled without luck, then
mailed here and garnered not a single followup ;), I presume it might be
useful to post the details -- see http://taint.org/wk/PvrDoubleTvOut .

Slight mod from what Nick describes, btw: I use the PVR-350 for the main
MythTV interface, live TV and TV recordings, but the onboard video solely
for non-TV playback of AVI files and other non-MPEG1/2 video.

- --j.
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knowledgejunkie at gmail

May 2, 2005, 12:44 PM

Post #12 of 20 (3474 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

On 5/2/05, Scott Harris <sharris [at] synthys> wrote:
>
> >
> > Scott,
> >
> > Which driver you use is dictated by the video card being
> > used, and the capabilities of the driver for that card. You
> > will not use all of these drivers (that xine supports) with
> > all cards. I would suggest using x11 and xshm for
> > non-acclerated cards, and xv for accelerated cards (or xvmc
> > if the driver supports that).
> >
> > Having read this thread, I am assuming that your video card
> > does not have TV-Out support, or that it does and you are not
> > happy with it..
> > When I originally installed my system last year after months
> > of lurking in the various mailing lists, I tried to get
> > everything working over the PVR-350 card. Live TV and
> > recorded program played perfectly (in terms of quality, but
> > not system speed), but I had problems playing back DVDs and
> > virtually all DivX and XVid video files with MythVideo
> > because of the missing acceleration in the ivtv X driver..
> >
> > My other big problem was the the TVout support for my video
> > card (integrated Radeon 9100IGP) was nonexistent except for a
> > binary hack a determined user had come up with for an old
> > version of the driver.
> > Couple of weeks back ATI released their latest driver and
> > another hack was crafted to again get working TVout for the
> > 9100 card, so I gave it a whirl.
> >
> > I decided to bite the bullet finally and go for *what works today*.
> > Using the TVout of the video card and not the PVR-350 (on a
> > celeron D 2.4G/512MB system) everything came alive after I
> > had moved away from the ivtv non-accelerated X driver.
> > Playback of video and seeking within myth is now *much*
> > snappier. The system actually responds instantly unlike
> > before when seeking ahead in recordings could take 30s or
> > more. Mythvideo now plays all videos perfectly (using xv and
> > alsa) and no problems yet with mythDVD either.
> >
> > This has also finally got the WAF sorted out - as a nerd is
> > was cool to be able to use the 350 for all output, but as
> > >50% of the time the system is used for non
> > live/recorded-mythtv is was severely hampering its
> > usefulness. Now I have a fully functioning myth box that does
> > everything I want it to and no more nagging *why doesn't this
> > work* ...
> >
> > I'm still hoping the ivtv X driver will get xv support at
> > some point in the future after Hauppauge reveal more of their
> > secrets and will get it going again if this is the case, but
> > at the moment I am more happy to have everything working and
> > no more stress *trying* to get it to work using solely the 350 output.
> >
> > The 'third way' is to run mythtv over your video card's
> > tv-out and employ the decoder on the 350 for live tv and
> > recordings via another connection to your TV\VCR. This will
> > then give top notch playback quality of TV through the 350,
> > and accelerated playback of everything else via your video card.
> >
> > HTH,
> > Nick
>
> Nick, this is awesome info, thanks. You are 100% correct that my video
> card doesn't not have a TV out connector. I've been stubbornly trying to
> get all output to work from the PVR-350.
>
> So I understand correctly, are you saying in your configuration you watch
> all
> live tv via the PVR-350 (in and out) and then any recorded programs use the
> non-PVR-350 video card?

Scott,

Current setup just uses the onboard TV-out for everything whilst I
sort out all my AV connections and decide what I think of the quality
compared to the 350. I'm also researching using a VGA to SCART adaptor
to get high quality RGB output from the VGA port instead of using the
S-Video TV out.

Most importanly, at the moment, everything works and although the 350
card was pricier than the 250, it offers excellent quality MPEG
decoding as well as the encoding, so I don't feel I've wasted money -
for a TV only system with slower and cooler CPU its the perfect card.

Nick
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

gaberubin at gmail

May 2, 2005, 12:51 PM

Post #13 of 20 (3474 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

How are people watching non mpeg2 media through their pvr-350s? I
assume I can't as I am using a via c3 processor, and this will never
be an option for me. However, I am going to be buying a HD set and
want to build another frontend that will handle everything. Is my
best bet for that not to use a 350, and just get a nice vid card that
handles dvi or component out to the monitor?
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

john.p.harvey at btinternet

May 2, 2005, 12:54 PM

Post #14 of 20 (3469 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

We are getting closer with the Xv support for the 350 so we might be able to
get reasonable performance for these other playback cases.
Not sure how quickly but I'm working on it in my spare time and its getting
really close now.

John

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv [mailto:mythtv-users-
> bounces [at] mythtv] On Behalf Of Nick
> Sent: 02 May 2005 20:45
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD
>
> On 5/2/05, Scott Harris <sharris [at] synthys> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Scott,
> > >
> > > Which driver you use is dictated by the video card being
> > > used, and the capabilities of the driver for that card. You
> > > will not use all of these drivers (that xine supports) with
> > > all cards. I would suggest using x11 and xshm for
> > > non-acclerated cards, and xv for accelerated cards (or xvmc
> > > if the driver supports that).
> > >
> > > Having read this thread, I am assuming that your video card
> > > does not have TV-Out support, or that it does and you are not
> > > happy with it..
> > > When I originally installed my system last year after months
> > > of lurking in the various mailing lists, I tried to get
> > > everything working over the PVR-350 card. Live TV and
> > > recorded program played perfectly (in terms of quality, but
> > > not system speed), but I had problems playing back DVDs and
> > > virtually all DivX and XVid video files with MythVideo
> > > because of the missing acceleration in the ivtv X driver..
> > >
> > > My other big problem was the the TVout support for my video
> > > card (integrated Radeon 9100IGP) was nonexistent except for a
> > > binary hack a determined user had come up with for an old
> > > version of the driver.
> > > Couple of weeks back ATI released their latest driver and
> > > another hack was crafted to again get working TVout for the
> > > 9100 card, so I gave it a whirl.
> > >
> > > I decided to bite the bullet finally and go for *what works today*.
> > > Using the TVout of the video card and not the PVR-350 (on a
> > > celeron D 2.4G/512MB system) everything came alive after I
> > > had moved away from the ivtv non-accelerated X driver.
> > > Playback of video and seeking within myth is now *much*
> > > snappier. The system actually responds instantly unlike
> > > before when seeking ahead in recordings could take 30s or
> > > more. Mythvideo now plays all videos perfectly (using xv and
> > > alsa) and no problems yet with mythDVD either.
> > >
> > > This has also finally got the WAF sorted out - as a nerd is
> > > was cool to be able to use the 350 for all output, but as
> > > >50% of the time the system is used for non
> > > live/recorded-mythtv is was severely hampering its
> > > usefulness. Now I have a fully functioning myth box that does
> > > everything I want it to and no more nagging *why doesn't this
> > > work* ...
> > >
> > > I'm still hoping the ivtv X driver will get xv support at
> > > some point in the future after Hauppauge reveal more of their
> > > secrets and will get it going again if this is the case, but
> > > at the moment I am more happy to have everything working and
> > > no more stress *trying* to get it to work using solely the 350 output.
> > >
> > > The 'third way' is to run mythtv over your video card's
> > > tv-out and employ the decoder on the 350 for live tv and
> > > recordings via another connection to your TV\VCR. This will
> > > then give top notch playback quality of TV through the 350,
> > > and accelerated playback of everything else via your video card.
> > >
> > > HTH,
> > > Nick
> >
> > Nick, this is awesome info, thanks. You are 100% correct that my video
> > card doesn't not have a TV out connector. I've been stubbornly trying
> to
> > get all output to work from the PVR-350.
> >
> > So I understand correctly, are you saying in your configuration you
> watch
> > all
> > live tv via the PVR-350 (in and out) and then any recorded programs use
> the
> > non-PVR-350 video card?
>
> Scott,
>
> Current setup just uses the onboard TV-out for everything whilst I
> sort out all my AV connections and decide what I think of the quality
> compared to the 350. I'm also researching using a VGA to SCART adaptor
> to get high quality RGB output from the VGA port instead of using the
> S-Video TV out.
>
> Most importanly, at the moment, everything works and although the 350
> card was pricier than the 250, it offers excellent quality MPEG
> decoding as well as the encoding, so I don't feel I've wasted money -
> for a TV only system with slower and cooler CPU its the perfect card.
>
> Nick
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

gaberubin at gmail

May 2, 2005, 12:57 PM

Post #15 of 20 (3462 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

On 5/2/05, John Harvey <john.p.harvey [at] btinternet> wrote:
> We are getting closer with the Xv support for the 350 so we might be able to
> get reasonable performance for these other playback cases.
> Not sure how quickly but I'm working on it in my spare time and its getting
> really close now.
>
> John

Does Xv support then rely on the CPU to do the heavy lifting, or does
the PVR have the ability to do it? My VIA C3 is rated at 1.2 ghz but
is really ~800 mhz. Is Xv not an option for a that type of system?
Excuse my ignorance on these issues.
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

kruland at sunflower

May 2, 2005, 1:05 PM

Post #16 of 20 (3474 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

Gabe,

You need to look into the unichrome drivers from
unichrome.sourceforge.net. These have support for some of the newer via
northbridges with S3 graphics.

Kevin

Gabe Rubin wrote:

>On 5/2/05, John Harvey <john.p.harvey [at] btinternet> wrote:
>
>
>>We are getting closer with the Xv support for the 350 so we might be able to
>>get reasonable performance for these other playback cases.
>>Not sure how quickly but I'm working on it in my spare time and its getting
>>really close now.
>>
>>John
>>
>>
>
>
>Does Xv support then rely on the CPU to do the heavy lifting, or does
>the PVR have the ability to do it? My VIA C3 is rated at 1.2 ghz but
>is really ~800 mhz. Is Xv not an option for a that type of system?
>Excuse my ignorance on these issues.
>_______________________________________________
>mythtv-users mailing list
>mythtv-users [at] mythtv
>http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
>
>

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

john.p.harvey at btinternet

May 2, 2005, 1:08 PM

Post #17 of 20 (3476 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

Some of the work will be reduced. The main difference is the data transfer
size. The YUV updates are ~1/3 of the data required to update a complete
RGBA frame and the 350 struggles to update the RGBA frame in a single frame
hence the claims from mplayer about systems being to slow since the graphics
card is not fast enough.
Also many compressed streams have the data in a compressed YUV format so you
don't have to generate the complete RGBA data from the yuv data before
transferring it to the graphics card. However the 350's YUV format is
different from most others so there is still some work to do but it is more
of a re-ordering and will use less memory than producing a full RGBA frame
so will probably be cheaper and provide better cache hits etc. but until
it's all working it will be hard to tell. Also the Xv layer in X should be
more efficient than writing through X and copying the data a few times so
this should also provide a cpu saving.
As to whether this is enough for a via C3 to run well I have no idea yet but
hopefully I can get something out in the next week or 2 to try.

John

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv [mailto:mythtv-users-
> bounces [at] mythtv] On Behalf Of Gabe Rubin
> Sent: 02 May 2005 20:57
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD
>
> On 5/2/05, John Harvey <john.p.harvey [at] btinternet> wrote:
> > We are getting closer with the Xv support for the 350 so we might be
> able to
> > get reasonable performance for these other playback cases.
> > Not sure how quickly but I'm working on it in my spare time and its
> getting
> > really close now.
> >
> > John
>
>
> Does Xv support then rely on the CPU to do the heavy lifting, or does
> the PVR have the ability to do it? My VIA C3 is rated at 1.2 ghz but
> is really ~800 mhz. Is Xv not an option for a that type of system?
> Excuse my ignorance on these issues.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

knowledgejunkie at gmail

May 2, 2005, 1:20 PM

Post #18 of 20 (3468 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

On 5/2/05, Gabe Rubin <gaberubin [at] gmail> wrote:
> On 5/2/05, John Harvey <john.p.harvey [at] btinternet> wrote:
> > We are getting closer with the Xv support for the 350 so we might be able to
> > get reasonable performance for these other playback cases.
> > Not sure how quickly but I'm working on it in my spare time and its getting
> > really close now.
> >
> > John

That's absolutely fantastic news John. Thanks for your and others'
continued hard work to help make this a reality.

>
> Does Xv support then rely on the CPU to do the heavy lifting, or does
> the PVR have the ability to do it? My VIA C3 is rated at 1.2 ghz but
> is really ~800 mhz. Is Xv not an option for a that type of system?
> Excuse my ignorance on these issues.

The xv/xvmc driver support takes the burden *off* the CPU and uses the
video card/GPU to do the hard work

The PVR-350 driver currently does not have xv support and as such
cannot do the accelerated resizing/colour space transformations and
other 'stuff' that is needed to be able to play back the other video
types (typically having sizes that do not match that of the 350
framebuffer) at full speed with no jumping/dropping of frames.

Nick
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

gaberubin at gmail

May 2, 2005, 1:22 PM

Post #19 of 20 (3475 views)
Permalink

Re: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

All i can say is WOW. If my mythbox has the ability to play more
stuff and potentially mame without upgrading hardware, I will be mucho
happy!!
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

sharris at synthys

May 2, 2005, 3:52 PM

Post #20 of 20 (3484 views)
Permalink

RE: Full system/CPU upgrade and still no DVD [In reply to]

I just wanted to thank everyone for all their input. I think I'll be
impatient and run to Fry's tonight and pick up a video card with TV out
(Wife is away for another 6 hours and I found one with a rebate in the
weekly circular). I'm certainly impatiently waiting for progress from John
;) but at worse case I'll have extra components for a 2nd frontend box.

Thanks again everyone.

Scott

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