[mythtv-users] Sell mythtv "set-top" boxes

Ben Bucksch linux.news at bucksch.org
Tue Jun 3 14:05:15 EDT 2003


Mark Cooper wrote:

> Thanks for the 'constructive' critisim Ben!

Well, it wasn't meant as critisism at all, I just wanted to say that the 
"solution" Ray offered was none in my eyes. I am sorry, if I hurt you.

My problem was that it doesn't help me much that someone somewhere got a 
certain tuner card working, if he had to go through one week of pain and 
he doesn't tell me what he had to do nor that there was any problem at 
all, so I have to go through all the pain again. In fact, he might have 
another card with the same or a similar name, but different hardware or 
a completely different TV standard, so his experiences are not 
applicable to me at all. A newbie might not even know that, thinking 
"oh, that card works, I can savely buy it", while it's only the NTSC 
tuner that works and the PAL one is not supported under Linux at all.

I did mention concrete things I was missing in the database, from my 
memory (not being able to actually look at the site). With a bit more 
detail:

Info missing:

    * Country, video standard (PAL/NTSC etc.)
    * Backend only or frontend only or combined
    * How many tuners
    * Which *exact* model each, ideally including exact tuner model and
      purchase date, because the vendors change models without changing
      their name.
    * Video encoding bitrate
    * How good the encoded video is - are there framedrops, artifacts,
      lagging pictures, "half-pictures", in which circumstances (camera
      moves, dark scenes, 2 recordings at the same time, ...)
    * Similar for audio - noticable stereo, washed out or clear etc.
    * CPU load (give instructions how to determine it) per recording,
      for live tv. anything special, e.g. does it get worse out of
      proportion when they are combined, i.e. |cpuload(2 recordings and
      livetv) > 2 * cpuload(1recording) + cpuload(livetv)|?
    * TV model and type of connection/cables used
    * tv out settings - resolution/settings used, overlay, xfree config
    * How good the video output (tvout) is - overlay, sharpness,
      flickering, maybe deinterlacing and jitter, are the relevant
      features enabled in the frontend / driver?, anything odd like
      green borders
    * Similar for audio

For setup:

    * Which software was used - distro, drivers, xfree, mythtv, version
      of each
    * *Exact* drivers used (not just "Alsa", but which concrete driver,
      which version, which config)
    * Where to get the software (if non-obvious)
    * which config used (linux kernel config, modules.conf, xfree
      config, any other compile parameters, anything else in /etc/)
    * Time needed to get everything running
    * What had to be done, describing each step, esp. the non-obvious
      ones which took time to figure out
    * Satisfaction with config, with reasons. what the author would do,
      if he had to do it again -  would he buy the same card again?
      would did he do wrong during the setup?


> If anyone has any constructive suggestions, I'm happy to listen to them!! 

That's great. I didn't know that you're listening at all, much less 
willing to improve it.

> The amount of variables involved in ensuring two configs provide the 
> same 'satisfaction' is HUGE!! 

Maybe, but those variables would need to be captured or at least made 
explicit somehow somewhere. Isn't that exactly the point?



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