[mythtv-users] Dual BT878 cards in Mandrake success

[Sean, Sharon and Kyle Harbour]

I finally got dual cards working in Mandrake.
A WinTV Go, and an Avermedia stereo. The Avermedia has really
noticeable interference from the slip fit connector, so it's probably
going to get replaced with another WinTV Go card.
I was having a heck of a time getting the alsa drivers in Mandrake
9.1 to cooperate with multiple stereo cards using the ES1371 driver.
I eventually got it working by installing Mandrake 9.2 RC2 and
compiling MythTv from CVS, using an an el cheapo Creative Labs 5880
(rebadged Ensonic 1371), and a Trident 4DX, with an old Mach64
RageII+DVD for tv out and the gatos dri patches for xv acceleration.
For some reason I still can't get analog sound from the Avermedia
card output to the line in on the Creative card, but the btaudio
drivers now seem to work decently with M 9.2., so it doesn't seem to
matter now. My 1200 Athlon is running right at 100% recording two
shows at 480x480 in mpeg4 at the default settings, so I'll bump up
the cpu to a 2000+ I have in another system and see if I can get the
occasional stutter to go away when the second card kicks in. I'll
probably need a little bit more to handle playback during double
recording though. So far, picture quality looks good, and the
annoying interlaced flicker effect from moving objects is almost
completely gone using the default settings, compared to the Myth .11
rpms on Mandrake 9.1. I'll try fine tuning the color balance and
audio and see how it goes.

Sean Harbour


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