[mythtv-users] OT: best ivtv version...?

[Stephen Tait]

At 18:19 30/08/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>If you want to record and playback TV, ivtv-0.1.9 (or 0.1.9a) work great 
>and are relatively stable.  If you want to use some of the other features 
>of the card (i.e. FM radio (depending on your card version), Wide-Screen 
>Signaling (WSS), Closed-Captioning support, VPS/PDS support, etc.--note 
>that these features are not yet supported in Myth with the PVR-x50's), you 
>will need to upgrade to one of the CK patches.

Mike, thanks for the info.

It looks like most of the changes (besides simpler configuration) are only 
applicable to you US/NTSC people, unless Closed Caption support includes 
teletext. Gah, looks like I need to join the ivtv list as well. Either that 
or I know alot less TV TLA's than I previously thought.


>>Does ivtv crap out any less? Do I need to rework any of my modules or 
>>anything?
>
>Let's just say, I'm using ivtv-0.1.10pre2-ck100b (100z is another good one 
>in that range, but I'm on 100b because I haven't had time to upgrade 
>lately) and I have to reboot my Dish Network receiver more often than my 
>Myth box.  (After about a month, the Dish receiver starts outputting a 
>signal with bad VBI signals that result in a greenish-blue translucent bar 
>taking up the middle 1/3 and bottom 2/3 of the captured video.)  YMMV.

YMMV indeed...! Sometimes ivtv lasts for about 2 weeks before it des on 
it's arse, sometimes it's dead straight after a reboot. However, like you 
say, it's something I can generally live with (apart from when it fubars up 
whilst recording Scrapheap challenge two weeks in a row, gah!). I think 
alot of my stability problems are due to my poor reception; I'm using an 
internal aerial, and have seen choppy MPEG's take down ivtv, mythfrontend 
and mythbackend in one fell swoop (even though I can play them back in 
mplayer/Xine/Media Player Classic without catastrophic interruption).


>My recommendation:  If you have a working system that's stable enough 
>(i.e. you can live with it the way it is), don't break it.  If you do 
>upgrade now, you'll be using code that varies from pre-alpha to beta 
>quality, and will probably have to spend some time on the IvyTV ML's to 
>keep up with issues and changes.
>
>If you aren't happy with your current setup, or if you want to play with 
>some of the new features, feel free to upgrade, but be prepared to spend 
>some time on it.
>
>HTH.
>
>Mike

Well, I accidentally upgraded my machine to the new ivtv patch version 
(haven't figured out how to exclude packages from an emerge -uv world yet), 
and everything broke (test_ioctl vanished, among other things), and in true 
comedic fashion I also tried to get lm_sensors working (in order to run 
with phpsysinfo), which overwrote my i2c_dev module with it's own 
incompatible version, which was even more fun! I think there's a patch 
available, but I didn't want to risk mucking things up again. Ah yes, 
here's to productive bank holiday weekend.

I think I'll join the ivtv mailing list and do a bit of reading before I 
attempt anything more drastic!