[mythtv-users] Myth 0.14 - Version 1.0??

[J. Donavan Stanley]

Preface:  Neither my previous response nor this one should be considered 
a flame of any sort.

malcolm-mythtv wrote:

>On Sunday 08 February 2004 12:40 pm, J. Donavan Stanley wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>  
>
>>>I can't play back a DVD to the TV without it been super slow and jumpy.  I
>>>know this is not MythTV's fault but rather something to do with Xine /
>>>ivtv driver and using the PVR-350 out.  Anyhow my point is I can't watch
>>>DVDs yet
>>>      
>>>
>>Again a PVR350 issue.  Lost (most?) folks don't use a PVR350 with it's
>>TV out (for the exact reason you mentioned).
>>    
>>
>
>I though lots (most?) folks where using a PVR-350 because of the exceptional 
>TV out quality?  Maybe I just got that impression because I see so much talk 
>of the 350 on the board?
>
>  
>
You hear a lot about it, usually though it's of the sort "How do I get 
this working?".  The TV out for MPEG2 content with the 350 is 
fantastic.  However the drivers don't allow for anything beyond MPEG2 
with any sort of acceleration.  I, personally,  can't wait for the 
driver to mature beyond plain MPEG2 stuff so I can see what the TV 
quality really is on those cards.

There are a lot of folks who don't even use any sort of hardware MPEG card.

>>True, you can't transcode MPEG2 to MPEG2.  But I believe nuvexport
>>solves that problem for you.  Personally, I'd transcode to MPEG4 and put
>>3 or 4 movies on one disk instead of one per DVD.
>>    
>>
>
>But doesn't transcoding to MPEG4 defeat the purpose of having my PVR-350 card?  
>Now when I go to play the movie back is it not going to have  to do some sort 
>of software CPU intense playback?
>  
>
Well, yeah it will but only because of the driver.  I use a PVR250 for 
recording and a Geforce4 for my TV out.  A one hour show recorded at 
720x480 eats up about 900M for me, once I've marked my cutpoints and 
transcoded to MPEG4.  I could probably get that lower but I've not tried 
to tune my bit rates yet.

>>I'd be willing to bet this is a PVR350 issue as well.
>>    
>>
>
>Probably... but then again Myth 0.14 is the first release to support PIP with 
>a PVR-350 card so I didn't expect it to be perfect first time round.  
>Remember I wasn't complaining about Myth.  Just pointing out a few issues I'd 
>noticed and saying why I personally didn't think it should be released at 
>version 1.
>  
>

The point I was trying to make was that issues with the PVR350 aren't 
exactly show-stoppers or even benchmarks for evaluating Myth.  That's 
like saying a video game isn't ready for release because one video card 
vendors drivers for a specific video card has issues.  One simply cannot 
lay the blame on Myth for drivers.


>>It's on my main TV.  But then again 1) I don't use a PVR350 and 2) 
>>built a system from scratch specificly for MythTV using components I
>>knew would work and work well with Linux in general and Myth specificly.
>>    
>>
>
>I to built this particular box from scratch specifically for Myth.  I joined 
>this list before purchasing a thing and everyone was raving about the PVR-350 
>and good the TV out quality was.  So that's why I picked it.  Prior to this 
>list I'd never even heard of the PVR-350.  What TV out card are people using 
>that's stable?  How much of a quality loss are they taking?  I don't see how 
>a tremendous quality loss would be desirable?
>
>  
>
I thought the 350 was the greatest thing ever too at first.  Then a 
little reading in the list archives made it apparent that I wouldn't be 
able to use it for my archived DVDs or miscellaneous video files nor 
could I do any gaming with it.

I've been pleased with the output of my two geforce setups for video 
playback.  Though they have their own issues due to a lack real 
interlaced modes.  For video playback they're great, better than my Tivo 
is certainly.  I'm planning on evaluating Grandtechs VGA to NTSC cables 
and possibly looking into a Matrox G400.  I use a Chaintech 7NIF2 
motherboard that I bought based off of reading this list.  It's the only 
one I've seen that has the SVIDEO on the motherboard right in with all 
the other connectors that I've seen.  (Though end up having to use a 
bracket for SPDIF and your comports so it's a wash)


>>Then by all means TEST things.   When something goes wrong, try to
>>remember what is was you did that lead up to the problem.  Go back over
>>those steps and see if you can reproduce the same effect.  If it crashes
>>get a backtrace.
>>
>>When you post about a bug give details.  Post both the frontend and
>>backend logs from that time period.  Give the steps needed to reproduce
>>it.  Be DETAILED.
>>    
>>
>
>When I post errors I get I do indeed try and be as detailed as I can.  I'm not 
>sure what a backtrace is though?
>  
>

You create a backtrace by running the frontend / backend under gdb.  If/ 
when the app crashes you can type "backtrace" and get a dump of all the 
function calls leading up to the crash.  That, combined with some 
context can make the difference between a bug getting fixed within hours 
or a bug being missed for a LONG time.


>To sum up everything I pointed out probably most of my issues as you pointed 
>out are related to the pvr-350 and are probably more suited to ivtv driver 
>issues.
>  
>
My work here is done. ;)


>Please don't think I'm bashing Myth in anyway.  
>
I didn't think that, and I hope you don't think I was bashing you.  I 
was merely trying to get the point across that a lot of your problems 
weren't *myth* problems.