[mythtv-users] Mythtv playback quality poll

b.taber b.taber at comcast.net
Mon Jun 21 09:24:53 EDT 2004


I have not found "the HW decoder for EPIA boards in setup" that you
mention below. Maybe I've missed something?

Have you added cards (such as a PVR-350) to your system? I was trying to
avoid that expense for each frontend and instead to have the appropriate
number of tuners in a single or series of backends.

I'm trying to run an EPIA-M 10K with no other cards added. In other
words, using all the functionality built-in to the motherboard. There is
512KB memory in the system. I'm using CVS 0.15.20040528-1. It has the
CLEXF40043 video driver from VIA. The framebuffer driver has also been
tried without any noticeable difference. It's running ALSA-1.0.5 driver
for the audio.

My ultimate intention is to run it as a diskless frontend. It's
currently running with a small (6Gig) disk until I figure out the
problems.

I've been able to lessen the stuttering and jerky video by decreasing
resolution (480x480), audio bitrate, and selecting "Extra audio
buffering" in General playback TV settings. I've also tried using
another ethernet card in the PCI slot to move the IRQ away from the
video IRQ that happens when using the built-in functionality.

Doing all of this helps a bit as the cpu usage is showing around 90%.
However, both livetv & recording playback still pauses every second. I
am starting to run out of ideas other than choose a different
motherboard. I thought the EPIA card was okay since others have used it.
I didn't realize that most had tossed in an additional PVR-350 to the
system. I also thought the EPIA card would be better since my first
attempt at the MythTV is on a 733MHz (Via chipset) and works mostly okay
as a combination system.

Thanks for any additional hints to try,

Bruce 
On Sun, 2004-06-20 at 17:31, Kevin Barsby wrote:
> > I've been trying all sorts of different combinations of setups and
> > kernels to make this work correctly. The main problem is that any
> > viewing of videos or livetv is extremely jerky and has stuttering audio.
> > The cpu usage is running at 95-98% when the problems are noticed.
> 
> I found that I needed to set the HW decoder for EPIA boards in setup
> (Mythfrontend Setup), that made the TV picture much smoother.
> 




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