[mythtv-users] he shoots. he scores!

Tue Mar 30 18:13:55 EST 2004

Hello, Ivan.

There is 1 good reason to not use the TV-Out on the PVR-350 for all MythTV
applications.

Its framebuffer (i.e. that which is NOT displayed on /dev/video16) is so
painfully slow, it rivals the first Trident PCI video card ever made. :)
(It doesn't even seem to support XvMC extensions!)

This means it is painfully slow to play anything that is NOT encoded with
MPEG-2..

I have a PVR-350 in my MythTV box (athlon "2200+", which is the 1.8ghz
266fsb chip...) and if I just so happen to disable hardware decoding - and
just out to the framebuffer directly, its like watching TV in slow-motion.
(Meanwhile, the box is absolutely flogged.  load skyrockets.)

I've often thought of obtaining a decently fast video card with a TV-Out
on it - and using the PVR-350 like a PVR-250 and skip the hardware
decoding entirely..  That would allow me to have both a hardware encoder
and a dumb tv card in the box simultaneously. (I happen to have an extra
one those that I want to use - but cant, unless i buy a fast TV-Out card!)

MythTV can encode raw video data to MPEG-4 on the fly, not MPEG-2.  Which
means that ultimately, if you'd like to display video to a PVR-350 in a
reasonable manner, you'd have to transcode your MPEG-4 files into MPEG-2,
and THEN play them.

It'd be interesting if MythTV could support this in the future for PVR-350
users. i.e.  First encode taking data in from dumb capture card to MPEG-4
on the fly, then, mark it "unplayable pending transcode" in the program
list, transcode it to MPEG-II when spare cpu cycles are available (i.e.
renice the transcode process to +20), and then mark it "playable" when the
transcode is complete.  At least then we could play our movies recorded
from dumb capture cards - through the tv-out on our PVR-350! *lol*

Ah well. just thinking aloud.

Chad

> no problem.
>
> Regarding the TV-out quality, any reason you're using the epia-m9000 thingie
> instead of the PVR-350 (I assume you have one from the line "encoding with a
> 350")?
>
> Someone correct me, but the PVR-350 blows anything else clear out of the
> water.  In fact, I myself am using it and can say only good (make that very
> very good) words about it.
>
> If you're interested, have a look at:
>
> http://ivtv.writeme.ch/tiki-index.php?page=TvOutHowto (shameless plug
> here :-))
>
> and complement that with:
> http://ivtv.writeme.ch/tiki-index.php?page=TvOutPal (I'm assuming you're using
> PAL)
>
> Best of luck,
> IvanK.
>
>
> On Tuesday 30 March 2004 03:25 pm, Simon Kenyon wrote:
> > i stand corrected and i apologise
> > sorry ivan
> >
> > i just got a little triggered - i was on a total high
> > i now have tv-out working
> > it keeps getting better and better (apart from the picture quality - which
> > is "suboptimal"
> >
> > but then again i cheated and used the via binary library - now to go back
> > and build the open source one - hoping that it produces better quality --
> > simon
> >
> > On Tuesday 30 March 2004 21:20, Boyd II, Willy wrote:
> > > >-----Original Message-----
> > >
> > > From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> > >
> > > >[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org]
> > > >Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 12:50 PM
> > > >To: chepati at yahoo.com; Discussion about mythtv
> > > >Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] he shoots. he scores!
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >off topic
> > > >i think not
> > > >15 months of hard work - average of at least 1 hour a day
> > > >
> > > >unhelpful subject line - perhaps
> > > >but off topic!
> > > >no, not by a long shot
> > >
> > > I think he was merely stating that his own post (after the 'Offtopic
> > > warning'), was in fact off topic.
> > >
> > > >--
> > > >simon
> > > >
> > > >On Tuesday 30 March 2004 18:07, IvanK. wrote:
> > > >> Offtopic warning!!!
> > > >>
> > > >> Hah, I almost flagged this email as spam.  I mean, with a
> > > >
> > > >subject "he
> > > >
> > > >> shoots. he scores!" and first line "success! absobloodylutely
> > > >> fantastic" what could I expect? :-)))
> > > >>
> > > >> Good thing I caught a glimpse of epia-m9000 before the message was
> > > >> marked as spam...
> > > >>
> > > >> Perhaps better choice of words in the future? :-)
> > > >>
> > > >> IvanK.
> > > >>
> > > >> ps: at least the subject wasn't something like "|-|e sh()()ts.  he
> > > >> s<ores"
> > > >>
> > > >> :-)
> > > >>
> > > >> On Tuesday 30 March 2004 09:58 am, Simon Kenyon wrote:
> > > >> > success! absobloodylutely fantastic
> > > >> >
> > > >> > after 15 months of faffing around
> > > >> > hadware accelerated mpeg decoding on an epia-m9000
> > > >> > encoding with a 350
> > > >> > approx 50% cpu
> > > >> > only stutters when the osd fades out
> > > >> > wish the fade time was configurable
> > > >> > output on a monitor
> > > >> > sound coming out of the soundcard
> > > >> > volume control working
> > > >> > gentoo 2.6.4-r1
> > > >> >
> > > >> > on cloud nine for a few hours
> > > >> >
> > > >> > of course i'll come down with a bang when i try to get the
> > > >
> > > >sp/dif to
> > > >
> > > >> > work have it working on debian/2.4.25 - but can't get the volume
> > > >> > control to work
> > > >> >
> > > >> > thanks to all those who wrote and helped me get this to work
> > > >> >
> > > >> > --
> > > >> > simon
> > > >>
> > > >> _______________________________________________
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> > > >> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
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> > > >
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