[mythtv-users] MPEG-2, PVR-350 and DVD playing

[Michael T. Dean]

On 10/14/2004 10:14 AM, Andrew Plumb wrote:

>So, I've been doing a little reading (uh oh)...  Since DVD video is
>just a CSS-encrypted MPEG-2 (VOB) format, has anyone set up their
>PVR-350 based MythTV system to play DVDs by piping the data through a
>DeCSS app and directly to /dev/video16?
>  
>
Yes.  There's a patch for MPlayer to do that ( 
http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/Mar-2004/msg00135.html , 
http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/Sep-2004/msg00327.html ), and Kevin Thayer is 
currently working on a xine patch ( 
http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/Sep-2004/msg00570.html )--although the 0.2.0 
release is taking up a lot of his free time now, so it will probably be 
a while.  Note that MPlayer (with or without the patch) will *not* 
support menus.  Note also that there are pretty serious problems with 
the MPlayer patch--it works with some DVD's, but not others; there are 
a/v sync problems; and it's not very smooth playback--but "the picture 
quality is superb..."  ;)  Oh, the MPlayer patch works extremely well 
with streams recorded by the PVR-x50's, too.

>Not being able to play DVDs on my EPIA-based MythTV PVR is annoying,
>and the solution seems so simple...
>  
>
It is...  Don't use the PVR-350's TV out.  :)  (Don't know if that's a 
possibility with the EPIA's, but it was definitely the right solution 
for my Athlon-based system...)

I still don't understand how someone can consider the PVR-350 TV out 
"much better quality" than a good nVidia TV out when you have tearing 
problems, a lack of overscan control (both of which directly affect 
video quality), no OpenGL support, no Xv support, etc.  But, that's just 
my opinion.

Mike