[mythtv-users] Various Myth Setup Issues

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Thu Jun 9 08:06:14 UTC 2005


Jason Luttrell wrote:

>I've finally got Myth up and running now, but I have some questions on
>a few things that I need to tweak to make me happy with all of this. 
>FYI, I'm running a P4 2.4 GHz with 512 RAM and 2 PVR-150s on FC3.
>
>First, I have a blue line around the left and top parts of the picture.
>
>Secondly, no matter what settings I set in Myth setup, I can't seem to
>get the picture to fill the entire screen up.  My TV is a 6 month old
>Sanyo 27" flat screen.
>  
>
Fix 2, and it will fix 1.  Or, if you want to cover things up (i.e. fix 
the symptom--blue background showing through--instead of the 
problem--video output not properly sized for your screen), change the 
xv_colorkey (background color) to something blacker:

xvattr -a XV_COLORKEY -v 10

You could use 0 instead of 10, but 0 (black) is more likely to match 
where it shouldn't than "almost black."  You might need to install 
xvattr ( http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/downloads.shtml ).

You really should just fix the output, though.  It requires changes to 
your X-Windows modeline and/or to your video card's overscan 
settings--not changes to Myth setup.

>Third, the quality of the picture is not really great.  I've
>especially noticed on action sequences, such as sports on ESPN, that
>the picture slows a bit at times and pales in comparison to the
>picture I normally get with the TV.
>  
>
Poor match of resolution/bitrate.  See 
http://mythtv.info/moin.cgi/UserManual_2fTechnicalDetailsAppendix_2fRecordingParameters 
.

>The system also seems very slow to me to change channels, with a delay
>of about 5 seconds or so.
>  
>
That's the way it works.  Solution: don't change channels.  (Let Myth 
record those things you might want to watch, and you'll never need 
LiveTV again.)

>Also, when I record a program and play it back, it shows only the top
>left-hand quarter of the screen or so.  I've tried setting the NTSC
>settings for both tuners and still have this problem.  I do NOT have
>this problem watching live TV though.  I also get no audio on
>recordings, but again, I don't have this problem with live TV.
>  
>
Use 720x480 resolution.  If you really feel you need some lower 
resolution, try different versions of IvyTV.  Scaling is completely 
broken in many of them, but works in some (although I don't know for 
sure if they've gotten it working for PVR-150's--so your best bet is 
720x480).

Mike


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