[mythtv-users] Video Display card recommendation

[David Watkins]

> Ok, but how do I get all of MythTV on the video out of the PVR-350?
>
> In my (limited) understanding, I can see the MythTV menus on my
> desktop CRT monitor.  As soon as I select "Watch TV" then the
> desktop CRT monitor goes blank and the TV monitor displays the TV content.
>
> When I hit the "esc" key on the keyboard to stop watching TV then my
> TV monitor goes blank and the desktop CRT monitor comes back with
> the MythTV menus.
>
> So I am toggling between the (navigation) desktop CRT monitor and the
> (content) TV monitor.
>
> I just want all of it on the TV monitor.

Yes you can do that.  Jarod Wilson's guide has one of the best
descriptions of how to do it:

http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php?SID&expandables=closed&ivtv=open&pvr350out=open#video

Basically you install the ivtvdev driver and specify it in your
xorg.conf file, then when you start X all output (menus and video)
goes to the PVR's TV Out.

Minor issues are:

1)  You don't see the BIOS screen or linux boot messages on the TV output.
2)   The image is overscanned, which is correct for video but means
that the edges of the X desktop are lost.  The isn't a problem for the
mythtv menus, which can be tweaked to fit the available area, but can
be a problem outside myth where, for example, the kde taskbar might be
off-screen.
3)   I never found a way of getting a terminal available on the vga
monitor once X had started- although apparently this is feasible.  Not
a big problem for me as I never intended to leave the monitor
connected, but it was inconvenient while I was setting up.  I had to
ssh in remotely.

HTH