[mythtv-users] Epia EN12000 and MythTV

[R. G. Newbury]

shacky wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> I assembled my new Mini-ITX system based on a Via Epia EN12000 Fanless
> motherboard and I wish to use it as MythTV frontend only, because the
> backend is on another server connected in the LAN.
> Some weeks ago I used a frontend based on the Asus Pundit barebone and
> an Intel Celeron 2.4 GHz CPU with 512 Mb RAM and it worked well
> without any slow motion on live TV.
> Now I'm testing the new Epia system (it has a 1.2 GHz and 1 Gb RAM
> DDR2) but it is very very slow! The live TV shows very slow and the
> motion isn't fluid at all. The video is very very slow.
> I realized that the "mythfrontend" process takes 99.7% of the CPU.
> But I read that someone is using the EN12000 with MythTV without any
> problem and my reseller told that it is enough for a mediacenter
> system.
> I'm using Debian testing (lenny) as distro but I tested Knoppmyth and
> it has the same problem.
> 
> Anyone could help me please?

Where to begin?

Test: If you have xvmc running it should give you a glxgears figure 
somewhere under 1000...say about 800 with the 'gears' visible. If you 
cover the gears with another window, should just about double that number.

dmesg and glxinfo should tell you that dri is running and xvmc is set 
up. Read their reports carefully.

You need the openchrome video driver to get the most out of the 
hardware. Yes you need the openchrome driver. The via driver does not do 
some things which you need.

Then, you need xvmc and/or xvmc_vld
a) compiled into myth,
b) chosen in myth Setup (instead of Standard XvMC) and
c) set up proeprly and running in xorg,conf (including dri) A number of 
modules must be loaded by xorg.conf unlike some other drivers.

Missing any one of these will kill your progress.
It really helps to use SVN as you can be sure that all of the 
possibilities are properly dealt with and that the pre-requisites are 
installed (otherwise configure barfs!)


Go to the myth wiki and read the wiki page about XVMC. There are links 
there. Go to openchrome.org site and read all the pages. There is stuff 
hidden in obscure spots there.
Download and install the openchrome driver (binaries are available if 
you do not want to build, although building is complex it is not difficult.

You can also follow through the stsps here: 
http://groundstate.ca/c3mythtv  where a Via myth setup is built on a 
mandriva distro, but the tricky bits are explained quite well.

The openchrome driver needs certain settings in xorg.conf and it helps 
to have others, normally thought of as 'nvidia only' set too.


Geoff

-- 
       Tux says: "Be regular. Eat cron flakes."