Mailing List Archive

On Wed, 2002-11-20 at 03:14, Lonnie Borntreger wrote:
> My setup:
> Mandrake Cooker - 2.4.19
> RAM: 512M 266MHz Registered
> Video: nVidia TNT2 AGP (old)
> Disk: 5400 RPM IDE ATA-66 (slow)
> TV: Hauppage WinTV PCI (old)
> Asus A7M266-D MB with 2 Athlon 1700+ XP
>
> Watched, paused, etc. while never going above 35% of a single CPU. Also
> had KDE, Mozilla, and a kernel build going on at the same time. No
> glitches at all, even full screen.

OK. I cheated a little bit. ;-) I forgot that I had switched to a
lower resolution. At 640x480 it used between 70-90% of one CPU.

Lonnie

This is almost a bit disheartening.

Here's my setup:

Athalon 1200MHz - 512MB SDRAM
80GB Seagate IDE 7200rpm
WinTV dbx 401
SB awe64 isa
Leadtek GeForce2 MX 400
Gentoo 1.4
mythtv 0.7
hdparm test = 17.11 MB/sec (i think this is limited my
my m/b to UDMA66)

Codec=mpeg4
Width=320
Height=240
AudioSampleRate=32000
DontCompressAudio=1

At these low resolution settings my cpu is practically
idle. Spikes to around 25%, but is usually in the 10%
range. Thats for just mythtv playback ... if I set
the resolution higher or start doing recordings at the
same time then the cpu goes much higher. I can
usually do anything I need at low resolution with less
than 75% cpu. The rtjpeg codec just makes the quality
worse, but doesn't change the artifact problem.

I still just don't get good quality playback :(
The higher I set the resolution the worse it gets,
however I believe that the problem is with the signal
somehow. Even when I am using 320x240 I get little
tears in the picture that look like noisy signal. The
higher the resolution the more noisy it gets. Xawtv
works, but seems to have artifacts as well, just not
as bad as mythv. If I raise the resolution to 640x480
w/ mpeg4 then I start to lose frames as my cpu maxes
out, so I know that my cpu is not holding me back at
the lower resolutions.

I have tried altering just about everything I know to
fix this quality problem, but I am still getting
nothing. I have tried changing the bttv module
paramters to try different tuner types ... but it
doesn't change anything. I went out and got a
Pinnacle pctv card to try instead, but I can't get it
working.

I'd like to know what bttv options ppl are using for
their Pinnacle cards to get them working. And any
other advice as to why I am not getting decent quality
video.

--- eric nelson <ericlarsn@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Here's my setup which I just got working:
>
> - P2 400MHz - 128MB RAM
> - 9GB Seagate IDE 5400rpm
> - AverTV Studio capture card
> - SB Live!
> - ATI Radeon 7500
> - Mandrake 9 w/ default (ALSA) sound drivers
> - mythtv 0.7 release
>
> Setup Notes:
>
> - I initially had major prolems with XMLTV, but
> using
> the newer version(the one released last week) fixed
> it, and everything installed w/o problems.
>
> - At first audio was out of sync. I muted 'line in'
> from the mixer, and it works great.
>
>
> Details:
>
> - hdparm -tT /dev/hda values:
> Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.13
> seconds
> =113.27 MB/sec
> Timing buffered disk r-eads: 64 MB in 4.41
> seconds
> = 14.51 MB/sec
>
> settings.txt:
>
> Codec=rtjpeg
> Height=240
> Width=320
> Quality=255
> LumaFilter=0
> ChromaFilter=0
> AudioSampleRate=44100
> DontCompressAudio=1
> Deinterlace=0 (segfault occurs if this is set to 1)
>
> everything else is the default setting.
>
> I get some choppy video if i set the height and
> width
> to 640x480 and a segfault if I set it to 800x600.
> 320x200 isn't the best, but it's fine until I get
> the
> gatos ATI tv-out drivers working :). I'm actually
> surprised that myth performs as well as it does on
> such a crappy system :). Kudos Isaac!
>
>
>
>
> -Eric
>
>
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> _______________________________________________
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On Tue, Nov 19, 2002 at 11:42:16AM -0800, Allen T. Gilliland IV wrote:
> This is almost a bit disheartening.
>
> Here's my setup:
>
> Athalon 1200MHz - 512MB SDRAM
> 80GB Seagate IDE 7200rpm
> WinTV dbx 401
> SB awe64 isa
> Leadtek GeForce2 MX 400
> Gentoo 1.4
> mythtv 0.7
> hdparm test = 17.11 MB/sec (i think this is limited my
> my m/b to UDMA66)

That disk speed seems pretty slow, are you sure you have dma enabled? My
Dual Celeron box has a pair of 7200rpm Maxtors. The one connected to the on
board udma33 controller gets around 27MB/s and the one connected to a
Promise udma66 controller gets around 36MB/s.

--
Ray

/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 9729/255/63, sectors = 156301488,
start = 0

/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.91 seconds =
21.99 MB/sec

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.03 seconds
=124.27 MB/sec

not sure if there is anything else to do.

I also noticed a strange thing as well ... hitting
<enter> in mythepg doesn't change the channel for me,
only <m> works from the epg. Strange.

--- Ray <maillists@sonictech.net> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 19, 2002 at 11:42:16AM -0800, Allen T.
> Gilliland IV wrote:
> > This is almost a bit disheartening.
> >
> > Here's my setup:
> >
> > Athalon 1200MHz - 512MB SDRAM
> > 80GB Seagate IDE 7200rpm
> > WinTV dbx 401
> > SB awe64 isa
> > Leadtek GeForce2 MX 400
> > Gentoo 1.4
> > mythtv 0.7
> > hdparm test = 17.11 MB/sec (i think this is
> limited my
> > my m/b to UDMA66)
>
> That disk speed seems pretty slow, are you sure you
> have dma enabled? My
> Dual Celeron box has a pair of 7200rpm Maxtors. The
> one connected to the on
> board udma33 controller gets around 27MB/s and the
> one connected to a
> Promise udma66 controller gets around 36MB/s.
>
> --
> Ray
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev@snowman.net
> http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev


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On Wed, 2002-11-20 at 02:25, Allen T. Gilliland IV wrote:
> I also noticed a strange thing as well ... hitting
> <enter> in mythepg doesn't change the channel for me,
> only <m> works from the epg. Strange.

I saw that also.

> --- Ray <maillists@sonictech.net> wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 19, 2002 at 11:42:16AM -0800, Allen T.
> > Gilliland IV wrote:
> > > This is almost a bit disheartening.
> > >
> > > Here's my setup:
> > >
> > > Athalon 1200MHz - 512MB SDRAM
> > > 80GB Seagate IDE 7200rpm
> > > WinTV dbx 401
> > > SB awe64 isa
> > > Leadtek GeForce2 MX 400
> > > Gentoo 1.4
> > > mythtv 0.7
> > > hdparm test = 17.11 MB/sec (i think this is
> > limited my
> > > my m/b to UDMA66)

My setup:
Mandrake Cooker - 2.4.19
RAM: 512M 266MHz Registered
Video: nVidia TNT2 AGP (old)
Disk: 5400 RPM IDE ATA-66 (slow)
TV: Hauppage WinTV PCI (old)
Asus A7M266-D MB with 2 Athlon 1700+ XP

Watched, paused, etc. while never going above 35% of a single CPU. Also
had KDE, Mozilla, and a kernel build going on at the same time. No
glitches at all, even full screen.


TTFN,
Lonnie Borntreger

________________________________________________________________________
Mandrake Linux release 9.1 (Cooker) for i586
2.4.19-16mdksmp (gcc version 3.2) SMP
Two 1.47GHz AMD Athlon Processors, 512M RAM, 5852.35 Bogomips Total

I just dropped my tv card into my current workstation
to try it on a better machine, works great.

The system:
P4 2400Mhz - 512MB DDR 2700
100GB WD Special Edition IDE 7200rpm
WinTV dbx 401
SB Audigy Gamer
Msi GeForce4 Ti 4200 128mb
Gentoo 1.4
mythtv 0.7
hdparm test = 37.11 MB/secsettings.txt:

Codec=mpeg4
Width=640
Height=480
Quality=255
LumaFilter=0
ChromaFilter=0
TargetBitrate=3300
AudioSampleRate=32000
DontCompressAudio=1
Deinterlace=1

When watching live tv my cpu is bet 50% and 80%
With just recording my cpu is bet 30% and 50%

And both of those were done while mythfilldatabase was
running.

Quite and improvement over my Athalon 1200 which
really didn't work for me. On this system I notice
all kinds of improvements from mythepg responding
faster, to channel changes happening faster, to the
obvious quality improvements. Unfortunately this is
my worksatation, and is not going to sit in the home
theater, or run mythtv all day. But its a good
guidline.

-- Allen


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On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 12:25:39AM -0800, Allen T. Gilliland IV wrote:
> /dev/hda:
> multcount = 16 (on)
> IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
> unmaskirq = 1 (on)
> using_dma = 1 (on)
> keepsettings = 0 (off)
> readonly = 0 (off)
> readahead = 8 (on)
> geometry = 9729/255/63, sectors = 156301488,
> start = 0
>
> /dev/hda:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.91 seconds =
> 21.99 MB/sec

That still seems slow to me, what's the output of "hdparm -I /dev/hda" ?

--
Ray

On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 03:14:35AM -0600, Lonnie Borntreger wrote:
>
> My setup:
> Mandrake Cooker - 2.4.19
> RAM: 512M 266MHz Registered
> Video: nVidia TNT2 AGP (old)
> Disk: 5400 RPM IDE ATA-66 (slow)
> TV: Hauppage WinTV PCI (old)
> Asus A7M266-D MB with 2 Athlon 1700+ XP
>
> Watched, paused, etc. while never going above 35% of a single CPU. Also
> had KDE, Mozilla, and a kernel build going on at the same time. No
> glitches at all, even full screen.

This is a little OT but I've been looking for a good dual Athlon board, have
you been happy with that one under Linux? Also do you know if the halt
power saving feature of acapi/apm is functional?

--
Ray

On Thu, 2002-11-21 at 03:06, Ray wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 03:14:35AM -0600, Lonnie Borntreger wrote:
> > Asus A7M266-D MB with 2 Athlon 1700+ XP
> >
> > Watched, paused, etc. while never going above 35% of a single CPU. Also
> > had KDE, Mozilla, and a kernel build going on at the same time. No
> > glitches at all, even full screen.
>
> This is a little OT but I've been looking for a good dual Athlon board, have
> you been happy with that one under Linux? Also do you know if the halt
> power saving feature of acapi/apm is functional?

Haven't done anything with acpi/apm at all. Overall, this is a very
nice board for Linux (had it for around a year now), as long as you
remember the special Athlon kernel switches (below). It's fast, stable,
etc. The only beef is the on-board audio, and limited slots. The sound
driver seems to have some issues (according to the ALSA list, this is
not specific to this MB), but as long as you don't need to have Mic in,
it's OK. I'm close to getting a new sound card, but can't afford it
right now.

Lonnie

Kernel options for Athlon SMP:
"noapic mem=nopentium"