Mailing List Archive

Try here:

http://marvel.sourceforge.net/

It's what I use for my Marvel G200. I'm currently having issues getting
video via the mythtv binary, but have it working with xawtv.

It should support the hardware MJPEG encoding as well.

> I am working on setting up a box to run MythTV full time and I currently am planning on using a G400 and the addon Rainbow Runner card. I have tried checking the supported drivers for Video4Linux and it did mention that the G400+RR did have support, but on the sourceforge page it said very limited support, but for all i know that could be out of date (which is likely). I also tried searching the V4L mailing list for information but couldn't find anything terribly relevant.
>
> I would just like to know what state the drivers are in. Has anyone on here successfully setup a Myth box using this combination? I just wanna know if maybe i should scrap it before I start. If it turns out that there is very minimal support, perhaps so minimal thaI can't even enjoyable use MythTV, what card offers the most support and would work best for this application; I am guessing the Hauppauge? Anyways, please give me some ideas on what I can expect with this card combination, thanks.
>
> Russell Hatch



Dege

So Many Things in Life Would Be Really Funny
.... If They Weren't Happening To Me

Yeah the G200 and G400 Marvels seem to have full support since the tuner is
built into the card i believe. as for the G400 without tuner plus the
rainbow card im not sure its fully supported. But, on the bright side, i
did find out my roommate had a Hauppauge WinTV Tuner he would donate to my
cause if necessary. I'm guessing its pretty easy to get this one working
without any trouble?

Russ

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Dege" <rdege@cse.Buffalo.EDU>
To: <mythtv-dev@snowman.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: [mythtv] Matrox G400 + Rainbow Runner


>
> Try here:
>
> http://marvel.sourceforge.net/
>
> It's what I use for my Marvel G200. I'm currently having issues getting
> video via the mythtv binary, but have it working with xawtv.
>
> It should support the hardware MJPEG encoding as well.
>
> > I am working on setting up a box to run MythTV full time and I currently
am planning on using a G400 and the addon Rainbow Runner card. I have tried
checking the supported drivers for Video4Linux and it did mention that the
G400+RR did have support, but on the sourceforge page it said very limited
support, but for all i know that could be out of date (which is likely). I
also tried searching the V4L mailing list for information but couldn't find
anything terribly relevant.
> >
> > I would just like to know what state the drivers are in. Has anyone on
here successfully setup a Myth box using this combination? I just wanna
know if maybe i should scrap it before I start. If it turns out that there
is very minimal support, perhaps so minimal thaI can't even enjoyable use
MythTV, what card offers the most support and would work best for this
application; I am guessing the Hauppauge? Anyways, please give me some
ideas on what I can expect with this card combination, thanks.
> >
> > Russell Hatch
>
>
>
> Dege
>
> So Many Things in Life Would Be Really Funny
> .... If They Weren't Happening To Me
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev@snowman.net
> http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev

On Thu, Nov 21, 2002 at 01:22:42PM -0500, Russell Hatch wrote:
> I am working on setting up a box to run MythTV full time and I currently
> am planning on using a G400 and the addon Rainbow Runner card. I have
> tried checking the supported drivers for Video4Linux and it did mention
> that the G400+RR did have support, but on the sourceforge page it said
> very limited support, but for all i know that could be out of date (which
> is likely). I also tried searching the V4L mailing list for information
> but couldn't find anything terribly relevant.

Pretty much everything you need can be found at:

http://marvel.sf.net
http://mjpeg.sf.net

>
> I would just like to know what state the drivers are in. Has anyone on
> here successfully setup a Myth box using this combination? I just wanna
> know if maybe i should scrap it before I start. If it turns out that
> there is very minimal support, perhaps so minimal thaI can't even
> enjoyable use MythTV, what card offers the most support and would work
> best for this application; I am guessing the Hauppauge? Anyways, please
> give me some ideas on what I can expect with this card combination,
> thanks.

I have a G200 marvel which is mostly the same as your setup. Using the
mjpeg tools both capture and playback at full resolution work flawlessly
with the built in hardware mjpeg compression and use practically no cpu.
Using any other V4L capture software (including Myth) the hardware
compression is not currently supported and I'm limited to around 352x200
captures (I havn't probed the exact limits). AFAIK this is a limitation of
the hardware/drivers at the moment and may improve in the future. Isaac is
working on support for the hardware mjpeg for Myth but I don't know how far
he's gotten yet (I'm planning on looking at cvs toinght). The TV output of
these (at least the ones that have it) can work really well but is pretty
finicky (this should be slightly better on your G400) so if TV out is
important to you it might be better to grab an external scan converter.

If you do decide to scrap it let me know, I might be interested in getting
another.

--
Ray




>

> Russell Hatch

On Thursday 21 November 2002 03:54 pm, Ray wrote:
> I have a G200 marvel which is mostly the same as your setup. Using the
> mjpeg tools both capture and playback at full resolution work flawlessly
> with the built in hardware mjpeg compression and use practically no cpu.
> Using any other V4L capture software (including Myth) the hardware
> compression is not currently supported and I'm limited to around 352x200
> captures (I havn't probed the exact limits). AFAIK this is a limitation of
> the hardware/drivers at the moment and may improve in the future. Isaac is
> working on support for the hardware mjpeg for Myth but I don't know how far
> he's gotten yet (I'm planning on looking at cvs toinght). The TV output of
> these (at least the ones that have it) can work really well but is pretty
> finicky (this should be slightly better on your G400) so if TV out is
> important to you it might be better to grab an external scan converter.

Hardware mjpeg compression is mostly working. There isn't any way to set the
capture resolution or quality yet, it's limited to 720x480 or whatever
full-frame is, and the quality is hardcoded to 60. It's also hardcoded to
the tuner/input that works on this g200tv, and I'm not sure how well that'll
translate to other people's machines. All you need to do to use the current
stuff is set the codec to 'hardware-mjpeg' and resolution to 720x480 in the
settings file, and stuff _should_ just work.

The biggest problem with this is that I can't seem to do hardware
decompression at the same time I'm doing hardware compression, and
libavcodec's mjpeg decoder takes > 100% cpu on the p3-550 that I stuck the
g200tv in to decode that size/quality of video.

Anyway, I'll probably finish up adding options for the compression stuff this
weekend..

Isaac

On Thu, Nov 21, 2002 at 04:12:49PM -0500, Isaac Richards wrote:
>
> Hardware mjpeg compression is mostly working. There isn't any way to set the
> capture resolution or quality yet, it's limited to 720x480 or whatever
> full-frame is, and the quality is hardcoded to 60. It's also hardcoded to
> the tuner/input that works on this g200tv, and I'm not sure how well that'll
> translate to other people's machines. All you need to do to use the current
> stuff is set the codec to 'hardware-mjpeg' and resolution to 720x480 in the
> settings file, and stuff _should_ just work.

Wow! Thanks Isaac.

>
> The biggest problem with this is that I can't seem to do hardware
> decompression at the same time I'm doing hardware compression, and
> libavcodec's mjpeg decoder takes > 100% cpu on the p3-550 that I stuck the
> g200tv in to decode that size/quality of video.

This may not be related but I believe that at least some mjpeg decoder
tools have trouble decoding the mjpegs created by the mjpeg tools (if that's
what you used as the basis for your work). I'll dig around a little tonight
and see what I can see (although that's like a 5 year old offering to help a
rocket scientist with that darn speed of light issue:))

--
Ray

What cards are supported using the mjpeg stuff right
now? Will most any card with hardware
encoding/decoding work? And what are the drivers like
with these cards?

Getting this to work will surely lower hardware
requirements :)

--- Isaac Richards <ijr@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
> Hardware mjpeg compression is mostly working...
>
> Anyway, I'll probably finish up adding options for
> the compression stuff this
> weekend..
>
> Isaac
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev@snowman.net
> http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev


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On Thu, Nov 21, 2002 at 04:12:49PM -0500, Isaac Richards wrote:
>
> Hardware mjpeg compression is mostly working. There isn't any way to set the
> capture resolution or quality yet, it's limited to 720x480 or whatever
> full-frame is, and the quality is hardcoded to 60.

And it looks REALLY good too.


> It's also hardcoded to
> the tuner/input that works on this g200tv, and I'm not sure how well that'll
> translate to other people's machines.

This part I don't quite understand. Selecting inputs should work just like
with the BT8XX based cards doesn't it? Myth does seem to get this right
when using rtjpeg & mpeg4. Also even with hardware-mjpeg enabled and
watching live tv it still switches inputs using the "c" key.


All you need to do to use the current
> stuff is set the codec to 'hardware-mjpeg' and resolution to 720x480 in the
> settings file, and stuff _should_ just work.
>
> The biggest problem with this is that I can't seem to do hardware
> decompression at the same time I'm doing hardware compression, and
> libavcodec's mjpeg decoder takes > 100% cpu on the p3-550 that I stuck the
> g200tv in to decode that size/quality of video.

Just as a test I captured some clips with the mjpeg tools, 1 at decimation 1
and 1 at decimation 2. Mplayer can play back the decimation 2 clip using
around 20% of one cpu on my dual Celeron 500 box but the decimation 1 clip
is at 90%+ and having problems. Any chance decimation levels will be
supported?

--
Ray

On Friday 22 November 2002 02:32 pm, Ray wrote:
> This part I don't quite understand. Selecting inputs should work just like
> with the BT8XX based cards doesn't it? Myth does seem to get this right
> when using rtjpeg & mpeg4. Also even with hardware-mjpeg enabled and
> watching live tv it still switches inputs using the "c" key.

Yeah, but there's some extra settings in the mjpeg ioctls that seem to mirror
those as well that seem to need to be set to capture properly. I dunno,
that's just how it seemed to work for me.

> Just as a test I captured some clips with the mjpeg tools, 1 at decimation
> 1 and 1 at decimation 2. Mplayer can play back the decimation 2 clip using
> around 20% of one cpu on my dual Celeron 500 box but the decimation 1 clip
> is at 90%+ and having problems. Any chance decimation levels will be
> supported?

Yeah, you set the resolution of the hardware stuff using the different
decimation levels, from what I understand at least.

Isaac

On Fri, Nov 22, 2002 at 03:03:55PM -0500, Isaac Richards wrote:
> On Friday 22 November 2002 02:32 pm, Ray wrote:
> > This part I don't quite understand. Selecting inputs should work just like
> > with the BT8XX based cards doesn't it? Myth does seem to get this right
> > when using rtjpeg & mpeg4. Also even with hardware-mjpeg enabled and
> > watching live tv it still switches inputs using the "c" key.
>
> Yeah, but there's some extra settings in the mjpeg ioctls that seem to mirror
> those as well that seem to need to be set to capture properly. I dunno,
> that's just how it seemed to work for me.
>
> > Just as a test I captured some clips with the mjpeg tools, 1 at decimation
> > 1 and 1 at decimation 2. Mplayer can play back the decimation 2 clip using
> > around 20% of one cpu on my dual Celeron 500 box but the decimation 1 clip
> > is at 90%+ and having problems. Any chance decimation levels will be
> > supported?
>
> Yeah, you set the resolution of the hardware stuff using the different
> decimation levels, from what I understand at least.

That's what I thought but what's been confusing me is that for some reason
captures with mjpeg tools at decimation 2 look much better than the software
compression at medium resolutions. I guess I should try some short raw
(neither software or hardware compression) captures and see what happens.

--
Ray

On Thu, Nov 21, 2002 at 04:12:49PM -0500, Isaac Richards wrote:
>
> The biggest problem with this is that I can't seem to do hardware
> decompression at the same time I'm doing hardware compression, and
> libavcodec's mjpeg decoder takes > 100% cpu on the p3-550 that I stuck the
> g200tv in to decode that size/quality of video.

I went ahead and set the decimation down to 2 in the source and I can now
watch live TV with decent (roughly vhs) quality and only around 50% cpu
usage from mythtv.

--
Ray

Ray,

where in the src did you change the decimation value?

-Rob

> On Thu, Nov 21, 2002 at 04:12:49PM -0500, Isaac Richards wrote:
> >
> > The biggest problem with this is that I can't seem to do hardware
> > decompression at the same time I'm doing hardware compression, and
> > libavcodec's mjpeg decoder takes > 100% cpu on the p3-550 that I stuck the
> > g200tv in to decode that size/quality of video.
>
> I went ahead and set the decimation down to 2 in the source and I can now
> watch live TV with decent (roughly vhs) quality and only around 50% cpu
> usage from mythtv.
>
> --
> Ray
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev@snowman.net
> http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>



Dege

So Many Things in Life Would Be Really Funny
.... If They Weren't Happening To Me

On Sat, Nov 23, 2002 at 11:09:33AM -0500, Robert Dege wrote:
>
> Ray,
>
> where in the src did you change the decimation value?

I added the line:
bparm.decimation = 2;

Around line 731 of libs/libNuppelVideo/NuppelVideoRecorder.cpp

I also changed the resolution in settings.txt to:
int Width=352
int Height=240

--
Ray