Mailing List Archive

Let's hear them, I'm interested in that platform as well.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Man [mailto:danman@dtconnect.com]
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 6:05 PM
To: mythtv-users@snowman.net
Subject: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....


Could someone with a Pundit contact me off list ? (I don't want to muddy the
list...) I've got a few questions about setup...

Thanks!

............................................
Dan Mount



_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

> Could someone with a Pundit contact me off list ? (I don't want to muddy
> the list...) I've got a few questions about setup...

Enough people on the list seem interested in the Pundit - just ask your
question(s) and I'll see what I can do - so far, I think I'm the only
one with a completely working setup...

-Chris

Okie Dokie... I bought a Pundit, stuffed it full of guts I had laying
around. 1.7 GHz Celeron, 512 MB Ram, 60 GB HD and a DVD-ROM... Distro of
choice (right now, anyway) RedHat 9. Hold on, hope this doesn't get too
long...

On the first install.... The nic wasn't detected, as I expected, but I
could not get up2date to run after compiling the nic driver. It kept
complaining about the system time. Even after modifying
/etc/sysconfig/clock to manually set my time zone and connecting to a
time server the system time was hosed. I tried setting the time manually
and every way I could think of. No dice. I fired in a spare 3com nic
reinstalled ran up2date took out the 3com and got the onboard lan
working.... All is good so far.

I've got X working with the sis driver thanks to Chris's XF86Config
file... I only changed the VideoRam setting to 32768.

Now on to the issues... Right now I'm just trying to make the Pundit a
front end. When I start live tv I get vertical green/red/black bars for
~10 seconds then tv starts. When I bring up the epg the preview does the
same thing. At various times when exiting the epg I get the vertical
bars and nothing seems to fix it, but restarting MythTV. When I go to
the Watch a recording menu things are V E R Y S L O W... It seems to
take 3-4 key presses to get it to do anything. Once a recording is
highlighted, the preview plays, but when I try to watch the recording,
Myth tells me it can't find the .nuv file, or it segfaults. Watching
recordings on my PIII frontend and my P4 frontend/backend works as
expected, so I don't think it's a software issue.

So that's that. Haven't even worked on sound yet... maybe tomorrow...

Overall I like the Pundit. I'd like to get the Myth issues resolved as
that's really all this box is for. ; )

DM




-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Petersen [mailto:lists@forevermore.net]
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 8:26 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

> Could someone with a Pundit contact me off list ? (I don't want to
muddy
> the list...) I've got a few questions about setup...

Enough people on the list seem interested in the Pundit - just ask your
question(s) and I'll see what I can do - so far, I think I'm the only
one with a completely working setup...

-Chris

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

Outside of the quirks listed below, I've got the Pundit doing tv
consistently. I used it for a good bit today. I'm not sure the video is
up to the task. I tried several different resolutions with the same
results. Dark, pixilated and somewhat choppy video. The OSD is pretty
pixilated as well. The sound is fine.

The last step is to hook it up to my real tv. I've tried it so far on a
17" Viewsonic monitor and a Mitsubishi 37" megaview pro. Hopefully the
display of the regular tv will help 'blur' the image sufficiently.

Btw, I'm comparing the output to my other two machines, both with Matrox
G450 cards...

............................................
Dan Mount


-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Man
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 2:16 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

Okie Dokie... I bought a Pundit, stuffed it full of guts I had laying
around. 1.7 GHz Celeron, 512 MB Ram, 60 GB HD and a DVD-ROM... Distro of
choice (right now, anyway) RedHat 9. Hold on, hope this doesn't get too
long...

On the first install.... The nic wasn't detected, as I expected, but I
could not get up2date to run after compiling the nic driver. It kept
complaining about the system time. Even after modifying
/etc/sysconfig/clock to manually set my time zone and connecting to a
time server the system time was hosed. I tried setting the time manually
and every way I could think of. No dice. I fired in a spare 3com nic
reinstalled ran up2date took out the 3com and got the onboard lan
working.... All is good so far.

I've got X working with the sis driver thanks to Chris's XF86Config
file... I only changed the VideoRam setting to 32768.

Now on to the issues... Right now I'm just trying to make the Pundit a
front end. When I start live tv I get vertical green/red/black bars for
~10 seconds then tv starts. When I bring up the epg the preview does the
same thing. At various times when exiting the epg I get the vertical
bars and nothing seems to fix it, but restarting MythTV. When I go to
the Watch a recording menu things are V E R Y S L O W... It seems to
take 3-4 key presses to get it to do anything. Once a recording is
highlighted, the preview plays, but when I try to watch the recording,
Myth tells me it can't find the .nuv file, or it segfaults. Watching
recordings on my PIII frontend and my P4 frontend/backend works as
expected, so I don't think it's a software issue.

So that's that. Haven't even worked on sound yet... maybe tomorrow...

Overall I like the Pundit. I'd like to get the Myth issues resolved as
that's really all this box is for. ; )

DM




-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Petersen [mailto:lists@forevermore.net]
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 8:26 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

> Could someone with a Pundit contact me off list ? (I don't want to
muddy
> the list...) I've got a few questions about setup...

Enough people on the list seem interested in the Pundit - just ask your
question(s) and I'll see what I can do - so far, I think I'm the only
one with a completely working setup...

-Chris

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

I'm starting to write off the Pundit. I don't think that the video is up
to the task. Video is pretty choppy. Mythtv/LiveTV is choppy as well as
DiVX 5 files I've saved from DVD. All works well on my other systems...

I'm going to continue to look for video improvements, but it's not
entertainment center quality yet...


............................................
Dan Mount


-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Man
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 12:45 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

Outside of the quirks listed below, I've got the Pundit doing tv
consistently. I used it for a good bit today. I'm not sure the video is
up to the task. I tried several different resolutions with the same
results. Dark, pixilated and somewhat choppy video. The OSD is pretty
pixilated as well. The sound is fine.

The last step is to hook it up to my real tv. I've tried it so far on a
17" Viewsonic monitor and a Mitsubishi 37" megaview pro. Hopefully the
display of the regular tv will help 'blur' the image sufficiently.

Btw, I'm comparing the output to my other two machines, both with Matrox
G450 cards...

............................................
Dan Mount


-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Man
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 2:16 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

Okie Dokie... I bought a Pundit, stuffed it full of guts I had laying
around. 1.7 GHz Celeron, 512 MB Ram, 60 GB HD and a DVD-ROM... Distro of
choice (right now, anyway) RedHat 9. Hold on, hope this doesn't get too
long...

On the first install.... The nic wasn't detected, as I expected, but I
could not get up2date to run after compiling the nic driver. It kept
complaining about the system time. Even after modifying
/etc/sysconfig/clock to manually set my time zone and connecting to a
time server the system time was hosed. I tried setting the time manually
and every way I could think of. No dice. I fired in a spare 3com nic
reinstalled ran up2date took out the 3com and got the onboard lan
working.... All is good so far.

I've got X working with the sis driver thanks to Chris's XF86Config
file... I only changed the VideoRam setting to 32768.

Now on to the issues... Right now I'm just trying to make the Pundit a
front end. When I start live tv I get vertical green/red/black bars for
~10 seconds then tv starts. When I bring up the epg the preview does the
same thing. At various times when exiting the epg I get the vertical
bars and nothing seems to fix it, but restarting MythTV. When I go to
the Watch a recording menu things are V E R Y S L O W... It seems to
take 3-4 key presses to get it to do anything. Once a recording is
highlighted, the preview plays, but when I try to watch the recording,
Myth tells me it can't find the .nuv file, or it segfaults. Watching
recordings on my PIII frontend and my P4 frontend/backend works as
expected, so I don't think it's a software issue.

So that's that. Haven't even worked on sound yet... maybe tomorrow...

Overall I like the Pundit. I'd like to get the Myth issues resolved as
that's really all this box is for. ; )

DM




-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Petersen [mailto:lists@forevermore.net]
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 8:26 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

> Could someone with a Pundit contact me off list ? (I don't want to
muddy
> the list...) I've got a few questions about setup...

Enough people on the list seem interested in the Pundit - just ask your
question(s) and I'll see what I can do - so far, I think I'm the only
one with a completely working setup...

-Chris

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

> I'm starting to write off the Pundit. I don't think that the video is up
> to the task. Video is pretty choppy. Mythtv/LiveTV is choppy as well as
> DiVX 5 files I've saved from DVD. All works well on my other systems...
> I'm going to continue to look for video improvements, but it's not
> entertainment center quality yet...

what proc are you using? Also, do you have an optical drive plugged in?

I found that the 2.0 celeron was a bit slow for me (though it worked
fine at the default 480x480 settings).

If you have an optical drive, most of them are only ata-33. Because
there's only one IDE channel, this means that your hard drive will also
only be running at ATA-33. I had to unplug my cdrw to get things to
work properly, and it will continue to be unplugged until I can find an
ata-66 or better dvd drive.

Also, turn up your video memory in the bios to 64 megs, and bump up the
pipe and other shared RAM to 256 or so.

-Chris

> I'm starting to write off the Pundit. I don't think that
> the video is up to the task. Video is pretty choppy.
> Mythtv/LiveTV is choppy as well as DiVX 5 files I've
> saved from DVD. All works well on my other systems...

I wouldn't give up on it just yet. My Pundit is extremely smooth for video
and the TV-out if certainly sharper than my Geforce II. Unfortunately I
haven't got Myth fully working on it yet due to XMLTV problems... But I love
the box.

> I'm going to continue to look for video improvements, but it's not
> entertainment center quality yet...

Keep at it!

--
Steve

Thanks for the encouragement...

A couple of questions if you will...

What version of X are you running and what's your OS? Can you send me
your "Device" section from your config file? I'm using this one that
Chris posted to the list.

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "sis"
Option "XvOnCRT2" "true"
# Option "ForceCRT2Type" "SVIDEO"
Option "ForceCRT2Type" "TV"
Option "CHTVOverscan" "false"
VendorName "Silicon Integrated Systems"
BoardName "SiS 315/650"
VideoRam 65536
EndSection

Information on the web about the sis and Linux is scarce... I'm running
RedHat 9 with all of the updates.

Thanks

............................................
Dan Mount


-----Original Message-----
From: Purchase, Steven [mailto:steven.Purchase@uk.thalesgroup.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 11:49 AM
To: 'Discussion about mythtv'
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

> I'm starting to write off the Pundit. I don't think that
> the video is up to the task. Video is pretty choppy.
> Mythtv/LiveTV is choppy as well as DiVX 5 files I've
> saved from DVD. All works well on my other systems...

I wouldn't give up on it just yet. My Pundit is extremely smooth for
video
and the TV-out if certainly sharper than my Geforce II. Unfortunately I
haven't got Myth fully working on it yet due to XMLTV problems... But I
love
the box.

> I'm going to continue to look for video improvements, but it's not
> entertainment center quality yet...

Keep at it!

--
Steve
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

I think there are a few people that are awaiting Chris's (or anyone else who
wants to tackle it) write-up on installing MythTV on the Pundit with Redhat
9.

-Nate

I'm using a 1.7 GHz Celeron. This is a front end only machine. No
encoding duties here. I bumped the video memory to 64 MB and played with
the memory speeds in bios. Following your suggestion also unplugged the
cdrom. I really don't think it's a resource issue, other than video.
Being a front end, the cpu sits at ~70% idle and the hd light blinks
only occasionally during live tv. I've played with different resolutions
and still get jerky video in high movement scenes.

The jerky video isn't so bad that it's not useable, but not what I'm
used to from my other machines.

The one thing that really bugs me is the vertical bars that I get when I
start tv, or go to the epg. You can see a pic here
http://www.bubber.com/Pics/Content/Post/lines.jpg

I took it with my digital camera as I wasn't sure how to get a screen
cap of it.

Dunno, I guess I'm not really ready to toss it, I'm just frustrated....

............................................
Dan Mount


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Petersen [mailto:lists@forevermore.net]
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 11:42 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

> I'm starting to write off the Pundit. I don't think that the video is
up
> to the task. Video is pretty choppy. Mythtv/LiveTV is choppy as well
as
> DiVX 5 files I've saved from DVD. All works well on my other
systems...
> I'm going to continue to look for video improvements, but it's not
> entertainment center quality yet...

what proc are you using? Also, do you have an optical drive plugged in?

I found that the 2.0 celeron was a bit slow for me (though it worked
fine at the default 480x480 settings).

If you have an optical drive, most of them are only ata-33. Because
there's only one IDE channel, this means that your hard drive will also
only be running at ATA-33. I had to unplug my cdrw to get things to
work properly, and it will continue to be unplugged until I can find an
ata-66 or better dvd drive.

Also, turn up your video memory in the bios to 64 megs, and bump up the
pipe and other shared RAM to 256 or so.

-Chris

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

I'm documenting my trials and tribulations on my web site and will be
happy to formalize a How-To when I get things done if no one has done it
yet.

............................................
Dan Mount


-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Smith [mailto:smith@ipmvs.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 12:25 PM
To: 'Discussion about mythtv'
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] [OT] Pundit Questions....

I think there are a few people that are awaiting Chris's (or anyone else
who
wants to tackle it) write-up on installing MythTV on the Pundit with
Redhat
9.

-Nate

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

> I think there are a few people that are awaiting Chris's (or anyone else who
> wants to tackle it) write-up on installing MythTV on the Pundit with Redhat
> 9.

Sorry for the delay here. I've been a bit overworked lately (small
company, LOTS of computers to build, and the orders just keep pouring in
- $200k yesterday).

Anyway, I didn't really do anything special...

first (well, before the "final" install) I upped the video ram settings
in the bios to 64 megs.

installed redhat workstation install, deselected a few things like pgsql
(I grabbed mysql later via apt) so they wouldn't take up drive space.
it auto-detected the sound and video just fine.

after booting up, I popped in the Pundit CD and copied over the ethernet
driver, which compiled just fine with `make;make install` - I updated
modules.conf to auto-load the driver: (pardon the line wraps)

--------------------</etc/modules/conf>------------

alias usb-controller usb-ohci
alias usb-controller1 ehci-hcd
alias ieee1394-controller ohci1394
alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio
alias eth0 bcm4400
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L
>/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S
>/dev/null 2>&1 || :
alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 bttv

--------------------<end>--------------------------

I'd LOVE to get the NIC driver to compile with the openmosix kernel, but
it's not working.

I've installed apt from freshrpms.net and modified it to also point to
Axel's repository (and my internal one):

# xmltv, myth, etc
rpm http://apt.physik.fu-berlin.de redhat/9/en/i386 at at-stable at-good
rpm-src http://apt.physik.fu-berlin.de redhat/9/en/i386 at at-stable at-good
#rpm http://apt.physik.fu-berlin.de redhat/9/en/i386 at-stable at-good at-testing
#rpm-src http://apt.physik.fu-berlin.de redhat/9/en/i386 at-stable at-good at-testing

swap for the commented-out lines if you want his "testing" stuff, too.

You can then just `apt-cache search myth` to get a list of all of the
mythtv-related modules (Apparently, Isaac isn't keen on people
distributing cvs rpm's, so if anyone wants them, I can send you the
.spec file but you'll have to build them yourselves)

You'll need to manually create the mythtv database entries, which the
rpm will tell you to do as it installs (all you do is cat a file to
mysql - redhat defaults to no password for the root mysql user). You'll
also need to run the mythtvsetup program and follow the standard
instructions for setting up mythtv.

oh, I also installed blackbox (and as I just update, I see that
freshrpms has finally ported it over to redhat 9) I then created a
"myth" user and set the box to auto-login as that user, and created a
.Xclients file in the homedir:

--------------------</home/user/.Xclients>---------
#!/bin/bash

#Start a window manager
blackbox &

#Start the IR event server
/usr/bin/irxevent &

#Start MythTV
/usr/bin/mythfrontend

--------------------<end>--------------------------

This file loads when you log in as "default" window manager (which you
have to manually choose once from the login screen).

Anyway, that's pretty much it. I had some issues getting my tv card up
and running, but that doesn't relate to myth itself, and once I found
the right drivers and figured out how to get them to auto-load (see my
modules.conf above), it's been fine.


-Chris