Mailing List Archive

I dont have the all answers but some :)
2. What program are you using? I used powerstrip. If so look in the
powerstrip ini file for the modelines. These plug right into your
xfree86.config file and will give you the same settings as you had in
windows.
3. I run my TV in 848x480 and myth and everything else will stretch to
meet the aspect ratio (16:9). BTW Xine playing DVDs looks amazing and
beats anything I have ever seen
4. LIRC is fast. Mostly the progs are slow because they are crunching on
the video input. The PVR250 does it all for you so the CPU is available
for other things.
5. I use Redhat for my base and then recomiple most of everything myself.
Including the kernel and all libraries.
6. Distro not the CVS




"Myth" <hypykesub@bellsouth.net>
Sent by: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
05/26/2003 08:04 AM
Please respond to
Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users@snowman.net>


To
"Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users@snowman.net>
cc

Subject
[mythtv-users] Taking the plunge - General questions about setup and
PVR250






Hello all,

Been reading this list and the archives for a while and I'm taking the
plunge and ordering a PVR250 from compusa.com. I have a few questions
though
that I have not seen addressed before and that I couldn't find doing a
search.

1. On the PVR250, does the tv out work? I would imagine that the mythtv
overlays and stuff do NOT output via that connection and that is cool
because I'd like to use that for VCR recording/archiving.

2. I have an HDTV and would like to use a VGA to Component Progressive
transcoder with my mythtv box. On windows I have to use a special program
to output custom resolutions and compensate for overscan. Is that level
of
control available under linx? Can someome point me to docs that would
explain how to do that. I have the appropriate timings and stuff for my
display.

Does anyone else have their mythtv box setup that way? What do you do
about
16x9 versus 4:3? Do you have to leave the set in 4:3 mode or can it add
bars to 3. the side. It would be nice to have 16x9 menus in myth (more
screen real estate) and have it scale 4:3 material with black bars on the
side. That way I could also use the machine to play dvds and not have to
adjust the aspect ratio.

4. One thing that concers me is the response time of the remote and the
speed of navigating menus. Is this an issue? Some HTPC frontends on win
are very slow on a P4 just because they cannot respond to remote signals
fast enough. I will be using the PVR250's remote on this system.

5. I've noticed that the redhat setup seems to be tricky. I am more of a
FreeBSD guy myself (no mythtv support dang it) so can you recommend a
distro that will give me the least headaches. I know this has been
debated
before but I would like opinions from a BSD perspective.

6. And finally, I need this to be pretty stable. Do you recommend the
latest CVS or is there a version that seems to be rock solid but may be
missing the latest features that you could point me to. (I know myth is
in
devel and there are ongoing issues.)

Thanks.

Roby Adams








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On Mon, 2003-05-26 at 08:04, Myth wrote:
>
> 1. On the PVR250, does the tv out work? I would imagine that the mythtv
> overlays and stuff do NOT output via that connection and that is cool
> because I'd like to use that for VCR recording/archiving.
>

The 250 does not have tv-out. The 350 does but it is not supported yet.
(that's not a Mythtv problem though, it's the lack of linux driver)

> 2. I have an HDTV and would like to use a VGA to Component Progressive
> transcoder with my mythtv box. On windows I have to use a special program
> to output custom resolutions and compensate for overscan. Is that level of
> control available under linx? Can someome point me to docs that would
> explain how to do that. I have the appropriate timings and stuff for my
> display.
>

can't help you here...

> Does anyone else have their mythtv box setup that way? What do you do about
> 16x9 versus 4:3? Do you have to leave the set in 4:3 mode or can it add
> bars to 3. the side. It would be nice to have 16x9 menus in myth (more
> screen real estate) and have it scale 4:3 material with black bars on the
> side. That way I could also use the machine to play dvds and not have to
> adjust the aspect ratio.
>

or here...

> 4. One thing that concers me is the response time of the remote and the
> speed of navigating menus. Is this an issue? Some HTPC frontends on win
> are very slow on a P4 just because they cannot respond to remote signals
> fast enough. I will be using the PVR250's remote on this system.
>

or here.

> 5. I've noticed that the redhat setup seems to be tricky. I am more of a
> FreeBSD guy myself (no mythtv support dang it) so can you recommend a
> distro that will give me the least headaches. I know this has been debated
> before but I would like opinions from a BSD perspective.
>

The are all a bit tricky. That's the fun part :-). I haven't tried
redhat. I use debian (testing). Methink that the reason you _think_
that redhat is tricky is because it seems like the redhat people are
asking alot of questions lately. With debian it is REALLY Easy. you
just apt-get MythTV , hit "enter". and within 15 minutes you are pausing
live tv.

> 6. And finally, I need this to be pretty stable. Do you recommend the
> latest CVS or is there a version that seems to be rock solid but may be
> missing the latest features that you could point me to. (I know myth is in
> devel and there are ongoing issues.)
>

The latest CVS is (by definition almost) pretty UNstable. Isaac will be
out with 0.9 soon I hear. By the time you get everything working it will
probably be out and that will be the one you want.

***BTW***, I hope you realised that I was joking about the 15 minutes
with debian. I've been at it for 15 days and I'm still not there yet...
But if I wanted "plug-and-play" I'd keep using my TIVO.

Have fun and tell us which distro you ended up using.


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

> On Mon, 2003-05-26 at 08:04, Myth wrote:
>But if I wanted "plug-and-play" I'd keep using my TIVO.

Oh no I realize it isn't going to be plug and play and I am very comfortable
at the command prompt. I just hate redhat as a general rule and would
prefer to be working on a BSD based distro. That isn't an option here so I
was hoping somone could recommend a linux variant that works and does not
have the "quirks" that redhat has. :)

Thanks for the info though.

Roby Adams.

At 10:33 AM 5/26/2003 -0400, you wrote:

> > On Mon, 2003-05-26 at 08:04, Myth wrote:
> >But if I wanted "plug-and-play" I'd keep using my TIVO.
>
>Oh no I realize it isn't going to be plug and play and I am very comfortable
>at the command prompt. I just hate redhat as a general rule and would
>prefer to be working on a BSD based distro. That isn't an option here so I
>was hoping somone could recommend a linux variant that works and does not
>have the "quirks" that redhat has. :)

Despite two weeks of teething I went through, it is actually very
straightforward to get Myth (CVS version as well) running quickly on a
RedHat 9 system. In fact I did a format and reinstall and had everything
up and running, including my remote, in one morning. I posted a doc
earlier in the week to the list that outlines how to get things going on
Myth (at least with a PVR 250 although I udnerstand others have used
regulat TV tuner cards and had luck as well). I have some requested
updating to do to the doc and will make it available in updated format soon.

-Jeff

> Despite two weeks of teething I went through, it is actually very
> straightforward to get Myth (CVS version as well) running quickly on a
> RedHat 9 system. In fact I did a format and reinstall and had everything
> up and running, including my remote, in one morning. I posted a doc
> earlier in the week to the list that outlines how to get things going on
> Myth (at least with a PVR 250 although I udnerstand others have used
> regulat TV tuner cards and had luck as well). I have some requested
> updating to do to the doc and will make it available in updated format
soon.
>
> -Jeff
>

Yeah I saw that. That will definately be what I use when I start to set it
up. We should have a repository for info like that.

Thanks for your work.

Roby Adams

Could you repost a link to that doc?

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net] On Behalf Of Jeff C
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 9:44 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Taking the plunge - General questions
aboutsetup and PVR250


At 10:33 AM 5/26/2003 -0400, you wrote:

> > On Mon, 2003-05-26 at 08:04, Myth wrote:
> >But if I wanted "plug-and-play" I'd keep using my TIVO.
>
>Oh no I realize it isn't going to be plug and play and I am very
comfortable
>at the command prompt. I just hate redhat as a general rule and would
>prefer to be working on a BSD based distro. That isn't an option here
so I
>was hoping somone could recommend a linux variant that works and does
not
>have the "quirks" that redhat has. :)

Despite two weeks of teething I went through, it is actually very
straightforward to get Myth (CVS version as well) running quickly on a
RedHat 9 system. In fact I did a format and reinstall and had
everything
up and running, including my remote, in one morning. I posted a doc
earlier in the week to the list that outlines how to get things going on

Myth (at least with a PVR 250 although I udnerstand others have used
regulat TV tuner cards and had luck as well). I have some requested
updating to do to the doc and will make it available in updated format
soon.

-Jeff


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

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/archive/MythTV_C2/Users_F11/Install_tips_for_RH9_and_PVR250_owners_for_Myth_P63078/


> Could you repost a link to that doc?

Myth wrote:

>>On Mon, 2003-05-26 at 08:04, Myth wrote:
>>But if I wanted "plug-and-play" I'd keep using my TIVO.
>
>
> Oh no I realize it isn't going to be plug and play and I am very comfortable
> at the command prompt. I just hate redhat as a general rule and would
> prefer to be working on a BSD based distro. That isn't an option here so I
> was hoping somone could recommend a linux variant that works and does not
> have the "quirks" that redhat has. :)
>

Gentoo works well for me, I didn't experience any of the quirks redhat
users report. Plus, it's package system is a bit pased on BSD ports, you
could feel closer to home :)


Pete

I may have to check that out. The FTP site I get my redhat isos from has a
gentoo folder. I get my PVR-250 and an 80 gig drive sometime this week. :)

Thanks for the info

Roby Adams

> Gentoo works well for me, I didn't experience any of the quirks redhat
> users report. Plus, it's package system is a bit pased on BSD ports, you
> could feel closer to home :)

>
> 1. On the PVR250, does the tv out work? I would imagine that the mythtv
> overlays and stuff do NOT output via that connection and that is cool
> because I'd like to use that for VCR recording/archiving.
>

The PVR-250 does not have a TV-out; only the PVR-350 does, AFAIK. The 350
has an onboard MPEG decoder, which means that the TV-out will only accept
MPEG data. The MythTV menus & other screens are not in MPEG format, thus
cannot (currently) be output to a PVR-350. Plus, I don't know if the ivtv
driver supports the MPEG decoder on the 350 yet.

Speculation on my part:

My guess it that the card itself outputs the decoded MPEG stream via an
internal loopback from the encoded input; the (Windows) driver probably
enables this to be switched on/off or select loopback vs. MPEG file from
disk.

It would be cool if Myth supported MPEG-format output for menu screens and
such, as this would enable a really lightweight frontend (using one of the
VIA EPIA boards) or a lightweight frontend/backend combo using any small/low
power PC with a PVR-350. However, my (limited) understanding of the issues
involved tell me that this is not likely to happen soon, if ever.

-JAC

On Tue, 2003-05-27 at 10:17, Pierre-Olivier Bouchard wrote:

> Gentoo works well for me, I didn't experience any of the quirks redhat
> users report. Plus, it's package system is a bit pased on BSD ports, you
> could feel closer to home :)
>

What's all this I keep hearing about "quirks" with RedHat? I got MythTV
set up using RPMS for everything I needed and it worked just fine. The
issues I had were all driver or hardware related and were not in any way
caused by RH. In fact, I'm still using the RH9 provided kernels! I
don't recall reading anywhere on this list that users have had problems
with RedHat per se, it's been mostly user in-experience or unwillingness
(or inability, because they want to use PVR-250) to take advantage of
the pre-compiled packages.

The recent "Install tips for RH9 and PVR250" spends virtually the whole
time on completely non-RH related topics which you'd have to do no
matter what the distro. Like, compiling the ivtv drivers, compiling
from CVS, installing Nvidia drivers.

I do not want to start a distro holy war here, my point is only that RH9
has worked well for me and I just don't see the quirks that you refer
to. In fact, if you don't need the CVS version of MythTV then RH9 is
probably an excellent choice for a distro. Especially when combined
with apt-get and the repositories at fresrpms.net and atrpms.

Regards,
Aran

Well you guys are right the PVR-250 does not have outputs and the 350 does.
I know that the 350 would not be able to output the myth display IF it does
not support overlay on the output.

Some decoders do like the Sigma Designs X-card. It can insert overlays on
the video out. Of course that is a decoder board and is not a Encoder/PVR
card.


> My guess it that the card itself outputs the decoded MPEG stream via an
> internal loopback from the encoded input; the (Windows) driver probably
> enables this to be switched on/off or select loopback vs. MPEG file from
> disk.
>

Other than what was in that thread, RedHat may be a good distro for Myth as
far as I know. I have in the past had nothing but problems with RedHat.
That was a while ago and have not tried recently. The "quirks" comment was
based on my own frustration with use and because of something I save in the
PVR-250 RH9 thread about paths or something. I don't know for sure but I am
going to try Gentoo first anyway.

oh and,

FreeBSD for life!! Down with Linux! Word to tha devils! :) (joke)

In fact, if you don't need the CVS version of MythTV then RH9 is
> probably an excellent choice for a distro.

Aran, I wish I had the same experience, but my MythTV-RH9 box is still
"uncooperative"...

A quick HOW-TO on setting up MythTV using atrpms, apt-get etc would be
nice (which I did use by the way).

Do you have the time?

brad


-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net] On Behalf Of Aran Cox
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 9:20 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Taking the plunge - General
questionsaboutsetup and PVR250





On Tue, 2003-05-27 at 10:17, Pierre-Olivier Bouchard wrote:

> Gentoo works well for me, I didn't experience any of the quirks redhat
> users report. Plus, it's package system is a bit pased on BSD ports,
you
> could feel closer to home :)
>

What's all this I keep hearing about "quirks" with RedHat? I got MythTV
set up using RPMS for everything I needed and it worked just fine. The
issues I had were all driver or hardware related and were not in any way
caused by RH. In fact, I'm still using the RH9 provided kernels! I
don't recall reading anywhere on this list that users have had problems
with RedHat per se, it's been mostly user in-experience or unwillingness
(or inability, because they want to use PVR-250) to take advantage of
the pre-compiled packages.

The recent "Install tips for RH9 and PVR250" spends virtually the whole
time on completely non-RH related topics which you'd have to do no
matter what the distro. Like, compiling the ivtv drivers, compiling
from CVS, installing Nvidia drivers.

I do not want to start a distro holy war here, my point is only that RH9
has worked well for me and I just don't see the quirks that you refer
to. In fact, if you don't need the CVS version of MythTV then RH9 is
probably an excellent choice for a distro. Especially when combined
with apt-get and the repositories at fresrpms.net and atrpms.

Regards,
Aran



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But how are the overlays formatted? Can you just set your X display to the
decoder board and have that work, or do you need to format each screen as a
static image? If the former, no problem; if the latter, this raises the
same issues as pure MPEG; namely, how to take an interactive X (Qt)
interface and convert it to static images. I don't know anything about
decoders w/overlay, so maybe it's simpler than that, though.

-JAC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces@snowman.net]On Behalf Of Roby Adams
> Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 12:28 PM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Taking the plunge - General questions about
> setupand PVR250
>
>
> Well you guys are right the PVR-250 does not have outputs and the
> 350 does.
> I know that the 350 would not be able to output the myth display
> IF it does
> not support overlay on the output.
>
> Some decoders do like the Sigma Designs X-card. It can insert overlays on
> the video out. Of course that is a decoder board and is not a Encoder/PVR
> card.