[mythtv-users] Firewire + PVR-250 Issues, plus some venting

[Jeff Wormsley]

I have a few issues with the system I've been building (for what seems 
like months now: sometimes I think I have Jarod's guide and the CVSHowTo 
memorized!).  Perhaps someone here can help.

1. Firewire drivers don't load at boot.

I installed the drivers according to various scattered suggestions, and 
got them to work.  Well, until I reboot, and then I have to modprobe the 
firewire drivers and create the symlink for /dev/raw1394 after each 
reboot.  Any good way to automate this?  Anyway, there are other issues 
that may be at work.  I've seen the following in dmesg even when they 
worked after I first installed the drivers.

Badness in ohci_hw_csr_reg at drivers/ieee1394/ohci1394.c:3154
 [<e09fa130>] ohci_hw_csr_reg+0x69/0x82 [ohci1394]
 [<e1234c42>] host_reset+0x64/0x106 [ieee1394]
 [<e1234699>] highlevel_host_reset+0x27/0x34 [ieee1394]
 [<e09f915a>] ohci_irq_handler+0x907/0x95d [ohci1394]
 [<c013d4e6>] handle_IRQ_event+0x21/0x4a
 [<c013d64b>] __do_IRQ+0x13c/0x249
 [<c0104e04>] do_IRQ+0x5e/0x7a
 =======================
 [<c01035b2>] common_interrupt+0x1a/0x20
 [<c0120b50>] __do_softirq+0x2c/0x79
 [<c0104edc>] do_softirq+0x38/0x3f
 =======================
 [<c0104e16>] do_IRQ+0x70/0x7a
 [<c01035b2>] common_interrupt+0x1a/0x20
 [<e09f6393>] set_phy_reg+0x1c2/0x1c7 [ohci1394]
 [<e09f6f68>] ohci_devctl+0xd4/0x757 [ohci1394]
 [<e123a3d8>] csr1212_generate_csr_image+0x1ab/0x1bb [ieee1394]
 [<e1231121>] hpsb_reset_bus+0x1c/0x22 [ieee1394]
 [<c012dd4b>] worker_thread+0x1ff/0x31b
 [<e1233564>] delayed_reset_bus+0x0/0xb6 [ieee1394]
 [<c01178ea>] default_wake_function+0x0/0xc
 [<c02fd6bb>] schedule+0x45d/0x4ea
 [<c01178ea>] default_wake_function+0x0/0xc
 [<c012db4c>] worker_thread+0x0/0x31b
 [<c0132b05>] kthread+0x69/0x91
 [<c0132a9c>] kthread+0x0/0x91
 [<c01011dd>] kernel_thread_helper+0x5/0xb
ieee1394: Node added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023]  GUID[000e5cfffeb45cde]
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-02:1023]  GUID[00004c0100003e9c]
ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized

Not sure what all this means, but like I said, it does work.  Ugly as 
this stuff is (I don't like it when drivers first message says 
"badness"), it would be nice if it would do it at boot time, because 
after I do all this, I can at least use 6200ch.  But see #2 for another 
related issue.

2. Can't watch LiveTV (related to #1)

The first time I found out about #1 was when I tried to watch LiveTV.  I 
think the failure to change the channel with the 6200ch program caused 
MythTV to "forget" the last successful channel and replace it with 0.  
So now, even when I get the drivers loaded, I can't tune, because the 
first thing it tries to do is tune to channel 0, which doesn't exist and 
fails.  I have no clue how to use MySQL to fix the 0.  Perhaps this 
behavior can be changed so 0 is replaced by the first channel in the 
channel list?  I mean, 0 is guaranteed to fail, but the first channel 
should work once the previous error is fixed, right?

3. PVR-250 audio not working anymore.

When I first got firewire working, I could watch via the PVR-250 as well 
as firewire (well, until the first reboot, and only the SD channels).  
Now, the PVR-250 won't work right either.  Video shows, but audio is 
gone.  I have an onboard CMedia outputting via SPDIF.  MythMusic and 
MythVideo work fine.  I worry about the dmesg line "ivtv: Encoder 
Firmware is buggy, use version 0x02040011", though.  Audio output is 
"ALSA:spdif" and mixer is "default".  I think I can figure this one out 
eventually.  After about 5 Gentoo attempts and at least that many FC3 
attempts, I've got this thing to work more than once.  Just listed it in 
case someone knows of some interaction between firewire capture and a 
PVR-250 I won't be able to figure out on my own.

 From here below are some other problems I have that I don't really 
expect much help with, but you never know.  Please don't take it as 
griping or anything!

4. Losing audio on firewire playback, video jerky (dried strips of 
video? ;-) ).

That one magical time I had firewire capture working (again, until the 
first reboot), I scheduled and captured about five shows.  I can watch 
these, albeit slightly jerkily, but...  If I do anything such as pause, 
FF, or RW, the audio goes away.  My theory is that my CPU is too slow.  
I had mistakenly turned on deinterlacing (a mistake because I am running 
1080i, see below) and it flat out wouldn't play.  Well, a frame here and 
there, and no audio.  I turned that off, which greatly reduced CPU load, 
and got to the point I am now.  Since I only have a 2.4Ghz CPU, and I 
see most people recommending 3.0Ghz, that is probably my problem.  Looks 
like a CPU upgrade in my future.

5. Modelines, modelines, modelines.

I have about four months of this list's emails stored on my machine, and 
this comes up all the time.  I thought I'd be cute (read: lazy) and just 
buy the card Jarod uses and use his modelines.  They sort of work, but 
the geometry is way off.  I adjusted a little with xvidtune, and now 
have it close.  xvidtune, however, won't let me change much.  More than 
one or two "wider" or "narrower" or "left" or "right" and it says I am 
outside the capabilities of my card.  Still, it was enough to get rid of 
the tear in the middle of the screen.  The 6200 output is rock solid and 
perfect.  The 9A60 output is wiggly (hard to describe, although a friend 
who works on arcade monitors calls it "dot crawl".  Plus the overscan is 
awful, so I switched to Jarod's "in1080i" mode which gets rid of most of 
the overscan.  Which brings me to another question:

6. Non-native resolution question

My TV is an early Samsung 54" HDTV ready rear projection unit.  It 
supports 1080i, 540p, 480p, and 480i.  When viewing straight from the 
6200, using the info button on the remote, even SD channels report 
1080i.  Try as I might, I haven't found anything to tell me what the 
native resolution is on this TV.  I did find out how to get into the 
service menu, and tweaked the geometry settings to make the 6200 output 
at 1080i look great.  But the 1080i from the nvidia card via the 9A60 
requires completely different tweaking.  I'd love to figure out how to 
get a modeline to duplicate the 6200 output.  I have access to a high 
bandwidth digital scope if anyone knows how to decode the waveform so I 
can figure out what it is putting out and if the nvidia 5200 can match 
it.  The real question is, though, since I switched to "in1080i" 
timings, my resolution is now 1760x960.  Other than the loss of 
resolution, what is the effect of this?  Does it put more strain on my 
already overtaxed CPU, or less?  If I am able to get a stable picture 
without all the problems, would it be ok to drop to 960x540?  Will that 
play on a 2.4Ghz CPU?  I don't really mind the resolution drop, as I am 
used to SDTV, and the recordings will still be 1080i, so when I am able 
to afford a better TV, I should be able to watch them in all their glory.

7. Dark scenes cause input overlay to appear

When viewing with the 6200 direct to the TV, dark scenes/black screens 
are no problem.  When doing the same with the 5200 and 9A60, they cause 
the TV to put up its current input overlay (it flashes COMPONENT2 at 
random locations on the screen).  A bright scene and it goes away, until 
the next dark scene or black screen.  This is probably related to #6 and #7.

8. Video sync

Obviously, I built from source to get the firewire stuff.  I also 
enabled the OpenGL video sync option, and checked the box in the setup 
that I thought was supposed to turn it on.  My frontend still reports 
the same old software sync method though.  What have I missed?  I'm not 
too worried about this yet, as until I fix the above issues, it isn't 
much to bother about.

Here's a few gripes, not really MythTV specific, but issues that other 
MythTV users might run into.

9. IRMan integration.

Apparently these beasts are rare.  There is no good guide on installing 
them in FC3, and all of the remote files out there don't work with them, 
as they output different codes than the simple serial IR receivers.  I 
got it working once and archived all the files to my video partition, 
which I don't reformat when I wipe the system and rebuild (did I mention 
I've done this several times? <grin>)  Just a note, in case anyone else 
has one.  I can help you get going with a Hauppage grey (old style) or 
using IRW.  I have had to build from source, as for some reason, I've 
not got an apt-get install lirc to support it (even adding apt-get 
install libirman doesn't help).  Fortunately, it's an easy build.

10. LCD integration

I have a matrix orbital VFD.  LCDproc is a pain to set up.  Same as with 
the IRman, once I got it working, I saved all my configs so I don't have 
to reproduce it every time.  My case has five buttons, and it is neat to 
use them to control the MythTV menus for, oh, about 5 minutes.  I mean, 
really, I have a remote, right? ;-)

11. Griffin PowerMate

The kernel detects it, but doesn't like it.  Has anyone used one of 
these in Linux, or with Myth?  If I could get it detected, I could use 
it for the same types of things the matrix orbital buttons do.  I'm sure 
it would be about as useful (read: not very), but it sure looks cool!  
(My case looks like this but with a silver Powemate and silver buttons: 
http://www.atechfabrication.com/images/htpc/HTPC_Case_black_157b_320.jpg ).

input: Griffin PowerMate on <NULL>
usbcore: registered new driver powermate

That <NULL> is what I think is killing it.

Anyway, sorry for the long post.  Maybe it will do some good for me and 
others, maybe not.  I do feel better, though, and thanks to everyone who 
develops, tests, and helps others!  You people are the best!

Jeff.