[mythtv-users] xawtv works - what's the next step?

[Joseph Caputo]

Justin Gombos wrote:
> * Joseph Caputo <jcaputo1 at comcast.net> [2005-03-17 14:17]:
> 
>>Please just try xawtv.  It's *so* much easier.  Also, you're going
>>to have issues unless you can get Xv working on your video card.
> 
> 
> Xawtv is the only thing that works for me, and I'm glad you suggested
> it.  But the goal is to have MythTV work.  I want to take the next
> baby step.
> 
> I want to see live tv via MythTV next (which currently displays a
> blank screen).  I'm sure there's a smaller step I can take to get
> there.  What other tests and troubleshooting can I do, knowing that
> Xawtv works, but mplayer doesn't, and I can't even cat from
> /dev/video0?

Stop trying to 'cat' from /dev/video0.  You're not supposed to do that 
with a framegrabber card; that test is meant for hardware MPEG encoder 
cards like the PVR-250, that allow you to read an MPEG stream from the 
video device.  DON'T DO IT!!

> What exactly is Xv?  Is that something that MythTV
> depends on?  

Yes.  Xv is the X11 extension that enables 2D scaling of video to be 
done by your video card hardware.  Without it, your CPU must shoulder 
the load.  If you're recording at, say, 640x480, but your display 
resolution is 800x600, then to display full-screen the video must be 
scaled.  Doing the scaling in software is quite taxing on your CPU, 
hence the need for Xv, so you can let your video card do it.  Without 
Xv, I doubt you'll be able to watch LiveTV on a PII-400 or whatever it 
is you have.  That's a pretty lightweight box to try and serve as a 
combined backend/frontend IMHO, even *with* Xv.

-JAC