[mythtv-users] HELP! I'm about ready to give up on MythTV!!!

junk_inbox at comcast.net junk_inbox at comcast.net
Thu May 19 04:06:32 UTC 2005


Ok, after having spending just a few hours a couple of months ago
setting up a Myth 'test' box running FC2, MythTV .16 and a single
PVR-350, I was very excited about MythTV and it's awesome potential to
replace my two Dish Network PVRs. 

So I bought a second tuner (a PVR-250) to start building a 'real' MythTV
server.  I installed it in my test server, and it worked like a charm,
perfectly co-existing with the PVR-350.  

Then things sat for a while as other priorities took center-stage and my
MythTV project was put aside for a couple of months.  

When Tax Return time came around, I had a little extra cash to spend, so
I decided to buy a HDTV3000 card before the 'broadcast flag' law went
into effect. (This was just a couple of days before it was overturned) 
So anyways, the card came in, and I decided to re-build my backend
server from scratch to start with a clean install.  (It was quite messed
up from all the 'tinkering' I had done while learning Linux and how to
setup and configure everything.)

I used Jared's guide for FC3.  But then I found out all sorts of little
issues with FC3 that affected me...  Like the fact that the ENTER key
didn't work for MYTHSETUP (and the frontend too!)  And the HDTV drivers
didn't work on that version of the kernel, etc...  I searched gossamer
and found that the enter-key bug could be fixed by downgrading 'qt' --
But I couldn't downgrade 'qt' because of other dependencies...  So by
now I was starting to get a bit peeved -- This was getting
rediculous...  I searched the gossamer threads and seemed to determine
that FC3 was a bad choice for me -- more so because of the HDTV drivers
than anything else.

So I started over AGAIN, this time with FC2.  But now half the commands
in the FC2 guide didn't work by doing a simple cut and paste (like they
did a couple of months ago) because many of the packages referenced in
the guide are not available anymore (obsolete versions?).  So I did my
best to find the new versions of the packages and kept my fingers
crossed that things would be OK in the end.

Well, things looked like they were going fine, until I tried the test
video capture on my PVR-x50 cards.  All I get is a green screen and no
audio.  No matter which card I use, or if I use the perl tuner app or
not...  No such luck.  Searching the gossamer myth threads, it appears
that at least one message seemed to say that it was the xvid driver
issue, while another claimed a V4L issue.  But being pretty new to
Linux, I haven't got a clue on how to do anything about it.  (The
messages did not specifically describe how to fix it, it just stated
that it was an issue with xvid or v4l)

btw: I am NOT a computer novice -- I'm highly technical...  I'm the guy
that everybody comes to with their computer issues (primarily Wintel),
and I can usually have them back up & running fine in minutes...  But
this stuff is really testing me!!!   

So what should I do???  Can I un-install IVTV and/or lingering HD3000
drivers and try to re-install them, perhaps removing all the capture
cards and only installing them one at a time?  (IE: The PVR-350 first,
then the PVR-250 and finally the HD3000)  Or would it be better/easier
to only have the 350 and 250 in the 'primary' backend server, then setup
a 'slave' backend for the HDTV tuner?  

I'm just getting so *bleeping* upset with this whole thing that I'm
about ready to give up.  I don't *want* to give up, but it seems like a
hopeless cause right now...  (and to add to the flustration, the
'evolution' email client I'm using has crashed at least 20 times while
trying to type this message!!!) 

:-O AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I fell a *little* bit better now, but not much... 

PLEASE HELP ME IF YOU CAN!!!!  I would *LOVE* to have MytyTV working
with two of my Dish receivers connected to the S-Video inputs of the 350
and 250, and the HDTV tuner pulling in the over-the-air HDTV signals... 
That's my DREAM, anyways!!!!

Kernel: 2.6.10-1.771_FC2
PC: Athlon XP 1800+ - 512MB 
Gfx: Nvidia GeForce 4
Disk: 100GB SCSI LVM (Video) 18GB SCSI (boot,root) 20GB IDE (swap,data)
Tuner cards: PVR-350 PVR-250 PCHDTV3000 

Jeff


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