[mythtv-users] Playing back PVR500 recordings on PVR350 decoder

Les Gondor les at totalgraphix.ca
Tue Jan 10 18:22:49 UTC 2006


Ole Andre Schistad wrote:
> I recently added a PVR500 to my existing mythtv box, and am hoping there 
> is a way to play back all recordings using the hardware decoder chip on 
> the 350. My primary reason for this is simply that mpeg2 looks much 
> better when output through the HW decoder than when played back in 
> software, although I am also experiencing some problems getting sound 
> when using software playback (complains about my alsa settings).

I have also added a PVR500 to an existing PVR350 combined frontend/backend. As far as I know, all 
recordings use the hardware decoder regardless of the original source of the recording. The 
mythsetup program enables this when the checkbox for 'Use PVR350 hardware decoder' is checked (the 
wording is probably different; I'm not at home right now).
> 
> Since the encoder on the PVR500 should produce an identical mpeg2 stream 
> to that on the PVR350, there should be no reason why it can't be done - 
> only that mythtv may not be coded to actually do things this way out of 
> the box.

I strongly suspect that it does indeed do this right out of the box, for precisely the reason you give.
> 
> I expect that there is a flag somewhere in the database which myth uses 
> to determine wether to dump a given file to the PVR350s decoder chip or 
> to software decode it to the framebuffer? If so, then one way of 
> achieving what I want would be to run a periodic equivalent to UPDATE 
> tablename SET flagname='recorded_by_350' where 
> flagname='not_recorded_by_350' or similar .. but maybe there is a more 
> elegant way ? Or am I not supposed to have this particular problem to 
> begin with? :)
> 
> Anyway, appreciate any help from you guys.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Ole André
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> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> 
> 

No flags required, but you will see software decoding on videos not recorded by the PVR cards (DVDs 
or anything transcoded from the recordings into something other than MPEG2).

-- 
Les Gondor, Total Graphics            les at totalgraphix.ca
If you don't know what you're doing, do it neatly


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