[mythtv-users] VDPAU update from the front lines, December 2008

[James Purl]

On Tue, 2 Dec 2008, Brad DerManouelian wrote:

[deletia]
>>
>> * Just how, exactly, is the OSD broken? I've read something of how
>>  it's all white.
>
> Mine is all white. It draws the shapes, but all colors are white so
> you can't see anything but white shapes. I haven't figured out why
> it's doing this on mine and not on other people's.

Another datapoint from me.  I setup a Fedora 10 box with Myth trunk 
running alongside my "production" system.  For me, using the "Gray" OSD theme, the 
OSD works EXCEPT the menu that (can) pop up when exiting a 
recording--which is all white. I've since turned that menu off. The OSD 
menu and OSD info is readable, provided it isn't displayed over a white 
part of the show. I'm still on r19179, BTW, on a Core 2 Duo 2.13 with a 
GeForce 9400 GT (512MB).

>> * I've also read of MPEG2 blockiness. How is that in practice? Or are
>>  all your recordings from the HD-PVR nowadays and that's not an
>>  issue?
>
> I record 3 ways. OTA, HD-PVR from DirectTV and PVR-350 from DirecTV.
> I'm not using VDPAU with PVR-350 recordings but I'm using it for
> everything else (I don't even know if the PVR-350 gets used any more
> since it's the lowest priority of 6 tuners).
>
> HD-PVR recordings all look beautiful. I have a scan line at the top of
> my screen which I believe is a result of not having a modeline and
> haven't gotten around to fixing it (it's not bad enough for me to care
> right now).
>
> OTA recordings have little vertical imperfections that make it look a
> little blocky. It's hard to describe. Definitely noticeable, but also
> acceptable and not bad enough for me to stop using it for these
> recordings.

I was only running with a HD-PVR for most of my test Sunday, but I have a 
recently acquired HDHomerun that wasn't setup in the main system yet, so I 
set it up on the trunk system with OTA.  I did watch a little of the 
content from it (MPEG2 HD), but it did look "hard-to-describe" weird. 
After the beautiful HD-PVR recordings, it bothered me enough that I go 
switch back to a playback profile that uses Xv before I watch those OTA 
recordings and only use the VDPAU one for HD-PVR stuff.


[deletia]

I must say, that *IF* you are willing to commit to ALL the requirements of 
running trunk (subscribe AND pay attention to -dev and -commits), 
understand how to use subversion and compile packages for your distro, learn how to 
properly report bugs, etc., THEN and only THEN I say that Trunk seems 
very usable for HD-PVR systems--again taking into account the current issues 
mentioned above.

james