[mythtv-users] ATI (I know, I know) Issues

Alen Edwards allen.edwards at oldpaloalto.com
Fri Jul 4 15:55:00 UTC 2008



Chris Keegan wrote:
> Hive Mind,
>
> I've been a happy MythTv user for quite a while now and recently I
> decided that I would upgrade my setup to be a whizzo slimline quiet box
> using a Hiper case. It's been a *massive* (I can't emphasise that
> enough) pain to get it working (and I've built a fair few machines in my
> time). Because it's slimline I've only got 1 PCI slot, which is being
> occupied by the Tuner card so I'm reliant on the onboard graphics of the
> Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H motherboard (which is ATI X1250-based).
>
> So It's all up and running with Ubuntu Hardy and I'm very happy with it
> (here's the but) but video playback in MythTV is well, rubbish. ATI, I
> know was not the right decision but back then I was young and optimistic
> (naive). 
>
> My mythtv-frontend.log looks like this at the relevant bit:
> 2008-07-04 14:47:17.764 VideoOutputXv Error: Could not find suitable
> XVideo surface.
> 2008-07-04 14:47:17.764 VideoOutputXv: Falling back to X11 video output
> over a network socket.
>                               *** May be very slow ***
> 2008-07-04 14:47:17.765 VideoOutputXv Error: XCreateImage failed:
> XJ_disp(0x83a6c90) visual(0x83db5c0)
>                         XJ_depth(24) WxH(1280x720) bpl(3840)
> 2008-07-04 14:47:17.765 VideoOutputXv Error: Failed to create X buffers.
> 2008-07-04 14:47:18.041 Couldn't load deinterlace filter
>
> With logs like that, you'd kind of expect crap performance. Video
> rendering rarely goes well across network interfaces. I've tried getting
> the latest ATI drivers using EnvyNG but to no avail.
>
> Is there any kind soul out there who may have a solution that is not
> "take everything apart, send back the motherboard, rebuild and hope that
> the next onboard graphics works better".
>
> I'd probably consider re-writing the ATI driver to be preferable to
> that!
>
> Thanks to any and all for any advice!
>
> Chris...

This may not be what you are looking for but a possible solution, 
assuming this is for DTV and not analog would be to get a HDHR and a 
Nvidia 6200PCI.  However, make sure that PCI graphics is acceptable.  I 
thought it was not but have seen posts on this list that say it is.  If 
the rest seems acceptable (not first choice obviously) then check it out 
first.

Allen



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