[mythtv-users] Help setting up a Mythbuntu box
stuart
stuart at xnet.com
Fri Jul 11 23:51:48 UTC 2008
Per Baekgaard wrote:
> I'm in the process of setting up a dedicated box for Myth. It is
> equipped with a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH2 motherboard, which has an
> embedded ATI HD 3200 controller (!), and uses as its tuner/grabber a
> card that identifies itself 1131:7133 with SSID:SVID 1a7f:2004 (revision
> d1). I don't know what card it is, and it has been somehow glued so that
> it cannot easily be removed for a full visual inspection (and checking
> so far has not revealed any marks). The card appears to be based on a
> Philips/NXP 713x chipset -- maybe some derivative of an Encore ENLTV-FM
> card.
>
> (I asked Encore for further help, but they just said it sounded like it
> was "probably close to an ENLTV-FM card" and I could use that driver and
> look at sourceforge for more information ;-) Maybe it is some kind of
> OEM card?
Can you do an lspci?
Then look here to see if you can find a matching set of chips:
http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_PCI_Cards
Then, I would still try to visually inspect the card and compare it to
pictures on the web. Trying to do this when you know what hardware you
have is hard enough!
> I have spent quite some time setting up the box. To get the tuner
> working, I've added "options saa7134 card=107 tuner=54" for modprobe to
> use, which appears to make it work (sort of). It also apparently works
> with "card=3".
>
> Running Myth on the open source ATI driver shows a very sluggish
> picture, so I upgraded to the latest Catalyst driver from ATI (8.6,
> released June 2008) and got that installed, enabling TexturedVideo
> support (the latest one doesn't support simple XV).
>
> I am thus now able to sort of run Myth, but have a bunch of problems:
>
>
> 1) I cannot capture any sound from the tuner, no matter what I try.
>
> AFAIK, 713x based cards use the 7134-alsa driver (which is correctly
> loaded according to lsmod) and should provide the output in (my case in)
> /dev/dsp1 (oss) or alsa hw:1,0. I've tried setting up myth to use
> /dev/dsp1 is sound input, but I get no sound.
>
> I have also tried using mplayer and tvtime to show the video stream.
> Both works well (tvtime very smooth also in full screen mode) for
> showing video, but none of them captures any video (not even mplayer
> with the proper adevice and forceaudio settings)... even doing arecord
> off the input just gets me empty sound. The video stream is thus, as
> expected, empty. WIth mplayer, trying to capture video off the
> saa7134-alsa interface and limiting it to 32000Hz, it also looses sync,
> so something is not right with this setup.
>
> 2) The video output from myth is garbled. It takes up to 10s before it
> starts showing any video in LiveTV mode, and then it displays the video
> twice on screen. The entire picture is visible -- twice, in that it is
> compressed to half height and then repeated on the screen with one
> version on the top half and another on the bottom half.
>
> This is likely a fglrx driver setting I got wrong... I'm using the
> TexturedVideo options currently, and have tested other combinations
> also, but cannot find one that both uses less than 100% CPU and also
> displays the image correctly.
>
> 3) Changing the channel from any of the programs (myth or tvtime) often
> fails, and the channel shows no input.
>
> >From tvtime I can sometimes succesfully cycle inputs ("i") to get it
> alive after it looses the channel, but it appears quite unstable, and
> sometimes it just crashes myth that silently exits (nothing special in
> the logfiles).
>
> This is likely due to an incorrect grabber setting -- I'm hoping someone
> can identify the card and point me in the right direction for the
> parameters!
>
> 4) The speakers are internally connected to the line2 (front panel
> audio). I am not able to find a way to route the sound to that output,
> for some strange reason -- it always goes to the back panel mini jack.
> I'm not sure what it is connected to either, but I fear I need to enable
> also a AC'97 codec or some HD audio settings on that output.
>
>
> There are other problems too, but these are the worst ones at the moment.
>
> I know the hardware is not optimal -- but it is not mine, and I would
> like to get it to run, if possible. There is plenty of CPU power in the
> box (it is an AMD X2 5400+ something).
>
> So any hints/ideas will be much appreciated!
>
>
>
> -- Per.
Sounds like you have a lot going on here. And I'm not sure I can help
with sound (I've had my share of problems). Have you tried the alsa
mixer controller yet? Perhaps, if you are using a digital tuner and
stereo speakers you may what to check if you are properly down mixing
multi channel sound to stereo.
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