[mythtv-users] Trouble with Windows frontend towards Linux backend - audio only, no video output

[Christopher Kerr]

On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 9:02 AM, Per Lundberg <perlun at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I'm trying to do some playing around, getting the MythTV frontend
> running on Windows, towards a Linux server. The MythTV frontend works
> under Linux, but the quality of the video output isn't that great, so
> that's one of the reasons I'd like to test it on Windows instead. (The
> graphics card is an nVidia 6150 integrated card, not really a monster.
> :-)
>
> All of this is with version 0.24 (more specific info later on)
>
> At first, the frontend wouldn't even start. It turned out that the
> settings that worked well under Linux didn't work at all on Windows.
> Executing a "delete from settings where hostname = 'htpc'" SQL query
> solved that part, it gave me a fresh start. (Can the hostname be
> overriden somehow? There was an option for this in the (unofficial)
> Windows installer but it seemed to fall back to the hostname returned
> from Windows anyway...
>
> Deleting those settings got me a MythFrontend that was capable of
> starting, but the UI looked a bit messy somehow (running with Direct3D
> as the output). I switched to Qt, and stuff looked better. But the
> problem is that whenever I try to start live TV, I get nothing - I do
> get sound, and in some of the modes (Direct3D, Qt or OpenGL) it gives
> me a message about "Playback starting" or something like that. In
> other modes, I don't even get that, the previous screen contents (from
> the MythTV menus) remain on screen!
>
> Really crazy. I even tried installing DirectX 9 but to no avail. What
> could possibly be causing these weird errors? This is what the
> frontend log looks like.
>
> 2010-11-20 23:57:40.337 VideoOutput, Error: Couldn't load deinterlace filter
> 2010-11-20 23:57:40.337 Player(2): Video timing method: USleep with busy wait
> 2010-11-20 23:57:40.337 TV: Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
> 2010-11-20 23:57:40.337 TV: State is LiveTV & mctx == ctx
> 2010-11-20 23:57:40.352 TV: UpdateOSDInput done
> 2010-11-20 23:57:40.352 TV: UpdateLCD done
> 2010-11-20 23:57:40.352 TV: ITVRestart done
> 2010-11-20 23:57:40.790 Player(2): DecoderGetFrame() called with NULL decoder.
> 2010-11-20 23:57:41.509 VideoOutput, Error: Couldn't load deinterlace filter
> 2010-11-20 23:57:41.509 Player(2): Failed to enable deinterlacing
> 2010-11-20 23:57:41.509 AFD: Opened codec 0x315ac040, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
>
> 2010-11-20 23:57:41.509 AFD: codec MP2 has 2 channels
> 2010-11-20 23:57:41.509 AFD: Opened codec 0x315ac410, id(MP2) type(Audio)
> 2010-11-20 23:57:41.587 AO: Opening audio device 'Windows:' ch 2(2) sr
> 48000 sf signed 16 bit reenc 0
> 2010-11-20 23:57:41.587 AudioPlayer: Enabling Audio
> 2010-11-20 23:57:49.715
> RingBuf(myth://192.168.1.100:6543/2001_20101120235740.mpg): Waited 0.2
> seconds for data
>                        to become available... 1540 < 32768
> 2010-11-20 23:57:49.715 Checking to see if there's a new livetv
> program to switch to..
> 2010-11-20 23:57:50.137
> RingBuf(myth://192.168.1.100:6543/2001_20101120235740.mpg): Waited 0.2
> seconds for data
>                        to become available... 6280 < 32768
> 2010-11-20 23:57:50.137 Checking to see if there's a new livetv
> program to switch to..
>
> C:\Program Files\mythtv\bin>mythfrontend --version
> Please attach all output as a file in bug reports.
> MythTV Version   : 27252
> MythTV Branch    : branches/release-0-24-fixes
> Network Protocol : 63
> Library API      : 0.24.20101028-1
> QT Version       : 4.6.3
> Options compiled in:
>  profile using_backend using_frontend using_hdhomerun using_mheg
> using_opengl_video using_opengl_vsync using_qtwebkit using_opengl
> using_ffmpeg_threads using_mheg
>
> per at terah:~$ mythbackend --version
> Please attach all output as a file in bug reports.
> MythTV Version   : 0.24
> MythTV Branch    : exported
> Network Protocol : 63
> Library API      : 0.24.20101028-1
> QT Version       : 4.6.3
> Options compiled in:
>  linux release using_alsa using_jack using_oss using_pulse
> using_pulseoutput using_backend using_bindings_perl
> using_bindings_python using_directfb using_dvb using_firewire
> using_frontend using_hdhomerun using_hdpvr using_iptv using_ivtv
> using_joystick_menu using_libfftw3 using_lirc using_mheg
> using_opengl_video using_opengl_vsync using_qtdbus using_qtwebkit
> using_v4l using_x11 using_xrandr using_xv using_xvmc using_xvmc_vld
> using_xvmcw using_bindings_perl using_bindings_python
> using_mythtranscode using_opengl using_vdpau using_ffmpeg_threads
> using_live using_mheg
>
> (The backend version is a .deb retrieved via debian-multimedia. The
> frontend was downloaded from the "unofficial" MythTV for Windows
> binary page.)
>
> Any ideas/suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

I have nothing to add beyond a "me too" - I've been unable to get
video playback working on 0.24-fixes on Windows. Some combinations get
audio but no video, some hang, some crash.

I haven't had the time to look into it more deeply than that.

- Chris