[mythtv-users] MythTV Raspberry Pi2 frontend testers

[Lawrence Rust]

On Tue, 2015-11-24 at 15:04 -0500, Peter Bennett (cats22) wrote:
[snip]
> I am using analog audio in all cases.
> 
> I retested eglfs and compared it to xcb. I am using a 1080i recording.
> See attached file mediainfo.txt for info about it.
> 
> eglfs - Jerky playback on a 1280x1024 DVI screen and using analog audio.
> xcb - smooth playback, no jerkiness in this case

I'm missing something.  I've tested a number of videos, monitors &
resolutions and haven't see any jerkiness with eglfs playback.  So a
small favour, would you run a test with the most jerky video that you
have and post me the mythfrontend log with '-v playback --loglevel
debug' args.  It would also be extremely useful to test a video that
causes problems so is it possible to download it from somewhere?

> Overscan settings in config.txt fix this for most applications, but not
> for MythTV frontend.
> eglfs - overscan settings seem to be completely ignored.
> xcb - overscan settings are partially used, the width of picture is
> reduced but the position is still top left so you  lose the top and left
> of the GUI and get extra space at the bottom and right.

OK, I believe that I've fixed the video window positioning problem
together with a number of other problems.  I've posted a new build here:
http://www.softsystem.co.uk/download/mythtv/mythtv-v0.27.5-80-g65d2de0-RPI2.tar.bz2

I've also updated the fixes-0.27-rpi2 git branch and updated the
mythbuild.sh script:
http://www.softsystem.co.uk/download/mythtv/mythbuild.sh

Finally I've added a master-rpi2 branch and a build here:
http://www.softsystem.co.uk/download/mythtv/mythtv-v0.28-pre-3207-g1678991-RPI2.tar.bz2

[snip]

> I have a remote that uses the keyboard media keys. I use the "Setup
> Keys" part of frontend setup to assign them appropriately.
> eglfs - One media keys is not detected at all (STOP) and the others work
> but with different codes from x-windows.
> xcb - All media keys work.

There's little that Myth can do about keystrokes - it's a Linux/Qt
issue.  Maybe Qt 5.5 is better.  I'll look at adding support for Qt 5.5
shortly.

I use lirc to map my remote keys from the event codes produced by the
kernel into keycodes for Myth.  I've found that more reliable over
kernel and Qt upgrades.

> OSD
> eglfs - OSD works smoothly
Expected - it uses h/w overlay.  Hence my desire to use eglfs by
default.

> xcb - OSD causes jerkiness
Expected - it uses CPU blending.  Unfortunately Qt doesn't support
mixing EGL surfaces (h/w accelerated) with Qt's own xcb derived windows.

> Subtitles
> I am not seeing subtitles with either xcb or eglfs.
> With normal front end on a particular show I get a choice of ATSC CC1
> Subtitles or VBI CC1 subtitles. Either of these shows the same
> subtitles, I don't know why two are shown.
> With Raspberry Pi frontend I only see ATSC CC1 as a choice. Selecting it
> says "Subtitles enabled" but they never appear on the screen.

I believe that the problem is a missing libass-dev package.  It's an
optional lib that's used for certain types of subtitle - I've never seen
a difference in the UK so it must be an ATSC issue.  The new
mythbuild.sh adds this lib and is included in the updated build.  You
will need to install libass4 on the RPi to use this.

> 
> Because of the issues with the display cutting off and the media key for
> "stop" not working, xcb is preferable to me right now. I am using it
> with an analog TV so there is no jerkiness whether I use eglfs or xcb.
> 
> Attached is my config.txt file.

You will get a nice performance boost by adding this to config.txt

arm_freq=1000
core_freq=450
sdram_freq=467
over_voltage=2

It's quite a conservative over-clock and works on all the RPi2's I've
come across.

> Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Any feedback on the revised build would be appreciated.

-- Lawrence Rust