[mythtv-users] Livetv stutter

[Nick Morrott]

On 18 October 2017 at 20:54, Peter Bennett <cats22 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
> On 10/18/2017 03:29 PM, Nick Morrott wrote:
>>
>> Probably just me - all other frontends are VDPAU. I doubt anyone else
>> is running a PVR-xx0 analog capture card either nowadays?
>>
>> This is a MythTV box that was built in 2006, uses an ATI video card to
>> drive a large TV via RGB SCART (no digital inputs) and is shipwrecked
>> on Debian Wheezy due to the UMS/KMS changes in X.org in Jessie+
>> breaking driving such a low dotclock for the PAL signal.
>>
>> And neither the TV nor box will give up...
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Nick
>
> You could shell out $50 for a raspberry pi 3 and I expect it will work as
> well or better - and you can use the latest version of Debian Stretch.

Out of the box, an RPi would not work at all in this setup. I've
looked at using a Pi as a drop-in replacement frontend regularly over
the past few years, and every time it's been "traumatic".

I currently have, and thus would want the RPi to replicate:

i) PAL 576i video output terminating in RGB SCART (not composite, not YPbPr)

ii) digital audio over Toslink to an AV receiver

Video ouput could possibly be handled via an HDMI->VGA adapter, a
VGA->RGB SCART cable with composite sync, and a suitable 576i
modeline. The recently-available VGA666-type GPIO boards looked like a
possibility but have limitations in the signals they can generate.
HDMI->SCART adapters on ebay are only ever generating composite or YUV
video, neither of which are suitable.

Digital audio support on the Pi would need either a GPIO-based digital
audio board, or an inline HDMI audio splitter to provide a TOSlink
connector.

At the moment, getting the frontend to work properly (not trying to
start playback until it has enough buffered video) seems like a more
realistic prospect :)

I shall work on getting 0.29 built on Wheezy and have another look a
the playback code  to see what else I can poke.

Cheers,
Nick