[mythtv-users] Video card update fail

[Allen Edwards]

On Tue, Oct 9, 2018 at 9:38 PM Greg Oliver <oliver.greg at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 9, 2018 at 10:34 PM Allen Edwards <allen.p.edwards at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 9, 2018 at 7:43 PM Stephen Worthington <
>> stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz> wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 9 Oct 2018 14:02:43 -0700, you wrote:
>>>
>>> >On Sun, Oct 7, 2018 at 4:47 PM Greg Oliver <oliver.greg at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> On Sun, Oct 7, 2018 at 6:18 PM Allen Edwards <
>>> allen.p.edwards at gmail.com>
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >>> My system is using a Nvidia 6200.  DVI out to the TV and analog to a
>>> >>> monitor. I am running Mythbuntu 16 on an old AMD 5400.  Sound is
>>> analog to
>>> >>> the TV and SPDIF to a surround system we use for a few shows.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> After many hours I kind of got the new Nvidia 750ti card working.  I
>>> >>> could not get the onboard audio to work no matter what my son and I
>>> tried
>>> >>> and he is a Google software engineer so it stumped us both.  I had
>>> to cut
>>> >>> down a HDMI connector to get the cable to fit but with that and
>>> several
>>> >>> hours I got sound to the TV.  Not a permanent solution as no digital
>>> sound
>>> >>> to the surround system.
>>> >>>
>>> >>
>>> >> You should have immediately returned the card if HDMI did not fit.
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>> The final straw was that when I turned off the TV and turned it back
>>> on,
>>> >>> Myth was on the monitor and not on the TV.  I tried both checkboxes
>>> on the
>>> >>> find new devices and both acted the same.  The driver at that point
>>> was
>>> >>> 340.  The other choice was 361 which I used at first but switched at
>>> some
>>> >>> point to get a picture to display.  Lots of trouble with the video
>>> card
>>> >>> reading the TV EDIT wrong and sending out incorrect settings which
>>> would
>>> >>> not display at all. Not sure if the driver was the issue but long
>>> story
>>> >>> short, I ended up with the 340 driver.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Finally I took out the 750ti and reinstalled my 6200 and sound works,
>>> >>> myth doesn't switch when the TV is off.  Only issue is I got a little
>>> >>> better picture quality with the 750 on VDPAU slim. Any higher level
>>> setting
>>> >>> just crashed myth.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I am 7 hours into getting nothing done.  Two of us working most of
>>> that
>>> >>> time.  If anyone knows how to solve my problem I will put a few more
>>> hours
>>> >>> into it.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> By the way, on the sound, we tried at least three audio managers,
>>> Alsa,
>>> >>> Pulse, and one command line one to try and get audio out of the
>>> >>> motherboard. Nothing worked.
>>> >>>
>>> >>
>>> >> What does the speaker test produce in alsa and/or gnome/kde, etc..  I
>>> >> believe long ago, Jean Yvess (sp?) killed pulse when mythfrontend
>>> started
>>> >> playback, but I do not know if that is still the case.  You
>>> definitely do
>>> >> not want anything except alsa for digital audio.
>>> >>
>>> >> Also, when selecting the different modes from the TV GUI, I always
>>> had to
>>> >> restart mythfrontend (that was long ago though - YMMV).
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >I have made significant progress but I am not done yet. It only took an
>>> >additional 4 hours :-)
>>> >
>>> >The goal is DVI and analog audio to TV and SPDIF to amplifier but using
>>> the
>>> >750ti video card and VDPAU video processing.  The audio worked with the
>>> old
>>> >6200 video card but the video was crap after the upgrade to Mythbuntu 14
>>> >from 8.
>>> >
>>> >1) I left Pulse Audio installed. It was installed by my son accidently
>>> (he
>>> >did not realize the control panel brought in drivers) but the sound
>>> works
>>> >fine with the 6200 so I left it.
>>> >2) I install the 750ti and updated the driver to 390 I used this method
>>> >   1) sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
>>> >   2) sudo apt update
>>> >   3) Then launch Software & Updates -> Additional Driver utility,
>>> choose
>>> >the new driver from the list and apply changes.
>>> >3) Check the driver using lsmod | grep nvidia
>>> >4) Check the version using cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version.  It reports
>>> >390.87 which is correct.
>>> >5) Check pavucontrol (Digital Output - S/PDIF) and aslamixer (Front,
>>> Main,
>>> >and SPDIF) as before.
>>> >6) Ran nvidia-settings and saved xorg.conf.  The file looked incorrect
>>> and
>>> >the TV still lost video when power cycled.
>>> >7) Disable xfsettingsd in the GUI Settings under "Session and Startup":
>>> >That fixed the TV power cycle problem.
>>> >8) Using Myth Setup search for an audio setting that plays both TV and
>>> >amplifier. The existing setting that worked with the 6200 card was
>>> >ALSA:pulghw:CARD=SB,DEV=0 Stereo.  I tried all settings.
>>> >
>>> >Results
>>> >Audio) I was unable to find a setting that played both.  I could play
>>> >digital or analog.  I tired both DVI and HDMI connections to the TV and
>>> >multiple settings of pavucontrol.  There are a lot of settings but
>>> unlike
>>> >before I put in the new video card, none would play both analog and
>>> digital
>>> >off the motherboard. I could also not get digital from HDMI and SPDIF at
>>> >the same time. Just one or the other.
>>> >
>>> >Video) Using VDPAU Slim the picture looks much improved.  VDPAU Normal
>>> >crashes the frontend.  That was very disappointing.
>>> >
>>> >Wife) Wife is happy with this setup so at least I have stable hardware
>>> >until I can get some help to solve the remaining problems.
>>> >
>>> >Goals:
>>> >1) I would like to get a higher version of VDPAU as I have been led to
>>> >believe that should work.
>>>
>>> You are right that a 750ti should be able to do all VDPAU modes, but
>>> we will have to debug that problem.  Now that you are running the 390
>>> drivers, I have no idea why it would crash.  There should be
>>> information in the logs that will help.  What setting are you using
>>> for Setup > Appearance > Theme / Screen Settings > Paint engine?  Some
>>> of those settings are incompatible with VDPAU.
>>>
>>> >2) I need to get digital and analog sound working at the same time.
>>>
>>> The digital sound is going out the HDMI port on the video card's sound
>>> device and the analogue sound is going out the analogue port on the
>>> motherboard's sound device - two completely separate devices.  So
>>> there is no setting in MythTV that will ever be able to send the sound
>>> to both devices at once.  In order to do that, you will need to write
>>> some specific ALSA configuration that will send the sound to both
>>> devices.  That con goes in a file /etc/asound, which you will need
>>> to create.  I have never done this, but others on this list have, so
>>> they may be able to provide more specific help.  ALSA config is not
>>> easy to understand and even less easy to write.  But there are lots of
>>> examples on the web.
>>>
>>> You can get SPDIF and analogue output from the motherboard sound
>>> device at the same time just by enabling both outputs on that device
>>> in alsamixer.
>>>
>>> Re Sound.  I am using DVI and not HDMI and want SPDIF and analog out
>> from the motherboard at the same time.  That worked with the 6200 video
>> card but does not work with the 750 card even though I am not using the
>> HDMI output on the 750 card. SPDIF and analog are enabled in alsa mixer but
>> there is no setting in Myth Audio settings that will play both as there was
>> before the new card was installed.  I can get either one depending on the
>> setting but not both. I tried the HDMI cable thinking I might get better
>> results but when I didn't, I went back to my target configuration which
>> does not use the HDMI output.
>>
>
> The best way to achieve this is with an .asoundrc or asound.conf (you can
> name the config what you wish) that plays out both devices.  I do not know
> how to tell Mythtv to do it, but alsa can definitely do it and also give
> MythTV a uniqie alsa name to select in the config.
>
> I have never done it except to swap speakers, etc, but it is possible.
> Google returns many hits.
>
>
>> Re VDPAU.  The Paint Engine is Qt and with that VDPAU Normal will crash
>> when you play a video.  It is fine with the menus. When the Paint Engine is
>> set to Auto, OpenGL1 or 2, VDPAU Normal does not crash when playing the
>> video but the video is several distorted. It looks like the vertical is
>> stretched so the heads look too tall and thin and the aspect ratio is wrong.
>>
>
> I have been using nVidia and MythTV for as long as I can remember and
> always use OpenGL with VDPAU and have never had an issue.  I would suggest
> changing it, or setting it to autO (which should select OpenGL).
>
> Good luck.
>
>
AUDIO) Interesting experiment.  Myth as setup right now and plays only
through the analog output.  Youtube plays only through the digital output.
Go figure. Alsa is set to output both.  Pulse Audio, which got installed as
part of troubleshooting, will mute Youtube if set to analog.  I would have
expected it to play through the TV. Maybe I need to uninstall Pulse Audio...

VIDEO) Doesn't work on anything except Qt when VDPAU Normal is selected.  I
mean it technically works, but on Auto or OpenGL when VDPAU is set to
Normal, the picture is stretched vertically a lot, maybe almost double.
With it set to Auto and VDPAU set to Slim, my wife complained about lots of
strange lines in the playback.
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