[mythtv-users] New install ... sucesses and challenges

[Chad McQuinn]

On 6/17/03 10:07 PM, "John Madill" <jmadill at joyousnoise.com> wrote:

> First problem is that, when hooked up to the TV for a monitor, all of the
> display is in black and white ... including the OS and MythTV.  It was in
> color
> up from boot up until the time that the *big* nvidia logo loaded.  From then
> on,
> it was black & white.  Symptomatically, as soon as you leave the GUI to
> shutdown, the screen becomes garbage.  Any clues on that?

I can't help with getting garbage when you switch back to the console--I get
the same thing. However, I believe you can fix the BW issue by putting this
line:

    Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"

In the "Device" section of your /etc/X11/XF86Config file. Of course that is
assuming you are using s-video; for composite, check the nvidia docs (this
works only with the driver from nvidia). I still get BW at boot (sometimes),
but once X starts and the logo comes up, it is back in color.

> I also have some choppyness in the video & audio.  I assume that is related to
> performance tweeks needed due to the slow processor.  Suggestions?

I had this problem with redhat as well. It may be your processor; 600MHz
celeron is probably pushing it for MPEG 2 playback. However, I had
choppiness on an athlon 2600+, and it turned out the default redhat kernel
was the problem. Installing a stock 2.4.20 kernel from kernel.org fixed that
problem for me.

Install mplayer or xine to try to see if the choppiness is just in myth or
in other apps as well. That would help narrow down whether it is a lack of
processing power.

-Chad