[mythtv-users] How do you compile with support for TV Out on PVR 350?

[Isaac Richards]

On Saturday 01 November 2003 06:41 am, Ward Vandewege wrote:
> James Pifer wrote:
> > I've read you need to compile MythTV for support for the PVR 350's TV
> > Out. What do you need to change in the src to enable support for TV Out
> > on a PVR 350? Is there a document somewhere that explains this?
>
> Err - if there is I haven't found it. I didn't recompile my Myth to use
> the PVR 350's TV output, but I'm currently stuck with far less than
> desirable results.
>
> You need the ivtv-fb kernel module (and framebuffer support in your
> kernel, as well as support for '32bpp packed pixels' under 'advanced low
> level drivers' under 'support for framebuffer devices'. The module seems
> a bit buggy. It's impossible to unload, for one (has a use count of 63
> as soon as it is loaded). 

It's taken over the text consoles.  Only way to stop it from doing this, that 
I'm aware of, is to make sure another framebuffer driver (for, say, an actual 
video card) gets loaded first.

> Also, there are issues with screen size - 
> somehow my tv's screen size is slightly smaller than what X thinks it is
> (the video mode of the ivtv-fb is fixed, apparently, once you choose
> PAL/NTSC). At least I can't convince X to use a different mode.

This is called 'overscan', and it's perfectly normal.  If it didn't act like 
this, the horizontal scan lines from the card wouldn't line up with what's on 
the TV, and everything would look like crap.

> This makes it very difficult to configure Myth - the menus are partly
> off-screen. I've tried setting manual sizes for Myth which works,
> provided I also introduce an X and Y offset.

That's exactly what the size and x/y offsets in mythtv are there for, to allow 
you to compensate for what's actually visible on your TV.  It's not difficult 
to set this up first, if you've ever configured mythtv before.

> Also, once I have gone to 'Watch TV', the bottom 20% of the screen
> becomes a duplicate of the top 20%, making Myth even less useable...

Sounds like something's not in PAL mode for you; perhaps the capture 
resolution's not at x576 (not sure if it scales odd-height captures to 
full-size), or you're not using Jens Axboe's latest source tree, or you 
didn't load the ivtv driver with the ivtv_pal=1 parameter, or there's still 
something in the driver hardcoded to NTSC, etc, etc, etc.

Never seen that happen on NTSC, of course.

Isaac