[mythtv-users] Ugly TV Capture/Blank LiveTV with PVR-250

[Benjamin Carlisle]

Hello All --
 
  I have an interesting problem with setting up MythTv using Knoppmyth. I've
worked my way through the configuration with no problems. I can play music
and DVD's flawlessly. I can also play MPG files that were recorded on
another machine using the Videos feature. 
 
   However, when it comes to LiveTV, I'm having issues. If I open up 'Watch
TV' within the Frontend, I get a blank screen for about 10 seconds, and then
it returns to the frontend menu. I'm guessing something may be segfaulting.
Here's another interesting fact.. The resulting MPG from a "cat /dev/video0
> test.mpg" comes through, but it is VERY ugly. There is an high-pitched
audio whining in the background and the screen is distorted and full of
short white lines (I'll furnish a screenshot if someone thinks it will
help). At first I thought it may be a frequency issue... I'm in the States,
so I am using NTSC and a cable input on the card. I checked that I'm set to
NTSC, tried both the us-cable and us-cable-hrc frequency tables, etc. No
dice. Also strange is that "ptune.pl" segfaults.
 
   There is a clue in the mythfrontend output: I have one line which says
"Unexpected response to MYTH_PROTO_VERSION". I'm not sure if that has
anything to do with the problem.. I have not upgraded/changed either the
frontend or backend. There are no real clues in the mythbackend.log. I've
tried all the PCI slots on the board with the same results.
 
   I did change my tuner type (for ivtv module) to 39, because the default
of tuner=2 was straight-up static. I also modified the XF86Config-4 so that
I could use the TV's Horiz/Vert refresh values.
 
   A bit about my hardware situation:
 
Athlon 2400+XP
512MB
1x PVR-250 
7NIF2 (nForce2), onboard audio (nForce), onboard out (svideo)
 
Anyone have any thoughts or additional places I can look?
 
thanks in advance,
-Ben