[mythtv-users] Noob Questions

[Peter Sebastian Masny]

Hi all,

I just got Mythtv running and I love it.  However, I have a few 
questions.  (and have tried to RTFM but not found the answers...)

1) Problem: When I first start watching tv, the video is black with 
faint green and red images.  If I change channels and return to the 
starting channel, all is OK.  That would be acceptable, but the "black 
with red,green" state also has occured in the middle of a recording, 
ruining it.  I assume it is a capture/encoding issue.  Also, tvtime 
never has this problem, and works perfectly.
System: Debian Sarge/Sid mythtv packages, precompiled 2.6.2-1-k7 kernel, 
Avermedia bttv in, nvidia geforce out, no lirc, frontend/backend on same 
'puter.
What more info can I provide?

Console says:
> 2004-02-24 12:24:58 mythfrontend version: 0.14.20040123-1 www.mythtv.org
> 2004-02-24 12:24:58 Enabled verbose msgs : important general
> Found 2 Xinerama Screens.
> Using first Xinerama screen, 1600x1200+0+0
> mythtv: could not connect to socket
> mythtv: Connection refused
> lirc_init failed for mythtv, see preceding messages
> 2004-02-24 12:24:59 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
> 2004-02-24 12:25:02 Connecting to backend server: 127.0.0.1:6543 (try 1 of 5)
> 2004-02-24 12:25:02 Using protocol version 1
> 2004-02-24 12:25:02 Using protocol version 1
> 2004-02-24 12:25:02 Using protocol version 1
> 2004-02-24 12:25:05 Opening OSS audio device '/dev/adsp'.
> Found 2 Xinerama Screens.
> Using first Xinerama screen, 1600x1200+0+0
> 2004-02-24 12:25:05 Using XV port 137
> 2004-02-24 12:25:05 Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
> 2004-02-24 12:25:06 prebuffering pause
> 2004-02-24 12:25:08 Changing from WatchingLiveTV to None
> 2004-02-24 12:25:08 Changing from None to None
syslog says:
> Feb 24 12:25:07 blackie kernel: bttv0: skipped frame. no signal? high irq latency? [main=1f74d000,o_vbi=104a6000,o_field=1f74d020,rc=104a601c]
> Feb 24 12:25:08 blackie last message repeated 13 times
> Feb 24 12:25:08 blackie kernel: bttv0: timeout: irq=186881/978069, risc=0ef9f07c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
> Feb 24 12:25:08 blackie kernel: bttv0: reset, reinitialize
> Feb 24 12:25:08 blackie kernel: bttv0: PLL can sleep, using XTAL (28636363).


2) Problem: What is that "could not connect to socket" about?  It also 
shows up when starting mythbackend daemon.

3) Feature: Is there any (planned) support for raw dumps?  YUY2 dumps at 
about 20MB/sec (I think), so a 15min buffer for example would be 12GB. 
A striped RAID and gigabit network should be able to handle that. 
Personally, I would prefer such a format for captures I intended to 
transcode as well as for TV watching I did not intend to save.

4) Feature: Is there any support for pre-encoding filters?  I would 
expect that performing a 3:2 pulldown on film source before encoding 
would provide a slightly better picture as well as smaller file sizes.

5) Feature: Alternate filters?  Specifically, I would like to split the 
two fields into two separate frames at 60Hz, then up/downscale the image 
back to a normal aspect ratio, essentially making a perfect progressive 
source at lower vertical resolution.  This is especially for watching 
sports, where de-interlacing algorithms are at best mediocre (IMHO), and 
progressive video would be ideal.  I have done this with captures in 
Windows with great results.

Thank you all for a wonderful program,

Peter Masny