[mythtv-users] PVR-350 survey - what works and what doesn't?

[Tom Walsh]

I am running:

1 - PVR-250MCE Rev 2
1 - PVR-350 (retail)
Tyan S2495 mainboard
Athlon 2800+ XP
1Gig DDR
370Gig logical volume created with the -s 64m option
Mad Dog GeForce4 MX 440 8X AGP
Plextor 708A DVD writer
Radio Shack 8-in-1 IR remote
Mandrake 9.2 distro with myth compiled from source, any libs that 
weren't in the Mandrake distro were also done from source (no foreign, 
third party, RPMs were used).
note: all the acpi, apci stuff is turned off!


Overall, the system is working fine.  Little anomoies here and there, 
but no major stuff such as: recording stops halfway, playback freezes, 
etc.  Seems to be a real solid system.  Most problems seem to be 
associated with myth code itself rather than hardware.

I am still tweaking, for example, I am not real happy with the video 
quality of the Nvidia TVOUT and am thinking of doing some kind of 
electronic video switching.  Use the PVR-350 for all the TV stuff and 
menus, while using the Nvidia for playing DVDs.

I am well pleased with the resulting Myth box that I have!  :)

Regards,

TomW


> While I'm still wrestling with getting my PVR-350 card working, I keep 
> reading about the supposed hordes of people for whom It Just Works. :-)
>
> So I thought I'd run a quick survey to see what people were running 
> and what seems to work, and maybe a trend will develop.
>
> I have:
>
> PVR-350 (obviously)
> Gigabyte GA-7VM266 (this has a VIA KM266 chipset)
> AMD 2000
> 512M Corsair Value RAM 2700
>
> Debian Unstable
> mythtv-frontend 0.14-5
> mythtv-backend 0.14-5
> ivtv 0.1.9 (I've also tried the "0.1.9a" patched version, with no 
> visible changes)
> lirc 0.7.0rc2
> xserver-xfree86 4.3.0-2
>
> I have live preview in the guide set off.
>
> hdparm -I shows:
> Capabilities:
>        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
>        bytes avail on r/w long: 40     Queue depth: 1
>        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, with device specific 
> minimum
>        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16
>        Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 254
>        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
>             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
>        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
>             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
>
> Existing problems:
>
> Live preview in the Recorded Programs listing will kill a recording in 
> progress.
> Viewing any recorded program will freeze the frontend, sometimes 2 
> seconds in, sometimes 15 minutes in.
> Fast forward at speeds higher than 1X will freeze the frontend.
>
> Live TV seems to work just fine.
>
>
> I can't think of any other details to post...
>
> Regards,
> -scott
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users



-- 
Tom Walsh - WN3L - Embedded Systems Consultant
http://openhardware.net, http://cyberiansoftware.com
"Windows? No thanks, I have work to do..."
----------------------------------------------------