[mythtv-users] How well does Unichrome work?

Jarod Wilson jcw at wilsonet.com
Sat Nov 20 08:15:24 UTC 2004


On Nov 19, 2004, at 21:44, Joe Votour wrote:

> Currently my MythTV setup has a backend/frontend
> machine with a PVR-250 for capture, and a PVR-350 for
> capture/playback.  While this combination works great,
> I am truly disappointed about not being able to use
> xmame on the PVR-350.  I'm itching for my fix!  :)
>
> So, after reading the archives and googling around,
> one of the things that I am considering is something
> with Unichrome based graphics.  Before I plunk down
> the money for such a motherboard, I was wondering if
> people could comment on how the picture quality is
> using the Unichrome driver.  (I do realise that I'd
> pretty much need to go with CVS, and I'm fine with
> that).

Absolutely, not pretty much. There's no support for the Unichrome stuff 
in 0.16, period. I'm almost finished bumping all my boxes up to cvs, 
one big reason being that I just got my EPIA back up and running using 
the Unichrome driver.

> (For reference, my problem with using a GeForce card
> is that on my GeForce4 440MX card, watching something
> like CNN with a ticker has a lot of jump to it.  It
> might smooth out for a period of 30 seconds, but then
> it jumps like mad.  This occurs regardless of any
> settings I have tried).

I should actually try watching CNN on all my boxes...

> So, anybody out there using the Unichrome driver, is
> the picture nice and smooth?  Could I watch a CNN
> ticker until I get extremely bored and not have it
> skip a beat?  (The PVR-350 is excellent at this, the
> ticker is perfectly crisp.)

I should know by the end of the weekend. Almost done compiling...

> Also, considering xmame, does anybody with a
> higher-end Epia (the M10000, I believe) know if it has
> enough power to play some of the middle-end ROMs, like
> Mortal Kombat II and 3?

Not a clue. X itself is definitely WAAAAY snappier than when running on 
the 350's output (on the same machine).

> If not, perhaps I'd be better
> off with a microATX Unichrome solution like an Abit
> VA-10 (which uses the KM400 chipset).  If so, DMA
> issues hopefully wouldn't be a problem, as I could do
> the backend capture on another machine.

I never had any DMA issues on my KM400 system with dual PVR-250s in it 
(MSI KM4M-L, 2.4 kernel, ivtv 0.1.6 - 0.1.9-ish), but ymmv...

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE
jcw at wilsonet.com

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