[mythtv-users] 0.19, VIA, XvMC, Ezra/i586 - video corrupted - image enclosed

Jules Gosnell jules at coredevelopers.net
Fri Aug 4 09:32:05 UTC 2006


Kevin Slater wrote:
> Jules,
> 
> I have an EPIA M-9000 (Ezra/i586) Mythbox running 0.19. It's a frontend 
> only, but it is using XvMC from Kelkoo as you describe above. If I get 
> another capture card it'll be a slave backend again. (Which is what it 
> was for the longest time running .14 without the libXvMC stuff.) So it 
> should be be possible for your machine to give you adequate performance 
> although when I was running without libXvMC I had to limit my capture 
> resolution to 480 x 480 otherwise playback response was pretty bad. (I 
> use PVR-250 cards.)
> 
> I wonder if part of the issue is the difference in TV standards?

OK - so you have a PVR-250 in your frontend, no backend, 'VIA XvMC', 
enabled in setup and video plays back fine ?

I have a pair of Nova-T's in my backend and enabling 'VIA XvMC' results 
in the problem described.

I don't crop the video that I am recording, but my Ezra is fast enough 
to handle it (most of the time). Strangely, if the scene is very dark, 
or becomes black, I get stuttering. I don't see why this should put more 
load on the cpu - but it is annoying...

I was hoping that getting VIA XvMC running would solve the problem - My 
frontend is passively cooled and I would be much happier if I could get 
cpu usage down to 10-20%.

I wonder if I am seeing some incompatibility between the formats 
broadcast, the format put out by my Nova-Ts (two different models) and 
the formats understood by my CLE266 ? Could this be possible ?

Jules


> 
> ...Kevin
> 
> On 8/3/06, *Jules Gosnell* < jules at coredevelopers.net 
> <mailto:jules at coredevelopers.net>> wrote:
> 
> 
>     Thought I would repost as I'm still seeing this sort of thing on _some_
>     recordings when XvMC is enabled:
> 
>     http://www.gosnell.org.uk/tmp/00032.jpg
> 
>     I'm living without XvMC, but it's not ideal - I have to put up with
>     stuttering now and then.
> 
> 
>     I have just upgraded the box to the latest packages from
>     washington.kelkoo.net/epia <http://washington.kelkoo.net/epia> and
>     atrpms (see below).
> 
> 
>     but, still no better.
> 
>     Underneath this it is running a pretty much vanilla FC4 with all
>     updates
>     from standard repos applied.
> 
>     The only unusual thing about my setup is that the cpu is an Ezra and
>     therefore an i586 - this has caused problems in the past.
> 
>     Does anyone have an Ezra running successfully with XvMC enabled ? If
>     so,
>     I would be very interested to compare notes.
> 
> 
>     I've just done a little more testing and found that the problem may be
>     related to the channel - e.g. ITV2 and More4 (PAL, UK) seem to be the
>     only channels on which I regularly record which produce recordings
>     which
>     do not demonstrate this problem (90% of the time). All other channels
>     that I use generate recordings that I are not watchable with XvMC. Might
>     different channels braodcast in slightly different formats, some of
>     which work better with my hard/software ? any ideas ?
> 
> 
>     Thanks for your time,
> 
> 
>     Jules
> 
>     kernel-2.6.17-1.2142_FC4
>     libmyth-0.19-130.fc4.at <http://libmyth-0.19-130.fc4.at>
>     mythbrowser-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythbrowser-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythcontrols-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythcontrols-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythdvd-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythdvd-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythflix-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythflix-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythgallery-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythgallery-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythgame-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythgame-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythmkmovie-1.1.4-5.fc4.at <http://mythmkmovie-1.1.4-5.fc4.at>
>     mythmusic-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythmusic-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythnews-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythnews-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythphone-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythphone-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythplugins-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythplugins-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     myththemes-0.19-106.at <http://myththemes-0.19-106.at>
>     mythtv-0.19-130.fc4.at <http://mythtv-0.19-130.fc4.at>
>     mythtv-backend-0.19-130.fc4.at <http://mythtv-backend-0.19-130.fc4.at>
>     mythtv-frontend-0.19-130.fc4.at <http://mythtv-frontend-0.19-130.fc4.at>
>     mythtv-setup-0.19-130.fc4.at <http://mythtv-setup-0.19-130.fc4.at>
>     mythtv-suite-0.19-59.at <http://mythtv-suite-0.19-59.at>
>     mythtv-theme-abstract-0.20040910-2.at
>     <http://mythtv-theme-abstract-0.20040910-2.at>
>     mythtv-theme-MediaCenter-0.17-4.at
>     <http://mythtv-theme-MediaCenter-0.17-4.at>
>     mythtv-theme-photo-4-6.at <http://mythtv-theme-photo-4-6.at>
>     mythtv-theme-ProjectGrayhem-1.7-1.at
>     <http://mythtv-theme-ProjectGrayhem-1.7-1.at>
>     mythtv-theme-purplegalaxy-0.20031214-3.at
>     <http://mythtv-theme-purplegalaxy-0.20031214-3.at>
>     mythtv-theme-Retro-0.20051208-1.at
>     <http://mythtv-theme-Retro-0.20051208-1.at>
>     mythtv-themes-0.19-130.fc4.at <http://mythtv-themes-0.19-130.fc4.at>
>     mythtv-theme-sleek-0.35-2.at <http://mythtv-theme-sleek-0.35-2.at>
>     mythtv-theme-visor-0.16.2-5.at <http://mythtv-theme-visor-0.16.2-5.at>
>     mythvideo-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythvideo-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythweather-0.19-126.fc4.at <http://mythweather-0.19-126.fc4.at>
>     mythweb-0.19-78.at <http://mythweb-0.19-78.at>
>     xine-0.99.4-0.lvn.3.4
>     xine-lib-1.1.1-0.lvn.3.4.ucr.1
>     xine-skins-1.8-0.lvn.1.4
>     xorg-x11-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-deprecated-libs-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-deprecated-libs-devel-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-devel-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-doc-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-font-utils-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-libs-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-Mesa-libGL-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-Mesa-libGLU-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-sdk-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-tools-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-twm-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-xauth-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-xdm-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-xfs-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-Xnest-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
>     xorg-x11-Xvfb-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.12
> 
> 
>     Jules Gosnell wrote:
>      > http://www.gosnell.org.uk/tmp/00032.jpg
>      >
>      > Last night I did a completely clean install of FC4 onto my VIA
>     Ezra. I
>      > added yum configurations for Kelkoo (Epia Unichrome related RPMs), AT
>      > (Myth RPMs), and Livna (Xine RPMs) and did a complete update of the
>      > system, including MythTV-Suite and Xine.
>      >
>      > The relevant pieces of my install now look like this :
>      >
>      > xorg-x11-6.9-0.FC4.ucr.5
>      > mythtv-suite-0.19-57.at <http://mythtv-suite-0.19-57.at>
>      > mythtv-frontend-0.19-124.rhfc4.at
>     <http://mythtv-frontend-0.19-124.rhfc4.at>
>      > libmyth-0.19-124.rhfc4.at <http://libmyth-0.19-124.rhfc4.at>
>      > kernel-2.6.15-1.1833_FC4
>      > xine-0.99.4-0.lvn.3.4
>      > xine-lib-1.1.1-0.lvn.3.4.ucr.1
>      >
>      > I no longer seem to need an /etc/X11/XvMCConfig or package, or
>     special
>      > kernel module - I think all of this is now built into the new
>     kernel and
>      > x server releases.
>      >
>      > I have not rebuilt MythTV - I may try that today.
>      >
>      > I had 0.18/FC3/XvMC running fine - but 0.19 offered tempting
>      > improvements in so many areas...
>      >
>      > After I upgrading 0.18->0.19 (still on FC3), I was seeing the
>     same form
>      > of corruption when running with 'VIA XvMC' decoding, plus a different
>      > sort of corruption when playing the same recording with 'Standard'
>      > decoding (Colours seemed washed out of video, then a few brighter
>      > colours like orange were striped across the video and smeared upwards
>      > and to the right slightly).
>      >
>      > I figured I would be in better company if I moved from FC3->FC4 -
>     now
>      > 'Standard' decoding seems fixed - but my 1ghz cpu cannot keep up.
>      > Unfortunately, 'VIA XvMC' playback still results in garbage being
>      > displayed on large horizontal sections of the screen. Pausing or
>      > changing position in the stream tends to corrupt the whole screen.
>      >
>      > I've noted two other things that may help:
>      >
>      > - some MPEG2 files (recorded on both 0.18 and 0.19) are not
>     affected and
>      > play perfectly - XvMC decoding is much improved over 0.18 for
>     these :-).
>      > Unfortunately, these recordings seem to be the exception.
>      >
>      > - the files that cannot be played cleanly on VIA/MythTV playback
>     fine on
>      > the same machine using 'xine -xxmc' (load is reduced to 15-20%)
>     and on
>      > another non XvMC capable machine - so the files themselves are not
>      > corrupted.
>      >
>      > many issues that I have had with this box come down to the fact
>     that it
>      > is an i586 - an unusual arch - so that may be worth bearing in mind.
>      >
>      > If anyone has any ideas, patches, things that they would like me
>     to try
>      > - just shout. I've fiddled with various settings, but to no
>     avail. I may
>      > try completely removing my ~/.mythtv in the hope that I have some
>      > historical setting that is causing trouble.
>      >
>      > Thanks for MythTV !
>      >
>      >
>      > Jules
>      >
> 
> 
>     --
>     "Open Source is a self-assembling organism. You dangle a piece of
>     string into a super-saturated solution and a whole operating-system
>     crystallises out around it."
> 
>     /**********************************
>       * Jules Gosnell
>       * Partner
>       * Core Developers Network (Europe)
>       *
>       *    www.coredevelopers.net <http://www.coredevelopers.net>
>       *
>       * Open Source Training & Support.
>       **********************************/
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> -- "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
> -- Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
> 
> 
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-- 
"Open Source is a self-assembling organism. You dangle a piece of
string into a super-saturated solution and a whole operating-system
crystallises out around it."

/**********************************
  * Jules Gosnell
  * Partner
  * Core Developers Network (Europe)
  *
  *    www.coredevelopers.net
  *
  * Open Source Training & Support.
  **********************************/


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