[mythtv-users] Problem with MythTV/HDTV/nVidia

[Jerry Rubinow]

On 2/18/06, Steve Meyers <steve-lists-mythtv at spamwiz.com> wrote:
> I've got a Pentium 4 2.8GHz with an nVidia FX 5500 in my frontend
> machine.  I'm having a little bit of trouble playing HDTV on it.
>
> If I don't enable XvMC, but use libmpeg2, I can play 720p without many
> problems, but 1080i stutters every 1-2 seconds.  Even 720p stutters once
> every 10-15 seconds or so.

This sounds like a bandwidth or CPU problem.  What's your CPU usage on
the frontend when you're playing back?  Are the FE/BE on separate
computers, and if so, how are they connected?  Are your drives using
DMA?  Is your video card PCI or AGP?

> If I turn off libmpeg2 and enable XvMC, it plays back with no
> stuttering.  However, within a 1-5 minutes, it goes berserk.  The vast
> majority of the screen (90-95%) becomes a blocky purple or green.  If I
> let that continue, it completely freezes X within 30 seconds.  A
> ctrl-alt-backspace will get me out of X, so the computer isn't
> completely frozen.

This I have no idea on.