[mythtv-users] Moving from MCE to MythTV

[Ron Rademaker]

Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Ron Rademaker writes:
>
>> About hardware, I got a ASUS 9550 (ATI chipset) with 128M so I guess 
>> I could use the fglrx driver for best performance. Does MythTV mind 
>> what drivers are used (at all)? Furthermore, I got my tv attached at 
>> the tvout (s-video) and a CRT monitor at the VGA output. Will this be 
>> a problem? (eg. MythTV keeps appearing on the wrong display, MythTV 
>> only showing video on the wrong display (had that with Mediaportal)).
>
> There's a slim chance that it'll work, but likely it won't.  Although 
> I'm not familiar with your specific hardware, the chances of the stock 
> x.org supporting the TV-out function of video chance are approximately 
> 1%.  In 99% of the cases, TV-out functionality requires vendor's 
> non-free[1] binary video driver, and although the video driver will 
> work, it'll probably send the same video through the VGA and the 
> TV-Out -- you'll have the same screen both on your VHA monitor, and on 
> the TV-Out.  Depending on your vendor non-free binary video driver the 
> TV-Out signal will either be downsampled to the NTSC/PAL resolution, 
> or you will need to run your desktop at a reduced resolution - 640x480 
> or 1024x768, in order to get a matching video signal on TV-Out.
Ok, thanks for the warning, I'll need to use the fglrx (non free) 
driver. I already managed to get that driver working in a VGA / DVI 
combi setup. Hopefully the s-video output will be similar.

Just one last question, about x.org, what version is recommended  6.8, 
6.9 or 7.0?
>
> The notable exception is the TV-Out on a PVR350, which is supported by 
> the free drivers on ivtv.org.  I was almost able to have a single 
> instance of X running on both my VGA card and PVR350's frame buffer -- 
> theoretically you should be able to do it simply by configuring 
> multiple displays in xorg.conf, specifying the correct driver for each 
> one.  However, I have some hardware conflict between the PVR350 and my 
> video card -- when both are enabled, ivtv's kernel driver begins 
> whining about being unable to do DMA, or something along those lines.
>
> I ended up hacking up a short script to flip my xorg.conf between the 
> VGA and the PVR-350 versions, and stuffing it into my Gnome menu.  To 
> switch between VGA and the PVR-350's TV-Out, I just select the menu 
> option, then log out.  GDM then restarts xorg with the other .conf 
> file, and I'm good to go.
>
>> I got two Hauppauge PVR150 cards for tuning, is this card well 
>> supported? Are drivers in the 2.6-kernels?
>
> It's well supported -- eventually those drivers will go into the 
> kernel -- for now you'll need to build the driver off ivtv.org
>
> A beginner like you should start off with a canned set of packages.  
> If you're running Fedora, you're better off using dl.atrpms.net, as 
> indicated in Myth's HOWTO.
>
>> I also have a bunch of movies recorded with MCE that I'll want be 
>> able to view with MythTV, do I need to convert somehow or will MythTV 
>> play stuff recorded with MCE?
>
> It might be possible to hack something together with Myth, but you 
> should be able to play those movies with mplayer, or xine.  If, in MCE 
> you can transcode those files to some non-Microsoft format, such as 
> MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, you won't need to screw around with getting mplayer 
> to use binary win32 codecs.
>
>
> [1] Free as in "speech", not just beer.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>