[mythtv-users] Moving from MCE to MythTV

[Sam Varshavchik]

Ron Rademaker writes:

> 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?

Whatever version your non-free driver recommends.

Once you've committed yourself to using non-free drivers, you must then 
follow the driver's documentation, for these kinds of things.

Furthermore, if all that the non-free driver gives you is the same video 
you're seeing on your VGA monitor, you can get exactly the same thing 
accomplished by using an external VGA-to-composite adaptor.  Although that 
costs a little bit of money, in exchange you will not have to deal with the 
headache of keeping the non-free driver in sync every time you upgrade the 
kernel, or your base Linux distribution, and related issues, or with the 
non-free driver breaking given the slightest excuse, such as, perhaps, 
installing an innocent update of some xorg-related library that you didn't 
think have anything to do with it, but it turns out that it does.


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