[mythtv-users] MythTV Playback Settings

[J. Karpick]

Ahhh, that's why it wasn't reverting to my next setting in the playback profile like I figured it should.  I'm with you on that one.

Unfortunately, the S.O. noticed straight away that I had changed from XvMC to xv-blit.  Her comment: "Hmm, doesn't look as good today..."  Darn.

I'll probably wait until the official Hardy release to upgrade to 0.21-fixes, as I get into enough trouble without dealing with beta releases...

Anyone have a good set of settings/filters to get xv-blit up to the quality of XvMC?

-jonathan

----- Original Message ----
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:44:03 -0400
From: Johnny Russ <jruss at MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] MythTV Playback Settings
To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Message-ID: <47FFDBA3.8040609 at mit.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

XvMC is only used to accelerate MPEG2 decoding. When you try playback 
h264 or other MPEG4 files it should drop back to xv-blit. However there 
is a bug such that it drops back to xv-blit-opengl and this causes the 
playback problems. MythTV initially uses the playback profiles to pick 
the first available playback method (based on resolution and available 
hardware). In your case XvMC is chosen, however, when XvMC can't 
playback MPEG4, it doesn't use the playback profiles to choose the 
backup. It is selected via some predetermined list that can't be changed 
by the user. This is by design and doesn't make since to me. It seems 
like this is what the playback profiles are for. Check your logs and you 
should be able to see this happen. I justed upgraded my system to ubuntu 
8.04 beta which has MythTV 0.21-fixes. That fixed the problem for me. 
Now I can you use XvMC and when I try to play an xvid file it 
automatically falls back to xv-blit and plays correctly.

-Johnny
J. Karpick wrote:
> Greetings all - I'm looking to get some pointers on people's playback settings, which I'm sure is a controversial topic, but I'll forge ahead.
>
> My new Mythbuntu based system (specs below) replaces a Via Epia M-10000 system running Windows & SageTV (dang caps blew up), so it's a significant bump in power and options for me!
>
> Currently watching SD TV on an old CRT TV.  (HD will come eventually, but not now!)
>
> I'm discovering that all of the available renderers and de-interlacers have their pluses and minuses, but am having a hard time getting my brain wrapped around all of the various combinations.
>
> I loved the output from the PVR-350 on the old system - nice and sharp - even better than my TV's tuner - and that's what I'd like to get back to, but adding the ability to play h264 mp4s and DVDs, which pushes me to using the onboard TV-out.
>
> So far, XvMC output is the best, but has random stutters (NVP: Prebuffering Pause in the logs), and can't seem to handle DVDs or h264 mp4's, which makes it undesirable for me.
>
> Fiddling with the "Standard" ffmpeg+xv settings and using the kerneldeint de-interlacer gets me close to the same quality, but I'm thinking a little more tweaking can be done.
>
> Should I be investigating other methods?  Trying out various filters?  Given my current system, CPU load is not an issue.
>
> I've been searching this list, ubuntuforums, and various wikis.  The most helpful has been this:
>   http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Playback_profiles , but it still leaves me questions on video output quality and compatibilities with various formats.
>
> Thanks,
> Jonathan
>
> ---------------------------
> System specs:
>
> AMD 64 x2 5000+
> 2GB Memory
> nVidia 7050PV onboard video (Biostar TF7050-M2)
> Hauppauge PVR-350 (with working remote!)
> Antec Fusion Black 430 (with working volume knob & LCD!!)
> Mythbuntu 7.10 / Mythtv 0.21
>
>
>
>





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