[mythtv-users] giving up on 0.21

[Greg Woods]

On Sat, 2008-04-26 at 15:05 -0700, Steve Heistand wrote:
> make sure that you are actually loading the new nvidia video drivers
> vs the stock ones. will show up in the /var/log/X... log file.

Good thought, but this looks right:

(II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
(II) NVIDIA GLX Module  169.07  Thu Dec 13 19:34:04 PST 2007
(II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so
(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
(II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver  169.07  Thu Dec 13 18:45:27 PST 2007
(II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs

> 
> that aside a GF5500 just aint going to cut it on HD video.

As I mentioned, it is the same hardware that worked fine for HD video
under 0.20 SVN and FC5. I did have to use XvMC to get smooth playback.

> 
> also does the rpm version of mythtv automatically use the XVMC video
> stuff to actually take advantage of the nvidia drivers.

I struggled to finally get XvMC to work (the Wiki article was very
helpful there). The playback profile CPU-- that I am currently using has
it programmed in, and mythfrontend log shows that it is using it, and I
get the telltale black-and-white OSD. XvMC makes it possible to watch HD
shows that don't have much fast motion; the major noticeable problem on
those is that the audio crackles for a few seconds on startup, and an
occasional stutter. But watchable. Something like NHL Hockey looks
terrible. 

The other suggestions I have gotten involve switching distros and a
complete new OS install. At some point I may try that, but I'll probably
try the old sources on the new OS first because that's a lot smaller
job.

--Greg