[mythtv-users] Playback Profiles? WTF?!

Glen Hawksworth glenhawk at optusnet.com.au
Sun Mar 16 20:19:42 UTC 2008


On Sun, 2008-03-16 at 12:28 -0700, Todd Ignasiak wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 4:48 AM, Glen Hawksworth
> <glenhawk at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> > OK, a bit of an over-reaction but they are very confusing.
> 
> I agree.   This change seems to be representative of MythTV in
> general.   On one hand, it's great.. you have the flexibility to do
> whatever you want.   On the other hand,  why the hell should I have to
> figure out the intricacies of the various settings, decipher the
> acronyms, and determine which ones actually apply to my system, to get
> the basic functionality working.      If there was some basic
> documentation, it might be more reasonable.  But, as it is now, it's
> very difficult to figure it out.
> 
> Some basic improvements:
> - Anything this complex NEEDS to be well documented.
> - Update menus depending on what options are valid.  On my Mac, XvMC,
> XvMC VLD, and others are not possible and should be hidden.
> - If the frontend is not compiled to include Mac Acceleration, XvMC,
> etc.  those options should be removed from the menu selections.
> - Auto-detection -  Is XvMC available?  If so, which variant, and what
> subset of features?  What OS is it running on, etc.    A pretty good
> first guess, or ranking of possible options could be done.
> 
> The On-Screen setup menu system seems, to me, to have grown beyond its
> useful purpose.   Too many menu screens, with unintuitive
> organization, too difficult to navigate via remote control.    Basic
> config via OSD is good, but the mass of other options could be better
> accomplished in something like mythweb.
> 
> >  I have a frontend PC that worked just well enough to view all media from
> >  the backend/server (Live TV, recorded TV, downloaded video, music, etc.)
> >  with only the occasional lag during HDTV.
> >  Since the update to 0.21 I have had irregular performance which I have
> >  found to be mainly due to the Playback Profile settings. Some HDTV plays
> >  fine but with a greyscale OSD and other HDTV has colour OSD but lags
> >  terribly. I have also noticed that the frontend seems to be running a
> >  little hotter than usual.
> 
> Grayscale OSD usually points to XvMC being used.  Depending on your
> profile, it may be used only for certain content or resolutions.

That was my best guess but again I had no idea what resolution each
broadcast was in so I had trouble experimenting with different settings.

> 
> >  My Questions
> >       * Is there a way to emulate the default settings from the previous
> >         version of MythTV? What are the best settings for a slower PC?
> 
> You should be able to make a custom profile, with a single playback
> configuration for any resolution.  This is basically what the previous
> version had, one selection with no dependancy on content.  For that
> one option, choose the settings closest to what you were using before.

see that is the problem. I had used the default options but with Kernal
(less blur) deinterlacing (I think I also turned off anything that said
"disable if bad video performance"). The problem is I cannot look at my
old settings cos they are gone.
I have tried a "catch-all" profile but I couldn't find a suitable
combination of settings.

> 
> >       * Does anyone have a strategy for finding the best settings using
> >         the playback profiles? A methodical approach that is a little
> >         more scientific than trial and error would be appreciated (I
> >         don't mind doing some background reading if I only knew what to
> >         look for)
> 
> Another variable in the mix is:  what options was your frontend
> compiled to support.   Unfortunately, the menu selections still
> display all the options, even if your frontend doesn't support them
> (XvMC, OpenGL, etc.)
> 
My frontend PC meets the recommended Mythbuntu requirements with two
exceptions; I am using a 64M Nvidia card (cos I can't get the 128M ATI
to display 1920x1080, and my 256M Nvidia won't fit in the case) and I am
using a 8GB ATA133 CF card for the OS.
PC Spec: P4 3GHz, 2GB RAM

The only other thing to note is that I only recently scored the 3GHz
CPU. I had previously been running with a 2.67Ghz. Should I have
reinstalled the OS? I thought it would be ok just to whack in the better
processor.

> >       * How do you find out the resolution of different TV broadcasts?
> >         How do you know which settings will be used for a given TV show?
> >         (this is a source of great frustration becasue I try changing
> >         some settings and then don't know which recordings to watch to
> >         view the results)
> >       * Do the playback profiles only affect Live and Recorded TV? Does
> >         it affect the playback of other Video media?
> >       * Can anyone help me? ;-)
> >
> >  As long as the Video playback is reliable I will be happy. I plan to
> >  eventually build a new higher spec frontend for the main TV and retire
> >  this one to the spare room.
> >  Overall I think playback profiles will be a good thing because I will be
> >  able to optimise the settings for different types of video but at the
> >  moment I am in over my head!!
> >  Thanks in advance,
> >  Glen
> >
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> >
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