[mythtv-users] MythTV + nVidia = different drivers, different behavior

[Michael Rice]

On 3/21/08, Rich West <Rich.West at wesmo.com> wrote:
> I'm currently using the 100.14.11 nVidia drivers after several attempts
> at getting the 169.x drivers to behave properly, but I am not sure if it
> is the driver, or something with the combination of MythTV and the driver.
>
> With each new iteration of the nVidia drivers, I've bumped in to
> different issues.
> o  First, the next rev driver has the 'random pink screen' problems
> which locks up the entire system which is pretty obviously a driver issue.
> o  Then the two 169.x versions of the driver, while appearing to work
> wonderfully, oddly *don't* work as expected when playing only *some* HD
> content.  Once installed, everything appears to be working great, and
> tests of shows like Deal or No Deal and (ack) American Idol play just
> fine.  However, when attempting to play something else, like Medium, the
> video attempts to play but we only get a black screen and the CPU is
> spiked at 99% by mythfrontend.

I've seen the spike after some driver updates.  For me it was due to
the driver install removing some things from my xorg.conf.  I have:

Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "fbdevhw"
    Load           "record"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "type1"
EndSection

But if extmod is removed you don't get the xvideo extension and things are slow.

What does the frontend log say when playing the problem video?   The
169.09 driver has been working fine for me.