[mythtv-users] Remote Mythfrontend Problem

[Steve Milner]

This has got to be HW related in some way!

I have flattened my frontend (and I might add in the process accidently 
nuked 650GB of ripped DVDs) and gone for an FC11 install

I got it up and running today - same problems.

Pausing for 10s no problems.

To test I decided to install a frontend on my works laptop.

Works like charm - even handles the pulseaudio without drama and this is 
over a wireless network through 3ft thick stone walls.

10 minues of watching an not a single error in the frontend logs.

So I wonder, is the frontend problem is sound or hardware related?

So does anyone have any experience with either the sound or video 
hardware that they could help me with:

Relevant hardware:
Graphics : Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller 
(rev 02)
Sound : Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio 
Controller (rev 01)

Just a thought, could all this be video timing problems the fronend logs 
report that the timing used is DRM - If the default (or first) pipe from 
the graphics card is for DVMI, but I'm using VGA, could it be the timing 
is coming from something that's not connected? I have to be honest here 
but my knowledge is poor and I'm clutching at straws.

It's the kids (one 7 year old and one 5 year old) holiday time, they 
haven't got a decent TV to watch and on top of that I've nuked all their 
ripped DVS. I'm sure you can guess how popular I am at the moment with:

a) the kids.
b) My wife, who is having to put up with the kids during the day.

Unless there is any inspiration from the members here I'm going to have 
to find a PCI (not AGP or PCIe) nvidia card (which is working like a 
dream on this laptop as I type) to try on the frontend. Oh, and it needs 
to be fanless!

And if that fails I'll be looking for a soundcard.

Regards,

Steve

On 15/07/09 10:04, Steve Milner wrote:
> Hello all.
>
> After several days of trying to understand this myself I must now ask
> for help.
>
> I have a remote mythfrontend and I am noticing a high level of digital
> artefacts while watching live tv (DVB-T).
>
> There are occasional sound glitches including (high pitched short
> sqeaks) as well as small areas (sometimes very large areas) of the
> screen which fail to update or contain grey.
>
> It seems that when I first start watching a channel then for a minute or
> so there are relatively few problems, but they then get worse. But of
> course that could be just my perceptions.
>
> Sound glitches occur about every minute or so and the small areas of
> picture problems about every 10-20 seconds.
>
> I don't seem to be able to find any correlation between the image
> conditions or the sound conditions compared to the problem happening.
>
> To help you understand this let me give you a little bit of the history.
>
> I have been running a backend and frontend on the same box for many
> years with little problem. There was the odd digital artefact (about
> 1/20th of the ones listed above) which I put down to a poor tv aerial
> installation (Typically stations would tune with a signal of between 57%
> to 63%).
>
> I decided to embark upon a project to install a new aerial, move the
> mythtv box next to the other server in the house and get myself a new
> fanless silent pc for the frontend, to have a nice quiet lounge again.
>
> The new aerial is installed and when tuning stations I get signal of
> between 68% to 74% which would indicate a better tv signal.
>
> OK, perhaps I had better describe my kit.
>
> Backend:
> Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz Dual Core
> uname -a : Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-128.1.16.el5.centos.plus
> #1 SMP Wed Jul 1 13:06:47 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
> Twin USB Avermedia Volar DVB-T (
> http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/pc_components/avermedia/avertv_dvb-t_volar/219054
> )Graphics
> Myth TV Install version : 0.21-209.el5
> Graphics : nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)
> Network : Intel Corporation 82562EZ 10/100 Ethernet Controller (rev 02)
>
> Frontend:
> Intel Atom 330 1.6GHz (Quad Core or 2x Dual Core - not sure)
> uname -a : Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-128.1.16.el5.centos.plus
> #1 SMP Wed Jul 1 13:01:46 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
> Myth Frontend Version : 0.21-209.el5
> Graphics : Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller
> (rev 02)
> Sound : Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio
> Controller (rev 01)
> Network : Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express
> Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
>
> Frontend Setup that may be relevant.
>
> I am using the i810 xorg driver with 915resolution to get my TV (1360 x
> 768) to work correctly rather than the intel driver. The intel driver
> will start X but the TV has an annoying "Out of Range" box hopping round
> the screen and the problems still persist even if I persevere.
> I have working OpenGL with rendering support and woking xv (tested by
> glxinfo and xvinfo) but XvMC does not seem to be supported with the i810
> driver. The problem exists with no xorg.conf or with an Xorg --configure
> generated one.
>
> To get the network card working correctly I needed to use this kmod:
> kmod-r8168-8.012.00_NAPI-1.el5.elrepo but seems to be working fine now.
>
> The network topology is 100MB through 2x switches and I have been using
> one of these network over the mains plug things that claims to 85MB. I
> have tested this directly with cable and the problem persists but could
> be very marginally better with the cable. I have monitored (using
> gnome-system-monitor) on both the frontend and backend and could see no
> problems on the networking graphs when these artefacts happened.
>
> I can play local DVDs fine (I use Xine).
> If I play the recorded content (which is not being streamed directly -
> but using an NFS share) there seem to be no problems, but I haven't
> tested this with my current sound/graphics setup.
>
> Any help, advice, suggestions, further information requests or things to
> test will be gratefully received.
>
> Regards,
> Steve
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