[mythtv-users] [mythtv] MythTV Raspberry Pi2 frontend testers

[Tom Harris]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 9:25 AM, Peter Bennett (cats22) <cats22 at comcast.net>
wrote:

> On 11/19/2015 08:21 AM, Lawrence Rust wrote:
> > On Wed, 2015-11-18 at 16:37 -0500, Peter Bennett (cats22) wrote:
> >> I installed it on Wheezy and it is working!
> >>
> >> The video is a bit jerky, I suspect I may not have the mpeg2 licence
> >> correctly set up.
> > For maximum performance setup your RPi for 256MB GPU RAM.  Then create a
> > custom OpenMAX playback profile using the OpenMAX decoder, OpenMax
> > renderer using the opengl2 OSD.  Also ensure to select the Advanced
> > Deinterlacer (HW).
> >
> >> I am running it from a terminal inside the GUI.  One thing strange,
> >> after I exit I see it is trying to execute in bash all the keystrokes
> >> from when I was running mythtv. Temporarily adding a cat after the
> >> command that runs the frontend to catch those.
> > Best to run without X.
> >
> >> When playing a video that is widescreen with 4x3 monitor - there is junk
> >> left over in the top and bottom bars on the screen which would normally
> >> be black.
> > That's an issue that I have on my TODO list.
> >
> > -- Lawrence Rust
> >
> >
>
> I checked the settings you mentioned above as well as my mpeg2 license.
> I already had them correct.
>
> Running it without X and with the parameter QT_QPA_PLATFORM=eglfs
> results in jerky video, sound interruptions and lip sync problems.
>
> However, running under the GUI (startx) with parameter
> QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb results in perfect video and audio!
>
> I am running on a 1280x1024 screen and playing 1080i video. Perhaps the
> scaling under eglfs is inefficient?
>
> One issue with running under startx - the audio does not work (I just
> hear silence) unless I first start "Sonic Pi" and then shut it down
> again. Seems like the X interface to audio is not being initialized?
>
> I installed my favorite theme (Steppes) and now I no longer have the
> problem of junk in the top and bottom parts of letterbox view.
>
> It is looking really good! Thank you!
>

I took another run at it this weekend.  My results are similar to Peter’s

I first re-tried EGLFS mode:
- wasn’t able to edit the settings on the Pi’s display, so I used remote X
to change the settings and add an OpenMax profile
- used rasp-config to change the memory split from 128MB of graphics mem to
256MB
- confirmed my MPEG2 license was installed with “vcgencmd codec_enabled
MPG2”  (the license code should be placed in /boot/config.txt)

After this, video actually plays on the Pi in EGLFS mode.  However, it was
not smooth for either 1080i or 720p (US Broadcast MPEG2).  I got a lot of
playback messages like:

2015-11-22 15:59:43.219535 I  Player(1): Waiting for video buffers...
2015-11-22 15:59:43.282415 I  Player(1): Video is 3.19103 frames behind
audio (too slow), dropping frame to catch up.
2015-11-22 15:59:43.284804 I  Player(1): Video is 3.11257 frames behind
audio (too slow), dropping frame to catch up.
2015-11-22 15:59:43.285256 I  Player(1): Waiting for video buffers…

I then went to X, and started in xcb mode.   There the video playback was
quite smooth.   But, my video was offset up+left, leaving black bars on the
bottom and right of the screen.  I’m sure I can address that via overscan
config and OSD settings.

My initial eglfs test was with HDMI audio with DD/5.1, which resulted in
static-like sound.  After switching to stereo output, I could hear the
audio track on my recordings.

Another data point:  I’ve also been testing MythTV in OpenElec/Kodi on this
rpi2 device, and under Kodi the video playback is perfect.  I believe Kodi
is doing EGL display.  So, that’s a good sign that the underlying hardware
and software should be fully capable.
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