[mythtv-users] Raspberry Pi works! Thanks Lawrence

[Joseph Fry]

So I spent a rainy day inside working on getting the frontend working on
the PI.

I was one of the earliest testers, but it was just a proof of concept, this
time I am actually intending to use it daily so I had to work out some bugs.

I only record in HD... All my content over 2 weeks old is MPEG 2 from a
HDHR Prime... and since then everything has been 1080i from HDPVR at
default settings.  All of the content appears to play reasonably well (not
gonna replace my NVIDIA/VDPAU system in the living room, but good enough
for the kids den and our bedroom).

Here is how I have it set up for the best experience I was able to achieve:
- using Raspbian Jessie
- using the overclock settings previously recommended by Lawrence
- 256MB of memory assigned to gpu
- Using XCB.
- Starting the frontend from a text console so I don't load a full window
manager, like so:
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$MYTHTVDIR/lib
QT_PLUGIN_PATH=$MYTHTVDIR/plugins
PYTHONPATH=$MYTHTVDIR/lib/python2.7/site-packages startx
$MYTHTVDIR/bin/mythfrontend

Here are the remaining issues
- OSD causes major stutter.  I notice that it pegs one core, suggesting
that, if it the blend could be multi-threaded it would not be an issue.
- Playback is not centered, instead it ignores the overscan settings, and
because it does, the top and left of the screen are clipped, and I get
black borders on the bottom and right.  However the UI respects the
overscan, so it's better than EGLFS.

I really want to use EGLFS, however it's still not quite as smooth, and the
overscan issues in the UI are unacceptable.

Unfortunately, the reading I have done suggests that the only way to fix
the overscan in QT would be to layer the MythMainWindow onto a parent
window that is full screen.  Apparently QT doesn't allow resizing the main
window in EGLFS, I don't know how difficult this would be, but it doesn't
seem trivial to me.(see:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=77545&p=740336).

I know that these issues aren't news to anyone... so I will be patient and
continue to test new releases in hope that further improvements are made.

Overall though, I think I can safely say that MythFrontend on a Raspberry
Pi is a reality and is entirely usable today.  I will be installing one
immediately on the second most used TV in the house and suspect that it
will be much better received by the family than Kodi has been.

Thanks a ton Lawrence!
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