[mythtv-users] MythTV Raspberry Pi2 - Raspbian Jessie Image Testing

[Curtis Gedak]

On 16-03-09 02:57 PM, Peter Bennett (cats22) wrote:
> On 03/09/2016 03:42 PM, Curtis Gedak wrote:
>> This post contains observations from testing two different RPi2 0.27.x
>> tarballs on Raspbian Jessie, and some questions.
>>
>> Ref  Image
>> ---  ------------------------------------------------
>> PB   mythtv-raspi-v0.27.6-62-gbb9eec4.tar.bz2
>> LR   mythtv-v0.27.5-115-g00c0993-RPI2-jessie.tar.bz2
>>
>> Both of these mythtv images play smooth video and clear sound.
>>
>> For comparison I looked at bug reports/tickets that mention
>> "Raspberry" so that I can test these specific items.
>>
>> Following are my observations:
>>
>> ...<snip>...
>>
>> #12677 - Raspberry Pi: jerkiness and interrupted audio during OSD
>> https://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/12677
>>
>> PB: There is still an issue and is much worse with themes that use
>>     larger OSD displays.
> 
> There is an additional fix in the source that addresses the large OSD
> displays (e.g.mythcenter).

Which additional fix are you referring to?
Was it "VO: Threaded softblend OSD rendering" by LVR?


>> LR: OSD is rock steady with no noticeable jerkiness when using eglfs.
>>     All is not perfect though because if OSD fade is enabled and then
>>     it adversely impacts audio.
> 
> This only applies if using eglfs. I have not tried to get eglfs working
> and I am concentrating on xcb. Since mythtv normally only works under X
> this seemed the way to go.

Because I've had success with compiling using Lawrence's instructions, I
thought I might try to add some of your patches to Lawrence's work.
Your patches definitely help improve the operation of mythfrontend.

I think Lawrence mentioned that eglfs is best used with QT 5.4 or higher
so it might not be good to try compiling it with the QT 5.3 that comes
with Raspbian Jessie.

I have found it very interesting to compare the results between eglfs
and xcb.  Both have advantages and disadvantages.


>> ... <snip>....
> 
> I will be creating a debian (deb) install archive next, so that it can
> simply be installed with dpkg and then run without all of the manual
> steps. Also that will support full deinstall.

That sounds great!  A deb install would go a long ways towards making
mythfrontend more accessible to RPi users.


> If you want to build the source you will need to use a special configure
> command on the raspberry pi. I am avoiding the LVR mythbuild.sh because
> it is a monster and I don't know who will maintain it. It only supports
> wheezy and jessie and does not support ubuntu, arch linux or others than
> may now have a raspberry pi version.

I can appreciate these concerns about complexity of building and long
term maintenance.  Ideally in the long term all of the needed changes
will be committed to the MythTV repository and can be built using normal
build commands.


> For building on raspberry pi I have set up an external hard drive for
> root and home partitions. Otherwise it takes too long and maybe will
> wear out the SD card.

For now I will try to use cross-compiling to build, especially as I do
not have an external hard drive to use with the RPi2.


> Regarding your setup tutorial, perhaps that should be in the mythtv wiki
> (wiki.mythtv.org). You can sign up and create pages there as needed. We
> can also add the page to the User Manual in the wiki.

Thank you for considering my setup tutorial as worthy of the MythTV
wiki.  I'll take that as a compliment.  :-)

The current tutorial is limited to using a pre-compiled build, so it
might not be ready to include the content directly in the wiki.  If you
wish, please feel free to include a link to it.

I think adding the relevant instructions to the tutorial might be more
appropriate when you have a .deb that can be more easily built from
source.  At least those are my current thoughts.

Curtis