[mythtv-users] Video card update fail

Greg Oliver oliver.greg at gmail.com
Wed Oct 10 04:37:39 UTC 2018


On Tue, Oct 9, 2018 at 10:34 PM Allen Edwards <allen.p.edwards at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Oct 9, 2018 at 7:43 PM Stephen Worthington <
> stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 9 Oct 2018 14:02:43 -0700, you wrote:
>>
>> >On Sun, Oct 7, 2018 at 4:47 PM Greg Oliver <oliver.greg at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> On Sun, Oct 7, 2018 at 6:18 PM Allen Edwards <
>> allen.p.edwards at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> My system is using a Nvidia 6200.  DVI out to the TV and analog to a
>> >>> monitor. I am running Mythbuntu 16 on an old AMD 5400.  Sound is
>> analog to
>> >>> the TV and SPDIF to a surround system we use for a few shows.
>> >>>
>> >>> After many hours I kind of got the new Nvidia 750ti card working.  I
>> >>> could not get the onboard audio to work no matter what my son and I
>> tried
>> >>> and he is a Google software engineer so it stumped us both.  I had to
>> cut
>> >>> down a HDMI connector to get the cable to fit but with that and
>> several
>> >>> hours I got sound to the TV.  Not a permanent solution as no digital
>> sound
>> >>> to the surround system.
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >> You should have immediately returned the card if HDMI did not fit.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>> The final straw was that when I turned off the TV and turned it back
>> on,
>> >>> Myth was on the monitor and not on the TV.  I tried both checkboxes
>> on the
>> >>> find new devices and both acted the same.  The driver at that point
>> was
>> >>> 340.  The other choice was 361 which I used at first but switched at
>> some
>> >>> point to get a picture to display.  Lots of trouble with the video
>> card
>> >>> reading the TV EDIT wrong and sending out incorrect settings which
>> would
>> >>> not display at all. Not sure if the driver was the issue but long
>> story
>> >>> short, I ended up with the 340 driver.
>> >>>
>> >>> Finally I took out the 750ti and reinstalled my 6200 and sound works,
>> >>> myth doesn't switch when the TV is off.  Only issue is I got a little
>> >>> better picture quality with the 750 on VDPAU slim. Any higher level
>> setting
>> >>> just crashed myth.
>> >>>
>> >>> I am 7 hours into getting nothing done.  Two of us working most of
>> that
>> >>> time.  If anyone knows how to solve my problem I will put a few more
>> hours
>> >>> into it.
>> >>>
>> >>> By the way, on the sound, we tried at least three audio managers,
>> Alsa,
>> >>> Pulse, and one command line one to try and get audio out of the
>> >>> motherboard. Nothing worked.
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >> What does the speaker test produce in alsa and/or gnome/kde, etc..  I
>> >> believe long ago, Jean Yvess (sp?) killed pulse when mythfrontend
>> started
>> >> playback, but I do not know if that is still the case.  You definitely
>> do
>> >> not want anything except alsa for digital audio.
>> >>
>> >> Also, when selecting the different modes from the TV GUI, I always had
>> to
>> >> restart mythfrontend (that was long ago though - YMMV).
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >I have made significant progress but I am not done yet. It only took an
>> >additional 4 hours :-)
>> >
>> >The goal is DVI and analog audio to TV and SPDIF to amplifier but using
>> the
>> >750ti video card and VDPAU video processing.  The audio worked with the
>> old
>> >6200 video card but the video was crap after the upgrade to Mythbuntu 14
>> >from 8.
>> >
>> >1) I left Pulse Audio installed. It was installed by my son accidently
>> (he
>> >did not realize the control panel brought in drivers) but the sound works
>> >fine with the 6200 so I left it.
>> >2) I install the 750ti and updated the driver to 390 I used this method
>> >   1) sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
>> >   2) sudo apt update
>> >   3) Then launch Software & Updates -> Additional Driver utility, choose
>> >the new driver from the list and apply changes.
>> >3) Check the driver using lsmod | grep nvidia
>> >4) Check the version using cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version.  It reports
>> >390.87 which is correct.
>> >5) Check pavucontrol (Digital Output - S/PDIF) and aslamixer (Front,
>> Main,
>> >and SPDIF) as before.
>> >6) Ran nvidia-settings and saved xorg.conf.  The file looked incorrect
>> and
>> >the TV still lost video when power cycled.
>> >7) Disable xfsettingsd in the GUI Settings under "Session and Startup":
>> >That fixed the TV power cycle problem.
>> >8) Using Myth Setup search for an audio setting that plays both TV and
>> >amplifier. The existing setting that worked with the 6200 card was
>> >ALSA:pulghw:CARD=SB,DEV=0 Stereo.  I tried all settings.
>> >
>> >Results
>> >Audio) I was unable to find a setting that played both.  I could play
>> >digital or analog.  I tired both DVI and HDMI connections to the TV and
>> >multiple settings of pavucontrol.  There are a lot of settings but unlike
>> >before I put in the new video card, none would play both analog and
>> digital
>> >off the motherboard. I could also not get digital from HDMI and SPDIF at
>> >the same time. Just one or the other.
>> >
>> >Video) Using VDPAU Slim the picture looks much improved.  VDPAU Normal
>> >crashes the frontend.  That was very disappointing.
>> >
>> >Wife) Wife is happy with this setup so at least I have stable hardware
>> >until I can get some help to solve the remaining problems.
>> >
>> >Goals:
>> >1) I would like to get a higher version of VDPAU as I have been led to
>> >believe that should work.
>>
>> You are right that a 750ti should be able to do all VDPAU modes, but
>> we will have to debug that problem.  Now that you are running the 390
>> drivers, I have no idea why it would crash.  There should be
>> information in the logs that will help.  What setting are you using
>> for Setup > Appearance > Theme / Screen Settings > Paint engine?  Some
>> of those settings are incompatible with VDPAU.
>>
>> >2) I need to get digital and analog sound working at the same time.
>>
>> The digital sound is going out the HDMI port on the video card's sound
>> device and the analogue sound is going out the analogue port on the
>> motherboard's sound device - two completely separate devices.  So
>> there is no setting in MythTV that will ever be able to send the sound
>> to both devices at once.  In order to do that, you will need to write
>> some specific ALSA configuration that will send the sound to both
>> devices.  That con goes in a file /etc/asound, which you will need
>> to create.  I have never done this, but others on this list have, so
>> they may be able to provide more specific help.  ALSA config is not
>> easy to understand and even less easy to write.  But there are lots of
>> examples on the web.
>>
>> You can get SPDIF and analogue output from the motherboard sound
>> device at the same time just by enabling both outputs on that device
>> in alsamixer.
>>
>> Re Sound.  I am using DVI and not HDMI and want SPDIF and analog out from
> the motherboard at the same time.  That worked with the 6200 video card but
> does not work with the 750 card even though I am not using the HDMI output
> on the 750 card. SPDIF and analog are enabled in alsa mixer but there is no
> setting in Myth Audio settings that will play both as there was before the
> new card was installed.  I can get either one depending on the setting but
> not both. I tried the HDMI cable thinking I might get better results but
> when I didn't, I went back to my target configuration which does not use
> the HDMI output.
>

The best way to achieve this is with an .asoundrc or asound.conf (you can
name the config what you wish) that plays out both devices.  I do not know
how to tell Mythtv to do it, but alsa can definitely do it and also give
MythTV a uniqie alsa name to select in the config.

I have never done it except to swap speakers, etc, but it is possible.
Google returns many hits.


> Re VDPAU.  The Paint Engine is Qt and with that VDPAU Normal will crash
> when you play a video.  It is fine with the menus. When the Paint Engine is
> set to Auto, OpenGL1 or 2, VDPAU Normal does not crash when playing the
> video but the video is several distorted. It looks like the vertical is
> stretched so the heads look too tall and thin and the aspect ratio is wrong.
>

I have been using nVidia and MythTV for as long as I can remember and
always use OpenGL with VDPAU and have never had an issue.  I would suggest
changing it, or setting it to autO (which should select OpenGL).

Good luck.



>
> Allen
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