Using Knoppmyth version R5A16 {mythtv 18.1}

In mythfrontend - watching live tv when I press y to change tuners and
when I get to the HD card I get sent back to the Mythtv menu...

I ran the DVB_fixer.sh script and it does fix my channels to match
zap2it's listings - which is super... However, within Mythweb in the
Program Listings the channels now have an 'underscore' i.e. 3_1 when I
enter this via mythtv-setup... It takes it but when trying to watching live
tv mythfrontend does not change to that channel and clears the default
channel that was entered in setup.

Is there a reason why mythtv chokes then goes back to the menu and not
just move to the next available tuner instead?

My tuners and their order:

Tuner#
0 = pvr250
1 = pvr500 tuner a
2 = pvr500 tuner b
4 = pcHDTV HD3000
5 = firewire

When I get to the HD card it fails rather then move to the next available
tuner.

Perhaps a menu should be available to select the tuner directly... Huh?

Any ideas

Have you tried using the on-screen program guide or browse mode to select an HD channel? That's essentially the menu that you're asking for...

Thanks TJC for the idea....

However, with the program guide up... I don't see a way to watch that
channel.. If I press enter/space it appears to allow recording of that
channel.

If I enable browse mode I can only cycle through the channels of the
current tuner.

I have the Myth key pages {from Mythtweb} printed out and I see no key
defined to watch that channel via the Program Guide.

Any more ideas?

whoops... I see what you were saying... While in the program guide
pressing M is suppose to change channels. {under EPG heading on the
keys doc.}

While it will change if I am on a channel for the current tuner.

If I select one of the HD channels {one with an underscore} nothing
happens. {that is it leaves the EPG mode but does not change the
channel}

I noticed this post just after I posted my own problems. I now have discovered that I can record TV and I can watch the recordings (slightly choppy playback, but it's a step forward).

I'll be interested in any results.

I am not having any issues with playback.

Its all good for me...

I can record and watch that... But after the DVB_fixer I am unable to
watch this via LiveTv... Something with the frontend and channels with
an underscore I guess.

I can select one of the channels from mythweb and record it tho...

So at least that is working for me...

For your choppyness see if your DMA is enabled for your disk...

hdparm -d /dev/hda or /dev/hd? or /dev/sd?

I am using the Xvmc though.... Wow it is so much better with playback
and livetv with it enabled...

I discovered that I can watch live tv IF I first watch a recorded program. If I go straight to Live TV, it's a no-go. This was actually my first real experience with HDTV (outside of the standard box store display). PBS had a cooking show that looked just amazing on my 19" monitor (I can't believe I just said that about a cooking show).

Other than the 'playback' setting for xvmc, do I need to install anythign else? I found a message refering to installing something related to xvmc and lirc (I installed the i686 options so no lirc as I understand it).

My next step is to get audio working. I'm trying to get coax spdif out to my receiver. Besides the mythtv checkbox for spdif passthru do I need to install/configure anything else?

Again, I am extremely green when it comes to linux. Any help would be appreciated.

you used to have to chose xvmc and lirc separately during the install, but that is no longer necessary with the new versions. And I wouldn't use xvmc unless you like having your box lockup.

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Now that I think about it, my playback isn't really choppy, is more of a "slow motion" effect.
I'm using an MSI Nvidia 6200 TC vidio card. This is a relatively new card. The current nvidia driver is 7664. The version that I installed as part of the Knoppmyth distro is 7174. Could this be an issue?

I've never done anything to enable/disable DMA, but it was enabled last time I checked (previous install). The current hard drive I'm using (just for testing since I can't get my new SATA drive running in Knoppmyth) is an older IBM 40GB drive (ata 100, 7200 rpm). Is this drive too old (bought when 80 GB drives were just starting to come out) for HD to work properly?

as root run

hdparm /dev/hd? (?being your drive designation usually hda)
look for IO and DMA they should both be 1
and to test the speed run
hdparm /dev/hd? -Tt

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I have yet to have any lockups with Xvmc.... YAHOO!!!

The only issue I see is with some of the OSD menus...

It does a little hiccup here and there.... until it fades away...

Mine has been real stable thus far.

are your osd's grey? if not then you are not using xvmc, if they are you are the very first person I've heard of successfully using xvmc with hdtv, that is if you are watching hdtv.

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Hmm.. Slow motion.... What is your CPU speed...
What are you connected to TV or Computer monitor? {maybe refresh?}

You can use your SATA drive in Knoppmyth.

That is what I am using now.

You will have to follow the manual process and there is a bit of
tweaking to do... But its not too bad...

You just need to setup the 4 partitions that knoppmyth expects...

The only difference will be your device. Instead of /dev/hda it will be
/dev/sda {bare in mind that is unless you have more then the two hard
drives} Note: usually the first IDE drive is /dev/hda the second one is
/dev/hdb and so on... the same for SCSI devices /dev/sda second one
is /dev/sdb... If the drive is partitioned it will be /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2,
etc.

SATA drives are treated like SCSI drives no worries on any drivers
they are built-in... {at least they were for me}

Or you could just use the SATA drive for myth recordings and livetv.
Do a dmesg and see if it recognizes your drives.

dmesg | grep hd [example output provided]
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfc00-0xfc07, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xfc08-0xfc0f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
hdc: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8161B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdc: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM drive, 256kB Cache, UDMA(33)
SCSI device sda: 586072368 512-byte hdwr sectors (300069 MB)
SCSI device sda: 586072368 512-byte hdwr sectors (300069 MB)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
So my HD device is /dev/sda
My DVD drive is /dev/hdc

Add it in as a second drive. {might get better performance this way}

Then all you have to do is format it and mount it... It may clear up some
of your choppyness/slowness.

Use the following for partitioning the drive and formatting it.

cfdisk <--- used to partition

snippet below -- use this to format the partitions

Note: During the making of partitions, you can choose any fstype you
wish, ext2 is recommended for the live buffer (hda3) and ext3 for the
data (hda4).
# mke2fs -O sparse_super -m0 -i8000000 -L cache -M /cache /dev/hda3
This should yield some performance increase on /cache (used for the ring
buffer)
# mke2fs -j -O sparse_super -m0 -i8000000 -L myth -M /myth /dev/hda4
(I highly recommend a journalling fs for /dev/hda4).


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As far as your sp/dif issue.. I had a hell of time with mine... Well getting it
enable was easy... But the sound quality was the pits... Sound like it was
in a tin box... and had a strange ringing as well... I gave up on it.. I am
strictly using Analog out and it sounds great for me... I don't plan on using
DVD's on this - so its fine for me as it stands now...

Here are some links:

Optimize HD Performance

http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... erformance

Add a HD

http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... driveHowTo

More on Manual install

http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/mirrors/mysettopbox.tv/

Some info on Digita Audio out {spdif}
http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... AudioHowTo

I hope that helps....

Tim

Yep grey and ugly...

Well I have yet been able to watch any HD via live because of the channel
issue I believe.

I can watch HD recordings though.... { I know not the same }

not really in the past every single person I've ever talked to has not been able to watch livetv or recordings with xvmc, if they ff rew or anything else that brings up the osd it freezes the box. I know they've been doing alot of work on it, so maybe it's actually starting to work, but I thought I'd heard that it was still more or less broke in 0.18.1

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