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Is MythTV for me?
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Author:  gman4nj [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:50 am ]
Post subject:  Is MythTV for me?
Is MythTV for me.

I figured I’d start out with this topic in hopes that some of the more experienced users can lend a hand. I tend to be very avid about finding answers and making things work so before I seriously dive into this project, I’d like to see if Myth can provide me with a one-stop shop


Here are my Specs.

I have 2 PC’s one with windows that is used for daily activities and 1 for MythTV

My Myth box contains the following
Release R5D1
Dell 8400
P4 2.8
1 Gig of Ram
1 PVR150 with remote
Pny Verto 6200 w/ 256MB’s of ram
Soundblaster Audigy


Here is what I would like.

I currently have 1 Mitsubishi 55” HDTV Widescreen with a built in HD Tuner / VGA / S-Video / Composite and Component outs
I use DirecTV and have a DirecTV HD box hooked up to my widescreen
I also have 2 additional TV’s

Here are the questions I have and any help you can provide is appreciated.

1. Is my PC sufficient? Can I utilize it as a HDPC?
2. Obviously My Main TV is the widescreen, I’m assuming via that by utilizing Myth, the only way to watch tv (and have all the features of myth) is to run an Svideo out from my DirecTV box into my PVR150 and then utilize the Component out on my 6200 to connect to the tv. Is this the ideal connection?
3. By utilizing the above configuration, will my resolution be just as good as it would be if I was to watch TV by hooking the DirecTV component out’s directly up to my TV?
4. As far as audio, I’m also assuming the out from the DTV Reciever needs to go to the SB Audigy in and then run the SB Audigy out to TV?
5. Is it possible to network all the DirecTV receivers to play the videos on my MythServer?


Those are my main concerns for now, any insights you can provide are appreciated. My main concern Is video quality. I do not want to suffer any loss.

Thanks Again
Author:  ceenvee703 [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:41 pm ]
Post subject: 
Others will hopefully give you further info but here are a few quick things:

1) A P4 at 2.8GHz is plenty for recording SD or HD, and is fine for playing back SD

2) It might be a bit slow for playing back HD without a video hardware assist. You can run XvMC for playing back HD but it has some quirks (MythTV's on-screen display appears in grayscale, there is some stuttering when you skip or pause)

3) Yes, running S-video from your DirecTV box's out to your PVR150's in will give you the best SD recording. (Also, your DirecTV's audio out would go to the audio in of the PVR150, not the Audigy.) HOWEVER...

4) ... just to make sure you realize it (apologies if you do), you cannot record HD via S-video. Moreover, there is almost certainly no way to record HD from DirecTV via any non-DirecTV DVR.

5) I believe there might be issues with support for component out from Nvidia cards via Linux... it either isn't possible yet, or is only possible with a specific set of Nvidia drivers. You'd have to search this and other forums for the answer.

EDIT: here's something I found by Googling "nvidia component out linux"

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/ComponentOut
Author:  gman4nj [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:02 pm ]
Post subject: 
ceenvee703 wrote:
Others will hopefully give you further info but here are a few quick things:
Thank you very much


ceenvee703 wrote:
1) A P4 at 2.8GHz is plenty for recording SD or HD, and is fine for playing back SD

This is perfect, as I don't have an absolute need for recording HDTV, although it would be nice.

I'm assuming if I wanted to record HDTV, I'd have to purchase an OTA antenna and a PCHDTV card, is this correct?

Also, my TV (Mitsubishi WS-B55) has an integrated HD Tuner, a bunch of 1394 ports and a coax audio port. Is this good for anything?


ceenvee703 wrote:
2) It might be a bit slow for playing back HD without a video hardware assist. You can run XvMC for playing back HD but it has some quirks (MythTV's on-screen display appears in grayscale, there is some stuttering when you skip or pause)


I can hold off recording in HD for now. My main goal is to not be limited in viewing HD content via DirecTV broadcasts. The part that I'm trying to understand is how is it that I can run an S-video cable from my DirecTv box to my PVR150 and then have it broadcast in HD. Does the PVR150 send the signal thru to the nvidia card through the component cables as HD?


ceenvee703 wrote:
3) Yes, running S-video from your DirecTV box's out to your PVR150's in will give you the best SD recording. (Also, your DirecTV's audio out would go to the audio in of the PVR150, not the Audigy.) HOWEVER...


Thanks for the tip about the audio, that’s probably why I was having problems. So if I run the audio into the PVR card, do I need to run any cables to the TV or Sound card? Is a soundcard needed? I'm not sure I quite understand this part.


ceenvee703 wrote:
4) ... just to make sure you realize it (apologies if you do), you cannot record HD via S-video. Moreover, there is almost certainly no way to record HD from DirecTV via any non-DirecTV DVR.


Not a problem. So then my question is, with the PCHD card, is there component in's or is it a standard coax run from the antenna to the card? Do you also know if it is possible to run 2 tuner cards, one for SD and one for HD? Is this ideal in recording HD programming?

ceenvee703 wrote:
5) I believe there might be issues with support for component out from Nvidia cards via Linux... it either isn't possible yet, or is only possible with a specific set of Nvidia drivers. You'd have to search this and other forums for the answer.


Thank you very much for all your answers. This is a start :D
Author:  ceenvee703 [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:29 pm ]
Post subject: 
gman4nj wrote:
I'm assuming if I wanted to record HDTV, I'd have to purchase an OTA antenna and a PCHDTV card, is this correct?


Yes, although...

gman4nj wrote:
...my TV (Mitsubishi WS-B55) has an integrated HD Tuner, a bunch of 1394 ports and a coax audio port. Is this good for anything?


You could see if it was possible to connect your antenna to your TV, then control your TV's tuner via Firewire just like you can with Firewire-based digital cable boxes. Google for your TV's model number or search at avsforum.com or on the mythtv-users mailing list archives at gossamerthreads.com.

gman4nj wrote:
Does the PVR150 send the signal thru to the nvidia card through the component cables as HD?


No, your PVR150 records its S-video input as SD video. Your MythTV box takes that video, upsamples it at playback time to whatever output resolution you're running at, and displays it through your video card. Everything is always a recording--with MythTV (or any PVR like a TiVo) you can't "cut out the middleman" and send a signal directly to the video card. Making everything a recording, even Live TV, allows you to pause live TV, etc.

gman4nj wrote:
So if I run the audio into the PVR card, do I need to run any cables to the TV or Sound card? Is a soundcard needed?


Yes, you need to run your computer's audio out to your TV, whether that's the motherboard's onboard video or your Soundblaster card.

gman4nj wrote:
...with the PCHD card, is there component in's or is it a standard coax run from the antenna to the card?


The PCTV card is an ATSC HD tuner. The tuner grabs the over-the-air signal as data and just saves it to disk. There is no capture or digitizing involved as with the PVR cards. In fact, I don't believe there is any card that will capture via component inputs that works with MythTV.

Good luck!
Author:  afrosheen [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:29 pm ]
Post subject: 
For the time being, you will never get HD through that satellite box into Myth.

"The part that I'm trying to understand is how is it that I can run an S-video cable from my DirecTv box to my PVR150 and then have it broadcast in HD"

Svideo will do 480i, max, and that's way below HD resolution. I think some Directv boxen like the H20 will output everything via composite and svideo in 480i but that's the best you can do with it.

A company called Blackmagic in Europe is coming out with an HDMI-in card. Whether it will do the trick or not is unknown at the current time. If the Directv boxen are broadcasting their HDMI signal using HDCP (encryption) then we're all out of luck. Then there's the little problem with linux drivers. Then there are concerns about storage and compression. With some cable boxen, you can output HD via firewire and most modern PCs can keep up with that stream, and if it's fast enough, record more than one at a time. However, I believe that signal is already compressed.

It's sad but until the Microsoft/Directv deal is finalized, we won't have Directv cards capable of HD to use in PVRs. Might as well forget it for the time being.

As for OTA HD content, all you need is a decent card (there are at least 3) and a decent antenna. Myth is very capable of recording these streams.
Author:  gman4nj [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:51 pm ]
Post subject: 
So will I still be able to view HD content through MythTV. I understand recording is not an issue, but since everything is tunneling through the mythbox, will it upscale the 480 to 1080?
Author:  ceenvee703 [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:28 pm ]
Post subject: 
gman4nj wrote:
So will I still be able to view HD content through MythTV.


As afrosheen said, you won't get HD out of your satellite box into MythTV. So you can view HD content in MythTV, but not from your satellite box... you'd need a HD tuner or a Firewire cable box.

As I said, yes, your 480i recordings will be upsampled to 1080i or 720p or whatever during playback, but that certainly doesn't make them qualify as "high-definition."
Author:  neutron68 [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:33 pm ]
Post subject:  will mythtv upscale?
gman4nj wrote:
So will I still be able to view HD content through MythTV. I understand recording is not an issue, but since everything is tunneling through the mythbox, will it upscale the 480 to 1080?


The answer is yes. I'm recording both standard definition tv (SD) and high definition tv (HD) and it all comes out of my Mythtv computer at full HD resolution - 1920x1080.

You can set your Mythtv computer to output whatever resolution your monitor/tv/projector can handle. Mythtv upscales everything (including menus) to that resolution!

Eric
Author:  afrosheen [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:39 pm ]
Post subject: 
Neutron of course is talking about having an HD tuner card pulling over the air HD signals in. Anything coming from your satellite box will be 480i upscaled to 1080i or whatever you output to. So keep that in mind..I know this stuff is confusing but I'm trying to make sense. :)
Author:  gman4nj [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:11 pm ]
Post subject: 
Ok, I'm almost there and now have some new issues.

On initial format I'm able to view channels. I then went in a made some updates to my xf86Config-4. The following are the changes I made

Added Option "TVStandard" "HD1080i"
Added Modes "1920x1080"
Changed HorizSync to 15.0 - 620.0
VertRefresh 15.0 - 600.0
Changed Option "DPMS" true to just "DPMS"
Added "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"

Now for some reason when I go to watch live tv, I just get a black screen.

Also, is there an option for aspect ratio. For some reason, my tv is presenting a 4:3 aspect ratio when it should be 16x9

I know it will be worth it in the end, I just have to get pass these small setup issues.

Thanks for your help :D
Author:  afrosheen [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:15 pm ]
Post subject: 
How are you trying to connect your myth box to your tv?
Author:  gman4nj [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:21 pm ]
Post subject: 
afrosheen wrote:
How are you trying to connect your myth box to your tv?


Same as described above.

I'm running a DirecTv STB with Svid out to my PVR150
I'm then running my pny verto 6200 component out to my TV

Hope this helps. I'll post the XF86Config-4 in a few seconds, just need to head over to my mythbox :D
Author:  gman4nj [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
OK, here is my config. If only I could get VNC working :D


Quote:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
# PS/2 Mouse using /dev/input/mice in Kernel 2.6
# Serial Mouse not detected
InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "true"

EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/PEX"
# Additional fonts: Locale, Gimp, TTF...
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/75dpi"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/100dpi"
# True type and type1 fonts are also handled via xftlib, see /etc/X11/XftConfig!
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/western"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/decoratives"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/CID"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "ddc" # ddc probing of monitor
# Load "GLcore"
Load "dbe"
# Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "bitmap" # bitmap-fonts
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "record"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Serial Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Microsoft"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PS/2 Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "USB Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
EndSection

# Auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config


Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
# sw_cursor is needed for some ati and radeon cards
#Option "sw_cursor"
#Option "hw_cursor"
#Option "NoAccel"
#Option "ShowCache"
#Option "ShadowFB"
#Option "UseFBDev"
#Option "Rotate"
Identifier "Card0"
# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "All"
BoardName "All"
# BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 24
Option "TVStandard" "HD1080i"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1080"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 15.0 - 620.0 # Warning: This may fry very old Monitors
HorizSync 15.0 - 600.0 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
EndSection
Author:  afrosheen [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:30 pm ]
Post subject: 
"Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV" "

Correct me if I'm wrong but this is used only when connecting via Svideo or composite to a television. If you're using component (3 fat hd cables) then you definitely do not want this in your config.
Author:  gman4nj [ Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
hmmm got that from http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/ComponentOut

I'll try taking it out and see what it does.

Cant hurt :lol:
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