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PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 12:33 pm 
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Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:10 pm
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R5F27 - Biostar K8NHA GRAND - Athlon 64-3200 - PVR-150 x 2, Air2PC x 1 - Mitsubishi HC1500 720p Projector

# Video type: HDTV and SDTV
# Type of system: combined front and back-end
# Noise level: Low - No fans other than PS and CPU.

# CASE: Old Antec ATX Mid-Tower
# PSU: Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply
# MOTHERBOARD: Biostar K8NHA GRAND - nForce3 250 Socket 754
# CPU: AMD A64-3200
# RAM: Crucial 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory Model CT12864Z40B
# CPU HEATSINK: Stock AMD
# NORTHBRIDGE HEATSINK: Stock
# CD/DVD-RW: NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM
# HDD: Seagate Barracuda ES ST3500630NS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
# GRAPHICS CARD: PNY GeForce 6200 256mb AGP using DVI out to HDMI input on projector
# SOUNDCARD: Onboard Realtek ALC655 AC97 Rev 2.3 6-channel audio
# TUNER CARD: 2 x PVR-150, 1 x Air2PC-ATSC-PCI (r0.2)
# REMOTE CONTROL: USB MCE Version 2 - Mfr Part Number: A9O-00007

KEYBOARD: Micron PS2
MOUSE: Microsoft PS2

HDTV Source: Over the Air - Washington, DC
SDTV Source: Comcast Cable - Stafford, VA

This would be a Tier 1 SDTV system without the remote issue (see below). I don't think their is such a thing as a Tier 1 HDTV Front-End with perfect HDTV playback out of the box.

DISPLAY: Mitsubishi HC1500 720P Projector (1280x720_60)
Works great. Overscan is adjustable by projector. Connections:
From graphics card DVI out to Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver HDMI in using 6ft Monoprice DVI to HDMI cable.
From Onkyo HDMI out to HC1500 HDMI in using 25ft + 6ft Monoprice HDMI 1.3 cables.
(I bought a 25ft 22AWG HDMI 1.3 cable from Monoprice to find out that 25ft wasn't enough so I added a 6ft 28AWG HDMI 1.3 cable with an inline coupler).

X will detect the native projector display mode if the computer is hooked directly to projector. I needed to add Modes "1280x720_60" to the Screens section of xorg.conf when the computer is connected to the Onkyo HDMI in. X will default to VGA output of the graphics card if the computer is started when the Onkyo receiver is off.


Main Issues:
1. HDTV Playback with Nvidia Drivers - Spent a lot of time with this one!
The following was NOT an issue with my Knoppmyth installation but could be a problem for others:
Verify your graphics card is running in AGP mode by using the following command: "cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status". You will take a big HDTV playback performance hit if you are running in PCI mode. I'm using AGPGART (not NVIDIA) because I couldn't get the kernel AGP module disabled by adding append="agp=off" in /etc/lilo.conf.

NOTE: My Mythbuntu FE had stuttering HDTV playback even when using a small percentage of my Athlon 64x2 4200 CPU. My AGP support was disabled because I used <Option "NvAGP" "1"> (1=Nvidia AGP) in my xorg.conf without disabling the kernel AGP. I would use <Option "NvAGP" "3"> (3=AGPGART then NVIDIA) initially in xorg.conf to ensure that you have AGP working.

I used the following settings in nvidia-settings for all cases:

The following is needed for Xine in order to have smooth (no tearing) playback for "xine -V xv -pfhq"
I don't know if both are needed, but check both just to be sure.
X Server XVideo Settings - Video Texture Adapter - Sync to VBlank - Yes
X Server Xvideo Settings - Video Blitter Adapter Settings - Sync to VBlank on display device - Yes

The following is needed for stutter free HDTV playback in Mythtv using OpenGL sync:
OpenGL Settings - Performance - Sync to VBlank - Yes
OpenGL Settings - Performance - Allow Flipping - Yes

WORKS BUT NOT RECOMMENDED
Mythtv settings for Xvmc Decoder with RTC vertical sync at 720p:
TV Settings - Playback
Deinterlace - Bob 2x
Preferred MPEG2 Decoder - Standard XvMC
Enable OpenGL vertical sync for timing - No
Enable realtime priority threads - Yes
Use video as timebase - No
Extra audio buffering - Yes

Seems to work fine with %40 CPU usage. Using OpenGL vertical sync causes problems with digital audio out when system has a minor load.

RECOMMENDED WITH ENOUGH CPU (AMD 64 3200 works well)
Mythtv settings for Standard Decoder with OpenGL vertical sync at 720p (This configuration also works great in my Mythbuntu FE with similar, but different HW and 1680x1050_60 display):

TV Settings - Playback
Deinterlace - Bob 2x
Preferred MPEG2 Decoder - Standard
Enable OpenGL vertical sync for timing - Yes
Enable realtime priority threads - Yes
Use video as timebase - No
Extra audio buffering - Yes

Open GL vertical sync timing seems to work very well (no tearing) with %50-%60 mythfrontend and %10 Xorg CPU usage. I do have an infrequent resync, but it works well even with a system load and digital audio out.

Use "mythfrontend -v playback > datafile" to debug any mythtv playback issues. You can determine what vsync mode mythtv is using by viewing "datafile" after viewing the playback. I found that OpenGL Vsync is the only way to go.

The Standard MPEG2 Decoder requires Option "UseEvents" "True" set in xorg.conf or CPU usage will be %100.

My "Screen" section from xorg.conf
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 24
Option "UseEvents" "True"
Option "NvAGP" "3"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "UseEdidDpi" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x720_60"
EndSubSection
EndSection

*Notes for when using RTC vertical sync
Use the command "sysctl /dev/rtc/max-user-freq" to verfify a max frequency of 1024. You should see the following output: ".dev.rtc.max-user-freq = 1024". Most systems are typically set to 64 which is not enough for vsync timing, but Knoppmyth should be set to 1024. If not, use the following command as root to set: "sysctl /dev/rtc/max-user-freq=1024".

Add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf to apply the values at startup:
dev.rtc.max-user-freq = 1024

*Notes for realtime priority threads
The following should be already be in your "/etc/security/limits.conf" to permit use of realtime priority threads:

#Realtime
* - rtprio 0
* - nice 0
@audio - rtprio 50
@audio - nice 0

The user executing mythfrontend needs to be in the audio group (For Knoppmyth, mythtv is a member of the audio user group)

Just to be sure, you could add the following:

@mythtv - rtprio 50
@mythtv - nice 0


***********************************

2. Remote Control
My previous installation of the ATI Remote Wonder confused the lirc installation, so I ended up adding the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

blacklist ati_remote
blacklist lirc_atiusb

I couldn't find a better way to get rid of the ATI Remote Wonder configuration without blacklisting the modules. I did a lot of trial and error to get the MCE USB remote working, but I think most of the problems were caused by the ATI Remote Wonder driver loading in addition to the MCE USB driver.

I also had to change the /etc/lirc/hardware.conf device line to the following:
DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"

I added the following to the default USB MCE ir receiver file /etc/lirc/lircd.conf to get the Star and Hash keys working:
Star 0x00007be2
Hash 0x00007be3

Out of the box, Knoppmyth only includes mythtv keybindings for the MCE remote. You will need to add xine and mplayer keybindings to /home/mythtv/.mythtv/lircrc.

The ATI Remote Wonder did configure perfectly with Knoppmyth R5F27, but I eventually wanted to go with an IR remote.


***********************************

3. Digital Out
I spent a lot of time trying to get the fancy ASLA configurations (asound.conf) to work, but the default Knoppmyth sound config works great once you do the following:

Set the following settings to get digital audio working by running "alsamixer":
Master, Master Mono, PCM Surround, Center, LFE set to %100
Surround - Independ
Line - Mute (unless you have something hooked up to line)
CD - %100
Mic - Mute
Mic Boost - Mute
Mic Sele - (Don't care)
Phone - Mute
IEC958 - Un Mute (00) *THIS IS REQUIRED TO TURN ON DIGITAL OUT
IEC958 Playback - AC97-SPSA (0) *THIS IS ALSO REQUIRED TO GET DIGITIAL OUT TO WORK
IEC958 Playback Source - PCM *ALSO REQUIRED FOR DIGITAL OUT
PC Speaker - Mute
Aux - Mute (Unless you have something hooked up to Aux)
Mono Output Select - Mix (Don't know about this one)
Channel - 6ch (Seems logical but don't have any data)
Duplicate - Mute (Don't know about this one)
External - Unmute (00) (Don't know about this one)

Run "alsactl store" as root to store mixer settings. Keeps settings after a reboot.

MythTV settings for digital out
Setup - General - Audio
Audio output device - /dev/dsp (or /dev/adsp - Doesn't seem to matter)
Passthrough device - spdif
Enable AC3 to SPDIF passthrough - Yes
Enable DTS to SPDIF passthrough - Yes
Use Internal volume controls - No (No because we are using AV Receiver to control volume)

Everything that is not AC3 or DTS will be converted to 48kHz PCM output to the spdif. Analog audio connection not required.


****** Other Notes of interest

1. NFS Configuration (Only needed if you have a seperate frontend machine)
Backend - Use all_squash and the uid and gid options in /etc/exports for mythtv user and group to make everything owned by mythtv when transferring files (music, pictures, videos, etc) to the backend server over NFS:
/myth *(rw,async,all_squash,anonuid=100,anongid=102)

Frontend - Use the following NFS optimizations in /etc/fstab for any frontend (gathered from www.mythtv.org optimizations page):
mythtv:/myth /myth nfs intr,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,async,nfsvers=3,bg,actimeo=0,tcp 0 0

2. Xine configuration (Also see "nvidia-settings" configuration above)

Xine version with Knoppmyth R5F27 doesn't seem to like the Transformers DVD

Full Screen with Xv driver (-V xvmc does not work for me)

MythVideo
xine -V xv -pfhq

MythDVD
xine -V xv -pfhq dvd:/

VCD config
xine -V xv -pfhq vcd://

The internal Mythtv video and dvd player didn't work well.

Please let me know if something is unclear. I based this input on my running notes, so I could have easily missed a key item.

Tim


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