Well the PCI IDE card didn't work either. I must be cursed

With the PCI card, I could not select CDROM boot priority (as it was either set as slave or second IDE I tried both), so I placed the CDROM on the onboard IDE2 (left IDE1 disabled) and kept the HD on the PCI card. Unfortunately then KnoppMyth CD would not boot into Linux, it got part way and then crashed. So back goes the card. When I return the card I will try to see about changing motherboards, but all the other ones used VIA chipsets. Are there ANY via chipsets (not video,lan,or sound as I have cards that will work for those functions) that work out of the box? If yes which one?

Thanks
Rob

No no, hold on.

Put the CD-ROM on the mb secondary EIDE controller as Master (HDC)

Put the harddisk on the PCI EIDE card in teriary master (HDE)

If you can go to the mb BIOS page and tell it to boot off the SCSI controller first (or the tertiary EIDE controller).

Then boot off the CD-ROM as normal and it should detect your harddisk is on HDE, install, and configure LILO properly.

If that doesn't work just install put the harddisk on primary master (HDA) and CD-ROM on secondary master (HDC) and install KnoppMyth.

Then move the harddisk to HDE and see if you can get it to boot. The mb BIOS probably will need to be configured to boot off the PCI EIDE card.

This can work, I have a PC in the basement that does exactly this trick to work.

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

reenable the mb EIDE primary controller so it is visible and active but nothing connected to it. Semi disabled hardware gives linux fits. Just leave it empty but on.

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

PS, you don't have to INSTALL KnoppMyth with the harddisk connected to the PCI EIDE, only RUN KnoppMyth with the harddisk connected to the PCI EIDE. You have to have DMA to work!

I did that and you are right, DMA worked BUT the tuner would not longer work (watch TV gave a black screen). However just to make sure I will try again

Andrew,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A question and a comment:

1) I can manually optimize HD performance using hdparm. Which file should I place this in so it occurs during startup (there are lots of them and I wondering which is best)

2) My audio sync problem was not really an audio sync problem after all.
It was the reduced frame rate playback with live TV. I'm surprised that I could not watch "live TV" with an AMD Sempron 2400 (1.67GHz)

Of course now I am having other problems (like audio drop outs), but at least the basics are working and I can move in peace

Move the cards around in the PCI slots so the tuner gets bus master.

Also go to the mb BIOS settings and ensure that each PCI slot gets its own interrupt and is not sharing.

You are getting closer, if you have DMA working its just a matter of convincing the PVR-250 to work. Those cards are very finicky about which slot they get. I think the bus master is the PCI slot closest to the CPU.

Keep tryin, I can feel success is near.

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

PS, this is turning into a soap opera. I can't wait for the next installment of "as Robs PC burns"

BTW what sort of PCI EIDE card did you get?

Would you list out your new PC configuration?

mb, RAM, processor, cards installed, HD etc.

There have been so many changes I need to rebaseline on what you are running so I don't inadvertently send you off a cliff.

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

PS, a dmesg and lspci -v would be helpful as well.

Congratulations! Welcome to the wonderful world of KnoppMyth and MythTV! Once you check in you can never check out!



Dude, I swear I read this message earlier and it ended at the "black screen" part. Did you edit it afterwards?

To tune via hdparm, do this

apt-get update
apt-get install hdparm

read the docs and edit /etc/hdparm.conf as applicable.

It really is not hard. I am pretty sure there is a hdparm faq posted someplace that is really good.

oh, BTW do not EVER do an apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade! I know its tempting once its up and working to do this but the forums are full of people who did this and their systems were crushed into goo.

Are you using the NVidia card? Is XV enabled? Your processor is way faster than mine and I watch TV and record or record 2 shows and watch a third all the time.

At any rate, good luck and I hope this works out for you.

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

The black screen part was due to me moving the tuner card (I can't believe its that sensitive). I moved the card to get the EIDE card in and have the cables sit nice. When I went back and placed the tuner card in the first PCI slot again, it worked.

Its wierd, watching "live tv" is abit jerky (I'd say a 20 fps), but watching recorded video (while its recording) is fine. Actually it seems like after about a couple minutes the live TV video is fine.

I do have a sound problem though. I searched the forum, but can't find anything like this. The sound comes and goes, it gets louder then quieter, then scratchy, then sometimes totally quiet. Then on its own the sound will come back first low then the volume will come back then it will be fine for a while before the patern repeats. Any ideas (or at least search stings... every time I search I get way to many results, none of them relevant)

That sounds right. PCI bus cards are worlds better that ISA but they ain't miracle cures yet.




I'd bet hdparm improvements would fix this up nicely. As would XV. How much memory do you have installed? Your PCI bus is fairly loaded though. That might be a structural limit you are bouncing up against since they all share the same bus bandwidth.




Got me on that one. I bet others can help out here. What sort of sound card again? Maybe increase the audio buffer size in the playback setup?

Good Luck!

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

I sure home the PCI bus is not maxed out, I need to install another tuner card once this is working (stupid question, can I just add the card without doing a reinstall?)

I found and audio buffer settiing on one of the setup screens it seems to have helped. Either that, or turning of deinterlace or turning of commercial skip stuff. In any event its working. While the black lines on the monitor (interlace lines) are annoying the picture quality when not up close is better.

yes you can add a tuner without reinstalling. it will detect the new tuner and run through the setup again to allow you to add it to mythtv.

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