Ok, I just got my PVR-350 working with Knoppmyth R5A16 (you know what they say, the 47th time's the charm), and I'm having some issues, and I'm starting to think that I've bought the wrong video card for what I want to do.

I've got a VIA EPIA M10000 motherboard, with a Hauppauge PVR-350 card. I'm to the point where I can now watch and record live TV, play what I recorded, rip CD's and play the resultant OGG files, and even play -some- DVD's. What I can't do, and really want to, is play movies or TV shows that I have either previously ripped off of my DVD's, downloaded off of my DirecTiVo, or downloaded with Bittorrent. Basically, I'd like to make a 'video jukebox' of my favorite movies and TV shows on a really large hard drive (with the ultimate goal of creating a separate RAID server to store all the media).

I understood before I purchased it that the PVR-350 would limit me to only MPEG2 (or is it MPEG4, I forget?), and I figured I'd just convert files with 'mencoder' on my linux box before I uploaded them.

It doesn't seem to want to let me play them; and won't even play files that I copy out of the /myth/tv directory -into- /myth/video/motion. They show up under the Media Library > Watch Videos menu, but all I get is a brief "loading..." that flashes on the screen when I select them.

Is there something I'm doing wrong to get it to play previously recorded videos? I assumed that it could play a '.nuv' file that it previously recorded, but maybe I'm assuming too much. Perhaps a better question is "What's the best choice for a video card that'll let me play DivX, XviD, MPEG4, and MPEG2 files that I upload to my MythTV box?" I don't really need the "record TV programs" functionality; I've already got a Series 1 DirecTV TiVo. What I'd like is a video jukebox.

Any help would be seriously appreciated.
Thanks,
Grant

I can play any video file mplayer supports through my pvr-350. It uses the framebuffer to output the playback from mplayer. It does not use the hardware decoding of the pvr-350. So the screen size might be offset. I have some videos with subtitles that I can't read the whole subtitle because some is cut off. I haven't done much to fix this yet but I should be able to adjust the refresh rates in the X86Config-4 file and get rid of the offset.

It sounds like you have a bad mplayer command line in your mythtv setup (I think it comes set wrong. I had to change mine). Try running mplayer from an xterm to see if it works there. Then run "which mplayer" to find the correct directory. And change it in the mythtv setup area.

The playback through the framebuffer Sometimes produces tearing of the video in quick action sequences. Your TV and your nitpickingness will deturmine how much this bothers you. (I see it but don't find it distracting)

Ryan-

Thanks, you've gotten me pointed in the right direction. I had previously tried logging in remotely with ssh and running mplayer (exported back to my linux box), and it worked. But when I tried either unsetting the DISPLAY variable, or setting it to 127.0.0.1:0, it still died with a warning about inability to initialize -vo device.

At your suggestion, I tried bringing up a local terminal directly on the mythtv itself, and although it still died when run locally, I finally got mplayer to work with a '-vo x11' option. I changed it in the Mythtv setup area (you were right; it also had the wrong path!), and it's working now, although the sound lagged behind the video. I removed the '-zoom' option (now it's: /usr/bin/mplayer -fs -quiet -vo x11 %s), and it's synchronized, albeit not a full screen. Any ideas there?

Anyhow, thanks again for your help. Right now, I'm scp'ing up my TV/movie collection up to the Mythtv box for further testing.

Cheers!
Grant

After I get home I'll post up the exact command I have for my mplayer setting. I can't recall exactly what switches I ended up using.

Sorry, I had intended to post this. I upgraded to R5A22 this weekend. I experminted with mplayer for a bit and it didn't seem to be working 100%. So I didn't want to send you an incorrect command line.

Basacally my problem is the mplayer window is on top but it no longer takes the focus from the mythtv window. So I can't use my remote to give it commands. That includes the exit command. So I have to ssh in from another computer and kill the process to get it to stop playing.