Perhaps this is a more general question that either deserves it's own thread or should be on the main myth tv forum, but...

What is the status of the 350 tv out these days? I tried it when I first setup myth a few years ago, and the biggest problem I had back then was xvid and divx were painfully slow and cpu intensive to display over this output because they had to be converted on the fly to mpeg streams. I switched to another, less optimal tv hookup method.

But I recall talk of new ivtv drivers coming out which would solve this problem. I never bothered to check back (when a myth box works, why try and break it...) Does anyone have some recent experience with myth and trying to watch xvid and divx videos on the tv out? Is it now usable?

Thanks!

Oh, and thanks Cecil for giving up your long weekend for us, we do appreciate it!

Thank you very much for the status update. I like many others am eagerly awaiting the new release, and it's nice to get updates from you (even if they don't really get us there any quicker than just patiently sitting and waiting).

/eagerly sits and waits patiently.

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Currently Running:
Too lazy to update this with my current hardware, I'll redo it during my next install =)

Cecil,
Thanks for the update. It does make the waiting easier.

I have had success with release R5E50 and pvr350 tvout. R5F1 should work as well. I have in the past got it working as a test but R5F1 didn't fix my problems (with a different card and unrelated) so I haven't upgraded my main box yet. I have not experience a performance problem at all so it might be worth you having another go. Make sure it is set to use the 350's hardware decoding in though.

Nothing has changed. The 350 will hardware decode MPEG2 (as in the format it uses to record) but not anything else (like MPEG4, divx etc).

In fact, my 350 only decodes MPEG2 recorded by the 350, and does not even decode MPEG2 recorded by my DVB-S card. However, this may be a setup problem... The reason I've never tried to sort it out is that I have no problem decoding MPEG2 (without assistance from the 350) or even MPEG4 on my PIII 866, and the hardware encoding means I can always spare the CPU for decoding anyway.

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HP VL400 (PIII 866), Skystar2 2.6D, PVR350, Nvidia FX5200, 384MB, 200GB, KnoppMyth R5.5

It works great for me and always has (I've been running one for
about 5 years now).

I've never heard of anybody playing back video files that way.
The X11 driver for the '350 has Xv support, and playing back
video files using mplayer works perfectly for me. Myth's
internal player is a bit flaky on some files files.

That's too bad.

Works great for me.

Has been for years.

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Grant

Mine decodes standard-definition MPEG2 that I record OTA from
ATSC broadcasts in the US after I use mencoder to convert the
audio stream encoding from AAC to MP3. It also does fine on
ATSC recordings that I convert from HD to SD using mencoder.

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Grant

Might I ask that someone that has the 350 working well for TV out post something under hints and tips and the wiki? Does it just work w/ the new drivers. I say new because original drivers were best at MPEG2 and everything else was slow. Thanks!

Thanks Cecil, and all for the replies. It's been a few years and I'm trying to recall the extact problem. I seem to recall that when I last tried using the 350 output Xv support in the ivtv driver was still new and experimental (if my memory is serving me correctly). And so as you indicated Cecil, the driver used to be such that mpeg decoding worked great, but anything else was painfully slow and very cpu intensive.

It didn't help I was using a sigificantly older machine at that time. Unfortunately my sub-optimal solution was to purchase a VGA to composite converter box, which gives pixelation at times on what should be ultra-crisp mpegs. Sigh.

Ok, based on the feedback I think I'll give it a try again. I've got a bit faster machine running the myth box now (gave the old, slower one to the girlfriend as her pc, I know what my priorities are )

Thanks for all the advice everyone. And thanks again Cecil.

When I said I had no performance problems I am only using it to display MPEG2 recordings from DVB-T cards. I haven't tried other source formats.

For me at lest, it has "just worked" for the past couple
revisions[1]. IIRC about 2.5 years ago I had to manually
install a newer IVTV driver in order to get Xv support (there
was a HOWTO somewhere I followed), but the last couple upgrades
have been fine with the drivers that KnoppMyth ships.

[1] There was a small "gotcha" with the last upgrade that
required a module flag be changed (something to do with the
OSD, IIRC), but that's already documented in the upgrade
hints.

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Grant

i have been using the pvr350 TV output for the last 3 years w/o issue. i agree that in early versions of MythTV it was a little dicey getting to a working solution -- the ivtv driver was in it's infancy after all. i recently installed R5F1 and pvr350 TV out worked (again) right out of the box.

jim aka the wrooster

I'm currently running R5 Alpha 30.2 (ancient, I know), and am eagerly awaiting the next KnoppMyth release so I can wipe and reinstall the OS.

1st question: Does anyone know if there's been improvements in the stability of the tv-out since R5A30.2? I've been treating my MythTV box as a VCR, because when I try to watch live tv using the tv-out of the 350, and if I pull up the on-screen guide regularly, after a few days, it eventually leads to a crash.

It's my understanding that it happens because the 350 doesn't have much, if any, 2d or 3d acceleration. It just wasn't designed for that. Also, trying to run any game emulators and outputting via the 350 tv-out results in very poor performance as well. Again, I believe, due to the fact it wasn't designed for it.

So, I'm hoping there've been some improvements in the ivtv driver that may help with this issue. I did buy a GeForce 6200 with s-video for the box, which I believe would fix this issue if I were to install and output video through it, but from using this card when I built my sister's MythTV box, I noticed it's just not as sharp and clear as the 350 tv-out!

2nd question: Is there's a way now to make a 6200 tv-out via s-video as clear as a 350 tv-out as well? (Loaded question, I know, but feel free to tell me, "No, the interlaced 350 tv-out will most likely always be better".)

My tv is probably around 6 years old. Tube-based. Panasonic 36". Looks fantastic with the 350 tv-out.

Thanks much in advance!