[ATrpms-users] MythTV - Choppy video after upgrade

[Void Main]

I had already posted a list of RPMS that were
upgraded, and it also included a list of RPMS that
were there before the last upgrade that worked:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/files/misc/mythtv-yum.log

The problem is those versions from a few weeks back no
longer exist in the ATrpms repository. I was hoping
they might be archived somewhere so I could go back to
what I had before. I am sure I could pinpoint the
problem package if I had those old RPMS (I could even
work with just the SRPMS for that matter).

Also, as I stated previously (I think I stated
previously) I am not using the hardware decoder
capabilities in the 350 because I don't like some of
the other effects of Myth when that is enabled.
However, that didn't change before or after the
problem, I didn't use the decoder before and didn't
have a problem with choppy video.

Thanks for the help!

--- DM - ATRPMS <atrpms at tazman.net> wrote:

> Void Main wrote:
> > I'm using the video out on my PVR-350 which means
> I
> > have no GL capabilities etc. I am not using the
> > decoder in the card which probably would help but
> > there are other issues that I do not like if I
> enable
> > the decoder. Encoding (MPEG2) should all be
> handled by
> > the card though. I'm not sure if I am using XvMC
> or
> > not, how do I tell? I don't remember doing any
> > specific configuration for that. If it wasn't
> enabled
> > in the old  RPMS by default and is enabled in the
> new
> > RPMS by default that I would suspect that could be
> my
> > problem as Xorg CPU is also very high during
> playback.
> 
> I'm pretty sure you aren't using XvMC then:
> 1> XvMC doesn't really work "out of the box"; you
> have to do some stuff 
> to get it going.  (I don't know if it's supposed to
> or not.)
> 2> I don't think the ivtv drivers have support for
> it.
> You can tell if you are trying to use it from the
> first "Setup / Setup / 
> TV Settings / Playback" screen ("Preferred MPEG2
> Decoder" setting). 
> (Note the 'trying' - if your preferred decoder is
> not available Myth 
> will fall to something else.  I'll come back to this
> below.)
> 
> > I don't remember what the CPU load was like prior
> to
> > the update though. The updates should have been
> very
> > minor. I think I was running .20-137 and now am
> > running .20-141. I'm not 100% that the problem is
> > actually in Myth. It could be another system
> utility
> > or library in that yum.log update list that is
> causing
> > the problem. Do you have a link to the thread you
> are
> > referring to? It might give me some ideas.
> 
> Ah, you are doing just a build-level update then (as
> Axel also deduced 
> and pointed out in an earlier post - you have more
> brainpower today than 
> I have Axel!).  Not sure how similar our situations
> are then...  It was 
> a short thread (original post, Axel's response, my
> update, and mostly 
> deafening silence IIRC), Axel posted the dates for
> it in an earlier message.
> 
> If you are just looking to get it "working," my
> (uninformed, non-expert, 
> non-developer) suggestion would be to play with the
> above mentioned 
> "Preferred Decoder" setting, as well as the
> DeInterlace Algorithms on 
> that page.  (More or less what I wind up doing with
> each new setup, and 
> now after some updates.  ;)  That won't really find
> the problem, but it 
> may at least make the symptoms go away.  YMMV.
> 
> If you would rather troubleshoot:
> - if you can get a list of the packages updated in
> that session and can 
> post it, it may provide a clue.  You should be able
> to extract this from 
> your system logs, and it may have logged other
> places as well.
> - do you have other video playback in place that you
> can try (i.e. xine 
> or mplayer)?  Try those with various decoder options
> (especially 
> settings that appear to be similar to Myth's
> settings) and see if that 
> gives you any clues.
> - In my experience, when xorg CPU time is high, it
> means something is 
> broken getting to the hardware decoder and X is
> decoding in software 
> instead of hardware.  That expands the possibilities
> to the ivtv driver 
> as well.  Did you by chance update the ivtv KMDL and
> not reboot?  (Have 
> to ask...)  Does the X log show any new errors?
> - I don't suppose you have a log output from
> frontend from before you 
> updated to compare to?
> - If you updated any part of your MPEG2 hardware
> support and it broke, 
> the behavior I mentioned above with the "Preferred
> decoder" setting will 
> allow Myth to still playback, but generally with
> less-than-optimal 
> results.  (I'm pretty sure this is what happened to
> my box, but I'm not 
> good enough with Myth / nVidia / XvMC to find the
> precise problem.) 
> Problems such as these would hopefully be apparent
> in the mythfrontend 
> log, but also possibly in the Xorg, mythbackend, or
> even messages logs 
> depending on what the issue is and how your logging
> is configured.  You 
> may have to turn on additional logging options on
> the frontend (or even 
> configure it to log to file) to get exactly what you
> want.  (I can't 
> remember the default logging on it.)
> 
> That's what I can think of.  If someone else has
> other suggestions, I'm 
> all ears to try it on mine too...  In my case,
> changing MPEG decoders 
> brought the usage down to usable, but it's still not
> where it was.  ;)
> 
> Dan
> 


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