[olug] MythTV + PVR150 + IR Blaster
Jon Larsen
relayer at levania.org
Wed Oct 17 02:13:56 UTC 2007
Hey cool, glad things worked out for you on the TV-Out.
I don't see why you can't have both displays at the same time. Both
displays should be at the same resolution and matching the refresh rates
may help. I believe most LCD monitors operate at 60 Hz (as AC power is
60 Hz - it's been a bit since my low-power use presentation), so that
shouldn't be an issue in 'driving' your VGA display. Look in the Nvidia
README for options regarding TwinView. I haven't done it myself, but
you should be able to do it. Also, check the Nvidia forums for Linux,
you may find some reference in there.
Jon L.
Benjamin Watson wrote:
> Jon,
>
> I applied the configurations as you directed and it worked like a
> charm! The video displays nicely on my regular TV via the SVIDEO
> ouput on my NVidia card directly to the SVIDEO input on my TV.
>
> Now, the rub. I've noticed that some of the fonts in MythTV are
> difficult to read on the TV versus the regular monitor. That being
> said, is it possible to have the X display on both the standard CRT
> monitor AND the TV at the same time. This would come in handy if ever
> the occasion came up where something wouldn't display right on the TV.
>
> Thanks again for your help,
>
> Ben
>
> On 9/25/07, Benjamin Watson <bwatson1979 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Jon, thanks for your input. I see myself tweaking my xorg.conf in the
>> not-too-distant future.
>>
>> On 9/25/07, Jon Larsen <relayer at levania.org> wrote:
>>> I don't have a problem watching content on my TV from my Mythbox
>>> (including video with subtitles)
>>>
>>> Here is a quick rundown of my xorg.conf for TV out.
>>>
>>> In your xorg.conf file, there are a few settings to optimize TV-out.
>>>
>>> First, we'll look at the monitor section for the TV:
>>>
>>> Section "Monitor"
>>> Identifier "Monitor1"
>>> VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
>>> ModelName "NTSC TV"
>>> DisplaySize 640 480
>>> HorizSync 30.0 - 50.0
>>> VertRefresh 60.0 - 60.0
>>> EndSection
>>>
>>> Note the Horizontal Sync and Vertical Refresh - US TVs run at 60 Hz (just
>>> like AC power). Also, 640x480 is normal TV resolution.
>>>
>>> The video card settings are specific to your setup. You may need to use
>>> TVOutFormat "COMPOSITE" instead of SVIDEO (composite is RCA video),
>>> it depends on your TV, plus you'll need the Connected Monitor option
>>> set to "TV" and TVStandard set to "NTSC-M". You can see mine here:
>>>
>>> Section "Device"
>>> #Option "NvAGP" "0"
>>> Identifier "Videocard1"
>>> Driver "nvidia"
>>> VendorName "Videocard vendor"
>>> BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX (generic)"
>>> Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
>>> Option "Connected Monitor" "TV"
>>> Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
>>> #Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"
>>> Option "RenderAccel" "1"
>>> Option "NoLogo" "On"
>>> #BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
>>> EndSection
>>>
>>>
>>> And the Screen section to tie it all together. note I still specify
>>> 640x480.
>>>
>>> Section "Screen"
>>> Identifier "Screen1"
>>> Device "Videocard1"
>>> Monitor "Monitor1"
>>> DefaultDepth 24
>>> SubSection "Display"
>>> Depth 24
>>> Modes "640x480"
>>> EndSubSection
>>> EndSection
>>>
>>> The Nvidia settings are exlained more in detail in tar.gz that
>>> the driver comes packaged. Other xorg.conf items are gleamed from the
>>> MythTV Mailing lists. I've used this xorg.conf config for three years
>>> now, moving it from box to box when I upgrade.
>>>
>>> You must cold or warm boot your box connected to the TV to allow the
>>> TV-out to initialize itself.
>>>
>>> I am using the following nvidia card:
>>> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX
>>> 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1)
>>> This limits me to version 9731 of the nvidia driver. Later versions
>>> higher than 9731 do not support the MX4000 series.
>>>
>>> My full xorg.conf is available here:
>>> http://www.olug.org/~relayer/mythbox.xorg.conf.txt
>>>
>>>
>>> Jon L.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, 24 Sep 2007, Benjamin Watson wrote:
>>>
>>>> Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:30:51 -0500
>>>> Wrom: VCJVTLBXFGGMEPYOQKEDOTWFAOBUZXUWLSZLKBR
>>>> Reply-To: Omaha Linux User Group <olug at olug.org>
>>>> To: Omaha Linux User Group <olug at olug.org>
>>>> Subject: Re: [olug] MythTV + PVR150 + IR Blaster
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the tip Rob, I'll definitely look into it.
>>>>
>>>> I've never attended a Linux install-fest myself, but I think a good
>>>> topic of conversation and hands-on project would be setting up an HTPC
>>>> using some of the more popular Myth-based distros (e.g. LinuxMCE,
>>>> Mythbuntu, Mythdora, KnopMyth, or plain old Ubuntu with Myth meta
>>>> package).
>>>>
>>>> I certainly see the benefits of an HTPC setup over the COX DVR service.
>>>>
>>>> In the meantime, I'm going to play around with that RF modulator
>>>> anyways as I've got to figure out a way to connect a PC to some older
>>>> "plain Jane" TVs that only have a coax input.
>>>>
>>>> Ben
>>>>
>>>> On 9/24/07, Rob Townley <rob.townley at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> On 9/24/07, Benjamin Watson <bwatson1979 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> With regards to HTPC stuff, how are you guys connecting PC A/V out to
>>>>>> TVs? I've dabbled around with LinuxMCE, Myth, Mythbuntu, etc. but my
>>>>>> problem is actually watching the stuff on a television rather than a
>>>>>> PC monitor.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Most of the TVs I own are older and do not have HDMI or VGA inputs.
>>>>>> They typically have coax, S-Video, RCA, or component. In one trial, I
>>>>>> connected the S-Video output of my TV-tuner card directly to the
>>>>>> S-Video input of my TV and the picture was horrible. I finally dug up
>>>>>> an old RF modulator I had for the days of connecting old console
>>>>>> systems to TVs, but have yet to try it. So, I figured I'd ask what
>>>>>> you all are doing to get acceptable video quality to show up on your
>>>>>> television sets.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Ben
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 9/22/07, Jeff Hinrichs - DM&T <jeffh at dundeemt.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> On 9/19/07, Jon Larsen <relayer at levania.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>> I'm using a separate IRBlaster to control my digital cable box. I
>>>>>>>> purchased it from irblaster.info for $15. It hooks into an RS-232 Serial
>>>>>>>> port.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I used a lirc how to document which had instructions to configure both
>>>>>>>> the IR Receiver from my pvr-250 and the serial irblaster. You may need to
>>>>>>>> read a couple different howtos' and merge them together.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I used this as my howto.
>>>>>>>> http://www.eggshellskull.com/lirc/blaster/index.php
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I am using Fedora Core 6 and the ATRPMs repo for the mythtv files.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> If you have a built-in irblaster function, I assume you'll need to use i2c
>>>>>>>> to talk to it.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks, I got it figured out. I followed the directions about getting
>>>>>>> lirc and blaster set up before installing mythtv
>>>>>>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Install_Lirc_Feisty
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> That worked out fine. Then the mythtv install went swimmingly.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Are you using Mythdora or Fedora w/ MythTV? I tried a Mythbuntu
>>>>>>> (alpha based on 7.10) and MythDora 4 and neither were a satisfactory
>>>>>>> experience for me. I ended up sticking with Ubuntu 7.04 and
>>>>>>> installing the MythTV meta package. I already had a SchedulesDirect
>>>>>>> account as I was using GBPVR before MythTV. I liked GBPVR as an
>>>>>>> application but using Window$ as a platform was a real Achilles heel.
>>>>>>> All of the problems I had with the former had to do with deficiencies
>>>>>>> in the underlying OS.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> With you myth install are you using xine for previously recorded
>>>>>>> files? I think I am going to try using VLC as the external player.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -Jeff
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>>>>> http://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> OLUG mailing list
>>>>>> OLUG at olug.org
>>>>>> http://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>>>>>>
>>>>> S-Video Out To TV should have better video quality. On my screwy tv,
>>>>> S-Video input is terrible as well until i power cycle the television,
>>>>> then it is great. Since you had it directly connected, that would
>>>>> rule out a dvd player macrovision scrambling. You may want to look
>>>>> to see if there are TV input options that will give you a better
>>>>> signal from S-Video.
--
Jon H. Larsen - relayer \at\ levania \dot\ org
Omaha Linux Users Group - http://www.olug.org/
AnimeSunday.org - http://www.animesunday.org/
ICQ#: 10412618 - http://www.levania.org/~relayer/
GPG/PGP Pubkey - http://www.levania.org/~relayer/relayerpubkey.txt
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