KnoppMyth on a 320G drive

[Tim Writer]

Colin McGregor <colinmc151-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> writes:

> --- Merv Curley <mervc-MwcKTmeKVNQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > Hello Colin
> > 
> > I don't know if you have time to help privately, or
> > if it is better to ask my 
> > dumb questions on the TLUG list regarding MythTV.
> > Maybe just read through 
> > this and decide whether or not to write up something
> > general for an article, 
> > or point me to some insight.  I am in no rush to get
> > this working, so don't 
> > feel any pressure to reply other than an
> > acknowledgement of rcpt.
> 
> Well, I am cc'ing this to the list because I am sure
> if your having these problems then likely someone else
> is having the same problems.
> 
> I currently have an article on KnoppMyth awaiting
> publication, that just focuses on 
> installation/configuration.

I'm not a huge fan of KnoppMyth. IMO, it saves you some time up front (by
simplifying the installation) but you give up flexibility and admin is more
difficult over the long term. YMMV.

[snip]

> As for picture quality, both boxes look quite good. If
> I were betting I would be looking at issues like
> quality of cable TV connection, and other cable
> related issues.

I agree (assuming the box has sufficient horse power for software
decoding).

Cable/connector quality, for example, can make a _big_ difference. I use a
regular (NTSC) TV with composite (RCA) input together with a (relatively
low end) nVidia card with TV-out. The nVidia card has only S-Video for
TV-out but comes with an S-Video to RCA converter. With this connector, my
picture was black and white. Replacing the nVidia connector with a high
quality S-Video to RCA cable gave me good quality colour (as good as can be
expected with NTSC).

[snip]

> > I am using a 19" LCD monitor, set to 1280x 1020, is
> > this wrong?

I assume you mean 1280x1024?

> > Somewhere in 
> > the Knoppmyth musings I saw to set ones monitor to
> > 800x600. I don't have a TV 
> > connected to the video card at this point,  if that
> > enters into it..

How does your LCD monitor look when you play videos directly (e.g. with
xine, mplayer, totem, etc.)? Some LCD monitors look terrible because their
response time is too slow for fast moving video. This is particularly
noticeable with sports.

If you have a CRT kicking around, you might try it for comparison purposes.

I would also try 640x480 (on LCD and CRT) as that is closer to NTSC TV. If
your CPU is underpowered, you may be able to playback at 640x480 but not
higher.

Also, check that DMA is enabled on your hard disk (assuming it's IDE) and
your DVD (if you intend to watch DVDs):

    # hdparm -v /dev/hda

    /dev/hda:
     multcount    = 16 (on)
     IO_support   =  1 (32-bit)
     unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
     using_dma    =  1 (on)
     keepsettings =  0 (off)
     readonly     =  0 (off)
     readahead    = 256 (on)
     geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 156355584, start = 0

    # hdparm -v /dev/hdc

    /dev/hdc:
     IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
     unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
     using_dma    =  1 (on)
     keepsettings =  0 (off)
     readonly     =  0 (off)
     readahead    = 256 (on)
     HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument

[snip]

-- 
tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
647.722.5301                                      toronto, ontario, canada
http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
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