Category Archives: Entertainment / Arts

HDTV Working with MythTV!

MythTV

Some time back, I bought a pcHDTV HD-3000 card to use with MythTV. For various reasons, I never got around to getting it set up. Until now.

First, a quick background. HDTV is a means to transmit television signals digitally. In the USA, a standard called ATSC is used for over-the-air transmissions. ATSC transmissions can come in several different resolutions, ranging from no better than a basic analog signal to 1080i (1920×1080, interlaced).

To get HDTV to work with MythTV, there are several components that must be working first: HDTV playback in the frontend, HDTV kernel driver support, and HDTV tuner setup in the MythTV backend. I’ll talk about each of these in turn.

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HDTV Playback

I was initially surprised at how much of an issue this is, when when you pause to think about it, it makes sense. HDTV pictures can be at up to 1920×1080 (1080i) or 1280×720 (720p) or 960×540 (540p). DVD pictures are typically 720×480. That means that a HDTV frame can have up to 6 times the number of pixels as a DVD frame. Bitrates for HDTV broadcasts are far higher than for DVD broadcasts as well.

This all combines to make a situation that can be extremely challenging even for systems with powerful CPUs and video cards.

In my own case, the frontend I was trying to configure is an Athlon64 system with a Radeon 9600 video card. Yet it still couldn’t keep up with even a 720p HDTV signal. I tried both the standard XFree86 radeon drivers, as well as the ATI proprietary fglrx ones, and none worked.

However, X.org CVS (NOT the latest release, I tried it!) has an extension to the radeon driver that permits DMA transfers for Xv. I grabbed this release, and with Steve’s intstructions and the wiki instructions, got it installed. (Note: I would advise against the lndir approach, and also make sure you put the #defines at the *TOP* of the file.) My custom lines were:


#define ProjectRoot /usr/local/X11R6.8
#define NothingOutsideProjectRoot YES
#define HasFreetype2 YES
#define HasFontconfig YES
#define DefaultGcc2i386Opt -O2 -march=athlon-xp -mmmx -mfpmath=sse -msse -msse2 -m3dnow

Restart kdm and test out a few things and… SUCCESS! HDTV playback works.

Now, on to:

HDTV Kernel Driver Support

For a pcHDTV card, there are two different kernel drivers you can use. One set uses the Video4Linux system for everything. The other uses the Linux Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) infrastructure. This latter one is generally considered to be better and the way of the future, but it’s not very well documented.

The support for the pcHDTV card is in the mainline kernel as of 2.6.12-rc2. I downloaded and built 2.6.12-rc4.

There are a few surprises. First, in the video4linux config area (NOT the DVB area!), you must enable CONFIG_VIDEO_CX88 and CONFIG_VIDEO_CX88_DVB. I also enabled CONFIG_VIDEO_BT848 because some online resources said to, but I believe that is for the HD-2000, not the HD-3000.

Then, in the DVB area, you must enable CONFIG_DVB and CONFIG_DVB_CORE. HD-2000 owners, I think you want CONFIG_DVB_BT8XX. For the HD-3000, I set CONFIG_DVB_OR51132. HD-2000 owners will want CONFIG_DVB_OR51211. If you’re not using IVTV, you’ll also want to enable CONFIG_VIDEO_{TUNER,TVEEPROM}.

Also, you’ll want to follow the firmware download instructions. On a Debian system, you’ll want to put this into /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware.

Boot into your kernel. Now, you’re ready for:

HDTV Tuner Setup in MythTV Backend

This step configures MythTV to record from the HDTV tuner. I am using MythTV 0.18.

But before you begin, you’ll need to recompile MythTV. I’m using Matt’s debs, so it’s a simple matter of rebuilding from source.

The problem is that the files in /usr/include/linux on a default Debian install don’t include the latest DVB api. Workaround: move /usr/include/linux out of the way, symlink it to /include/linux, rebuild mythtv, restore /usr/include/linux, and install new mythtv and libmyth debs.

Next, go to labs.zap2it.com and make sure you have the digital channels selected and analog ones deselected.

Now, you are ready to run mythtv-setup. Make sure you kill the backend before you do this. You’ll want to add a new input source, DVB type, card 0. In input connections, connect your zap2it broadcast setup to this card. Then do a channel scan in the channel setup. Exit, run mythtv-filldatabase, then go back in. You’ll see duplicates for each channel. Note the XML id in the newly-created ones, copy it to the ones you created with the auto scan, then delete the new ones with mythweb. Finally, run mythtv-filldatabase again. The DVB setup HOWTO helped me with this.

Now you’re ready to enjoy HDTV!

The Yes Men

Entertainment / Arts, Politics

Greencine just sent us The Yes Men, a hilarous real-life documentary about a group of activists who run a website that parodies the World Trade Organization. The funny thing is, people periodically think that these guys are the real WTO and invite them to appear on TV, speak at conferences, etc. And they do it.

The film documents their various hijinks. Whether its from a program recycling human waste to end 3rd-world starvation and boost the profits of McDonald’s, or an assertion that private schools would lead to fewer people that question the WTO, or even an outlandish costume resembling the male anatomy, the really horrifying thing is that everybody thinks they’re serious. The real people at these conferences think that they are absolutely serious in their descriptions of the WTO. They were even quoted in the Canadian parliament.

It’s a fun film to watch, as well as being eye-opening. It is shocking what people these days are willing to accept in the name of free trade.

No More Captcha

Entertainment / Arts

Well, I’ve got to say, Drupal’s captcha module is a huge disappointment. The idea is good but the execution is terrible. It caused serious confusion for the session management mechanism, causing people to be randomly logged out, or even sessions confused between different people. That’s a huge security risk, and just made the site so unusable that I couldn’t keep it on.

The good news is that I upgraded to Drupal 4.6.0 in all of this, and the new spam module looks much nicer than the one in 4.5.x. So maybe this will keep me happy for awhile.

Jon Stewart gets Crossfire Canceled

TV

Back in October, Jon Stewart (host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show) appeared on CNN’s Crossfire, and called for the show’s cancelation. To quote a comment on Slashdot:

I did watch the show yesterday thought and it was awe inspiring, especially because it was live and they kept coming back from the commercial breaks for another beating. I especially liked it when they were in Rapidfire and Stewart ignored the gong until they gave up on it.

So anyway, Stewart’s main point was that merely repeating talking points and analyzing how things “play” — rather than statements themselves — is actually a disservice to the public. I would add that obsessive coverage of the trail du jour — OJ, Peterson, whatever — is just as silly.

It seems that the new head of CNN US listened. Phil Rosenthal has this little quote in the Chicago Sun-Times:

On Wednesday, CNN’s Klein told the AP, “I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp” and would prefer a more substantive discussion of current events and controversies.

“I doubt that when the president sits down with his advisers they scream at him to bring him up to date on all of the issues,” Klein said. “I don’t know why we don’t treat the audience with the same respect.”

You really don’t think the president’s Cabinet meetings come with an audience ready to cheer, boo, applaud or hoot when prodded?

Apparently Klein wants to re-brand CNN as the hard-news, in-depth alternative to Fox and MSNBC.

I hope he does, because America really needs one of those. It’s sad to have to resort to BBC for in-depth coverage.

Rather: \”Folksy\” or \”Weird\”?

TV

Slate has an article about last night’s coverage of the race. Among others, they made this observation:

7:52 p.m., CBS: I can’t wait till Dan Rather starts to get tired. As I remember from 2000, fatigue makes him folksy. I still remember him at around 1 a.m. that night, when the vote flipped back to Gore again, saying something like, “Well, I’ll be a coon on a red-hot skillet!” He’s nowhere near that point yet, but he did just tell Bob Schieffer, “Don’t taunt the alligator until after you cross the creek.”

The first time or two I hear one of these little Ratherisms, I chuckle a little. After that, I want to say “Shut Up, Dan!”. About the fourth time, the channel gets changed, or the TV gets shut off and I go back to the BBC. Because half of his “folksy sayings” make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Especially when he’s tired.

MythTV update

MythTV, Reviews

I’ve received two e-mails from people asking for an update on the MythTV project. So here goes.

First, concerning the issue with the Biostar motherboard: the Biostar motherboard was bad. The TV out on it was physicially inoperative. It did not include the TV out in the box, so I had to buy that and the SPDIF out from Biostar. The SPDIF out was coax only, no optical, and the TV out was broken. I returned the motherboard and purchased an Albatron KM18g Pro 2.0 motherboard instead. The Albatron is nice. The TV out adapter is included and works. The SPDIF adapter is still extra, but instead of one port, has three ports: coax in, coax out, and optical out. My only complaint is that the GPU has a cooling fan that sounds like its about to die.

On the digital video (DVI output) side, I purchased an ATI Radeon 9200 card for $64.50. Together with the Gefen cable, I get crystal-clear output to my TV. While the picture is sharper than anything else, the colors are just not quite right somehow. After doing some checking, I am led to believe that this is because the TV does not auto-correct digital sources the way it does analog. I’m still looking into it. The ATI card is nice, and has a TV out too, so I could always fall back to that if need be. I am using the Free Software DRI drivers for the ATI card.

I’ve had a few problems with the MythTV unit overheating. We put it in a new entertainment center, and occasionally it will do a thermal shutdown to prevent damage. I ordered a nice SilenX power supply to try to move more air through there, and at a quieter volume. I also ordered one of their fans to mount on the entertainment center itself for ventilation.

The high-definition TV has been nice overall, but has exhibited discoloration in one corner. A repairman should be out this week to check it out.