Hi.

I've just installed Knoppmyth 5.5 and I have a few questions if I may. I've tried to research this myself, but I'm a newbie to linux too, so I'm having to work out what it is that I actually don't know (in linux speak) before I can go looking for a solution. Most of the issues are comparatively minor, except for 1.

My configureation is as follows:

ASUS M3N78-VM motherboard
AMD Athlon X2 4850e
2 gigs DDR2 ram
DVICO FusionHDTV dual express
Antec NSK2480B case with 380 watt psu
Samsung 1TB SATA II Echo Green 32M(HD103UI/Y)
LGE GGW-H20N/L Black Blue Ray HD Writer

I have this connected to a Samsung 6 series 46 inch LCD HDTV using the HDMI connection on the motherboard.

I was suprised at how easily Knoppmyth installed. In fact it was the only one of the three distros which installed "out of the box". Mythbuntu didn't recognise the tv card. Mythdora froze when trying to load the ahci drivers

Not everything is exactly as I would like it, though.

I want to use this to control an Austar paytv set top box. I've seen the link on how to set it up in ozmyth.com. I was wondering if anyone knows where I can buy an IR blaster that works via USB, in Australia. This motherboard doesn't have a serial port connection, although it does have provision for connecting one to the motherboard. It has an abundance of USB ports though.

Australia uses PAL format for DVD recordings, but I have a fair few DVD's which are NTSC. Is it possible to configure Knoppmyth to so that it will read either PAL or NTSC DVD's in the same drive? If not, could it be done with a second DVD drive?

By default, the TV card displays in widescreen, but with two black strips at the top and bottom. I can't eliminate those without making the display out of proportion.

Can I disable pause live tv? It seems to me that this is causing unnecessary hard drive acitivity.

I don't actually seem to be able to burn anything to DVD. It goes through the process of preparing images and mpeg files and menus and then terminates with an Error Result 1. I did see a post on this forum with what I think is the same problem and suggesting a fix by compiling some stuff. That's at http://www.knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/viewtop ... 4e0d688409 I want to make sure that I need to do it because the only way I'll be able to fix that if it's not is to reinstall from scratch.

Those are all the minor issues. Here's the most troublesome one. I don't have any sound.

From what I've read, this is because audio via hdmi is currently not supported in this built in graphic card. Other than the HDMI slot and the VGA connector, there are no common connections between the TV and the PC. I've noticed that the PC has a SPDIF output connector on the motherboard and that there are video cards which have SPDIF connectors. I believe that SPDIF is an audio standard. In theory at least, should I be able to connect the motherboard to the video card using SPDIF cable to provide audio output through the HDMI cable which I'd then connect to the new video card?

I'll take a stab at a few questions...


Yup. You can play both PAL and NTSC DVDs in a single DVD drive. Since Knoppmyth is developed primarily in the US, no illegal bits (i.e. libdvdcss2) are included. So that's probably preventing you from playing NTSC DVDs.


It's a square peg/round hole problem. You could probably zoom the video to fill the screen, but you'll lose parts of the image. You might want to look at this:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Aspect_ratio


Maybe in theory, but not in realty. AFAIK, there's no reasonable priced way to inject audio into an HDMI signal. You'd need something like this:
http://www.lindy-usa.com/dvi-d-spdif-to ... 32559.html

That's a feature, not a bug. The system is still recording your live TV show while you are paused (hence the hard drive activity). That way you can start it up again and not miss anything.

Hi,

As for the irblaster, I would pick up a used connector from a local computer repair store. Many of the older i/o cards had a seperate connector, ribbon and serial plug which now usually clutter up a "good pc shop" Use the serial header that you said was on the mother board. It on;y needs two wires, one led and a 100~ 220 ohm resister to make a serial "red eye" Note to get the actual red eye you would need a second led. They all go in series so when you see the red (your choice of yellow, blue, green also) led light up you know the ir led is also lit. The cost factor would probably be only a couple of bucks * your money conversion.

Your KM box can learn the codes from your remote but you will need a receiver. I made one out of an old vcr ir sensor module which can be connected to the same header. May take you a few days to put it all together but might even be fun to do.

Nice to hear you are having a pleasent experience with KnoppMyth!
Mike

As an after thought, Hauppauge has an ir receiver / blaster that is used with their 150mce. I believe it and the remote can be obtained seperately also. The receiver works "out of the box" but I don't about the ir transmitter. Just never tried it. Look under accessories.

Hi, All.

Thanks for the suggestions. Sorry for not replying. There's nothing worse than a 1 post wonder on a forum. This is the latter part of cold and flu season down here. I thought I'd escaped this year, but not so. I'll try to follow your suggestions once my brain isn't so scrambled.

I understand the need to protect themselves legally etc, but all I wanted to do was play Region 0 NTSC DVD's. I did two things after which the problem was fixed, although, with my very limited knowledge of linux, I suspect the first fixed it by force and the second would have fixed it too. I installed the so called "pineapple" fix. (Actually, I tried to find it by searching for "pineapple", gave up because that obviously didn't find anything, then found reference to it on another forum and installed it.). After that, and purely because I was being nosey, I found that the DVD player software was asking which Region I was in and was still configured as Region 1. This seemed odd to me as I'd already told it in both the timezone setting and in setup for mythtv that I am in Australia.



I found a compromise. I use the fill option, set to half. I've only had a wide screen tv for a month. Although I can see a wider view than on my previous CRT, it obviously means that it doesn't show the entire width available. I can't confirm that easily because the TV takes about 3 seconds to change inputs, by which time the picture has changed considerably.



This is confusing me somewhat. Quite a few video card models say that you can actually do this. On the other hand, I haven't yet heard directly from anyone who has actually done it.

I looked at that device you mentioned. I haven't been able to find it over here. Our dollar has fallen relative to the US dollar. By the time you add courier costs, it could be close to $500. Thanks for searching though.

Thanks. I did realise that it was a feature. I'd personnally prefer it if that was a customisable option.

There are other tv client programs you could use from a custom menu item, but if you are already viewing on a tv then why not use the tv for live viewing.

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Paul Turpie
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