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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:15 am 
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For those interested, my frontend machine is an old Athlon XP 3200+ (2.2 GHz single core) w/ a PCI 8400 GS I got for $60. The idle temp on my 8400GS as per nvclock is around 43C. After about 35 min of playback of a 720p24 x264 file using VDPAU (mplayer via cesman's packages), it has gone up to 59C (59C seems to be the max it hits since it hasn't changed in 20 min). Just for sh*ts and giggles, I used a ziptie to attach a spare 80mm case fan I had in a box to the heatsink (see pics below) and repeated the same experiment (720p playback for about 40 min) and as you can expect, it significantly lowered the temps.

Idle wo/ fan = 43 C
Load wo/ fan = 59 C

Idle w/ fan = 37 C
Load w/ fan = 40 C

Code:
$ nvclock -T
nVidia Geforce 8400GS
=> GPU temperature: 40C


Power consumption as measured by a kill-a-watt with these 8-series GPUs (G98 I believe) are also amazing.

Machine idle (with athcool): 76 W
VDPAU playback (720p24, x264, 3,100 Kbps): 83 W
VDPAU playback (720p60, mpeg-2, 14,800 Kbps): 85 W
VDPAU playback (1080p24, x264, 9,200 Kbps): 92 W

Image
It doesn't look like it, but the ziptie is actually very loose and surprisingly holds the fan in place.

Image
You can see by this view that the 80mm fan is too large for this slim-style heatsink; a 60mm or 50mm would probably give better coverage, but I don't think an oversized fan hurts so long as you have the space for it in the case - in fact it might help to circulate more air around the card as well.

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Last edited by graysky on Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:02 am, edited 1 time in total.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 9:51 am 
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What kind of setup settings are used with the 8400 card ?


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:11 am 
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snaproll wrote:
What kind of setup settings are used with the 8400 card ?


What do you mean by setup settings? On R6 I'm using the nvidia v180.29 beta driver (cesman's package) @ the HDTV's native resolution of 1680x1050 @ 60 Hz. What else are you curious about?

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:28 am 
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So you don't need anything added to the xorg.conf ?
The nvidia driver covers it ?

[runs another ebay search on 8400....] :lol:

That is a PCIe card ? right ?


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:53 am 
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snaproll wrote:
That is a PCIe card ? right ?

Look at the pictures again. Those sure look like regular old PCI slots to me.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:57 pm 
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...thought they only made these in PCIe..... :oops:


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:48 am 
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This is similar to my machine -- 2.4 GHz with 8400 GS card. OTA ATSC is halting about about 1 frame every couple seconds.
Quote:
On R6 I'm using the nvidia v180.29 beta driver (cesman's package)

Can someone give a noob some hints on how to install these Nvidia drivers in R6?

(part 2 - and force TV-out, as the menu config is not doing it for me?) Thank you, somebody!

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Last edited by worldpoop on Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:20 am, edited 1 time in total.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:07 am 
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tjc wrote:
snaproll wrote:
That is a PCIe card ? right ?

Look at the pictures again. Those sure look like regular old PCI slots to me.


Right you are, tjc. This board is over 5-years old by the way. The card is sold in the PCI interface since most if not all of the new 'green' motherboards are aimed at low power consumption with the role of HTPC in mind.

snaproll wrote:
So you don't need anything added to the xorg.conf ?
The nvidia driver covers it ?

[runs another ebay search on 8400....] :lol:


The only thing I added to my xorg.conf was an additional option for 1680x1050 since R6 defaults to 1280x720 and the native resolution of my HDTV is higher. Yes, the nvidia driver from cesman's packages cover it.

For instructions on enabling vdpau on R6, see FS # 243.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:15 am 
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worldpoop wrote:
Can someone give a noob some hints on how to install the right Nvidia drivers and get Vdpau installed in R6?

(part 2 - and force TV-out, as the menu config does not work?) Thank you, somebody!


For instructions on enabling vdpau on R6, see FS # 243.

Dunno about forcing TV out... you're using s-video??? If you have an HDTV you should be using HDMI for the highest quality. You can get a DVI --> HDMI cable, high quality 6 ft for peanuts over at monoprice. Here is a link to their DVI-->HDMI section.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:28 am 
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graysky wrote:
you're using s-video??? If you have an HDTV you should be using HDMI for the highest quality.

Well, I have a standard def TV still, so it's Svid for me. But ATSC, can't escape it, bye bye analog! :) (Well, June 16th now)

Thanks for the vdpau link. I've run those commands now, no errors, all installed. But no help. I guess I need those drivers. Got any similar guidance on how to install those beta nvideo drivers you speak of?
Quote:
Dunno about forcing TV out...

In r5 I added
Code:
Option          "ConnectedMonitor"      "TV"
Option         "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option         "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"

to Device section in xorg.conf, and it worked. But in R6, configuring TV-out in the menus is doing nothing -- still only VGA out. Trying same xorg edit didn't work either. Anyway, oh well.

Tks!

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:41 am 
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worldpoop wrote:
Thanks for the vdpau link. I've run those commands now, no errors, all installed. But no help. I guess I need those drivers. Got any similar guidance on how to install those beta nvideo drivers you speak of?


If you ran the commands in the flyspray item, you should have the latest beta nvidia drivers installed. They are required for vdpau. I dunno about using s-video out under R6 since I'm outputting mine to an HDTV on a frontend. I'm not ready to update my MBE server to R6 yet which is also connected to a SDTV and using the s-video out.

Did you search on fly spray? I found fs #226.

worldpoop wrote:
In r5 I added
Code:
Option          "ConnectedMonitor"      "TV"
Option         "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option         "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"

to Device section in xorg.conf, and it worked. But in R6, configuring TV-out in the menus is doing nothing -- still only VGA out. Trying same xorg edit didn't work either.


Here is my functional /etc/X11/xorg.conf from my working R5.5 system if it helps you.

Code:
Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier     "XFree86 Configured"
   Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
   InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
# PS/2 Mouse not detected
# Serial Mouse not detected
        InputDevice    "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
   Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"  "true"
   
EndSection

Section "Files"
   RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
   ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc:unscaled"
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi:unscaled"
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi:unscaled"
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Speedo"
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/PEX"
# Additional fonts: Locale, Gimp, TTF...
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
   FontPath     "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts"
EndSection

Section "Module"
# Comments: see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=346408
   Load  "dbe" # Double Buffering Extension, very important.
   Load  "glx" # GLX Extension.
   Load  "freetype" # Freetype fonts.
   Load  "type1"  # Type 1 fonts
   Load  "record" # Developer extension, usually not needed
   SubSection      "extmod"
      Option          "omit xfree86-dga"
   EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Keyboard0"
   Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "CoreKeyboard"
   Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
   Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
   Option "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Serial Mouse"
   Driver      "mouse"
   Option      "Protocol" "Microsoft"
   Option      "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
   Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
   Option      "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
   Option       "SendCoreEvents"  "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "PS/2 Mouse"
   Driver      "mouse"
   Option      "Protocol" "auto"
Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
   Option      "Device" "/dev/psaux"
   Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
   Option      "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
   Option       "SendCoreEvents"  "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "USB Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
   Option      "SendCoreEvents"   "true"
        Option          "Protocol"              "IMPS/2"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
        Option          "Buttons"               "5"
EndSection

# Auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier   "Monitor0"
   Option   "DPMS"   "true"
   Option "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE"
   Option "DPI" "100 x 100"
   HorizSync    28.0 - 96.0 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors
   VertRefresh  50.0 - 75.0 # Very conservative. May flicker.
   #  Default modes distilled from
   #      "VESA and Industry Standards and Guide for Computer Display Monitor
   #       Timing", version 1.0, revision 0.8, adopted September 17, 1998.
   #  $XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/etc/vesamodes,v 1.4 1999/11/18 16:52:17 tsi Exp $
   # 640x480 @ 60Hz (Industry standard) hsync: 31.5kHz
   ModeLine "640x480"    25.2  640  656  752  800    480  490  492  525 -hsync -vsync
   # 640x480 @ 72Hz (VESA) hsync: 37.9kHz
   ModeLine "640x480"    31.5  640  664  704  832    480  489  491  520 -hsync -vsync
   # 640x480 @ 75Hz (VESA) hsync: 37.5kHz
   ModeLine "640x480"    31.5  640  656  720  840    480  481  484  500 -hsync -vsync
   # 640x480 @ 85Hz (VESA) hsync: 43.3kHz
   ModeLine "640x480"    36.0  640  696  752  832    480  481  484  509 -hsync -vsync
   # 800x600 @ 56Hz (VESA) hsync: 35.2kHz
   ModeLine "800x600"    36.0  800  824  896 1024    600  601  603  625 +hsync +vsync
   # 800x600 @ 60Hz (VESA) hsync: 37.9kHz
   ModeLine "800x600"    40.0  800  840  968 1056    600  601  605  628 +hsync +vsync
   # 800x600 @ 72Hz (VESA) hsync: 48.1kHz
   ModeLine "800x600"    50.0  800  856  976 1040    600  637  643  666 +hsync +vsync
   # 800x600 @ 75Hz (VESA) hsync: 46.9kHz
   ModeLine "800x600"    49.5  800  816  896 1056    600  601  604  625 +hsync +vsync
   # 800x600 @ 85Hz (VESA) hsync: 53.7kHz
   ModeLine "800x600"    56.3  800  832  896 1048    600  601  604  631 +hsync +vsync
   # Extended modelines with GTF timings
   # 640x480 @ 100.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 50.90 kHz; pclk: 43.16 MHz
   ModeLine "640x480"  43.16  640 680 744 848  480 481 484 509  -HSync +Vsync
   # 800x600 @ 100.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 63.60 kHz; pclk: 68.18 MHz
   ModeLine "800x600"  68.18  800 848 936 1072  600 601 604 636  -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Card0"
# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
   Driver      "nvidia"
   Option "XvmcUsesTextures" "false"
   Option "UseEvents" "true"
   VendorName  "All"
   BoardName   "All"
#   BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier "Screen0"
   Device     "Card0"
   Monitor    "Monitor0"
   DefaultColorDepth 24
   SubSection "Display"
      Depth     24
      Modes "800x600" "640x480"
   EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
   Mode 0666
EndSection


The hardware specs for this system (now over 5 years old) are in my signature.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:56 am 
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Posts: 80
graysky wrote:
If you ran the commands in the flyspray item, you should have the latest beta nvidia drivers installed.

Hm, then I wonder why I didn't get an enhancement. Framerate is still 1 frame every few seconds playback, really bad with maxed CPU, unuseable. (My MX4000 with Xvmc could mostly handle one stream of ATSC, as long as no OSD. Haven't tried the MX4000 in R6.)

Thanks for the TV-out stuff!!! I'll look tomorrow-ish and get back with any progress. Cheereo....

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Knoppmyth R6 Preview auto - Dell Dimension 2400 2.4 GHz - 1.2gb ram - Sparkle GeForce 8400GS (was MX4000 128MB) PCI TV-out - HDHomeRun dual ATSC over gigabit. It's not Greek to me, just Linux


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:16 am 
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Posts: 1996
Location: /dev/null
worldpoop wrote:
graysky wrote:
If you ran the commands in the flyspray item, you should have the latest beta nvidia drivers installed.

Hm, then I wonder why I didn't get an enhancement. Framerate is still 1 frame every few seconds playback, really bad with maxed CPU, unuseable. (My MX4000 with Xvmc could mostly handle one stream of ATSC, as long as no OSD. Haven't tried the MX4000 in R6.)

Thanks for the TV-out stuff!!! I'll look tomorrow-ish and get back with any progress. Cheereo....


You have to enable mplayer w/ vdpau. See this thread and the links therein.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:48 am 
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graysky wrote:
You have to enable mplayer w/ vdpau. See this thread and the links therein.

I already ran "pacman -S mythtv-vdpau mplayer-vdpau-nogui" in addtion to "pacman -S mythtv-vdpau" as per. Is there something else I'm missing in that to get TV watching happening?

(Additional synapse firings: Perhaps, is there a way to see if the "nvidia beta-180.29-1" is indeed being used? Or... to showcase my complete ignorance of myth gut... Is it possible that choosing players during install caused myth to use a player different than mplayer for TV viewing, is that something I could have done haplessly?)

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Knoppmyth R6 Preview auto - Dell Dimension 2400 2.4 GHz - 1.2gb ram - Sparkle GeForce 8400GS (was MX4000 128MB) PCI TV-out - HDHomeRun dual ATSC over gigabit. It's not Greek to me, just Linux


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 5:14 am 
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You can see what version of the nvidia driver you're using by running the following from a shell:

Code:
$ nvidia-settings


Screenshot from my desktop PC:
Image

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