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PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:38 am 
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Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2005 7:45 am
Posts: 19
Location: San Marcos, CA
Want to thank all of you who helped in this. Especially XSecrets who helped me solve the PVR-250 issue.

I'm pretty happy so far, but still have a To do list:

1) When Playing DVD, screen shrinks one increment each time I use FF/Next Chapter button on the remote. This may be remote mapping or Myth keyboard setup issue.
2) Do not know if digital audio out works (no digital-capable receiver yet).
3) Do not know how to Burn DVDs using the Myth (or any) GUI, especially using DIVx format (I'd like to try this soon).
4) Myth TV GUI display is cropped a bit outside of the boundaries of my TV display. Specifically, I cannot see the check boxes on the left hand column in Utilities/setup, which makes setup tweaking a bit tricky.
5) Have not figured out commercial-skip secret handshake yet. Maybe a symptom of item #4.

Hardware
=========
MSI NEO2 Platinum K8N with Nforce3 Chipset (Motherboard has a Fan, but seems quiet)
On-Board Audio
On-Board Ethernet x2
On-Board Firewire, USB 2.0

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (1.8 Ghz?)
512MB RAM (Crucial)
MSI GeForce (nVidia) 5200 AGP Graphics Card (S-Video out, NO FAN)
Toshiba DVD +/- R/W Burner
Hauppauge PVR-250 card w/Silver Remote (Buy the PVR-150 instead and save $50)
S-Video Television Display (more on this later)
SMC networks Firewall/Router hooked up to SBC DSL modem
Silverstone LST case (aluminum- looks cool!)- one forward, two rear case fans.
350W power supply with 'quiet', large fan.


Installation:
=============
Go to Zap2it.com on another computer to get a username and password for local tv listings.

I downloaded KnoppMyth R5A16 from Knoppmyth website and followed the Knoppmyth installation instructions at http://www.mysettopbox.tv/doc.html , but I did NOT use 'TV out' at the prompt, instead I used 'expert', which follows below.

Initial Boot/partition:
-----------------------

Bootup Scripts:
---------------
Set the BIOS to boot from CD-R, also set the BIOS fan speed and temperature band to minimum settings (5v I think).

Type 'expert' at the first knoppix prompt and bypass three of the SCSI-detection scripts in Knoppix/Knoppmyth in order for the installation to work: AIC7XXX.o; ultrastor.o; ehci-hcd.o. You basically have to type in ALL of the other SCSI's EXCEPT for the ones listed above. Otherwise the Knoppix boot scripts crash (BIG HINT: if you want to 'dry run' your hardware config without doing an hour's worth of booting and formatting, you can test on a Knoppix Live CD that has the same Linux Kernel (2.6.11.9 I think).

Graphics Setup:
--------------
Knoppix asks you about sound cards, keyboars, mice, etc in bootup. Hit "N" to use defaults, then "Y" to edit your graphics settings...I fixed the screen resolution by checking the blocks 800x600 and 640x480 under 'graphics setup' in order to get Linux/Knoppix to display on my old MAG 15" computuer monitor during setup. DO NOT choose the option to configure your graphics card. You will be tempted to do this and choose "GEFORCE 5200" and "NV" for drivers, but what you need is the 'real' nVidia driver (much later on)...

Used AUTO INSTALL for Knoppmyth setup/format/partitions. I used DHCP (default) settings for internet connection.

After knoppix/linux loading, here are the settings for Knoppmyth/MythTV:
-----------------------------
Used MPEG-2 decoder card (PVR 150/250).
MAKE SURE you go through the full MythTV initial setup process, especially TV listings. If you do not do this, I could not find a way to get back here other than the initial format/boot setup. Don't forget your ZAP2IT username and password. Goof with the news/weather/web settings later after you have everything working. *Note I need to try to get Myth to use Firefox instead of the Myth Browser.

Browser:
-------
After install of tuner card, I went into console as Root and installed Firefox browser using apt-get update; apt-get install mozilla-firefox. This makes it a bit easier to move around the web and find stuff. I am a bit of a dufus with Lynx browser which comes with GDM.

PVR-250 TV Card/ivtv driver:
-------------------
Hauppauge has been changing their card chipsets faster than Linux community can keep up. I guess it did not used to be this way, and the PVR-250 card was rock-solid. I purchased this card under this impression, which was a mistake. I would go ahead and save money and get the 150 card since you will have to do install scripts anyway.

After the initial formatting/partitioning/initial set-up of MythTV, the PVR-250 needs to be set up on its own (no Knoppmyth autodetect of my Tuner chipset, which is "32062" "REV C199"). Go to http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=HauppaugeOneFiftyInstallation to run the scripts so MythTv will work with your PVR-250 card. I used ivtv driver 0.3.7.d . I used Xedit to create and edit the text files. I did not enter the line from step 9 (file is /etc/modprobe.d/ivtv) that says "add above ivtv lirc_dev lirc_i2c". After this line, none of the following stuff is applicable until step 10 - (reboot). DO NOT follow the LIRC instructions which follow step 10 of this webpage, instead, use what is listed next.

Remote:
-------
Remote does not work either out of the box. Need to go to instructions at
http://www.mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4609&highlight=lirc+silver+remote . Note that the file lircd_pvr150.conf is located in /usr/src before you move it. I was unable to do the 'test' portion from the root console listed in step 12, but it seemed to work fine under mythtv.

DVD playback:
-------------
Will not play encoded (ie rental or purchased) DVD's out of the box. Not knowing what 'patch' to install, I simply used the brute force method and downloaded the full Xine program from Debian unstable webpage. Instructions are listed at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-debian.html . I can play encoded DVD's now, but I noticed that when I hit fast forward button on the remote (next chapter), the playback screen shrinks each time. I think this is because the button is mapped to 'page down' or something like that, which tells MythTV to shrink the screen size. I will have to mess with the remote button mapping later.

Spitting it out to TV/S-Video out:
-----------------------------------
I use the S-Video out on the 5200 AGP card to go to my ancient TV, through my VCR because my TV has only RF in (ch-3). This is where it is important NOT to pick your graphics card as "NV 5200" and use the "NV" driver option in Knoppix setup.
Go back to the original Knoppmyth installation instructions in the 'Post Installation' section. Log in as root, and type 'install-nv <TAB> <TAB>'. You have two drivers to choose from, one is 6629, and the other is 7174. Not knowing any different, I used what I perceived to be the latest, which is 7174, and then pressed <ENTER>. After install, the system reboots.

Right before GDM bootup screen, you will see a brief full splash screen with the nVidia logo on it. This (among other things) clues you in that you have successfully installed the generic nVidia Graphics driver. The driver then detects that you have a geForce 5200 card for you (I think).

NOW that everything works, it's time to spit this out to a TV:
Go into Xedit and rename your /etc/X11/XFConfig-4 to something like "XFConfig-4.works". You have now backed up your working graphics driver for a computer monitor. Load up /etc/X11/XFConfig-4.tvout (I think this is the filename or similar) and save it as "XFConfig-4". Make sure the file has the lines listed in the Knoppmyth instructions like 'Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV" ' (this should already be in the file and should not be commented out with a pound sign).


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 8:16 pm 
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Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:00 am
Posts: 9551
Location: Arlington, MA
ewills wrote:
1) When Playing DVD, screen shrinks one increment each time I use FF/Next Chapter button on the remote. This may be remote mapping or Myth keyboard setup issue.

Yep. Don't know who came up with that key mapping but it seems kind of odd to me too, so I changed it. See this posting if you're using Xine:
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5730


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 Post subject: Keyboard
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:48 am 
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Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2005 7:45 am
Posts: 19
Location: San Marcos, CA
Ione KBP20 USB RF Wireless keyboard works great. Just press the reset button on the usb receiver when the computer reboots.

_________________
R5F27
AMD Athlon 64/3000+
MSI/nVidia nForce3 mBoard
geForce 5200
Hauppauge PVR-250
Ione KBP20 Wireless RF USB Keyboard/Mouse
Sony 42" WEGA KDF-E42A10 (VGA)


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