I installed KnoppMyth R4V2 on my Pundit (Celeron 2.4/Hauppage PVR350), using the onboard TV-Out (not the one of the PVR350). The Myth UI looks just fine. However, all video looks awful, whether it is live TV, recorded TV or DivX movies. This is what the video looks like:



Here is a larger version of this picture.

Does anyone know how to solve this issue?

Solved: I downloaded the binary SiS driver for X11 from the Winischhofer website. Now the video looks okay. I think it would be a good idea to make this driver part of the KnoppMyth distribution.

I can't tell from the picture, but were you able to get rid of the "black frame" surrounding the screen? I cannot, and have been unable to find a way to make the Pundit onboard video overscan. It is very annoying because I only have a 27" T.V. to begin with.

_________________
ASUS Pundit
Celeron 2.4G
256M Ram
WD 250GB
PVR 250

nunya,

I have been working on my Pundit for the past couple of weeks and have it working near perfectly. I had a similar problem with the "black frame" when I increased my bitrates and resolutions to stop the video flickering problem. Oddly enough, I had to set my aspect ratio in "recording profiles" to 4:3 *instead* of square to resolve the problem. I assume it is because of some other setting I picked somewhere, but the screen is near perfect now. Regarding the overscan, here is my fully-commented XF86Config-4 file at the device section. I believe what you are looking for is CHTVOverscan?
---
Section "Device"
Driver "sis"
Identifier "SiS 651"
VendorName "SiS"
BoardName "651"

# Option "HWCursor"
# Use hardware or software cursor ("HWCursor" / "SWCursor")
Option "HWcursor"

# Option "NoAccel"
# Setting this option will disable 2D/3D accellerators (and Xv).
#Option "NoAccel"

# Option "ForceCRT2Type":
# This option selects the CRT2 output device type and is only useful
# on systems containing a video bridge (such as most laptops).
# Available options are:
# "TV" (if TV connector present),
# "LCD" alias "DVI-D" (if LCD panel present),
# "VGA" alias "DVI-A" (secondary VGA; use this only if your machine
# has a secondary VGA connector or a DVI-I connector
# The VGA plug on your laptop is CRT1!)
# "NONE" (this will switch off CRT2). You might want to use "NONE" for
# using higher resolutions than your LCD panel supports when
# connected to an external VGA.
# "COMPOSITE" (30x bridge only) Force TV to use cvbs connector
# "SVIDEO" (30x bridge only) Force TV to use SVHS connector
# "SCART" (30x bridge only) Force TV to use SCART connector
Option "ForceCRT2Type" "SVIDEO"

# Option "MaxXFBMem":
# Only useful on 300 series! YOU DON'T NEED THIS ON 315/550/650/740
# This option limits the amount of memory X uses for its framebuffer.
# Its purpose is to avoid a clash between X and DRI/DRM/sisfb as regards
# memory management.
# The SiS kernel framebuffer driver (sisfb) is responsible for memory
# management for DRI. It will install a video memory heap at
# - 12 MB (=12288 KB) if more than 16MB of video RAM available,
# - 8 MB (=8192 KB) if between 8 an 16MB if video RAM available,
# - 4 MB (=4096 KB) if less than 8 MB of video RAM available.
# Other amounts can be specified with sisfb's "mem" parameter.
# If this option is set, X only uses the specified amount of memory for
# its screen and its off-screen buffers.
# Limiting X to use only a small part of RAM therefore avoids that
# the kernel framebuffer (and a DRI application using the sisfb's
# memory pool) overwrites X's screen and off-screen memory.
# When setting MaxXFBMem to "8192", memory will be used according
# to the following figure:
# 0-------8------16------24------32------40------48--------56-------64MB
# XXXXXXXX
# FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
# (X=memory used by X, F=memory used by sisfb and thus DRI)
# If DRI is disabled and the framebuffer driver is not loaded, this option
# can and should be left out.
#Option "MaxXFBMem" "12288"

# Option "TVStandard"
# Can be "NTSC" or "PAL". On some machines with a 30x/B/LV bridge as well
# as on machines with a Chrontel 7019/7020, also
# "PALM" (for PAL used in Brasil) or "PALN" (PAL used in Argentina)
# Normally, this will be autodetected acoording to the BIOS setting.
# Option "TVStandard" "PAL"

#Option "XvDefaultBrightness" "-50"

# Option "XvOnCRT2"
# Only useful on machines with SiS315, 650 or 740 and only if both CRT1 and
# CRT2 are available and connected.
# Setting this to "TRUE" will show the Xv video overlay on CRT2, "FALSE" will
# show the overlay on CRT1.
# This can be changed by the Xv property "XV_SWITCHCRT".
Option "XvOnCRT2" "TRUE"

# Option "CHTVOvercan"
# Only useful on machines with a Chrontel TV encoder
# Setting this to "TRUE" will use overscan modes (larger image on the TV)
# Normally this is autodetected according to the BIOS setting.
Option "CHTVOverscan" "TRUE"

# Option "CHTVSuperOverscan"
# Only useful on machines with a 700x TV encoder. Not for 701x encoders!
# Only useful if TV standard is PAL
# Setting this to "true" will force the driver to use a TV mode which is even
# larger than the normal overscan mode. This option overrules the CHTVOverscan
# option. Setting it to "FALSE" will make the driver to fall back on the
# normal overscan setting (BIOS selection or, if set, the CHTVOverscan setting)
# Option "CHTVSuperOverscan" "TRUE"

# Option "CHTVContrast"
# Only useful on machines with Chrontel TV encoder
# This option accepts numerical values from 0 to 15 and it adjust the contrast
# of the TV image.
# Option "CHTVContrast" "10"

# Option "SISTVAntiFlicker"
# Only useful on machines with SiS30x/B/LV video bridge
# This option allows adjusting the bridge's anti flicker engine. It accepts
# "OFF", "LOW", "MED", "HIGH" and "ADAPTIVE"
Option "SISTVAntiFlicker" "ADAPTIVE"

# Option "SISTVSaturation"
# Only useful on machines with SiS30x/B/LV video bridge
# This option allows tuning the color saturation of the TV image. It accepts
# values from 0 to 15.
# Option "SISTVSaturation" "15"

# Option "TVXPosOffset"
# Useful on machines with SiS6326+TV, Chrontel 700x TV encoder or SiS video
# bridge.
# This option allows adjusting the TV image's horizontal position. It accepts
# values from -32 to 32 (on the 6326 -16 to 16)
# Option "TVXPosOffset" "8"

# Option "TVYPosOffset"
# Like TVXPosOffset, but for vertical adjustments.
# Option "TVYPosOffset" "-3"

# Please see www.winischhofer.net/linuxsisvga.shtml for more information
VideoRam 65536
EndSection
---

BTW, does anybody know what might cause a slight bend at the top right of my TV-screen? It is barely noticeable, but is the only thing that holds me back from saying my Pundit's picture is "perfect".

Do you happen to have an updated pic of what your video looks like on the tv now? I am considering purchasing the pundit, but want to make sure that the tvout quality is worth it. Thanks

I have a Pundit with a PVR250 and I can *highly* recommend it. I could not imagine the video quality being any better on my setup. It looks nearly as good as when I had the cable plugged in directly.

hot damn. I'm glad you got that working.. I have a pundit with a 350 as well. I have been trying to get the 350 working for tvout, took me some time but I finnaly got live tv working and it records fine, but makes me mad that I simply cannot play dvd's (http://www.gossamer-threads.com/perl/ma ... ine#112190 for more info on that) so after reading your thread I'm going to start using the pundits tvout. But I've heard of two problems...

1. The video is not very clear
2. The video does not fill the screen on the Television.

After reading your post I guess I'm going to go for it. Is there any other tips you could offer? and considering I'm not a huge linux buff.. would you considering posting a walk-through of what you did after install to get your setup working. Judging by the hundreds of threads I have combed through, I think a walk-through would be much appreciated. I know I would. Thanks, and well-done.

-Cody

Cody,

Sure. Basically, with the Pundit and a stock XF86Config-4 file, you should be able to plug in the SVIDEO cable and get output similar to what Muyz initially posted. Note that I am not sure what you had to do to your XF86Config file to get your PVR350 working...so this might involve a little backtracking to get back to square one. To clear up the picture, you'll need to load the binary SiS driver:

$ cd ~
$ mkdir sis_drv
$ cd sis_drv
$ wget http://www.winischhofer.net/sis/sis_drv ... ent.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf sis_drv.o_4.3.0_gcc3_current.tar.gz
$ su
# mv /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/sis_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/sis_drv.o.orig
# cp sis_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/sis_drv.o
# exit

..and restart the system. This should make the picture look decent - you'll probably want to further tweak it by editing your XF86Config-4 file to something similar to what I posted above.

Finally, as I had mentioned earlier in the thread, I had to switch by aspect ratio in my recording profiles to 4:3 instead of square to make things fill out on my TV.

As a side, is there a wiki anywhere that we can dump some of this information?

also not I actually helped cody getting his working, and that site for the sis drivers actually has a debian repository, so you can just add a line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file and install binary drivers with apt-get. no need to compile anything.

followed the instructions here but my picture is kinda rolling and svideo is black and white any advise?

well for the rolling video make sure that your vertical refresh in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 is 60 for the b/w are you using a svid->composite converter on either end?

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Thank you for your reply, yes at first I was useing a converter but then I set the output in the config file to composite output but the video looks the same. I am now thinking that there may be an issue with the bios since the video is messed up long before Myth even loads.... I am useing an original Pundit and have installed the binary sis drivers. I will check the refresh rate as well as the bios settings and report my findings.

Thanks,
Stephen

It is strange that the display is messed up before X loads. I have helped setup two of the origional pundits. one using the composite tvout and one using the svideo tvout and neither had any problems.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets