Chopperkiwi, what version of ivtv are you running? It looks like R5A30.2 comes with 4.0.

Are these the upgrade instructions you are refering to?
http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=CompileIvtv

I had problems when switching to 640x480.

Could you pm or post your XF86Config-4 file?

Thanks
mike

_________________
KnoppMyth R5B7
Asus P4P800-VM
P4 2.4 Ghz - 1GB RAM
PVR-150 - HD-5000
Geforce FX 5200

They're the magical builtin ones.

Don't do that. If you're connectiing to a TV those values are:

Anything else is out of spec and can fry a TV. When you do I'll be able to smell the burning phenolic resin from here. I can almost smell it now. Urp!

See the example on the wiki. if you search for fx5200 it should come up as the #1 or #2 result. For a normal NTSC TV connected via S-videothe only changes you should need to make to that file are, different mouse and keyboard if you're not using PS-2 or extra modelines if your TV doesn't like either of the 640... or 800... examples.

So mkxf86config doesn't realy probe the moitor?

Are you taking about this xf86config-4 http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=XF86ConfigForFX5200HowTo

If so, this is where I started, when I first started trying to correct the blurry picture. I'll copy it back to have a known starting point.

If my tv doesn't like the mode lines, how do I go about finding ones it does. I have played with the calculator, but I dont know if I have the values right. Especialy concidering I the values that I got from mkxf86config were no good.

_________________
KnoppMyth R5B7
Asus P4P800-VM
P4 2.4 Ghz - 1GB RAM
PVR-150 - HD-5000
Geforce FX 5200

After readin chopperkiwi's comments on ivtv, I decided to test something before going any further with my X config.

I just got myth to play a dvd. The video had its minor problems, but it looked 100 times better than when watching live tv. I am watching a commercial DVD by selecting "Play DVD" in the myth menu, after installing libdvdcss2.

Would this indicate that my livetv and recordings issues are an encoding issue rather than a display issue? I know I originally said the picture looked clearer on my computer flat pannel monitor, but I was comparing a 19 inch monitor to a 36 inch TV. The larger screen brings out the problems more I think.

Does anyone know if the next release of knoppmyth will include any nvidia driver updates, or ivtv updates? If so, sign me up as an alpha tester. I'd rather stay as close to a real release as possible as opposed to customizing everything.

_________________
KnoppMyth R5B7
Asus P4P800-VM
P4 2.4 Ghz - 1GB RAM
PVR-150 - HD-5000
Geforce FX 5200

Yeah, TV's aren't that smart and S-Video isn't set up for bidirectional communication anyway. The DDC probing doesn't do anything but waste time in that case.

Yes.

- Use the modeline calculator at sourceforge with the cannonical TV values. Don't get hung up about filling in every field. There's a lot of redundancy, just provide the ones you know.
- Look for 800x600 and 640x480 modelines from other examples. There are plenty out there.
- Once you're close there's an interactive modeline tweaker whose name escapes me now. Something tune? Maybe xvidtune? No... That seems to be more for walking through a bunch of modes to test them... Oh well you can search as easily as I can.

More inportant, fire up nvidia-settings and get to work. Dial the anti-flicker down as low as it will go without making the image twitchy. Some folks can get it down to 1 with a stable picture I could only reduce it to ~63 , that alone will improve the sharpness. Then try the sharpness settings and the like (don't overdo it). If you're not using bob2x deinterlacing enable that in the settings. You should be able to get text crawls nice and crisp.

As to the ivtv drivers, follow the upgrade instructions on the wiki (Bottom half of CompileIvtv). I just fixed them last night to use the latest 0.4.3 bug fix release.

The larger screen brings out more problems. Absolutely. You can't compare a commercially purchased movie that was shot and encoded at very high quality rates, to analog cable captured with an MPEG2 card at who knows what resolutions and bitrates.

tjc, The howto to upgrade itvt worked perfectly.

My video is much better now. I can still tell the difference between cable to the tv and live tv from the myth box, but I think it is acceptable now.

The only thing that is still happening that bugs me is I get some jumping back and forth between sharp images and blurred images on objects with vertical lines. Examples are watching the weather forcast, there are usually vertical lines dividing each day of the forcast. These lines switch back and forth between bright clear lines, and a blur. I saw the same thing on a McDonnalds commercial with a tree. The lines in the bark would switch back and forth between sharp and blurry.

If it would stay one way or the other, it would not be so bad, but jumping back and forth is really distracting.

Thanks for all the help on this. It is a great improvement from where I was.

_________________
KnoppMyth R5B7
Asus P4P800-VM
P4 2.4 Ghz - 1GB RAM
PVR-150 - HD-5000
Geforce FX 5200

This is the XF86Config i run on my Hauppauge 150Mce.

The Wiki upgrade http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=CompileIvtv and firmware have solved this for me too.

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

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

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
# Load "ddc" # ddc probing of monitor
# Load "GLcore"
Load "dbe"
Load "v4l"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "bitmap" # bitmap-fonts
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "record"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

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

# Auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"
Option "NoLogo" "0"
VendorName "Panasonic"
ModelName "CT-27SF22T1"
HorizSync 30 - 50
VertRefresh 60 - 60
# Displaysize 204 153 # 75 DPI @ 640x480
DisplaySize 271 204 # 75 DPI @ 640x480
# DisplaySize 204 153 # 100 DPI @ 800x600
# DisplaySize 535 415 # Real measurements

# The "magic" modelines borrowed from someone else
#Modeline "640x480" 40.12 800 848 968 1056 600 601 605 628 #60Hz
# From http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl
# hfreq: 37.9 kHz
#Modeline "640x480@60" 38.21 800 832 976 1008 600 612 618 631

# The "magic" modelines borrowed from someone else
#Modeline "640x480" 25.175 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525 #60Hz
# From http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl
# hfreq: 30.43 kHz
#Modeline "640x480@60" 24.11 640 672 760 792 480 490 495 505

EndSection


Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Rosewill"
BoardName "nVidia GeForce FX5200"
Option "RenderAccel" "1"

# TV Out Setup - Does this still belong here?
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"

Option "NoLogo" "0"
# sw_cursor is needed for some ati and radeon cards
#Option "sw_cursor"
# Other options...
#Option "hw_cursor"
#Option "NoAccel"
#Option "ShowCache"
#Option "ShadowFB"
#Option "UseFBDev"
#Option "Rotate"
# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
#BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 16
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 1
# Modes "640x480" "640x480" "800x600@60" "640x480@60"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 4
# Modes "640x480" "640x480" "800x600@60" "640x480@60"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 8
# Modes "640x480" "640x480" "800x600@60" "640x480@60"
# EndSubSection

# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 15
# Modes "640x480" "640x480" "800x600@60" "640x480@60"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Depth 16
# Modes "640x480" "640x480" "800x600@60" "640x480@60"
# EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "640x480" "640x480" "640x480@60" "640x480@60"
EndSubSection
#SubSection "Display"
# Depth 32
# Modes "640x480" "640x480" "800x600@60" "640x480@60"
#EndSubSection

EndSection

#Section "DRI"
# Mode 0666
#EndSection

Chopper - you do realize that while both the tuner card and the video card contribute to what you ultimately see during playback, the XF86Config-4 file has _nothing_ to do with your PVR card. They're completely seperate components.

Yes i do (although i gfigured that after the problem was fixed) but i read a lot about S-video down resolution to 640 so figured why have it running higher then drop it down? Extra GPU work surely so hack it out.

Incidentally i stumbled across the pVR blurry issue also by watching the dvd's and seeing they were pretty much fine.

reducing the res on my TV (non HD obviously) also helped sort out some overscanning probs etc.

Its just tidier with both parts sorted.

Its now my main tv unit and the G/F and kids love the scheduling ability to catch "every episode".

B