[mythtvnz] PCI 9400 GT Sparkle Fanless PCI Commentary

[Tortise]

Hi

The idea of re-cycling old AGP PC kit with a capable recent 9 series video card is appealing price wise and also from a lowered 
planetary re-cycling cost. As with VDPAU the CPU requirement is generally vastly reduced.  Power consumption and box volume may be a 
negative though, compared to new Ion based offerings on the horizon, all be it with unknown delivery dates and then also known 
software stabilisation for how long or at all?!!  If this is for you, read on and have it (a little?) easier!

Trying this card in a Gigabyte 866Mhz Intel III GA-6VM7A+ the video card failed to boot despite various BIOS changes including 
assigning Video boot to VGA.  Known working system otherwise.  This has not been exhaustively worked up with BIOS default setting, 
checking power wattage (which might not have been up to the said 300W or so...required) however it did not look promising.  Might 
have another go another day....

Trying this card in a Gigabyte GA 7VRXP Rev 1.1 with AMD 2400, old clunky 18G IBM HDD, 3G RAM
> Mythbuntu 8.10 and 9.04 would not install NVIDIA drivers and would only start in low graphics mode.
> Problem traced to too much RAM (!) Ref: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-180/+bug/342926  Kernels 
> 2.6.30 or 2.6.31 or later are said to fix the issue of addressing RAM above 2G (in the case of using a NVIDIA PCI card)
> Possible issues of driver interference with messages suggesting presence of 180.44.and 180.51 versions arising from the 3G RAM 
> install issues (presumably)

> Reduce to 2G RAM (3G problem confirmed following apparently successful run up - problem re-produced with reinstallation of the 3rd 
> G of RAM)
> Re-install seemed necessary despite reduction of RAM, default NVIDIA driver is then 150.44
> Font issues noted, also rectangles on desktop, instability, crash hangs.

> 9400 GT's only stated by NVIDIA as supported since 180.51  Hmmm Need upgrade 180.44 to 180.5x
> Easy way finally found by adding keys to Synaptic reference which allows easy and automated upgrade to the 180.53 beta drivers - 
> upgrade nvidia-glx-180
add those two lines to the repo portion of synaptic
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu jaunty main
> Figuring out xorg.conf issues simply not detailed here!
> Font issues persist.  (Did I buy a lemon?)
> Also need to upgrade nvidia-180-modaliases which the above did not capture
> Fonts mostly fixed.

> Add in VDPAU using JYA's stuff.  Can't test(?) without a compatible DVB-T source...... to do....

> Stability still a problem with frequent hangs but may be related to remaining bugs to fix in the young NVIDIA drivers (given only 
> ~2-3 driver iterations so far for the 9400 GT)
> Upgrading the 9.04 kernal of uname -r 2.6.28-11-generic to  uname -r 2.6.29-02062903-generic has made a significant advance with 
> fonts largely rendering correctly and minimal further hangs.
Ref http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1108281 which worked for 9.04 although written for 8.10.

Maybe power supply issues contributing with readings like:
sensors
it87-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
VCore 1:     +1.70 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.08 V)
VCore 2:     +1.25 V  (min =  +1.28 V, max =  +1.68 V)   ALARM
+3.3V:       +3.30 V  (min =  +2.78 V, max =  +3.78 V)
+5V:         +4.95 V  (min =  +4.49 V, max =  +5.48 V)
+12V:       +12.22 V  (min =  +9.86 V, max = +13.95 V)
-12V:        -6.87 V  (min = -22.94 V, max = -17.05 V)   ALARM
-5V:         -2.97 V  (min =  -9.14 V, max =  -7.75 V)   ALARM
Stdby:       +5.11 V  (min =  +4.49 V, max =  +5.48 V)
VBat:        +0.00 V
fan1:          0 RPM  (min =  703 RPM, div = 8)  ALARM
fan2:          0 RPM  (min =  703 RPM, div = 8)  ALARM
fan3:          0 RPM  (min = 2812 RPM, div = 2)  ALARM
M/B Temp:    +42.0°C  (low  = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
CPU Temp:    +40.0°C  (low  = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
Temp3:       +81.0°C  (low  = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)  sensor = thermal diode

with -12V wide ranging from -6 to -16! Take out the tuner card that was there!  maybe needs new PSU?  Current PSU is relatively new 
430W which should be ok?  Keep an eye on.

MythTV
>> Mythbuntu plays with stop start video/sound.  (Why! ?CPU) (See following - need to configure ffmpeg for SD I think...)
>> Not sure if VDPAU is working properly, especially as I am only playing DVB-S thru mythtv.

But need to configure the profiles to use vdpau....  Instructions not really clear to me whether one adds the two specified settings 
(Ref: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU#Display_Profiles) to an existing profiles of Normal, High Quality, Slim, CPU+, CPU++ or CPU--  
(Ref: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Playback_profiles ) What I did was add a whole new profile called vdpau, and added the two sub 
profiles.  Uncheck fade out (which I hate - why would I ever want to wait for fade out to complete?) and then add in the 
de-interlacers (Ref http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Deinterlacing ) which I gather much experimentation with will be required.  Also made 
vdpau come in with definitions >H0 and W0, else standard which is the ffmpeg one otherwise, as I am using DVB-S its probably just 
using ffmpeg, but how would I know?  Image crashes after a few seconds....  OK change thresholds to H1000 and W700 which should turn 
off vdpau in SD, and what do you know crashes stop....  Mmmm.  Reset to H400 W400 and crashes return.  Suggests vdpau crashing on 
DVB-S signals but ffmpeg ok.  Back to H1000 and W 700.  Maybe this should be >C4 SD of 720x400 so only 720p and 1080i gets vdpau? 
(When I need to how does one make this distinguish non H264 SD channels from H264 SD channels e.g. C4, TV3+1?)
CPU runs ~55% on these now.

VLC
> VLC: C4 and TV3+1(=SD Definition) on VLC plays ~ 60-100% CPU, as fed from a DVB-T HDHomerun.  More CPU or VDPAU is needed to meet 
> the Queens (high) standards.
> VLC: TV1 DVB-T plays CPU >= 90% quite unsatisfactorily.  NVIDIA Temp ~75 degrees playing these.  (Slowdown threshold 105 degrees) 
> Probably will only be fixed when VLC gets VDPAU support or when alternative DVB-T source is integrated into BE and plays thru 
> vdpau mythtv.


Still TO DO:
>> When changing the OSD configuration I note the keyboard does not work changing channels etc.  Killing the FE process and 
>> restarting the FE consistently sometimes persuades the keyboard to work again.  Happened repeatedly, likely a bug.  Actually 
>> seems to happen more than just following OSD changes.  Hmmm.  Makes it hard to do the repeated channel change test!

>> Figure out why remote not working....

>> Fix the hiss playing out one channel.  (Odd)  The kit (same except 2M RAM instead of 3 and substitute 5200 for 9400GT) previously 
>> worked fine with mythbuntu 8.10 / SD.
I note some repeated comments about buffer overruns in the logs that may be associated, not sure.
a.. 2009-05-23 20:44:46.084 AFD: Opened codec 0xb064f50, id(MP3) type(Audio)
a.. 2009-05-23 20:44:46.189 Opening audio device 'default'. ch 2(2) sr 48000
a.. 2009-05-23 20:44:46.189 Opening ALSA audio device 'default'.
a.. 2009-05-23 20:44:46.198 NVP: Enabling Audio
a.. 2009-05-23 20:44:49.842 WriteAudio: buffer underrun
a.. .....repeats.....
a.. 2009-05-23 20:44:52.161 NVP: prebuffering pause
a.. 2009-05-23 20:45:05.876 VDPAU Error: DISPLAY PRE-EMPTED. Aborting playback.
a.. 2009-05-23 20:45:05.877 NVP: Error condition detected in videoOutput after Show(), aborting playback.

But "Extra Audio Buffering" is selected in "General Playback (1/9)" settings.

Any comments or ideas welcomed!


Hope this helps others scratch the surface of mythbuntu 9.04!

David