[mythtvnz] Zotac ion settings and issues

[Paul Kendall]

On Friday 21 August 2009 08:28:39 pm Steve V wrote:
> Has anyone got a Zotac up and running and doing everything they want?
>
Yup, I have 2 of them, and built a 3rd for a friend!
My 2 at home are remote network boot frontends to a backend machine with
stacks of disk space.

> I have a single core board with a Mythbuntu 9.04 install
> 2gigs of RAM
> JYA repository for Myth
> Nvidia 185.18.31
> A Philips media centre remote receiver (and a Logitech remote)

I use the 190.18 nvidia and trunk of mythtv. Same remote? SRM5100 Awesome!

>
> After a few weeks of tinkering (a little bit each day) I am about 80% happy
> with the way it works.
>
> Issues I have are:
>
> Sometimes on boot up it seems to start 2 instances of Mythfrontend - not
> absolutely sure that this is what is happening as I haven't sshed in to
> check what processes are running, but when it happens nothing plays well
> and when I use escape to exit I end up exiting Mythfrontend and find a
> second version sitting behind, which I then have to exit before I can
> restart Mythfrontend and watch stuff.

On the 3rd machine I see this if I logout with mythfrontend running then log
back in. I think the xfce session is saving the running one and the auto start
starts another! 
>
> Sometimes on boot networking does not start, I have to exit mythfrontend
> (which hasn't started properly - I get the can't find uPNP server error)
> and run /etc/init.d/networking restart to get networking going.
Nope, no problems here. The 3rd is using wireless too!

>
> Audio seems to be out of sync on most recordings, by up to 50ms. It's not
> out of sync on my other frontend so it must be a playback issue. Sometimes
> when I adjust the audio sync audio stops altogether.
>
I havn't really notice it. But on C4 I get stop/start and jerky sound, but
generally on in Malcolm in the Middle!

> When I use timestretch say to 1.2x the video speeds up fine but the audio
> breaks up badly. "top" shows no real increase in CPU use going from 1x to
> 1.2x but it acts like the processor can't keep up with the required
> stretch. I've tried all the options for deinterlacer in case it was somehow
> related to the NVIDIA driver.
>
Sorry, I don't use time-stretch.

> Just wondering if anyone is seeing the same issues or if anyone has a
> better performing system, I'd love to know your settings.
>
I also have a fe/be box in the lounge with DVB-S only, this is the "keep the
wife happy" box. This is an old AMD Sempron system.

I love these boards! Can't wait for 0.22 release so I can replace the main
system at home with another ZOTAC as well :-)


Cheers,
Paul