Linux PVR (HTPC) - The flop…

Posted on July 10th, 2006 by arnljot.
Categories: htpc, linux.

Okay, do remember that I was using poker terms ;)

So it wasn’t a flop to use the Terratec card, but pretty close to it. It turned out that it wasn’t one of the few rare cards that supports ripping the sound over the PCI interface, so I had to use the audio patch cable after all.

Having spent all of my weekend on this problem, I was willing to make compromises. I haven’t slept much this weekend to put it that way…

In other words, I’m back where I started out; I could have stayed with the Pinnacle card.

The sound quality, to put it mildly is crap, when compared to using it with Windows XP which has drivers that support the internal sound source. Using Linux drivers and MythTV, the sound is “tinny”, oversampled and noisy.

Another thing thats not the way I would like it is that MythTV adjusts the PCM volume, and not the Master Volume. So adjusting the volume affects the quality of the sound, and not only the volume. Had it been “wired” differently in the software I could have adjusted only the Master Volume without adding oversampling and more noise to the signal.

Well, let it be. I will live with it for now, and use the TV volume and get me myself one of those multicontrollers one bright day.

I will also replace the TV card I have in the box now with a better one that has an MPEG2 decoder in the hardware and sound capabilities to my liking… (alas, yet another tv card…)

On the upside, I can report that ZSnes is a dream to run on the box, and integrates wery well into MythTV; it’s fantastic!

This all leaves me with the following “TODO-list” on the box:

  • Setup Samba and integration with my Windows XP Pro box for shares with tv shows (UPDATE: Done!)
  • Setup UAE (Amiga), MAME, Scumm, Sega Genesis, Playstation(?), NES and Nintendo64
  • Figure out how to make the USB Joypads to work in MythTV (lircd setup I wonder?) (UPDATE: I found several “HOWTOs” on this subject, but had no success)
  • Tune the setup of my ATI Wonder Remote, the keys are sluggish and doesn’t make sense (UPDATE: Partial…)
  • Make my RaLink2500 wifi card work. Right now theres a long cable from the bedroom to the livingroom… (UPDATE: Done!)
  • Get XMLTV with tv_grab_no to work (UPDATE: Done!)

In the short term I have the following plans on the hardware front:

  • Multiremote which can control both the HTPC and the TV
  • Two nice wireless joypads for more comfort and tidyer setup
  • NAS - network storage for all my movies and music
  • New TV Tuner card. Should be dual tuner with MPEG2 and PCI Sound. Or two identical cards (PiP etc)

Long term:

  • A Big Fat Nice TV to go with it
  • A sound system (Af, I know - it’s a long time to come still ;))
  • Upgrates to the hardware (CPU, RAM, Motherboard, GFxCard)

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