Update: I finally had time to sit down with my freevo box and make all the necessary corrections to my configuration. The matrox tv out is wonderful.
I run the frontend as root, recordserver and other cron tasks (like getting tv listings) as user freevo. My /etc/directfbrc: matrox-crtc2 # switch output to second head matrox-tv-standard=ntsc mode=720x480 # NTSC video mode pixelformat=RGB32 memcpy=MMXEXT # saves a bit of startup time for directfb primary-layer=02 no-cursor agp=4 dma graphics-vt Notably, the no-vt-switch option caused directfb to hang, so I left it out. Also, as mentioned in another post, I noticed that freevo wouldn't start on the 2nd head on the first try, and someone commented that maybe it was because I didn't have a mode listing for 720x480 in my /etc/fb.modes. That may be, but I gave up trying to find a modeline, and I knew it worked on the subsequent tries, so I went with my workaround of issuing fbset -vyres 480 before starting freevo. For some reason, if that's done before the first time freevo is started, freevo will start on the secondary head as desired. In my local_config.py, I originally tried MPLAYER_VO_DEV_OPTS = ':crtc2:fieldparity=top:tvnorm=ntsc' but there is a bug in freevo 1.7.0 originally reported by Cornelius Koelbel. It puts a space in between MPLAYER_VO_DEV and MPLAYER_VO_DEV_OPTS on mplayer's command line, making mplayer ignore MPLAYER_VO_DEV_OPTS. To get it to work, I did this in my local_conf.py: MPLAYER_VO_DEV = 'dfbmga:crtc2:fieldparity=top:tvnorm=ntsc' MPLAYER_VO_DEV_OPTS = '' As for the flickering, I tried using OSD_FORCE_FONTSIZE as Duncan suggested, but I didn't see any change in font size. However, I tried each of the 10 skins that come with freevo and found a winner in the "info" skin. The "noia," "crystal," and "bluestar" skins are also nice. The main menu text in these skins is larger, producing no noticeable flicker, and the "info" skin has black horizontal lines on a dark blue background in the tv guide, making their flicker less pronounced. Just to be clear, the flickering isn't present in video playback, but only in static onscreen elements that have single-pixel-wide horizontal lines (such as the lines in the tv guide and the smaller fonts). Anyway, for anyone who was following this and started to wonder if matrox might not be so good for tv out, I must say that it definitely is nicer than others I've tried. Motion when playing video with the fields synced to the tv is silky smooth. Thanks again guys for all the help setting up this card. Your comments and suggestions were much appreciated. Buckley ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
