On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 14:58:56 -0500, Stephen Cochran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Garry Cook" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > What problems are you seeing with xine? Please elaborate on "xine was > > leading me in circles". > > > > I could be wrong, but I think that mplayer and xine are mutally > > exclusive within MythTV. You should probably focus on which one you > > want to use, and work out the issues with it. > > I chose xine because Jarod's Guide mentioned that it would use the DVD > > menus. And while using the default mplayer commands, I didn't see a > > menu, so I made the switch. > > So far, it works great for playing DVDs, although I have not > > successfully ripped a DVD yet. > > Well, I went back and tried Xine as the DVD player last night. Overall > things were much better. The biggest problem I encountered (other than it > locking up occasionally during disc navigation) was it not changing the > screen resolution back when I quit Xine. Also, while it will technically > allow you to navigate menus, in practice it is god-awful at it. Also, while > I'm sure I have some learning to do the playback controls blow. The jumps > are seemingly random, there's no title/chapter navigation, and in general it > is just barely usable. > > I'm feeling pretty negative about Xine right now, because all this had a > very negative impact last night. The ISF tech was there to calibrate my > RPTV. Obviously, these navigation problems prevented us from putting up the > necessary test patterns from my Myth box, so I just have to hope that the > outputs are close to what his HD generator produced. > > Is there a REAL full-featured playback solution for DVD's yet? Did I miss > something essential in Xine even though I read the docs and readme. >
If you read the docs and readme for xine, you've gotten further than I have with it. I've been focusing on all the other great features of MythTV. With that said, I did initially have a bit of trouble with xine navigation, but instead of reading the docs, I tried the keys in the '10-key' section of the keyboard. These seem to work much better, and the navigation is quite a bit more intuitive. There are still a few things that I don't know how to do, but by now I've disconnected my keyboard and have moved on to a remote, so I'll need to figure these out in the lirc settings I guess. > One general observation about the linux community: Stop with the easter egg > hunt mentality, please! I have been fighting installation problems for weeks > now, and finding seemingly basic information is excruciatingly hard. One > very simple example: Why do the docs say "See man mount (5)", when the > actual way to get to the information is "man 5 mount"? And guess what ISN'T > documented in the default man page? You guessed it, the syntax for pulling > whatever the heck is referenced in parentheses! Stop being cryptic for the > fun of it. > > I've been fighting what are probably elementary problems for weeks now, and > no help has been forthcoming on any of the mailing lists or forums where I > have posted questions. This is incredibly frustrating, and I can't help but > shake my head in bemusement whenever I hear a linux advocate saying "but we > have the better OS, why does everyone insist on using WinBlows?" > > Sorry it devolved into a rant, but I'm just about ready to chuck it all. And > before you dismiss me as some neophyte luser, I was developing on Unix > systems 20 years ago, although not in the past 10 years. I'm a professional > software developer, and am no slouch at solving problems when they come up. > After all this time, this stuff should not STILL be this hard. > My guess is that the above rant is going to generate quite a bit of flames, which will most likely only add to your frustration. Perhaps I can say some of what others will want to respond with, but in a nice way. The source is open and most of the time this means that contributions are accepted and appreciated by developers. So, if you were able to figure out how to use the man pages properly, but found the documentation lacking, you are welcome to submit an update. Not only will this help others in the future to avoid the frustration that you are having, but it should make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Now, there's plenty of people that don't like to hear that little rant either, and think it's some kind of cop-out. I've seen statements like this on lists recently. But just because I say it, does not mean that I disagree with you. Sometimes things with *nix are a bit cryptic, and the docs are lacking, and IMHO the reason for this is that there are just not enough people interested in making/updating docs. I'm guilty, I've contributed to a few packages in the past, but have I updated any of my contributions lately? No, usually I just don't have the time, or I've moved on to something else. One project that I worked on recently was PerfParse, where my only real contribution was the docs, and I did a damn fine job if I must say so myself. Unfortunately, my MySQL server died and it was not important enough to my company to get me a new one. So, I couldn't keep up with updated packages and therefore can't update the docs. Luckily some new folks stepped in, and it looks like the project is moving forward. I think another reason that docs are sometimes lacking is that a programmer builds something, and then makes the docs. But once you are familar with the way something works, it's hard to see it from a new user perspective, sometimes you don't know what's missing from the docs. The only remedy for this is for a new user to come in, start from the beginning and document as you go. But I think that users that can or will do this are hard to come by. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I feel your pain. I just started working with MythTV last week, and I love it so much that it pains me to hear people say "I'm ready to chuck it." However, I'm sure that anyone who won't contribute, but just gripes, won't be missed when they do chuck it. Hope none of this sounds too harsh. I'm really not trying to be, just wanted to show a different point of view. Good luck. Hope it all works out for you. Garry
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