Overview

As of R5C7, the setup of TV-out is automatic, offered on install/upgrade (at least for NTSC?). If you see a blank screen, there may be problems with fb0/fb1 in XF86Config-4 (see point 5 below), and points 9-10 have useful information for setting up sound. Finally, the lilo.conf troubleshooting note at the end may be useful. Apart from that, you may not have to use any info from this guide. The auto-installation is based on the getpvr.pl script discussed here (registration required).

If you are having a problem getting it to work automatically after first boot under R5D1 see here (registration required). You need to reinstall ivtv and some other stuff. On the sixth page, half way down dvanced posted a solution that doesn't require reinstalling anything.

The remainder of this guide explains how to configure KnoppMyth R5A22 thru R5B7 to work with the Hauppauge PVR-350 card to enable TV out, but it remains here because it provides useful troubleshooting pointers. It's not a difficult process, involving a few commands and edits of files. For previous Knoppmyth versions, it was more complex. If you have a problem, it could be that these instructions have been oversimplified, so check here are the previous instructions relating to R4V4.1. Please update this document with your findings. This information came from a forum post, and is for NTSC configs. If someone knows the PAL variances, please add them to this document. Another user's experiences are available here.

Pre-installation

You will need a conventional graphics output and a monitor to perform the basic Knoppmyth install and to configure the output to the TV. Or you can use ssh to login from a second computer to make these changes.

Installation

su to root and perform the following actions:

1) Edit /etc/mythtv/modules/ivtv

If these entries are not already included, append to the install ivtv line:

; /sbin/modprobe ivtv-fb; /sbin/modprobe lirc_i2c

and append to the remove ivtv line:

&& /sbin/modprobe -r ivtv-fb && /sbin/modprobe -r lirc_i2c

2) Download the xwindows ivtv driver from the internet

cd /tmp 
wget http://dl.ivtvdriver.org/xdriver/0.10.6/ivtvdev_drv.o.bz2

Please note that there is an underscore between ivtvdev and drv.o.bz2 in the filename above -- it doesn't show very well in an underlined link.

3) Unzip the driver you just downloaded

 bunzip2 ivtvdev_drv.o.bz2 

4) Install the driver you just downloaded

install -m 0444 ./ivtvdev_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/

5) Modify the XF86Config-4 file

This will switch the display from the monitor to the TV. If you do it as follows, it's relatively easy to switch between monitor and TV output by altering the link. If you don't understand what this means, don't worry and just follow the directions: First, copy the current monitor output config

cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.monitor

then, make a copy of the sample pvr350 tvout config:

cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.pvr350-tvout.sample /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.pvr350

Determine the BusId of your pvr350:

lspci | grep MPEG

e.g. this gives me:

0000:01:0a.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC15 MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

indicating my BusId is 01:0a.0 - your number will be different. This number will be in hex, which you may find easier to convert to decimal for the config file

Make the following edits to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.pvr350

root@celestial:~# diff /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.pvr350-tvout.sample /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.pvr350

4c4 
< InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" 
--- 
> InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer" 
110c110 
< Driver "fbdev" 
--- 
> Driver "ivtvdev" 
112,113c112,113 
< Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb1" 
--- 
> Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb0" 
> Option "ivtvdev" "/dev/fb0" 
117c117 
< BusID "0:0x08:0" 
--- 
> BusID "PCI:01:10:0" 

(this diff output shows us the difference between the two files - with what's in the first file preceeded by "< " and what's in the second, "> ". Numbers are line numbers) Note: Your framebuffer may not be fb0. You should be able to discover what it is by perusing /var/log/messages for a line that looks like:

 mythtv kernel: ivtv-osd: fb0: iTVC15 TV out frame buffer device

Scroll through it (and press "q" to quit) using:

 less /var/log/messages

or grep it with:

 grep "TV out" /var/log/messages

Finally, remove the old XF86Config-4 and link in the PVR 350 config.

 rm /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 
 ln -s /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.pvr350 /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

6) Reboot.

The TV out display should now work. The monitor output will no longer work. If you need to revert to the monitor, you can connect with ssh and then link to the monitor config file:

rm /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
ln -s /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.monitor /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

7) Center the display

In mythfrontend (setup -> appearance) change the GUI settings to center the display on your television. X and Y offsets are from the top left.

Width: 624
Height: 440
X Offset: 41
Y Offset: 24
NOTE: These settings may be different on your television. If your television has a lot of overscan you may not be able to see or use all the Myth settings on the television. In that case, switch back to displaying Myth on the monitor, make the changes, and then switch back.

8) Enable hardware playback

At this time we are still not using the power of the PVR-350 on playback. To do this, you need to setup MythTV (setup -> TV -> playback) with the following option: Use pvr-350 hardware

9) Set up sound

either 10A or 10B below

10A) PVR-350 audio out -> sound card line in

(NOTE: the setup below will work for virtually all sound cards. However, if you are using SPDIF output, it will only work for a select few sound cards, which support hardware mixing on board. For example, an sis7012 does not seem to be one of these beasts, whereas a Chaintech Av-710 does. It would be handy if a list of hardware capable analog->spdif cards were listed here...) Now its time to setup the sound. Since we are using the PVR-350 we'll need to connect its audio output into the line-in of the sound card. Connect your soundcards line out or headphone output into your television or amplifier. Use the program aumix to adjust the mixer. Use "S" to save your settings. You may want to select the option: Volume control: "master"
(instead of PCM)

10B) Direct from the PVR350

An alternative way to set up sound is to connect the PVR-350's audio output directly to the TV's audio input. This is simpler, but now sounds will come out of two outputs: Mythtv recordings will come from the PVR350, and other sounds (e.g. music and DVDs) will come out of your soundcard.

What Next?

Get that remote control working! Even though this thread claims to be for the 150, it worked for the silver remote that came with my 350 too (5A26). Use lirc 0.7.2 or later because it already includes the patch. You still need to download and use lircd_pvr150.conf file though and change either it or ~mythtv/.mythtv/lircrc so the symbols match. Many have been able to get the silver remote working by selecting the Hauppauge grey remote in the lirc config script. You still need to download and use lircd_pvr150.conf file though and change either it or ~mythtv/.mythtv/lircrc so the symbols match. You may want to have your computer syncronize its time. See TimeSynchronizeHowTo.

Links

IVTV faq

Troubleshooting

Often there are useful error messages in /var/log/XFree86.0.log, and/or in /var/log/messages.

lilo configuration

This is what FINALLY fixed it for me:

set vga=normal in /etc/lilo.conf and ran lilo -v. Reboot

Of course, a search of the forums can be very useful. Please incorporate any generically useful information into this document.