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Chris Brennan <xaero@××××××××××.net> posted |
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47B66180.3000001@××××××××××.net, excerpted below, on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 |
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23:07:28 -0500: |
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> xawtv gives me a window and when I right click, I can choose what format |
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> and region and all that jazz, but I get no picture. |
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> |
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> tvtime produces the following error: |
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|
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[reformatted] |
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> *** tvtime requires hardware YUY2 overlay support from your |
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> video card driver. [...] If unsure, please check with your |
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> distribution to see if your *** X driver supports |
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> hardware overlay surfaces. |
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|
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I don't touch proprietaryware so talk to someone else about that or try |
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the newest free drivers, which are supposed to support the R3xx series |
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chips including 3D. |
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|
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However, I can say this based on video behavior in general (and it worked |
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the same on MSWormOS 98, with Nvidia hardware when I first switched to |
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Linux, and now with the Radeon R200 series stuff I'm running now as it |
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was the newest with freedomare 3D support for awhile, so this would |
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appear to be platform independent)... |
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|
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When the overlay is working properly, particularly when there's nothing |
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playing, it should be quite apparent it's not a standard window. The |
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overlay will normally be blue-screen (tho I've rarely seen pink or orange |
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or red, but always solid color), and doesn't obey normal window rules (no |
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transparency, often no resizing, etc), as it's an "overlay". |
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|
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Overlays are definitely a feature of the hardware. Most video cards will |
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have it, but some won't have the functionality exposed in the drivers. |
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If you don't have it, anything that must use it, no other choice, will be |
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broken on your system. |
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|
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Fortunately, while it tends to be the lowest CPU most efficient method of |
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playing video, most software video players and the like have other |
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choices as well. The overlay option is Xv, but most software can use one |
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or more of standard surface mapping, OpenGL, xshm (generally more |
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efficient than standard surface mapping, less than Xv), or SDL video |
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rendering. (Of course SDL can in turn use OpenGL and a couple others.) |
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|
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Unfortunately, a lot (perhaps most?) TV capture hardware must use the |
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overlay, no other choice for it. That's reasonable as it's definitely |
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most efficient and least complicated for the hardware to access, but if |
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your video hardware or drivers don't support it, your SOL. |
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|
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So what I'd suggest is confirming that your video hardware and drivers |
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support it, then trying with something like kaffeine or kmplayer (the |
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video players I use). If you can get the overlay working there, then you |
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at least know it's working before you try to get the TV capture hardware |
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going. |
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|
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As for your video drivers, as I said, the R3xx chip family is supposed to |
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be supported with the newest open drivers, but I don't believe the 3D at |
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least is fully stable, yet. Hmm... just checked, they've updated, it now |
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says "quite stable", but that's still not just "stable". This is with |
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pre-release xf86-video-ati (Gentoo package name) 6.7.19x (upstream |
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version) with Mesa 7.0.x. |
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|
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Gentoo's packages, mesa-7.0.2 is ~arch (and I have it merged here), xf86- |
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video-ati-6.7.197 is ~arch but hard-masked: |
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|
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# Joshua Baergen <joshuabaergen@g.o> (27 Mar 2007) |
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# Release candidate ATI driver |
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So you can try unmasking it and see how it goes if you want. As I said, |
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upstream calls it "quite stable" now, so it should work, tho there'll be |
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further changes as it continues to develop and fully stabilize. |
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|
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Some Radeon links from the x.org and dri.freedesktop.org wikis. The |
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first links the second but the link tends to get lost on the page, so I |
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put it here, too. The second is a portal page, with a bunch of links to |
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other resources, some of which look quite encouraging. |
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http://www.x.org/wiki/radeon?highlight=%28radeon%29 |
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http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/R300_Portal |
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I'm /guessing/ that with the free drivers, you'll have overlay support |
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without much problem. If not, at least with them you'll be able to get |
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community support, something that's not so easy to get (or give) when the |
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driver's a not so well supported black-box. Of course, you can check the |
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documentation and/or ask and see. (As I said, I don't do proprietary, but |
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if I were to do so, I'd certainly do NVidia, as at least they have decent |
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Linux support even if it is proprietary. ATI Linux support of their |
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closed drivers has always been patchy at best, and of course the |
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community can't support them as they are closed. At least ATI's working |
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with the community on open drivers now as you're probably aware, but it's |
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going to be a good year before stable drivers come out of that project.) |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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|
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-- |
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