[Kwintv] Snapshots (no, not those kind...)

Wed Mar 10 11:29:25 CET 2004

On Wednesday 10 March 2004 02:09, George Staikos wrote:
> On Tuesday 09 March 2004 18:19, Andras Mantia wrote:
> > George Staikos wrote:
> > > stability.  The big question is, does everyone agree that we should
> > > change the executable name and strings in CVS to KWinTV now?
> >
> > Depending who counts from the "everyone". :-)
>
>   You're welcome to provide feedback of course.  Everyone is.
Ok, here we go:)

The first thing is, that I have no idea which input device I should choose. I 
get:

bttv video Video4Linux(/dev/video) (same for /dev/video0)
video4linux XVideo port 139
NVIDIA Video Interface Port - XVideo port 173

Is there any difference between these? Especially as the first seems to use xv 
as well. At least last time I checked (I don't gat that far at the moment, 
see below).

Another thing, a minor one, is that I get the Channel Wizard even though I 
chose to convert my old kwintv config.

And then it crashes when selecting a channel:

[New Thread 16384 (LWP 6743)]
[New Thread 32769 (LWP 6773)]
[New Thread 16386 (LWP 6774)]
0x40fa1bdb in waitpid () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#0  0x40fa1bdb in waitpid () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#1  0x40ddec58 in __JCR_LIST__ () from /opt/kde3-CVS/lib/libkdecore.so.4
#2  0x40fa07f5 in __pthread_sighandler () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#3  0x41af8498 in __libc_sigaction () from /lib/libc.so.6
#4  0x412537d5 in QGuardedPtrPrivate::reconnect(QObject*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#5  0x4006ce59 in QGuardedPtr<Channel>::operator=(Channel*) (this=0x81193a4, 
    o=0x81e6408) at qguardedptr.h:95
#6  0x4006a109 in QtVision::setChannel(Channel*) (this=0x8119378, 
    channel=0x81e6408) at qtvision.cpp:417
#7  0x4006c1a1 in QtVision::qt_invoke(int, QUObject*) (this=0x8119378, _id=7, 
    _o=0xbfffe560) at qtvision.moc:300
#8  0x41288bec in QObject::activate_signal(QConnectionList*, QUObject*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#9  0x40082690 in ChannelEditor::channelSelected(Channel*) (this=0x82070e8, 
    t0=0x81e6408) at channeleditor.moc:232
#10 0x40083bbc in ChannelEditor::requestChange(QListViewItem*) (
    this=0x82070e8, item=0x817b630) at channeleditor.cpp:158
#11 0x40082837 in ChannelEditor::qt_invoke(int, QUObject*) (this=0x82070e8, 
    _id=110, _o=0xbfffe670) at channeleditor.moc:243
#12 0x41288bec in QObject::activate_signal(QConnectionList*, QUObject*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#13 0x415c4a19 in QListView::selectionChanged(QListViewItem*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#14 0x41369c62 in QListView::setCurrentItem(QListViewItem*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#15 0x41365e00 in QListView::contentsMousePressEventEx(QMouseEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#16 0x41365a66 in QListView::contentsMousePressEvent(QMouseEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#17 0x40a70d8b in KListView::contentsMousePressEvent(QMouseEvent*) ()
   from /opt/kde3-CVS/lib/libkdeui.so.4
#18 0x4139618c in QScrollView::viewportMousePressEvent(QMouseEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#19 0x41395b35 in QScrollView::eventFilter(QObject*, QEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#20 0x41365568 in QListView::eventFilter(QObject*, QEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#21 0x412865c6 in QObject::activate_filters(QEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#22 0x412864f5 in QObject::event(QEvent*) () from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#23 0x412bd65f in QWidget::event(QEvent*) () from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#24 0x4122e99c in QApplication::internalNotify(QObject*, QEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#25 0x4122e0dd in QApplication::notify(QObject*, QEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#26 0x40c9014c in KApplication::notify(QObject*, QEvent*) ()
   from /opt/kde3-CVS/lib/libkdecore.so.4
#27 0x411c6ef6 in QETWidget::translateMouseEvent(_XEvent const*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#28 0x411c4b6d in QApplication::x11ProcessEvent(_XEvent*) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#29 0x411dbb17 in QEventLoop::processEvents(unsigned) ()
   from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#30 0x412405f8 in QEventLoop::enterLoop() () from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#31 0x412404a8 in QEventLoop::exec() () from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#32 0x4122ebd1 in QApplication::exec() () from /opt/qt3/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#33 0x080581da in main (argc=1, argv=0xbffff7c4) at main.cpp:52

> > 1. When using v4l plugin with overlay, the maximum size of the picture is
> > fixed (according to Dirk, it depends on the chipset you have), and there
> > is no option to change the resolution when going fullscreen. This means
> > that on a 1024x768 desktop I get a quite small image. Due to the extreme
> > CPU usage and frame skipping when not running in overlay mode and the bad
> > picture quality with my card (which may be common - Geforce2MX400) in
> > XVideo mode, this would be the best solution to watch TV fullscreen.
> > [KWinTV 0.8.x had this feature]
>
>    Overlay is hardly a critical feature anymore.  CPUs are powerful and the
> ideal output moe will become grab+display with deinterlacing in the future
> anyway.  It sucks for people who don't have the hardware for it, but
> eventually they will and it's more important to be prepared for that case
> first IMHO.
>

(Note: All I say below is based on my last impression of qtvision)

I disagree. In fact its the only reason why qtvision isn't really usable for 
me at the moment.

Many people I know have older hardware. They actually don't need better 
hardware for mostly writing texts or using the internet(even though Intel 
disagrees on that;). People are hardly upgrading their hardware just in order 
to watch TV. And that doesn't only concern slower machines. Even I, though 
having a sufficently fast machine, couldn't use anything but overlay just 
until recently, simply because my graphics card was not capable of it. Even 
if it is, think of recent onboard graphic chipsets. Their drivers might just 
not support what the chip is capable of.

And the other thing is, overlay+vidmod switching is AFAICS the only way at the 
moment to get a sharp, smooth, fullscreen video stream(besides tvtime, which 
just has a horrible user interface). At last last time I checked qtvision. 
Thats the reason why I still use kwintv. The XV image has a bad image 
quality, probably due to the used deintelacing. Getting that right is 
probably not that easy. The only app that generates sufficently good results 
is dcsaler or tvtime, respectivly. Even there the image sometimes looks a bit 
coarse to me. The other problem is that the image stream is kinda jerky. 
There is no smooth stream. You can see it especially in fast scenes or 
banners, like at newschannels. Qtvision probably would have to use realtime 
priority, like tvtime does. 

Just some feedback. Now you can kill me if you like;)

Greets

Michael