fglrx 8.42.3, X1650AGP XV/YUY

[stealth]

doesn't work here... tvtime still tells me that there is no hardware YUY2 overlay support :-(

xvinfo output is similar to the output posted by absbrain:

X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
  Adaptor #0: "ATI Radeon AVIVO Video"
    number of ports: 4
    port base: 131
    operations supported: PutImage 
    supported visuals:
      depth 24, visualID 0x23
      depth 24, visualID 0x24
      [...]
      depth 24, visualID 0x71
      depth 24, visualID 0x72
    number of attributes: 10
      "XV_SET_DEFAULTS" (range 0 to 1)
              client settable attribute
      "XV_DOUBLE_BUFFER" (range 0 to 1)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 1)
      "XV_BRIGHTNESS" (range -1000 to 1000)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 0)
      "XV_CONTRAST" (range -1000 to 1000)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 0)
      "XV_SATURATION" (range -1000 to 1000)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 0)
      "XV_COLOR" (range -1000 to 1000)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 0)
      "XV_HUE" (range -1000 to 1000)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 0)
      "XV_RED_INTENSITY" (range -1000 to 1000)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 0)
      "XV_GREEN_INTENSITY" (range -1000 to 1000)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 0)
      "XV_BLUE_INTENSITY" (range -1000 to 1000)
              client settable attribute
              client gettable attribute (current value is 0)
    maximum XvImage size: 4096 x 4096
    Number of image formats: 2
      id: 0x32315659 (YV12)
        guid: 59563132-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
        bits per pixel: 12
        number of planes: 3
        type: YUV (planar)
      id: 0x30323449 (I420)
        guid: 49343230-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
        bits per pixel: 12
        number of planes: 3
        type: YUV (planar)

[gorgorbay]

doesn't work here... tvtime still tells me that there is no hardware YUY2 overlay support :-(

The previous hack might be OK for a 9600, but when it comes to modern video cards, it's just plain NO support for tvtime. Period.

There is this page at ATI:

http://support.ati.com/ics/survey/survey.asp?deptID=894&surveyID=508&type=web

Where we can ask for improvements and feature requests.

Actually, ATI people would tell us that tvtime is oficially not supported, (for
recent video cards) so what we got to do is wait.

In order to be able to hope that this wait will be less than a year (which I
obviously doubt very seriously, but I'd be delighted to be proven wrong) we got
to ask ATI people to implement tvtime support.

So go and fill the form here:

http://support.ati.com/ics/survey/survey.asp?deptID=894&surveyID=508&type=web

there's even an option for tvtime support !

[Alistair]

my xvinfo is the same

ati X1650Pro, kernel 2.6.23 ati's fglrx 8.42.3

mplayer still works - and is using the YV12 display

[Ower]

same problem over here with debian (unstable, but with old xorg 1.3), amd64 and a radeon hd 2600 pro.

tvtime works with my old x600 card and the 8.40 fglrx drivers.

at the moment i use mplayer ("mplayer tv:// on:driver=v4l -vo xv") to watch tv via dvb-s and vdr, but the quality is really very ugly.

so a working solution on this would be very helpful...

i also have this problem with my hd2600xt, so I use -vo x11 with mplayer and have a fine quality

[el_pombo]

I also have the same problem with YUY2 support in TvTime and video flickering with xv overlay. The flickering goes away when visual effects are disabled in the menu, so I have to do this every time I want to watch a video in windowed mode. To watch Tv with my analog capture card, I use "zapping" available in repositories when using Ubuntu. The package for Gutsy in the repositories is apparently broken, so I had to download an updated version from:

http://pascale.lusseau.free.fr/zapping_0.10cvs6-1_i386.deb

http://pascale.lusseau.free.fr/zapping_0.10cvs6-1_amd64.deb

(use the corresponding address according to your architecture).

The problem with flickering remains, but at least I can watch Tv and switch channels easily.

[nihil-00]

From tvtime to mplayer

hello to everybody.
I would like to tell you about my experience with tvtime, which is currently broken for us ATI card owners.
Actually, I tried different alternatives, from VLC to mplayer, and at last zapping (and kdetv) (which is great software, but does work for me only using x11 overlay, not xv).
While zapping seems to be the best tv software here for gnome users (kdetv is analogous for kde users), and is quite ok for everyday users (just use --no-xv option at startup), it might give you problems in case it doesn't work with xv and you are forced to use x11, since this overlay method isn't exactly accelerated, and fullscreen zooming and also simple resizing isn't quite good, also image quality could be compromised), I found mplayer to be the right alternative for advanced users of for people that want an alternative similiar to tvtime in terms of image quality.
VLC is a great software, but the only way of saving channels is trough an m3u playlist, which is not ideal, and the only way of specifying channels is using frequencies, which is tedious (if you know you channel name but not the frequency, use the table found in tvtime sources).
Still, mplayer offers you the possibility of saving a channel list in its config file, a fine control over overlay methods and filters, automatic channel switching from the interface and a tv-scanner.
Also, with mplayer you can use the xv mode (even with flickering if you have compiz enabled, but sticking to fullscreen solves the problem if you set the right parameter in CompizConfig Settings Manager->General Options->Unredirect Fullscreen Windows), or the x11 mode, even windowed or fullscreen (using the -vm switch for optimized results, which changes your monitor resolution instead of scaling the window).
I copy my mplayer configuration file to show you an example of a working config:

vo=xv #use x11 if you can't stand flickering
#vo=x11 #use -vm at the command line for fullscreen
tv=driver=v4l2:chanlist=italy:outfmt=i420:width=640:height=480:norm=PAL:device=/dev/video1:channels=D-RAIUNO,27-RAIDUE
#here i use a v4l2 driver but you might want v4l
#you also can avoid specifying width and height
#norm is important
#chanlist is important for scanning
#use correct setting of chanlist, between:
#us-bcast,us-cable,us-cable-hrc,argentina,
#japan-bcast,japan-cable,
#europe-west,europe-east,italy,ireland,france
#newzealand,australia,china-bcast,southafrica,russia
#
#then use the H and K keys in mplayer to switch
#unless you find a good frequency
#then add them in the format shown above
#(that is channels=freq1-name_1,freq2-name_2)
#you can specify the frequency in khz, but I suggest
#you to use the channel name, and to specify always
#the correct chanlist, so mplayer can change the name
#(ex. 22,S5,D,H1,46) to its frequency for your zone
#EOF

As you might see, I made you use a quite spartan way of scanning for channels, but mplayer has an automatic scanning option, still I don't use it cause I find the manual way to be the best in many cases.
you might want to use a deinterlacing method, but I won't cover it here, or you might want to configure mplayer for teletext, but I recomend using alevt which is found on ubuntu repos and is quite good...
Have fun watching tv on your linux box!

Alessio