Installation of MythTV (part three)

After the re-installation of FC6 and compiling/installing MythTV v. 0.20, I found there were three outstanding issues:

(1) MythTV had a tendency to crash while recording (and sometimes when watching live TV;

(2) I could not get video to display at a higher resolution than 320 X 240; and

(3) I could not get MythArchive to work.

I noted that Linux reported "Unsupported SiS chipset" on boot, and decided that #2 was probably the result of Linux not supported the on-board graphics chipset. I therefore took a chance on buying a new graphics card. Since my MythTV system has a PCI Express (X16) slot, I could have gone all-out and ordered a state-of-the-art video card like Nvidia's GeForce 8800. As it happened, I went with a more budget-priced option: Connect3D's ATI Radeon X300. I probably should have procured an Nvidia graphics card, but as it turns out, the Radeon X300 proved adequate. Here's the specs for this card:

ATI Radeon X300 graphics processor
128 MB DDR
VGA/DVI/TV Out output
Maximum 2D display mode: 2048 X 1536
Maximum 3D display mode: 2048 X 1536
64-bit memory interface
Four extreme parallel 3D rendering pixel pipelines
Two programmable vertex shader pipelines
Full DX9 support

Again, the X300 is essentially a budget-priced card, yet it's a good indication of recent technological advances. I paid about $50 (USD) for this card. I paid the same amount for a graphics card for a system I was putting together about 6 or 7 years ago whose motherboard didn't have an onboard graphics chip. I was able to get a PCI graphics card with 16 MB of memory. A few years before that, the same amount of money would have bought a card with maybe 4 MB of memory (just enough for a resolution of 1280 X 1024 in 24-bit true color mode).

Anyhow, once I installed the new graphics card, I was able to run MythTV at any resolution it supports (anywhere from 720 X 480 to 320 X 240, and anywhere in between). Problem #2 seemed to be solved. #1 and #3 will be discussed in a future posting.