Intro
-----

Important: never use this program on a PC which is not a
MediaPortal, otherwise it may damage your hardware!
A MediaPortal is a SetTopBox with a DVB-s or DVB-c card
and a DVD drive which enables you to watch digital TV
or DVDs/CDs, etc.

For more information about the MediaPortal, visit the site
http://www.helmutauer.de/mp/


Purpose
-------

The purpose of mp-switch-video is to switch the first scart
output of a MediaPortal (the output marked with "TV") from
the normal VGA-output to the output of the DVB-s or DVB-c card.
This gives you a high quality TV signal which is much better
than viewing TV via the VGA card.

This programm is useless, when you don't have a MediaPortal.


How does it work?
-----------------

It toggles your PC-Speaker output from static low to static high,
that means the speaker output is used like a switch.

This may damage your hardware, if a speaker is connected to you
speaker output, because the speaker and the speaker output are not
designed for a static current. A MediaPortal has no speaker, so
this is normally not a problem.


Why does the MediaPortal sometimes automatically switch back to VGA out?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will happen, when an application outputs a flash (^G) on a virtual console
which causes a system beep on the speaker. To disable the system beep,
you have to patch your kernel. A kernel patch that will do the job,
is included in this package, see INSTALL how to apply it.

To apply the patch to your kernel, cd to your
kernel source directory (probably /usr/src/linux) and call patch:

patch -p0 < /where/you/put/the/file/kernel-patch-no-speaker.diff


If for any reason you decide you need to, contact me: 
nospam2000@gmx.de

For installation instructions, see INSTALL.
For copying and (non-)warranty information, see COPYING.
For credits, see CREDITS.

You must be superuser (root) to run this program, because it directly
accesses the hardware (specifically the ports 0x80, 0x42, 0x43 and 0x61).

All files copyright (C) Michael Dreher, 2002.
All files distributed under the GNU general public license.

