it works!
I just want to say this works now. I can finally record how I play on this thing, which just refused to work before. I installed the newest firmware and tried it again. But since April (we have December now) a lot of things changed since then. If the above posting is a bit confusing, here is a brief explanation. I just have to switch a single HDMI output to be able to record.

The PVR Rocket is a portable device to record from any HDMI source up to 1080p30 or 720p60 to a usb drive. I usually use my RetroPie system with my old crt pc monitor at 640x480p. It is connected with a HDMI to VGA converter and all boot and emulator settings are optimized for that. The recordings are saved at 640x480p at 60 fps.

Recording: The HDMI output from Raspberry Pi is connected to the input at PVR Rocket. Then the PVR Rocket have also an 0 delay pass through HDMI output, which is connected to my final monitor. A single button press starts the recording and a second press stops it whenever I want. Playing without recording: The HDMI output from Raspberry Pi is connected to a VGA splitter. That VGA output is connected to my final crt pc monitor. To get sound, the VGA splitter will output 3,5mm audio jack.

mysetup.jpg

@sli4 It looks like the tvservice program arguments are not correct or an update to it changed them. You'll have to find the line where the program is called and make sure it uses the correct parameters. Run that command from your terminal to check that you get no error.

@bense2k Yes, no worries. I've been trying to use the HDMI with no screen connected.

Here are some handy links found

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25933 https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/46153/detect-hdmi-and-start-gui/46158#46158 (the guide from the Raspberry Pi site) https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/video.md

You can start playing with the command and see if you can switch manually between resolutions, on the fly. If this works, then you can incorporate it in a script to be run at boot.

If you turn on the cec function on your pi and put on Anynet+ (on Samsung tv's) with auto power on, you can see if the TV turns on when you power your pi.

@edmaul69 so this is how the config.txt reads now... # for more options and information see# http://rpf.io/configtxt# some settings may impact device functionality. See link above for details# uncomment if you get no picture on hdmi for a def drive=2# uncomment to increase signal to hdmi, if you have interference, blanking, orno displayconfig_hdmi_boost=4# uncomment for composite PAL#sdtv_mode=2#uncomment to overclock the arm. 7

@Salaman64 thank you, the solution you posted worked for my samsung monitor with no HDMI input.

@movisman good to hear you're going to go back to it!

In the end the e35 wasn't powerful enough and required legacy AMD drivers. I ended up with an ASRock AIO board rocking an Intel J3160 and it is flying.

After a huge amount of experimentation Linux Mint XCFE was my final distro. Light enough to keep performance high and startup times low but feature-full enough that I can back out of ES and use it for other things should the mood take me.

My RPi3 kinda got abandoned in the end due to hitting SD card limits or poor performance in PSX and 64 games so with this x86 install giving me that extra oomph, I'm fully invested again!

@mitu
Alright sounds good to me i'll do that then.

Thanks

@tostati you can still set Kodi to 1080p btw whilst using 720p for everything else. Kodi on RetroPie restores the previous video mode on exit. I use 720p but boot to Kodi which switches to 1080p. Then I exit to es, and have 720p again.

fixed switching hdmi group and mode to one i wrote in original post.

@retro_pi if you read my post it’s in there. If you have specific questions I will be happy to answer them.

Sorry for the lengthy delay in replying...
IRL got in the way :-)

OK so it's definitely only the navigation sounds missing. I've tried several themes and none seem to have sound.

I'm guessing they must not be supported in Ubuntu as i don't seem to have them in the Sound Settings menu item.

Oh well :-)

Then I pass the knowledge on, so that my legacy may continue.

@batman I was looking into some LCDs too and I added most of those to my wish list while I was laying in bed the other night lol. But I discovered those 2k monitors and the capacitive touch monitors when I was making this post. Really good looking LCDs!

Ok guys, I have just redone the SD card and it's working perfect - as far as I can see the config file is identical to what I had it as. I have no idea what happened there but to be honest, its now working and the kids are happy so all is well.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.

Thanks for the reply.

I did notice something else. Before I flash the image file to the SD card, the format of the SD card is in fact FAT32. After the image is written, it is FAT (not 32). Could this be an issue?

@Sano Yes it does use tvservice at the backend. I wanted a c++ implementation rather than running another instance of python.

When I use it on my 16.04.2 LTS with my laptop I go to the Display setting and turn the laptop display off.