[mythtv] firewire tester

[Jim Westfall]

John P Poet <jppoet at gmail.com> wrote [09.13.06]:
> On 9/13/06, Andrew Casper <andrew at andrewcasper.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Sep 13, 2006, at 8:21 PM, Jim Westfall wrote:
> >
> >
> > it should be ok to run while backend is running, so long as its not
> >
> > recording with the node you are testing.
> >
> > Thanks John - that pointed me in the right direction. Unfortunately it
> > didn't fix my issue.
> >
> > Since you seem to be the firewire guru, I have a issue that you might be
> > able to solve...
> >
> > I've got a DCT-6200 and 14 HD channels on my plan. MythTV has no trouble
> > tuning 10 channels. The other 4 are on a special HD package from my provider
> > and are a little problematic. Before .20, if MythTV could lock to the
> > broadcast stream on one of the 4, I would get about a minute of broken up
> > picture before the backend would just stop. At the same time, the backend
> > log would fill with TS packet out of sync errors. Now with .20, I see
> > FireRec, Error: TS packet out of sync but the backend doesn't crash. CPU
> > usage is not an issue
> >
> > I checked the service menus on the DCT-6200 and none of the channels has 5c.
> > MythTV seems to like broadcast mode at 200 Mbs.
> >
> > I tried to recompile the kernel (2.6.17-2174) with your dma.diff firewire
> > fix (hand edited it as the diff doesn't like the current kernel), but the
> > compile kicked and error when it got your last change (too many variables?).
> >
> > So, would the firewire kernel fix help this? Any other words of wisdom?
> >
> > Thanks in advance.
> >
> > - Andrew
> 
> I had very similar problems at one time.  Turned out to have something
> to do with my on-board 1394a port.  Switched to a cheap PCI addon
> firewire card, and the problem went away.
> 

Yeah, I would suggest this as well and make sure you have a decent 
firewire cable.  

The kernel patch wont help, it just reduces the kernel cpu usage when 
using the firewire.  It will be in 2.6.18.

jim