[mythtv-users] Live TV ("Waited 2 seconds...") freeze does not occur when using mpeg4

[Tony Maro]

Tony Maro wrote:

> bobnvic at everestkc.net wrote:
>
>> Alan Snyder wrote:
>>  
>> I didn't believe this could possibly be true, but I did
>> it last night and it went all night and all day today on
>> Live TV, 30 seconds behind, without any problem.
>> Previously, it would get hung with the "waited 2 seconds.."
>> issue within 2-3 hours at most.
>>
>> I would think that this would indicate that the problem is at least 
>> partially within MythTV and not just a driver or
>> other externel issue.  Are there any buffering adjustments
>> we can make that may help those of us with this problem?
>>  
>>
> Well I did two things... I just posted one of them, and had forgotten 
> that I did the other.  I've eliminated the crashes so far (4 hours now.)
>
> #1) Downloaded, compiled and installed MythTV from CVS.  I did _not_ 
> compile and install the extra modules yet, they're still running from 
> the previously installed 0.13 release.
>
> #2) Set hdparm to turn off acoustic mode on the hard drive to gain 
> extra drive performance.  I read somewhere that Maxtor's can have 
> issues with acoustic turned on.
>
> as root: "hdparm -M 254 /dev/hda"
>
> Downside is that the hard drive can be noisy on reads, but mines in a 
> closed cabinet below the TV, so I don't hear it anyway.
>
> I'm really not sure which stopped my crashes, because I did both at 
> the same time.  Also, it's only been 4 hours and there's been no 
> transcoding, so who knows if it's really stopped. 


Well, It still freezes within 3-5 minutes of starting a background 
transcode.  I can reproduce it _every_time.  I've also added a second 6 
GB hard drive that only has the buffer

I also crashed the frontend by pausing live TV and then fast forwarding 
back up to current time  - when I did, the frontend started using 100% 
cpu and froze.  After that, the backend wouldn't respond to a web status 
request either and both backend and frontend had to be killed and restarted.

Does ANYONE actually have this working on a PC using  (not an XBox) 
using software transcoders without having freeze problems?  What 
hardware / distro do you use?

-Tony