[mythtv-users] So close I can taste it. Final issue before I get to leave you alone?

[tekchip]

REALLY!? COOL!!!!  Sorry, it's late here I'm getting a little
frustrated. Been hacking away on this myth thing for the past month
on and off and then today for the past 6 or 7 hours. I apologize. I
hope I'm providing complete enough information to allow some one to
stumble onto a possible fix. I'm about 2 hours from giving up. Sorry
again I dont mean to be rude. Still searching the list archive on
this end.   Later.


--- tekchip <tekchip at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Well being a pc technician A+ certified and all I have all the
> answers to your questions.
> 
> --- Ray Olszewski <ray at comarre.com> wrote:
> > 1. Why is the monitor switching resolutions? Switching to watch
> TV
> > should 
> > not (normally) cause *that* to happen.
> 
> The monitor resolution switch isn't due to switching to TV. It's
> due
> to the machine rebooting. I was simply attempting to give a full
> description of the event.
> 
> > 
> > 2. Can I assume you have checked obvious hardware issues like
> > making sure 
> > DMA is enabled on your hard drive? And, for that matter, that the
> > drive 
> > supports DMA (an 8 GB drive is an old drive, after all, almost
> > surely ... 
> > the smallest 3"-drice size I see advertised currently is 40 GB).
> 
> Yup it's all checked. It is a little bit older hard drive but it
> was
> 'top of the line' when it was purchased a couple of years ago.
> Here's
> all the specs
>
http://www.maxtor.com/en/documentation/manuals/dm2160_ultra_ata_manual.pdf.
> Not gonna be setting any speed records but then again it should
> need
> to. I dont have any sort of recording set at the same time. I'm
> simply trying to watch 'tv'. 
> 
> > 3. I don't know your motherboard so wouldn't know how to flame
> you
> > for 
> > using it. I will ask if your kernel is compiled with support for
> > the mobo's 
> > IDE chipset.
> 
> The motherboard is a super small VIA Mini-ITX motherboard, low
> power
> consumption. Not the perfect platform for this but as stated in a
> previous response(that you may have recieved after you sent your
> response) I'm mainly using it for a test platform and possibly for
> just a regular tuner on a non cable ready tv. Not planning to
> really
> use the 'tivo' functionality with this particular machine.
> 
> > 4. All that said, it sure sounds like a problem associated with
> the
> > 
> > increased load of simultaneously encoding and decoding. So ...
> >          A. How large is the "larger known good power supply"?
> How
> > large is 
> > the one you normally use?
> >          B. Might the CPU be overheating? Do you have a good
> > heatsink/fan 
> > combo on it?
> >          C. Do you know how much power the ATI vidcap card draws?
> > (I can't 
> > find this anywhere.) Might the combination of its activity and
> > heavy CPU 
> > load and heavy disk load overtax even a "known good" power
> supply?
> 
> I had given thought to the power supply issue thus mentioning the
> swap out earlier. I initially had a 90w power supply in the machine
> but soon found reboots were happening during compiles due to the
> increased power usage of a desktop style hdd and cdrom drive. I
> then
> went up to a 150W power supply. This stabalized the system during
> compiles and the system has run perfectly solid ever since. The
> 'known good' power supply I just swapped out the 150W for is a 350W
> power supply. Consider the cases made to fit this type of
> motherboard
> are designed for laptop cd/dvd drive's and 2.5" hard drives and
> come
> with 55W power supplies. A 350W should be far more than enough to
> power the current board and configuration.
> 
> CPU over heat shouldn't be an issue. The chips/coolers on Mini-ITX
> boards are meant to be used in cramped conditions so they are very
> low power/low heat. This particular systemboard/processor happens
> to
> have active cooling on it's processor unlike most of the other EPIA
> processors on other boards. I'm also running it in a case that has
> the cover removed.
> 
> Throw in the fact that all this is taking place at night in Iowa. I
> have a fan in my window blowing inwards and weather.com is telling
> me
> the current external temp is 56F. I'm fairly sure it's not a heat
> issue(I gotta go put on some socks it's cold in here). 
> 
> > 5. You say: "However the machine runs rock solid in absolutely
> > everything 
> > else." What does your definition of "everything" cover? Does the
> > system 
> > have no problems when doing kernel compiles and large ftp
> > transfers, for 
> > example (these are the best ways, aside from video processing, I
> > know of to 
> > tax hardware)?
> 
> I've run every compile necessary to setup Myth thus far with out an
> issue including XMLTV and Myth it's self. It's not an athlon to be
> sure so compiles run the processor near 100% constantly. I did run
> an
> ftp download of the RH9 disc 1 iso image from the wisc.edu mirror.
> This downloaded fine. I also played dreamcast on it via xawtv for
> about an hour this evening. I've also played a couple avi movies
> off
> my win box. All went with out issue. Throw in using it for a second
> internet browsing machine over the past month inbetween battles
> with
> Myth....
> 
> > 6. Can you capture video successfully using any non-Myth vidcap 
> > applications? (Examples are vcr/avifile, avicap, mencoder,
> ffmpeg.
> > Even 
> > xawtv has a primitive vidcap capability.)
> >
> 
> 
> > 7. Can you play back recorded or downloaded video using some
> other
> > app 
> > (xine is a good choice for this test) that uses the xVideo
> > extensions 
> > (xawtv does not use them)? Are you *certain* that your X driver
> has
> > xVideo 
> > enabled? (I'm still puzzling about that monitor resolution switch
> > you refer 
> > to.)
> 
> As mentioned before the monitor res switch isn't because of
> software
> it was just the computer rebooting. As for play back, yes I've
> played
> back multiple movies from my windows box on my linux box. Using
> gmplayer which had to be installed for myth any way.
> 
> > 8. For that matter, within MythTV, can you (a) record a show,
> then
> > (b) 
> > watch it? Does the problem *only* occur when simultaneously
> > encoding and 
> > decoding?
> 
> I'm just trying to watch a show when the reboot takes place. I'm
> not
> even attempting to record. 
> 
> > 9. Is there any chance that you are running out of RAM? This is a
> > long shot 
> > with any typical configuration ... 256 MB is usually plenty ...
> but
> > there 
> > is a lot we don't know about your setup, so I feel obliged to
> ask.
> > If, for 
> > example, you are using a large gbuffers setting -AND- this mobo
> > uses system 
> > RAM for video -AND- you are running a bunch of other stuff, it is
> > just 
> > barely conceivable that you have a problem with RAM size.
> 
> Well with the thought in mind of eventually trying to get this
> thing
> to power in a shorter period of time I've tried to minimize
> processor/ram usage of everything. I've got gnome smoothed down a
> bit.  I've disabled a couple of services that arn't absolutely
> needed
> like iptables(running a firewall at my internet connection, no need
> for one on the individual box), RHNSD(all ready ran all the
> updates),
> sendmail(i use yahoo mail). None of these that I'm aware of should
> effect the functionality of myth. I suppose I could be wrong but I
> dont think i am....
> 
> > 10. Do you have enough room on your hard drive for a capture
> > buffer? How 
> > big a capture buffer do you have specified? (I wouldn't normally
> > worry 
> > about this, but an 8 GB drive is unusually small for a Myth
> setup.)
> 
> Not capturing any thing but the buffer is set to 5gb currently
> which
> seems to be either the default or scripted to pic the max available
> space on the drive in whole gb.
> 
> > If you post again, tell us what Linux distro is involved, what
> > kernel (and 
> > whether stock or locally compiled), what "free" reports just
> before
> 
=== message truncated ===


=====
Brock Hatfield
tekchip at yahoo.com
do bee do bee do....beware the penguin

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