[mythtv-users] Unable to get video playback in MythTV

Jason Slaughter jason at slaughter.com
Mon Oct 18 18:47:43 UTC 2004


Have you had any luck with your problem? I've managed to switch Myth 
over to ALSA (by setting the "Audio output device" to "ALSA:default"), 
but I'm still not getting any sound (or video) in "Watch TV." Does 
anybody know where I should look next?

Here is the output to mythfrontend when I select "Watch TV" :

2004-10-18 14:37:26 Connecting to backend server: 127.0.0.1:6543 (try 1 
of 5)
2004-10-18 14:37:26 Using protocol version 13
2004-10-18 14:37:26 Using protocol version 13
2004-10-18 14:37:26 Using protocol version 13
2004-10-18 14:37:28 Opening ALSA audio device 'default'.
2004-10-18 14:37:28 Audio: fragment_size=4096, bytes_per_sample=4
2004-10-18 14:37:28 Using XV port 53
2004-10-18 14:37:29 Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
2004-10-18 14:37:29 Not in the running state, state=2
2004-10-18 14:37:29 Not in the running state, state=2
2004-10-18 14:37:29 Not in the running state, state=2
2004-10-18 14:37:29 Not in the running state, state=2
2004-10-18 14:37:30 Using realtime priority.
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=4095 
need=4096
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=0 
need=4096
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=0 
need=4096
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=0 
need=4096
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=0 
need=4096
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=0 
need=4096
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=0 
need=4096
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=0 
need=4096
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=0 
need=4096


To me this looks suspicious:
2004-10-18 14:37:32 Audio buffer overflow, audio datalost! afree=4095 
need=4096

Does anybody know where these "4095" and "4096" numbers are set? It 
could be as simple as a too-small ALSA buffer. Any ideas?


On 12-Oct-04, at 9:31 PM, Brian Matthew Sperlongano wrote:

> Hi Yan,
>
> Point taken on the RAM.  I'll plan on getting some more to throw in
> there for responsiveness.  The capture card is an on-board deal (it's
> an Asus digimatrix set-top box form-factor PC, so a lot of stuff is
> based on "built-on-the-motherboard" sort of chipsets).  The capture
> card uses the saa7133/saa7134 module.  It runs both mythfrontend and
> mythbackend.
>
> Alsasound start looks good:
>
> [root at localhost root]# service alsasound start
> ALSA driver is already running.
>
> I had followed the instructions over at alsa-project, and made a
> simple ~/.asoundrc.  Didn't say anything about /etc/asound.conf, so I
> just now copied the .asoundrc to /etc/asound.conf
>
> I installed mythv from rpm using apt-get from ATrpms.net.  Do I need
> to compile from source to get it working properly?  Should I get the
> CVS copy?
>
> I just ran dmesg -c, rebooted, and tried to play live TV.  Attached is
> the output of the 3 commands listed.  There's a line with an ALSA
> error in dmesg, maybe that's part of the problem?  Of course, I still
> get perfect audio from tvtime, so I'm not sure what the deal would be
> with that.
>
> On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 17:15:00 -0700, Yan-Fa Li <yanfali at best.com> wrote:
>> Hi Brian,
>>
>> a few more questions.  So if I understand this right you have a 2.4
>> Celeron running Mythfrontend and Mythbackend, using what to capture ?
>> A PVR 250 or some other capture card.  I just realized we have no idea
>> what you're using or doing :D  BTW, 256MB is a bit low for running X, 
>> I
>> know it's embarrasing.  You might want to upgrade to 512 to get a
>> slightly more responsive system.
>>
>> You said in your previous mail you are using tvtime with no problems.
>> Did you compile mythtv with ALSA support ?  You have to uncomment it 
>> in
>> the settings.pro file.  Then you have to go to the settings, I think
>> it's under general and point your audio from /dev/dsp to ALSA:default
>>
>> Don't forget to create the alsa device files and a simple
>> /etc/asound.conf file.  You can find instructions on how to do that on
>> the alsa-project.org website under the card database for snd-intel8x0
>>
>> If you are running redhat you can start alsa automagically using:
>>
>> chkconfig --add alsasound on
>> service alsasound start
>>
>> Also really dumb question.  What exactly is your source of video ?
>> PVR250 ?  Can you dump the following:
>>
>> cat /proc/interrupts > /tmp/hardware_log
>> lspci -v >> /tmp/hardware_log
>> dmesg >> /tmp/hardware_log
>>
>> and attach that to a mail to the list so we can see what your system
>> thinks it's doing :D
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Yan
>>
>> Brian Matthew Sperlongano wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Yan,
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Yes, I'm using an intel8x0 card.  I'm running kernel 2.6.7 (had to do
>>> that to get my wireless card to work).  I just compiled and installed
>>> all the latest alsa drivers, and the message that I'm getting now 
>>> from
>>> mythtv when trying to watch live TV is:
>>>
>>>  2004-10-12 19:37:15 taking too long to be allowed to read.. 
>>> (repeated
>>> several times)
>>>
>>> followed by
>>>
>>> 2004-10-12 19:37:17 Waited 2 seconds for data to become available,
>>> waiting again... (repeated several times
>>>
>>> followed by
>>>
>>> 2004-10-12 19:37:31 Waited 14 seconds for data to become available, 
>>> aborting
>>> Couldn't read file: 
>>> rbuf://127.0.0.1:6543/home/myth/buffer/ringbuf1.nuv
>>> 2004-10-12 19:37:31 Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
>>> 2004-10-12 19:37:31 Decoder not alive, and trying to play..
>>> 2004-10-12 19:37:33 Changing from None to None
>>>
>>> Any clues?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>  Brian
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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