[mythtv-users] Weird seek / fast forward behavior (0.18.1) [OBSCURE SOLUTION]

[David]

Brian M. Sperlongano wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Saw the following post on the list:
>
>"Hey, I just upgraded to .17 and have noticed an odd trend. Since my
>cpu is kinda slow, I capture video using RTjpeg and then transcode
>them into mpeg4 to save space.
>But after I upgraded, transcoded files seem to have major problems
>seeking. RTjpeg encodings work fine. I've tried rebuilding the seek
>table with mythcommflag --rebuild -f "filename" and I've checked the
>recordedmarkup table in sql and it seems skip a huge chunk of the
>beginning of the file (with my one file, it seems to start offsets at
>675659283 and whenever I try and seek in the file it immediately jumps
>to 25 minutes forward and I can't seek back. I've even tried some
>trickery like mythcommflag --video "filename" (which I know is not for
>recorded files) and then ran --rebuild -f and got the same results. If
>I try and cut some commercials out, and transcode again, I can't seek
>at all until I do another mythcommflag --rebuild -f "filename". But at
>that point, the video constantly breaks up when I seek. It's really
>weird, anyone got any suggestions?"
>
>I'm using 0.18.1 and I've been experiencing the same problem for some
>time now.  Seeking in transcoded files is totally borked, and the only
>way I can fast-forward is to timestretch.  Does anyone know of a
>solution?
>  
>
Yes. Possibly. I'd suspect access to or corrupion of your recordedmarkup
table first.

However a really obscure one is that your /etc/localtime setting could
be wrong.

I had this problem on a Debian based diskless remote frontend until I did:
  ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime

I cannot fathom how this matters.

<understatement>It took a while to debug</understatement>

David
PS IIRC the OP for the solution suggested that a symlink was needed - in
fact a copy will of course work so long as the perms are OK.

PPS This was so unexpected I just deleted localtime and booted my
frontend up to check - yep, it causes the problem. I then restored the
localtime file and the problem was fixed. I also gave the mail a
search-friendly title ;)