[mythtv-users] Second Encoder Too Wide and Quiet
Kevin Kuphal
kuphal at dls.net
Sun Nov 27 16:11:27 EST 2005
Stephen Henderson wrote:
> When my second encoder card is used to record programs, the recordings
> have no sound and the video plays double-wide, yet cropped such as to
> present the proper aspect ratio, leaving only the left-hand side of
> the program material visible & stretched.
>
> The first encoder card always works like a charm.
>
> The issue first seemed to appear 6 months ago or so. I disabled the
> card after frustration and recording a 'critical' Battlestar Galactica
> poorly... ouch.
>
> In a burst of energy... and given the off-season of Galactica, I
> enabled the second card a few weeks ago, and it seemed to be working
> until I physically rebooted the backend server... at that point we
> were back to wide & quiet recordings on the second card.
>
> Until today... somehow the problem is fixed.
>
> I've left it enabled to spur me to debug the problem.
>
> My guess is that the mythbackend is not altering the capture settings
> on the second card, leaving some bad power-on defaults in place. I'm
> wondering if any readers have ideas surrounding mythbackend's behavior
> w.r.t. setting capture settings, problems that might be related, etc.
> Here's some info:
> 1. FC4 configured, per J. Wilson's HOWTO, via YUM.
> 2. Encoder 1 is a PVR350
> 3. Encoder 2 is a PVR250
> 4. I've diff'd the ivtvctl output for both cards during the wide &
> quiet era, and today during the double-fisted recording era. This
> effort clearly illustrates that the capture settings are wrong when
> things are wide & quiet.
> 5. /var/log/mythtv/mythtbackend.log doesn't seem to be reporting any
> 'couldn't set the settings' failure. Also, the permissions of the
> /dev/video devices do not vary.
> 6. Mythbackend runs as root.
>
> Thanks for reading! I'd appreciate any suggestions.
>
If there are different settings, set them properly before starting
mythbackend and confirm they are correct using other methods of capture
(cat /dev/video1 > tmp.mpg). In short, get the card working reliably
and repeatably outside of Myth before you start looking for Myth as a
culprit.
Kevin
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