[mythtv-users] MythTV on MacMini: Playback Prerecorded frequently stalls

Thu Mar 16 20:50:54 UTC 2006

On Thursday 16 March 2006 03:32 pm, John Elm wrote:
> Hi Ivan,
>
> You're right, my bad.  I am running OSX Tiger on the MacMini, and I got the
> binaries from here: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Myth_on_Mac_OS_X
>
> I installed the .18 binaries from that page, but it now appears that a .19
> build is available there.

John,

right after I sent that email, I decided to give the MacOSX version of mythtv 
a try and see if I could reproduce those slowdowns.  I got a 0.19 image from 
sniderpad.com (thanks whoever on this list maintains this!) and installed it.  
I'm running tiger with all the updates applied.  After I set up the client, I 
was able to watch livetv and recordings.  No slowdowns while doing that.  
However, it took pronouncedly longer for the video to come up than under 
linux on the same machine.  But once I had a picture, everything was smooth.

So, in conclusion, my advice is try 0.19.  I see at that URL you mentioned 
there are two sites with MacOSX binaries -- one is sniderpad.com and the 
other is something else.  Try both.

IvanK.

>
> Everything here is running on a 100 mbit network.
>
> As far as filesystems go (thanks Michael Dean for chiming in), I haven't
> done anything special on the Mac client machine -  just using what came on
> the Mac.
>
> And on the backend: I don't think NFS is a part of my picture.  The .nuv
> files are stored on an lvm, and the physical volume is JFS.  (I've been
> focusing on the MacMini client machine though, since my other linux
> frontends work fine).
>
> On 3/14/06, Ivan K. <chepati at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > John Elm wrote:
> > > Hi everyone,
> > >
> > > It would be great if someone could shed some light on this problem...
> > >
> > > I have a myth backend running on a 2.66GHz P4 with 2Gb of memory.  It's
> > > serving over a 10/100 DLink router.
> > >
> > > I can use frontend locally of course, plus using my Gentoo thinkpad,
> > > with no problems at all.  Works great.
> > >
> > > But I also have a frontend running on a MacMini G4 with 512Mb.  On this
> > > frontend, WatchingLiveTV is fine, but when playing back prerecorded I
> > > am frequently getting this error:
> > >
> > > - typically plays three or four seconds of video, then stops (goes
> > > blank and then returns to list of recordings)
> > > - seems to happen only with a subset of the recordings, and I haven't
> > > been able to narrow down what the common factor is.
> > > - on any recording from this subset, there is a 4 in 5 chance that it
> > > will fail
> >
> > Ok, I was waiting for someone with a solution to reply, but since nobody
> > has, let me throw in my experience.
> >
> > My master backend/frontend is a 2.4Ghz p4 512m running LFS 6.1 and
> > mythtv 0.19.  Everything on this machine was compiled from source.  All
> > my recordings are MPEG2 recorded on a pair of pvr-250/pvr-350. Just as
> > in your case, watching livetv or recordings is flawless.
> >
> > My experimental frontend is a mac mini 1.25Ghz 512M running LFS 6.1, and
> >   mythtv 0.19.  Again, everything compiled from source.  I can watch
> > both livetv and recorded shows without a problem.  It feels like
> > rewinding/fastforwarding is just a shade slower on that machine than on
> > the master machine, but it could be due to a number of reasons:
> >
> > 1) this is on a 100Mbits network
> > 2) the support for the particular videochip in the mac mini may not be
> > so good
> > 3) i may just be imagining things
> > 4) etc etc
> >
> > What you didn't make clear is if you're running linux or mac os x on
> > your mini, what version of myth, compiled from source or using
> > precompiled binaries...  You'll need to provide a little more info I
> > guess before people can help.
> >
> > IvanK.
> >
> > > Here is how it appears in the logs:
> > >
> > > 2006-03-14 09:53:56.178 Changing from None to WatchingPreRecorded
> > > 2006-03-14 09:53:56.178 Video timing method: USleep with busy wait
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:00.324 prebuffering pause
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:02.400 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:03.401 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:04.401 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:05.402 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:06.402 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:07.402 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:08.403 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:54:08.550 RemoteFile::Read() failed in
> > > RingBuffer::safe_read().
> > >
> > > This is also appearing in the logs (slightly different):
> > >
> > > 2006-03-14 09:52:21.024 Changing from None to WatchingPreRecorded
> > > 2006-03-14 09:52:21.028 Video timing method: USleep with busy wait
> > > 2006-03-14 09:52:25.399 prebuffering pause
> > > 2006-03-14 09:52:28.440 Waited 4 seconds for data to become available,
> > > waiting again...
> > > 2006-03-14 09:52:32.546 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:52:33.547 Waited too long for ringbuffer pause..
> > > 2006-03-14 09:52:33.713 RemoteFile::Read() failed in
> > > RingBuffer::safe_read().
> > >
> > > Here is a sample of the log from the startup of the frontend:
> > >
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:34.151 New DB connection, total: 1
> > > Total desktop width=1024, height=768, numscreens=1
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:34.217 Using screen 0, 1024x768 at 0,0
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51: 34.268 mythfrontend version: 0.18.1.20050510-1
> > > www.mythtv.org <http://www.mythtv.org/>
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:34.269 Enabled verbose msgs : important general
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:34.888 Switching to square mode (G.A.N.T .)
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:35.775 Registering Internal as a media playback
> > > plugin. 2006-03-14 09:51:53.769 New DB connection, total: 2
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:53.853 Connecting to backend server:
> > > 192.168.0.112:6543 <http://192.168.0.112:6543/> (try 1 of 5)
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:53.859 Using protocol version 15
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:53.948 Using protocol version 15
> > > 2006-03-14 09:51:56.558 Opening audio device ''.
> > >
> > > Thanks everyone!
> > >
> > >
> > > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >-
> > >
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