[mythtv-users] confusing HD-PVR capture failure - solved

Richard Woelk richardwoelk at yahoo.ca
Sat Dec 6 05:05:45 UTC 2008


I am writing this for the archives to hopefully save some other people 
some frustration.

I have a mythtv system with a single backend and remote front end. I 
have been running my HD-PVR on mythtv trunk since I got it in late 
August. I have upgraded the backend from fedora 6 through fedora 9 and 
have had upgraded computers twice in that time too, I have had very few 
problems with upgrades and I'm always upgrading to the latest svn every 
week or so

Recently, I decided to rearrange the server room, so I unplugged the 
whole computer, HD-PVR, and everything. After this physical move, the 
HD-PVR refused to recording in mythtv.
the only error I saw in mythbackend's log was

2008-12-05 10:59:08.166 MPEGRec(/dev/video1) Error: Device error detected
2008-12-05 10:59:08.171 DevRdB(/dev/video1): Stop(): Not running.

The recording would appear to be in progress, but the file size would 
remain at 0 bytes in mythweb, and the frontend reported "this file is 
not available yet"

After recompiling mythtv with various new and old HD-PVR patches, 
upgrading my kernel, recompiling the driver. I decided to try it on my 
windows laptop.
it was then that I found the solution. (it didn't work there either)

I had the SPDIF cable plugged into the output of the HDPVR instead of 
the input.

Aparently, like having no video signal, the HDPVR will not record a with 
no audio signal from the SPDIF input either.

The confusing part was that cat /dev/video1 > test.ts would sometimes 
produce a file that was playable with mplayer (I guess before mythtv had 
a chance to set audio to SPDIF), and not having speakers on my backend I 
didn't realize there was no audio in the file.

I hope this helps someone out.

- Richard








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