[mythtv-users] Remote Frontend playback works sporadically

[Gary Kakazu]

I got one suggestion to mount the directory where my recordings live
(/data on the backend) onto the frontends via NFS. I did that, and the
error messages stopped.

Now I'm wondering, why would the front ends think the recordings should
be accessed locally, rather than streaming them from the backend? I
never had anything NFS mounted on the frontends before I upgraded
to .21.

The other odd thing is that I can watch one of these recordings, and
when I stop watching it, it will complain that the file is missing. I
can get back to watching it by backing out a menu or two, and going back
into Watch Recordings. It's available again.

Gary.

On Sat, 2009-01-03 at 00:28 -0600, Gary Kakazu wrote:
> I just upgraded from .20 to .21 and on the machine that is running the
> combined backend and frontend, everything works fine. I can watch all my
> recordings (including those recorded using the old .20 system, and those
> recorded using the .21 system) with no problem at all.
> 
> Problem 1.
> However, I rebuilt 2 remote frontends to .21, and both are exhibiting
> the same behavior. When I go to the screen to select a recording to
> watch, I see the full list of my recordings. When I start to scroll up
> or down the list, I will frequently get messages like:
> 
> 2009-01-03 00:16:02.865 Error: File '/data/1024_20081230120000.mpg' missing.
> 2009-01-03 00:16:02.897 Error: File '/data/1024_20081230120000.mpg' missing.
> 2009-01-03 00:16:02.931 Error: File '/data/1024_20081230120000.mpg' missing.
> 2009-01-03 00:16:02.963 Error: File '/data/1024_20081230120000.mpg' missing.
> 2009-01-03 00:16:02.996 Error: File '/data/1024_20081230120000.mpg' missing.
> 2009-01-03 00:16:03.029 Error: File '/data/1024_20081230120000.mpg' missing.
> 
> These messages seem to appear on files recorded under the .20 system. I
> don't always get these messages, and am sometimes able to play the
> recordings that it complains about. The files do exist in that directory
> on the backend.
> 
> 
> Problem 2.
> When watching a recording, I will get these messages right before the
> playback stops:
> 
> 2009-01-03 00:00:35.883 NVP: prebuffering pause
> 2009-01-03 00:00:37.236 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-01-03 00:00:38.594 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-01-03 00:00:39.944 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-01-03 00:00:41.294 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-01-03 00:00:42.643 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-01-03 00:00:43.993 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
> 2009-01-03 00:00:44.954 RingBuf(myth://192.168.0.20:6543/1007_20090101223500.mpg) Error: RingBuffer::safe_read(RemoteFile* ...): read failed
> 
> On my backend (192.168.0.20), the file 1007_20090101223500.mpg does
> exist in the /data directory. It seems like it suddenly has a problem
> reading the file but I don't see why.
> 
> I never had these problems when running under .20. I don't understand
> why everything works when watching on the combined backend & frontend,
> but not on remote front ends. I assume it has to do with the way the
> data is streamed across the network. Can someone enlighten me on what
> the problem could be?
> 
> Thanks,
> Gary
> 
-- 
Gary Kakazu
kakazu at tds.net
http://www.kakazu.org