[mythtv-users] mythtranscode: am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

Tue Jan 20 16:27:37 UTC 2009

I've been cleaning space off my myth backend, by making cutlists and 
deleting commercials off of old recordings.  I had successfully processed a 
number of recordings, until I hit a problem transcoding a specific 
recording.  That recording gave a transcode error 255 (which doesn't seem to 
be defined anywhere).

Here is the backend log regarding this job:

2009-01-17 12:05:23.948 JobQueue: Transcode Starting for XXIX Summer 
Olympics "Opening Ceremony": Autodetect (26.7 GB)
2009-01-17 12:05:24.104 Using runtime prefix = /usr
2009-01-17 12:05:24.123 Empty LocalHostName.
2009-01-17 12:05:24.123 Using localhost value of Mythtical
2009-01-17 12:05:24.138 New DB connection, total: 1
2009-01-17 12:05:24.151 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: 
localhost
2009-01-17 12:05:24.152 Closing DB connection named 'DBManager0'
2009-01-17 12:05:24.153 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: 
localhost
2009-01-17 12:05:24.154 Enabled verbose msgs: important
2009-01-17 12:05:24.157 New DB connection, total: 2
2009-01-17 12:05:24.158 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: 
localhost
2009-01-17 12:05:24.160 Transcoding from 
/mythtv/videos/1051_20080808184500.nuv to 
/mythtv/videos/1051_20080808184500.nuv.tmp
2009-01-17 12:05:24.178 Connecting to backend server: [redacted]:6543 (try 1 
of 2)
2009-01-17 12:05:24.179 Using protocol version 40
2009-01-17 12:05:24.180 MainServer::HandleAnnounce Monitor
2009-01-17 12:05:24.181 adding: Mythtical as a client (events: 0)
2009-01-17 12:05:24.182 MainServer::HandleAnnounce Monitor
2009-01-17 12:05:24.182 adding: Mythtical as a client (events: 1)
2009-01-17 12:05:24.190 Honoring the cutlist while transcoding
2009-01-17 12:05:24.197 Cutlist        : 
0-5051,14096-18763,41708-45768,59989-63592,73027-77215,88041-92509,103402-107520,113788-116054,126047-130492,145741-149038,163315-167629,182907-187001,204694-208238,220486-224621,237371-241738,257255-261260,269660-274100,292292-296509,311699-316127,325936-328582,359162-363390,375087-379121,402358-405831,445443-449353
2009-01-17 12:05:24.197 Original Length: 454380 frames
2009-01-17 12:05:24.198 New Length     : 358382 frames
2009-01-17 12:05:24.226 Found video height of 1088.  This is unusual and 
more than likely the video is actually 1080 so mythtranscode will treat it 
as such.
2009-01-17 12:05:24.234 Transcode: Looking for autodetect profile: 
Autodetect from 1080i
2009-01-17 12:05:24.286 New DB connection, total: 3
2009-01-17 12:05:24.287 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: 
localhost
2009-01-17 12:05:24.302 Transcode: Using autodetect profile: RTjpeg/MPEG4
2009-01-17 12:05:24.302 No video information found!
2009-01-17 12:05:24.303 Please ensure that recording profiles for the 
transcoder are set
2009-01-17 12:05:24.304 Transcoding /mythtv/videos/1051_20080808184500.nuv 
failed
2009-01-17 12:05:24.307 Deleting /mythtv/videos/1051_20080808184500.nuv.tmp
2009-01-17 12:05:24.336 JobQueue: Transcode Errored: XXIX Summer Olympics 
"Opening Ceremony": Autodetect (exit status 255, job status was "Errored")

Now it seems as though mythtranscode can't find any video, which is strange 
because that specific recording plays just fine in myth.  As a sanity check, 
I made sure the full path referenced above exists:

vince at Mythtical:/var/log/mythtv$ ls -l 
/mythtv/videos/1051_20080808184500.nuv
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv 28623644884 2008-09-01 07:56 
/mythtv/videos/1051_20080808184500.nuv

OK, so the file exists where we think it should.  And we know we don't have 
a permissions problem because other transcodes (such as the closing ceremony 
which was transcoded immediately previously to this one) work just fine. 
(The file is owned by user mythtv, which is as it should be.  So we're good 
on permissions!)

Next, I tried firing off mythtranscode manually, to see if I could get more 
illumination on the problem.  Since I want it to honor my cutlist, according 
to the mythtranscode wiki I need to use the -c (channel ID) and -s (start 
time) switch combo. So I had to look up the channel ID and start time in my 
database...

I found the recording in the recorded programs database....  see 
http://www.thekorn.net/temp/recorded_programs.png .

And then I cranked over mythtranscode:

 mythtranscode --chanid 1051 --starttime 
2008-08-08-18-30-00 --mpeg2 --honorcutlist --showprogress -v important

Mythtranscode failed again, but with a failure message that is confusing me:

2009-01-18 08:33:45.234 Using runtime prefix = /usr
2009-01-18 08:33:45.234 Empty LocalHostName.
2009-01-18 08:33:45.239 New DB connection, total: 1
2009-01-18 08:33:45.242 Closing DB connection named 'DBManager0'
2009-01-18 08:33:45.242 Enabled verbose msgs: important
Couldn't find recording for chanid 1051 @ 2008-08-08-18-30-00

I also tried with the starttime as "2008-08-08-18:30:00" with the same 
results, and with the starttime as "2008-08-08 18:30:00" both quoted and 
un-quoted.  Un-quoted it pukes because mythtranscode doesn't recognize 
"18:30:00" as an option, and quoted it gives identical results to the 
original manual transcode attempt (can't find recording).

So am I doing something wrong here?  I can't help but think the original 
transcode 255 error and the manual transcode "can't find that program" error 
are related, since they're happening on the same recording.

Thanks in advance!

MythTV Version   : 18207
MythTV Branch    : branches/release-0-21-fixes
Library API      : 0.21.20080304-1