[mythtv-users] Failed HD-PVR recordings

[John P Poet]

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 6:53 AM, Phil Linttell<phil.linttell at rogers.com> wrote:
> Hi Brad,
>
> I have only an HD-PVR, firmware reported as 0x12, running under trunk with
> which I'm recording everything at 720p with AC3 audio.  I have a combined
> back/front-end based on kubuntu 9.10 alpha (amd64 and VDPAU, kernel 2.6.30-9
> at the moment.)
>
> Yes, it's much more stable with the STB fixed to 720p.  I'll get anywhere
> from 1 to a half-dozen successful recordings, and then all subsequent
> recordings will fail, and LiveTV displays old frame buffer information and
> refuses to start.  The only way to get it working again is a hard restart of
> my back-end (power cycling the STB and HD-PVR, and restarting the
> back/front-ends has not effect.)   I'm thinking the issue is related to the
> hdpvr driver, and next step is to upgrade to kernel 2.6.31 and test with the
> latest v4l-dvb.
>
> I also get "TONS" of (mainly ac3 decoding related) errors in my logs, even
> after the latest FFmpeg sync.  Although this is less of a concern for me
> right now to the failed recordings.


Those ac3 decoding errors *might* be the clue to the problem.  Next
time your system stop recording properly, please do a "ps -aux | grep
mythbackend" and see what is out there.  I bet you will find a bunch
of generate-preview processes.  Kill those, and myth will probably be
able to function normally again.

To combat this problem, I actually have "pkill -f generate-preview" in
a cron job which runs every 7 minutes.


John
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