[mythtv-users] HD-PVR / Mythtv robustness

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/12/2011 10:00 AM, Ken Bass wrote:
> Occasionally something happens that causes a zero length recording with
> the HD-PVR. When this happens I notice that the blue recording light is
> on. I am unsure if this is because it is 'stuck on' from a previous
> recording or related to the failed recording.
>
> My question is why can't Mythtv gracefully recover from this and in
> particular switch to using another tuner? When this condition triggers,
> the log shows:
>
> 2011-02-07 11:00:12.308 Channel(/dev/video-hdpvr1) Error:
> SetInputAndFormat(6, NTSC)
>                          while setting input (v4l v2)
>                          eno: Connection timed out (110)
...
> 2011-02-07 11:00:42.330 Started recording: "Dog the Bounty Hunter":"No
> Luv Still": channel 2223 on cardid 6, sourceid 2
> 2011-02-07 11:00:43.573 AnalogSM(/dev/video-hdpvr1), Error: Start
> encoding failed
>                          eno: Resource temporarily unavailable (11)
>
> ( snip 26 minutes of repeats ...)

Looks like you need to change your timeouts.  In 0.24+, HD-PVR users 
must set appropriate (read, somewhere on the order of 10s) timeouts in 
mythtv-setup.

> I have no idea why in this particular case it is hitting the NTSC/ATSC
> case for an HD-PVR, especially since it has just properly finished
> recording something the previous hour. However, if there are these
> failures returned from SetInputAndFormat, why doesn't MythTV try to use
> another tuner.  Despite printing all these messages for the full hour,
> MythTV merrily transitions to the Recorded state as if everything was okay.

Because we pretty much expect you to use working (and properly 
configured) hardware.  The scheduling complexity increases exponentially 
when you have to deal with "broken, not available" hardware and fail-over.

Mike