[mythtv-users] what does "recorder failed" mean?

[Marco Nelissen]

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 6:12 AM, Mark Lord <mythtv at rtr.ca> wrote:

> On 12-04-11 01:22 AM, Marco Nelissen wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 10:01 PM, Michael T. Dean <
> mtdean at thirdcontact.com
> > <mailto:mtdean at thirdcontact.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     On 04/11/2012 12:39 AM, Marco Nelissen wrote:
> >
> >         Last night a recording failed, which didn't give my wife much
> confidence that she'll
> >         continue to be able to watch her shows now that we've cancelled
> our Directv service. The
> >         "previously recorded" list shows "recorder failed" for this
> recording. The backend log shows:
> >
> >         2012-04-09 21:58:29.312 TVRec(2): ASK_RECORDING 2 29 0 0
> >         2012-04-09 21:59:01.625 TVRec(2): Changing from None to
> RecordingOnly
> >         2012-04-09 21:59:01.715 TVRec(2): HW Tuner: 2->2
> >         2012-04-09 21:59:01.905 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required
> Free Space: 3.0 GB w/freq: 7 min
> >         2012-04-09 21:59:02.012 Started recording: Smash:Understudy:
> channel 1111 on cardid 2,
> >         sourceid 1
> >         2012-04-09 21:59:02.292 ProgramInfo(1111___20120409215900.mpg),
> Error: GetPlaybackURL:
> >         '1111_20120409215900.mpg' should be local, but it can not be
> found.
> >         2012-04-09 21:59:02.591 ProgramInfo(1111___20120409215900.mpg),
> Error: GetPlaybackURL:
> >         '1111_20120409215900.mpg' should be local, but it can not be
> found.
> >         2012-04-09 21:59:02.773 ProgramInfo(1111___20120409215900.mpg),
> Error: GetPlaybackURL:
> >         '1111_20120409215900.mpg' should be local, but it can not be
> found.
> >
> >         and then some time later, at the time the recording was
> scheduled to end:
> >
> >         2012-04-09 23:10:00.280 TVRec(2): Changing from RecordingOnly to
> None
> >         2012-04-09 23:10:00.424 Updating status for Smash:Understudy on
> cardid 2 (Tuning => Recorder
> >         Failed)
> >
> >         Is there any other place I can look to find out why it failed to
> record this show?
> >
> >
> >     dmesg?
> >
> >
> > Unfortunately my wife restarted the machine in an attempt to get things
> to work, so I no longer have
> > the dmesg.
>
> You probably do -- look in /var/log/* for whatever file your distro
> uses for saving kernel messages.  Normally there are a few week's worth
> of messages in there.
>

Ha! I didn't realize that /proc/kmsg was mirrored as /var/log/kern.log. and
with human readable timestamps, even.
Unfortunately, it goes right from April 8 to April 10, so it looks like
whatever the problem was on April 9, it wasn't anything kernel/driver
related, or at least not something that the kernel or driver thought was
worth logging.

>
> >     I'm guessing the capture device failed to provide any data for the
> backend to write.
> ..
> > Not sure what you mean by that.
>
> One of two things happened.
> Either reception was poor for that channel and the card was unable to tune
> to it,
> or the device driver for the tuner has a bug and failed to tune to it.
>
> What kind of tuner device are you using, and what is your signal source
> (O.T.A. antenna for ATSC in the USA?)
>

I have OTA ATSC via three PCI FusionHDTV cards, all connected via a powered
splitter/amplifier to the antenna.
If I'm reading the backend log correctly, that same card (#2) successfully
recorded 2 other shows earlier that day, on different channels. When I
tried tuning to the failed recording's channel the day after, that worked
too.

If it *was* a bad reception at the time, or a driver bug or something, is
there any way to tell myth to try harder, or try again?
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