[mythtv-users] Post upgrade 0.24 to 0.25 PVR-150/250/350 fail to record at some point

Sat May 5 20:25:04 UTC 2012

Summary of problem:

After I reboot both my master backend and slave backend I schedule recordings (that are currently on) to test my three tuners (PVR-250/PVR-150 on master backend and PVR-350 on slave backend). All three tuners record their respective shows and I am able to play back during recording. I delete the shows and try again for a different set of programs on different channels. Once again everything works and I am pleased thinking my kids will be happy with the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show that is scheduled to be recorded the next morning.

The following morning I wake up to find that the first show that was scheduled for recording at 2am (Phineas and Ferb) recorded fine although the backend did report a database error (see below). However, the second show (Doc McStuffins at 7:30am) and the third show (Mickey Mouse Club House at 8am) did not record, although they show up in grey on my list of recordings. All three shows were scheduled to use Tuner 1 (PVR-250).

I am puzzled so I sellect three other shows (such as the highly provocative "Inside Edition: Butt Girl" and "Brazil Butt Lift") for immediate recording. All three appear to be recording. However, when I check Tuner 1 I see that it is not. I stop the recording on Tuner 1 (leaving the others recording) and try LiveTV and receive the following error: "Error opening jump program buffer." The other two tuners are in fact recording. However, I am able to recreate the same issue with any of the tuners. For example, the other night I decided to disable Tuner 1 so that Tuner 2 was the first in line to record. The next morning same problem. I then disabled Tuners 1 and 2, and the same problem occurred with Tuner 3 (on slave backend). They all initially record fine, but fail during a later scheduled recording, usually after successfully recording the first show.

Extended Discussion:

Unfortunately, this started about two weeks ago when I upgraded from 0.24 to 0.25 on Fedora 16. I use ATrpms to access the packages. At first I thought it was a power supply problem because we had been having some power problems in our area and I found my master backend completely off one morning. However, I believe that was a false alarm and now it appears to be a software problem. The system was very stable and recording away happily before the upgrade.

I have noted that other people have been reporting similar problems with their PVRs although the descriptons vary a some and many seem to be focused on LiveTV. We never watch LiveTV, always recorded shows so I know it isn't a problem solely related to LiveTV.

See for exampe: 

http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2012-May/333121.html 
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/29627

I did discover that there is a possible fix, but I"m not sure when its going to get into the packages:

https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/commit/f81f712537b63502814d1f274c7da14196cedd8c

However, I'm not completely convinced that is the only problem on my system since I can't seem to make it fail on will. It's repeatable in that after a reboot, it will happen (probably overnight).  

1. I'm curious if anyone else has had similar issues and was able to fix it without the above mentioned fix (I did try deleting all the tuners and inputs and adding them back in and it did not help). 

2. Does anyone think that a setting in my BIOS could be to blame? If so, what should I look for. (I'm doubful, but I did have some power problems...)

3. I may have to revert back to 0.24. Unfortunately it means loosing some of my information since the upgrade. (Since the database got an upgrade as well). Any thoughts?

4. I also wonder if this is caused by a database problem with mythconverg. I say this because the very last show ("Phineas and Ferb") recorded with Tuner 1 caused the following error (although it did record):

2012-05-05 02:14:28.676742 E [2651/3621] RecThread mythdb.cpp:192 (DBError) - DB Error (Resolution insert):
Query was:
INSERT INTO recordedmarkup    (chanid, starttime, mark, type, data)    VALUES ( ?, ?, ?, ?, ?);
Bindings were:
:CHANID=1030, :DATA=720, :MARK=26461, :STARTTIME=2012-05-05T02:00:00, :TYPE=30
Driver error was [2/1062]:
QMYSQL3: Unable to execute statement
Database error was:
Duplicate entry '1030-2012-05-05 02:00:00-30-26461' for key 'PRIMARY'

2012-05-05 02:14:28.677277 E [2651/3621] RecThread mythdb.cpp:192 (DBError) - DB Error (Resolution insert):
Query was:
INSERT INTO recordedmarkup    (chanid, starttime, mark, type, data)    VALUES ( ?, ?, ?, ?, ?);
Bindings were:
:CHANID=1030, :DATA=480, :MARK=26461, :STARTTIME=2012-05-05T02:00:00, :TYPE=31
Driver error was [2/1062]:
QMYSQL3: Unable to execute statement
Database error was:
Duplicate entry '1030-2012-05-05 02:00:00-31-26461' for key 'PRIMARY'

How do I fix this, assuming its a problem?

5. Thereafter, the next time Tuner 1 tried to record ("Doc McStuffins" and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse") the following errors were observed:

2012-05-05 07:29:45.119117 I [2651/2661] Scheduler scheduler.cpp:2460 (HandleRecordingStatusChange) - Tuning recording: "Doc McStuffins":"Un-burr-able; Righty-on-Lefty": channel 1030 on cardid 1, sourceid 1
2012-05-05 07:29:45.123460 I [2651/2651] CoreContext scheduler.cpp:635 (UpdateRecStatus) - Updating status for "Doc McStuffins":"Un-burr-able; Righty-on-Lefty" on cardid 1 (Tuning => Recording)
2012-05-05 07:29:45.155409 I [2651/2659] TVRecEvent tv_rec.cpp:3950 (TuningNewRecorder) - TVRec(1): rec->GetPathname(): '/data/recordings/1030_20120505073000.mpg'
2012-05-05 07:29:48.062264 E [2651/3889] DeviceReadBuffer DeviceReadBuffer.cpp:513 (Poll) - DevRdB(/dev/video0): Poll giving up 2
2012-05-05 07:29:48.062330 E [2651/3888] RecThread mpegrecorder.cpp:1010 (run) - MPEGRec(/dev/video0): Device error detected
2012-05-05 07:29:52.998076 E [2651/3891] DeviceReadBuffer DeviceReadBuffer.cpp:513 (Poll) - DevRdB(/dev/video0): Poll giving up 2

6. Finally, I also see the following errors in my mythbackend logs:

2012-05-04 22:25:36.643577 I [2651] ProcessRequest mainserver.cpp:1362 (HandleAnnounce) - adding: MythTV1 as a client (events: 1)
2012-05-04 22:25:43.867922 E [2651/2741] FreeSpaceUpdater playbacksock.cpp:139 (SendReceiveStringList) - PlaybackSock::SendReceiveStringList(): Response too short
2012-05-04 22:25:58.864844 E [2651/2741] FreeSpaceUpdater playbacksock.cpp:139 (SendReceiveStringList) - PlaybackSock::SendReceiveStringList(): Response too short
2012-05-04 22:26:13.854012 E [2651/2741] FreeSpaceUpdater playbacksock.cpp:139 (SendReceiveStringList) - PlaybackSock::SendReceiveStringList(): Response too short

and

2012-05-04 22:23:53.949587 I [2651/2659] TVRecEvent tv_rec.cpp:1014 (HandleStateChange) - TVRec(1): Changing from RecordingOnly to None
2012-05-04 22:23:54.399907 E [2651/2748] DeviceReadBuffer DeviceReadBuffer.cpp:460 (Poll) - DevRdB(/dev/video0): poll error
2012-05-04 22:23:54.400213 E [2651/2746] RecThread mpegrecorder.cpp:1010 (run) - MPEGRec(/dev/video0): Device error detected
2012-05-04 22:23:56.851670 E [2651/2861] DeviceReadBuffer DeviceReadBuffer.cpp:460 (Poll) - DevRdB(/dev/video0): poll error

Any insights, help, suggestions, would be appreciated as I currently have to reboot my system before each important recording in order to have a 50% chance of success. 

Thanks!

-Kenan