[mythtv-users] Terrible live TV experience with HD-PVR

[Jonathan]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:52:29 -0500
Scott Pleavin <spleavin0 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 13-01-30 07:26 PM, Matt Goebel wrote:
> > On 1/30/2013 7:05 PM, Mark wrote:
> >> On 01/30/2013 05:01 PM, Daniel Frey wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Jan 30, 2013 6:58 PM, "Daniel Frey" <dmfrey at gmail.com
> >>> <mailto:dmfrey at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > On Jan 30, 2013 5:16 PM, "Saul A. Peebsen" <jaglover at gmail.com
> >>> <mailto:jaglover at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >>> > >
> >>> > > On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:21:00 -0500 (EST)
> >>> > > Matt Goebel <matt at goebelnet.com <mailto:matt at goebelnet.com>> wrote:
> >>> > >
> >>> > > > I've been running MythTV with HD-PVR's for a few years now,
> >>> MythTV ~
> >>> > > > 8 years. When I first set them up in 0.22 or whatever the
> >>> release was
> >>> > > > that official supported them things generally worked ok. Watching
> >>> > > > live TV was fairly stable. It was slow but changing channels very
> >>> > > > rarely resulted in either getting kicked out of playback, a
> >>> frontend
> >>> > > > lockup, or a backend crash. Since ~late 0.24 or 0.25 all that
> >>> > > > changed. Channel changing rarely works correctly and most of
> >>> the time
> >>> > > > I get kicked out of live TV 10-20 times before I can successfully
> >>> > > > watch another channel. Sometimes I get a frontend lockup, or
> >>> worse a
> >>> > > > backend crash. Recordings have all worked perfectly fine
> >>> throughout.
> >>> > > > I just recently upgraded to 0.26 which I was hoping would
> >>> either fix
> >>> > > > or at least reduce these issues but if anything it's gotten
> >>> slightly
> >>> > > > worse. My questions are:
> >>> > > >
> >>> > > > Is my experience somehow unusual? I'm fairly confident from
> >>> watching
> >>> > > > this list that it's not... If you guys do have this working? If so
> >>> > > > what secret sauce did you do to get it stable? How does a major
> >>> > > > regression of basic functionality like this go on for so long
> >>> without
> >>> > > > being fixed? There could be some very valid reasons for it, and I
> >>> > > > don't want to insult any Myth dev's for their hard work, but
> >>> I'd like
> >>> > > > to understand what the issues actually are.
> >>> > >
> >>> > > Welcome to the club. Yes 0.21 worked, and 0.22 worked. Even 0.23
> >>> worked
> >>> > > somewhat, but it goes gradually worse with every version.
> >>> > >
> >>> > > --
> >>> > > Cheers, Saul
> >>> > > _______________________________________________
> >>> > > mythtv-users mailing list
> >>> > > mythtv-users at mythtv.org <mailto:mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> >>> > > http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >>> >
> >>> > What version of the firmware are you using on the hdpvr1212?
> >>>
> >>> You should check out the firmware section of the wiki page as well:
> >>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HD-PVR
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> mythtv-users mailing list
> >>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> >>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >> This has nothing to do with it.  I have tried other firmware
> >> versions. Its the Myth code that is not handling them well.  It has
> >> gotten worse over the last couple versions, and is now easily crashed
> >> and replicated for lots of users.
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> mythtv-users mailing list
> >> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> >> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
> > Yeah firmware doesn't matter much.  I'm running 1.7.1 now but I've run
> > all versions at one point or another.   Just watching TV have always
> > been ok, but you can't reliably change the channel anymore!
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> I installed an HD PVR a couple weeks ago  on a new install of Ubuntu
> 12.04 and Myth .26 and am now having no problems. I did have to install
> the 1.5.7 firmware that is recommended in the wiki to get rid of colour
> and lip sink issues. My set up is a AMD quad core 9750, Nvidia card,
> Microsoft ir blaster/receiver, and a satellite box. It does take about
> 10 seconds to change channels but 8 seconds of that is the ir blaster
> doing its thing. I'm using the component video input to the HD PVR, I
> did try the composite and S-Video and the video and audio wasn't as good
> as my Hauppagge 150.
> 
> Maybe if you share your setups it would help.

On .26 fixes, as long as a channel change is not across sources, things seem to work well for me. But attempting to change directly from a non-HDPVR channel to a HDPVR always results in a frontend hang.  My workaround is to switch to the HDPVR source before changing channels. As you might expect, non tech-savy family members will probably struggle with this one.