[mythtv-users] Livetv freeze with HDPVR

[Stephen Worthington]

On Mon, 30 May 2016 11:07:05 -0500, you wrote:

>Hello
>My 0.28 FE/BE system uses a Hauppauge HDPVR as a tuner. Sometimes when
>viewing live tv i get a video freeze for a second or so. An excerpt of the
>log when this happens is pasted below.  Is there any way to improve this?
>
># tail -f mythbackend.20160530140305.3086.log
>
>2016-05-30 21:10:32.384183 N [3086/8503] DeleteThread mainserver.cpp:2494
>(DoDeleteInDB) - DoDeleteINDB - recording id 256 (chanid 1018 at
>2016-05-30T15:33:24Z)
>2016-05-30 21:24:27.404935 N [3086/3254] Expire autoexpire.cpp:264
>(CalcParams) - AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space: 3.0 GB
>w/freq: 15 min
>2016-05-30 21:30:00.756759 N [3086/3086] CoreContext autoexpire.cpp:264
>(CalcParams) - AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space: 3.0 GB
>w/freq: 15 min
>2016-05-30 21:30:01.115296 N [3086/3249] TVRecEvent recordinginfo.cpp:687
>(ApplyRecordRecGroupChange) - ApplyRecordRecGroupChange: LiveTV to LiveTV
>(2)
>2016-05-30 21:30:04.674991 N [3086/8530] RecThread
>recorders/recorderbase.cpp:496 (FinishRecording) - Finished Recording:
>Container: MPEG2-PS Video Codec: h264 (1920x1088 A/R: 3 30fps) Audio Codec:
>ac3
>2016-05-30 21:30:04.675401 I [3086/8530] RecThread tv_rec.cpp:3361
>(RingBufferChanged) - TVRec[3]: RingBufferChanged()
>2016-05-30 21:30:04.675565 I [3086/8530] RecThread tv_rec.cpp:848
>(FinishedRecording) - TVRec[3]:
>FinishedRecording(1018_2016-05-30T15:33:28Z) damaged recq:<RecordingQuality
>overall_score="0" key="1018_2016-05-30T15:33:28Z"
>countinuity_error_count="2" packet_count="12167795">
>    <Gap start="2016-05-30T15:30:00Z" end="2016-05-30T15:33:29Z"
>duration="209" />
></RecordingQuality>

That log shows nothing out of the ordinary, as far as I can see.  That
is what I would expect to see when you stop LiveTV.

The usual reason for getting freezes as you describe is that MythTV
did not allow quite enough buffer time before starting playback, so
occasionally there is nothing in the buffer when mythfrontend tries to
get the next frame.  If it is that problem, just pause LiveTV for a
second, or do a short jump backwards, and the problem will go away.
But you will be playing the programme with a little longer delay from
real-time.  This problem can affect any tuner, not just HDPVRs.