[mythtv-users] Firewire disconnects

Peter Bennett pb.mythtv at gmail.com
Mon May 28 14:51:54 UTC 2018



On 05/28/2018 02:35 AM, DaveD wrote:
> Since Comcast encrypted everything, I am forced to record over 
> firewire from their cable boxes (we have two).  Luckily, they still 
> allow it on non-premium channels.
>
> The problem is that if the box gets turned off (or otherwise looses 
> connection with the backend), recordings fail (zero file size on both 
> of two futile attempts) until mythbackend is restarted.  Is there a 
> way for me to have mythbackend automatically do whatever it does 
> during startup whenever tuning fails, without having to restart the 
> backend?  There used to be a setting to "Disable Firewire Reset", but 
> that is no longer available in V29.1.  It never seemed to matter 
> whether it was checked or not, anyway.
>
> Something in this new version (of Fedora or Myth, I'm not sure which) 
> seems to make it more sensitive to something and it disconnects MUCH 
> more often.  My wife uses myth to watch the news in "Live TV" mode 
> while she cooks and when it changes from the national news to the 
> local news, it often fails and no recordings are available from that 
> backend until it is restarted (mythbackend, not the computer).  I'm 
> not really sure exactly what causes it, but I'm guessing it's the 
> video format changing while it's recording that makes it fail.  It 
> could be some other glitch in between shows, but I've seen problems in 
> earlier versions where playback would fail when video format changed 
> during the recording (mplayer played it back but mythfrontend failed).
>
> I set up a web interface for her to restart mythbackend, but it's 
> still a PITA and would be nice if it was automatic.  Anyone else seen 
> this and/or have a suggestion for a solution?
>
> Dave D.
>
>
I used firewire for a couple of years. With the frequent failures, I set 
up a script to monitor the backend log and restart the backend when 
certain messages appeared. Unfortunately this resulted in recordings 
split in two. Firewire was always unreliable, and now I use a ceton eth 
6 cable card tuner. It saves money as I no longer rent any cable boxes 
from Comcast, they no longer charge the HD Technology fee and I still 
get HD with the ceton.

Peter


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