[mythtv-users] Version 30 bugs

[DaveD]

On 3/20/20 8:12 AM, Stuart Auchterlonie wrote:
> On 20/03/2020 15:01, DaveD wrote:
>> I recently upgraded my Fedora system and with it MythTV from 29 to 30.
>> Two things are broken.  The first is that  FF/REW will crash the
>> frontend if I'm not careful with it (press the buttons too fast,
>> especially reversing while going fast, sticky keys on). The other is
>> mythcommflag.  It seems to hang on certain shows, no errors, no crash,
>> just never finishes.  Then, other shows don't get done (I guess) due to
>> the one that's hung.  I just found about 8 processes sitting there, the
>> oldest was three days old.  (I got about 4G of RAM back when I killed
>> them).
>>
>> Anyone heard of these?  One thing I've thought about is the fact that
>> I've been upgrading Myth over quite a few versions (don't remember when
>> I started, but maybe 18-is?) and I've never started from scratch.  Might
>> there be old settings hanging around in my database that are
>> incompatible with the new versions?  (FF/REW got really crapping in V29,
>> BTW.  Tends to over/undershoot by 20-30 seconds when I go back to play,
>> and I have to use it a lot because commercial flagging also degraded.)
>>
>> Any way, I thought I might just dump the database and start over. If I
>> do that, can I import all of my recordings and get all the info back?
>> Will I loose all the previous recordings info or can that be imported,
>> too?  Is there a page with a procedure I can follow?
>>
>> Thanks for any thoughts.
>>
> I've upgraded my system over so many releases i've lost count.
>
> If you can hold out a few days, we are about to drop v31 (and you can
> in fact already get build based on fixes/31) so it's worth trying that
> before deciding to kill your old install
>
> I'm pretty sure both of the main issues i see you have there, were
> fixed in this development cycle

After I figured out that I needed to install my Intel video driver 
package, all went well in the upgrade to 31. Unfortunately, the two bugs 
I mentioned in the original post were not fixed.  I can still make the 
frontend crash by changing the FF speed while it's in FF mode.  It's not 
a show stopper (unless I forget and do it, then it stops the show).

Of the 3 shows recorded last night, the first hung the mythcommflag 
process.  When I killed it this AM, the second show succeeded and 
flagged commercials. Then the third tried and exited without doing any 
flagging, just stopped wth the following at the end of the log:

2020-04-04 07:56:06.853347 W [198938/198971] Decoder ringbuffer.cpp:426 
(CalcReadAheadThresh) - Enabling buffering optimisations for low bitrate 
stream.

There is a silver lining in this:  I figured out what causes 
mythcommflag to hang.  I use firewire to record cable shows.  I know, 
firewire is bad, should get a cable card, etc, etc.  But that's the 
setup.  The problem with that setup is that we can change channels while 
it's recording.  If I do that, MythTV just keeps on dumping what the STB 
dumps over the firewire into the same file and those different channels 
have different audio/video formats.   That used to be fine; we would 
just get a surprise when we tried to watch Seth Meyers and ended up with 
House Hunters half way through because Seth had a lame guest.  As of 
version 30, however, it hangs mythcommflag.  As of version 31 (and 
VAAPI/OpenGL?), it causes a "Decoder error" during playback.

Not sure if I should file a bug report since I'm using Myth in a way the 
devs never expected.  I've been developing software for 40 years for an 
electronics company and I get bug reports from people using my programs 
in ways I could never have imagined.  "You did WHAT!?!  No wonder it 
crashed!".

I just need to get that new antenna and quit relying on the damn STB.

Dave D.


Dave D.