<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<font size="-1"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Hi list,<br>
<br>
I've just bought a Satix-S2 Dual to replace my existing HVR3000
and Technotrend S-1500. I've set it up using the ngene driver
from kernel 2.6.35.4 and the firmware linked to from the linuxtv
wiki (</font></font><a
href="http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mystique_SaTiX_S2_Dual">http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mystique_SaTiX_S2_Dual</a>).
My plan was to retire the 2 PCI cards for a single dual PCIe card to
free up some space in my case (for other cards ;-) ).<br>
<br>
However after just a days testing of the Satix card I've had
numerous failed recordings and dropouts mid recording (where
recording just stops). Also livetv regularly freezes and kicks me
back to the main menu.<br>
<br>
I've turned on the "record" log option for the backend and it the
log when a recording stops half way through it reports:<br>
<blockquote>2010-10-09 12:02:00.631
DevRdB(/dev/dvb/adapter103/frontend0) Error: Poll giving up<br>
2010-10-09 12:02:00.640 DevRdB(/dev/dvb/adapter103/frontend0):
fill_ringbuffer: error state<br>
2010-10-09 12:02:00.648 DVBSH(/dev/dvb/adapter103/frontend0)
Error: Device error detected<br>
2010-10-09 12:02:00.648 DVBSH(/dev/dvb/adapter103/frontend0):
RunTS(): shutdown<br>
2010-10-09 12:02:00.648 PIDInfo(/dev/dvb/adapter103/frontend0):
Closing filter for pid 0x0<br>
<snip><br>
2010-10-09 12:02:00.660 DVBSH(/dev/dvb/adapter103/frontend0):
RunTS(): end<br>
2010-10-09 12:02:00.701 DVBRec(1:/dev/dvb/adapter103/frontend0)
Error: Stream handler died unexpectedly.<br>
</blockquote>
Googling around, this looks like it's a signal problem, so I kicked
off 'femon' against the dvb card. It's reports values for Signal
strength around 80%, SNR around 70%, UNC=0, BER is usually zero for
one of the inputs and seems to be always 1 for the other input(?)
In comparison the HVR and the Technotrend report SNR values of
>95%. I'm using exactly the same two feeds from my dish into
Satix as I have been for the past two years into the HVR and the
Technotrend and in the past two years I don't think I've had a
single failed recording due to a signal problem.<br>
<br>
I'm also getting the following errors repeating quite a lot for the
BBC channels in my logs, but that also happens with the old cards
and it doesn't seem to matter there, so I'm guessing it isn't
directly related to the problem:<br>
<blockquote>2010-10-09 21:10:38.219
DVBRec(8:/dev/dvb/adapter101/frontend0): PID 0x138c discontinuity
detected<br>
2010-10-09 21:10:38.250 DVBRec(8:/dev/dvb/adapter101/frontend0):
PID 0x13f0 discontinuity detected<br>
2010-10-09 21:10:38.709 DVBRec(8:/dev/dvb/adapter101/frontend0):
PID 0x138c discontinuity detected<br>
2010-10-09 21:10:38.753 DVBRec(8:/dev/dvb/adapter101/frontend0):
PID 0x13f0 discontinuity detected<br>
2010-10-09 21:10:39.238 DVBRec(8:/dev/dvb/adapter101/frontend0):
PID 0x138c discontinuity detected<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
So the questions are...<br>
<br>
Is anyone else using the Satix S2 Dual successfully? If so, what
values do you get for SNR? (I don't believe there is anything wrong
with my dish / cabling because it's been working fine with the other
two cards for a long time now) Is the Satix just not as good at
picking up the signal?<br>
<br>
According to a thread from back in April [1] there has been some
success, but there was a lot of work pending on patches to the
drivers. Does anyone know if these patches have made it into the
kernel yet? Or should I try switching to the linux-dvb drivers
rather than using the in-kernel drivers?<br>
<br>
Is there anything else I can do to work out why the signal seems to
be so much worse on this card than on my other (old) cards?<br>
<br>
I noticed on the digital devices site [2] there is what looks like a
newer version of the firmware (ngene_17.fw). I tried to use it, but
it didn't work. Presumably it's somehow tied to the driver version
in the kernel?<br>
<br>
How do I/can I fix the "discountinuity" errors?<br>
<br>
Thanks!<br>
Robert.<br>
<br>
[1] <a
href="http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2010-April/286115.html">http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2010-April/286115.html</a><br>
[2] <a href="http://www.digitaldevices.de/pageID_9262549.html">http://www.digitaldevices.de/pageID_9262549.html</a><br>
<br>
System Info:<br>
mythtv-0.23.1_p25496 on Gentoo Linux, kernel version 2.6.35.4<br>
<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>