[mythtv] Various Problems using MythTV

[John]

A couple of weeks ago I got MythTV running on a slow machine and was
impressed. I decided to bring home a faster machine from work and see what
it could really do.  I loaded Debian stable and got everything loaded and
configured without much problem.  Along the way I kept a log so if I ever
get over this final hurdle I'll send it for others to use.

Problem 1)  Watching live TV.  It sometimes takes 3-4 tries before I can
get the live stream to show on the screen.  Once I get the first channel
up I can pause, ff, rw, etc.  Sound is perfect.  Program guide information
shows correctly.  However as soon as I change channels the system will
lock hard requiring a cold reboot.  Occasionally I can change channels
once, but on the second change hard lock.  In order to look at the program
output I have tried running from a ssh session and I got the following
output:

read audio: Interrupted system call
VIDIOSYNC0: Interrupted system call

Problem 2) I decided to try recording a show to see what happens.  I used
the program guide to select a program, changed the time to 1 minute before
the recording and let it run.  It appears to have recorded correctly. 
When I go to the playback screen the preview window correctly shows the
program,  however when I hit enter on the program I get a segfault with
the following:

Probed: /dev/video - Television
Probed: /dev/video - Composite1
Changed from None to WatchingPreRecorded
Using XV port 55
slice end not reached but screenspace end (8292468 left741331)
concealing errors
Changing from WatchPreRecorded to None
Segmentation fault


I have searched the web for information and tried many different
configurations (new network driver, disable network card, put into
different computer, various kernels (2.2.? 2.4.?), bttv versions).  I am
currently running:

MYTH CVS from October 15, however I have tried release .5 and .6
Kernel 2.4.18
bttv 0.7.100
alsa 0.9.0rc5
XFree 4.2.1


I have the following hardware:

3com network (3c59x)
Onboard audio (intel8x0)
ATI TV-Wonder VE
ATI Radeon VE

I am a programmer and would like to contribute to this project but without
a working test system I am pretty much stuck.


John