[mythtv-users] video lock-up every few recordings; at my wits end :(

[Neil Bird]

   I *think* this may be ivtv-related, but I've got no feedback as yet 
on that mailing list, so I thought I'd try here in case anyone's got any 
ideas, because I'm pretty well fresh out.


   My Myth box [FC3/0.17/ivtv-0.2/ATrpms] is *this* close to being 
finished, but I'm stuck with a semi-frequent (every day or two) lock-up 
that means I can never guarantee I'll get a recording OK  :(

   Every so often, a recording generates zero bytes, and Myth becomes 
deeply unhappy about this (it doesn't seem to realise, it just plays up: 
  backend refuses to access the tuner agani, frontent crashes upon 
accessing the file).  I have to reboot, *then* stop & restart the 
backend after it's come back up to get it to work again.


   Once it's locked (prior to reboot), I see a zero byte 'ongoing' 
recording;  I can kill the backend and do 'mplayer /dev/video0' (this is 
s-video only) and get no output (ditto 'cat /dev/video0 > test.mpeg' == 
zero length output).

   It *seems* to happen at the very start of recording;  it *may* happen 
only straight after another recording (or even only at the *end* of 
recording) as I think I've only got it [so far] in between two 
concurrent progs.

   In between, it can work (record/playback/watch-tv) flawlessly.  I 
have also had a no. of 'back-to-back' recordings work OK, so it's not 
specifically that.


   I've tried pre-emptively rebooting every night, turning off comm. 
flagging, double-checking Live-TV works beforehand, and nothing seems to 
make a difference.  I just can't see the common factor that causes it to 
go wrong.

   I have mythbackend logging verbose output, but at the transition of 
end-of-OK recording to null-recordnig, I can't see anything out of the 
ordinary (does the backend *really* continually check all recordings for 
comm-flag processing that frequently?).

   FWIW, my verbose ivtv logging can be found at 
http://www.fnxweb.com/data/ivtv.log - this /does/ seem to indicate at 
least the /acknowledgement/ of something being not quite right, but I 
don't actually understand most of what it's telling me (there's logging 
from just before to just after the start of a duff recording that 
'started' at 22:00).

-- 
[neil at fnx ~]# rm -f .signature
[neil at fnx ~]# ls -l .signature
ls: .signature: No such file or directory
[neil at fnx ~]# exit