[mythtv-users] SA3250 firewire fading solutions?

[Len Reed]

Michael Haan wrote:
> Firewire is coming along nicely - love that I can change channels and 
> setup is mostly effortless.  Tuning/playback works quite well.  My only 
> complaint is that after successfully watching off of firewire, the next 
> time I try to use it, it's as if the port has shut down.  To get it 
> working I have to try various things like restart myth, or bounce the 
> box.  Does anyone else see this and/or have a solution?

Sometimes capture just doesn't work for me.  It either works -- and 
recordds the entire show -- or fails utterly.

To work around this, I don't actually bounce the box or mythbackend; the 
follwing stupid little script seems to fix the problem.  Note that when 
I run it with mythbackend running, it complains that raw1394 and iee1394 
modules are in use; I just ignore those errors.  (If the backend isn't 
running, of course, all the modules unload.)  It also sets the dct-6200 
to channel 781, which won't apply to you.

My firewire card is base on the VIA chip, which -- rumor has it -- is 
inferior to the TI chip for Linux at least.  Some day I may replace this 
board, but firewire is a backup to my main HD5000 HDTV recording, so it 
only comes into play when I want to record two HDTV shows 
simultaneoulsy, which is maybe once a week.  (Oh, BTW, the HD5000 works 
perfectly for me on QAM256, and requires lower signal strength than 
either the cable box or my TV.  I highly recommend the card.)

FWIW, channel-changing by firewire is rock-solid.  It's only cpature 
that is flakey.  My machine is a dual-core Athlon64 3800+, FC4 x86_64, 
January time-frame SVN mythtv.

#!/bin/sh
# Reset ie1394 modules

rmmod dv1394
rmmod raw1394
rmmod ohci1394
rmmod ieee1394

sleep 5
modprobe ieee1394-controller
sleep 3
~mythtv/bin/6200ch 781
## END SCRIPT