[mythtv-users] Firewire troubles Motorola 6412

[Rob Baumstark]

On 6/12/06, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> wrote:
> This didn't fare any better. The first time I went through this, it
> briefly worked, but the first time I changed the channel in Live TV,
> poof! Back to nothing but empty files again. Even repeating this whole
> procedure again did not work the second time.
>
> --Greg

There's quite a few things different between my setup and yours -
notably that mine is quite stable, though fragile.  I just leave both
my myth box and STB on 24/7 and that seems to work around the fragile
part.

As for getting your setup as stable as mine, all I can do is offer
some information about how mine is setup.  My STB is a DCT-6200, using
the onboard firewire from an A-Bit NF7-S motherboard.  Fedora 4 with
myth .19 - pretty much Jarod's guide step by step.  I added 2 lines to
my rc.local file - setting n_p2p_connections=1 for both node0 and
node1 - my DCT tends to switch which node its on, so I just set both
at boot, one will fail the other will get the DCT set.  When the DCT
does change nodes I have to stop the backend, re-configure the tuner,
and re-start the backend.  And sometimes after a reboot I need to
fiddle powering things off and on in different orders till firewire
works again - like I said, fragile, but stable once working.  The
backend is configured to use p2p mode.

One thing I have noticed, that saves some reboots when I'm trying to
get it working, is how linux/myth reacts to firewire events.  eg. if I
power off the DCT, plugreport still lists it.  However if I unplug the
firewire cable from the myth-box, plugreport stops displaying it.
Also, powering the DCT off+on has yet to change the node on me (and
rarely breaks the firewire in myth), but unplugging and replugging the
firewire cable quickly almost always causes a node change, and usually
requires some fiddling afterwards to make it work again.

Also - I find test-mpeg2 rarely works for me.  I get much more
consistent results just starting up the frontend and trying to play
live tv.

Hope some of that helps.