[mythtv-users] Cannot change channels on DVB card while watching live TV.

[Andreas]

Am Dienstag, 26. August 2008 09:58:53 schrieb Erik Jensen:
> I recently purchased a Pinnacle PCTV HD card to use for Clear QAM tuning
> on my cable.  I installed it, hooked it up, and scanned for channels. 
> The problem I am having is that whenever I try to change the channel
> while watching TV, mythfrontend tells me that an "Error was encountered
> while displaying video."  I can record from the various channels just
> fine, and the result looks good.  Also, if I set the initial channel to
> the one I want to watch in mythtv-setup before I go to Watch TV, I can
> watch that channel. But I still get an error if I try to change the
> channel while in the Watch TV section.  This is a pain, as I have lots of
> cable-only channels that show up as "UNKNOWN", which I need to identify
> in order to set up listings properly.

I have the same problem with my Pinnacle 800i.
What I see in the frontend terminal window after a channel change:
2008-08-26 18:10:39.268 NVP: prebuffering pause
2008-08-26 18:10:40.254 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
2008-08-26 18:10:41.258 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
2008-08-26 18:10:42.230 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
2008-08-26 18:10:43.202 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
2008-08-26 18:10:44.170 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
2008-08-26 18:10:45.316 NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times.
2008-08-26 18:10:45.798 MythSocket(8f542a0:28): readStringList: Error, timeout (quick).
2008-08-26 18:10:45.848 RemoteEncoder::SendReceiveStringList(): No response.
2008-08-26 18:10:45.864 TV: Attempting to change from WatchingLiveTV to None
2008-08-26 18:10:45.904 MythSocket(8f542a0:-1): writeStringList: Error, called with unconnected socket.
2008-08-26 18:10:45.904 MythSocket(8f542a0:-1): readStringList: Error, called with unconnected socket.
2008-08-26 18:10:45.904 RemoteEncoder::SendReceiveStringList(): No response.
2008-08-26 18:10:45.905 NVP, Error: Unknown error, exiting decoder

And the mythbackend log:
2008-08-26 18:10:39.131 TVRec(20): HW Tuner: 20->20
2008-08-26 18:10:43.910 Finished recording News 10 at 6:00: channel 2101
2008-08-26 18:10:44.168 Using runtime prefix = /usr
2008-08-26 18:10:44.402 Empty LocalHostName.
2008-08-26 18:10:44.447 Using localhost value of hal9004
2008-08-26 18:10:44.499 New DB connection, total: 1
2008-08-26 18:10:44.552 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: hal9004
2008-08-26 18:10:44.598 Closing DB connection named 'DBManager0'
2008-08-26 18:10:44.643 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: hal9004
2008-08-26 18:10:44.687 New DB connection, total: 2
2008-08-26 18:10:44.732 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: hal9004
2008-08-26 18:10:44.777 Current Schema Version: 1214
2008-08-26 18:10:46.811 TVRec(20): Changing from WatchingLiveTV to None
2008-08-26 18:10:47.088 Finished recording The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer: channel 2061
2008-08-26 18:10:47.198 scheduler: Last message repeated 2 times: Finished recording: News 10 at 6:00: channel 2101
2008-08-26 18:10:47.265 scheduler: Finished recording: The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer: channel 2061
2008-08-26 18:10:47.329 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space: 2.0 GB w/freq: 15 min
2008-08-26 18:10:47.511 Finished recording The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer: channel 2061
2008-08-26 18:10:47.593 AFD: Opened codec 0x917590, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
2008-08-26 18:10:47.612 MythSocket(2aaaac0d29e0:-1): writeStringList: Error, socket went unconnected.
2008-08-26 18:10:47.652 AFD: codec AC3 has 2 channels
2008-08-26 18:10:47.742 AFD: Opened codec 0x917970, id(AC3) type(Audio)
2008-08-26 18:10:47.895 Preview: Grabbed preview '/multimedia/livetv/2101_20080826180928.mpg' 1280x720 at 94s

There is a time difference between the frontend's error message
"2008-08-26 18:10:45.798 MythSocket(8f542a0:28): readStringList: Error, timeout (quick)."

and the corresponding message from the backend:
"2008-08-26 18:10:47.612 MythSocket(2aaaac0d29e0:-1): writeStringList: Error, socket went unconnected."

LiveTV is not usable with the card, but recordings are  ok.
This is with Comcast cable. I have not tried to use the card for OTA reception.

> Another note:  This card seems to take a while to tune in general on my
> computer.  My initial scan found no channels, and I had to set the time
> out to 15 seconds to make sure I got all of them.

Hm. While I see a few occasional dropouts in my recordings, the initial scan
(with the program "scan" from the dvb apps) found a huge amount of channels.
Most of them are encrypted, though. 

-- 
Gruß
Andreas