[mythtv-users] PVR500 and recent mythtv-backend versions

[Don Bossung]

James Warden wrote:
> I uploaded some small mpg files in rapidshare.com:
>
> http://rapidshare.com/files/228206418/mpeg_dump.tar.html
>
> MD5: AA1A5C51B6991CA9F166BBD0022EDC5B 
>
> it's a tar file containing two mpgs (tar xvf mpeg_dump.tar to untar it)
> - clean.mpg
> - scrambled.mpg
>
> clean.mpg is a dump of /dev/video0 after modprobing ivtv
> scrambled is a piece of liveTV generated by mythbackend.
>
> Cheers!
> J.
>
>
>
> --- On Sat, 5/2/09, James Warden <warjamy at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> From: James Warden <warjamy at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: [mythtv-users] PVR500 and recent mythtv-backend versions
>> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>> Date: Saturday, May 2, 2009, 5:12 AM
>> Hello,
>>
>> I've been using mythtv for a long while now on a home
>> network. The server is debian based, contains a PVR500 card
>> (not the newer ones with digital chips, only the good
>> ol' analog tuners). Clients are linux or windows based.
>>
>> Anyway, I recently upgraded the server to kernel
>> 2.6.29.1-1-686 from debian. It contains ivtv version 1.4.0.
>>
>> I checked the driver was working well by the trivial
>> 'cat' test:
>> cat /dev/video0 > file.mpg and played the mpg file with
>> mplayer or others
>> same with /dev/video1
>>
>> So far so good. I also upgraded the mythbackend to what
>> debian multimedia is providing : 0.21.svn20090430-0.0
>>
>> After this upgrade, all my frontend clients are showing a
>> quite scrambled picture. I can still see what it is about
>> but it is noisy, as if someone was detuning the channel
>> frequency on purpose and randomly.
>>
>> When I do a /dev/videoX dump afyer that, I get a screwed
>> mpg file. Only an rmmod ivtv followed by modprobe ivtv will
>> fix it. But starting the backend again will screw it up once
>> more.
>>
>> I tried the SVN code as well, the QT4 port. It compiled
>> fine and ran fine but with the same image symptom. It is not
>> the first time I see this in all these years, using the
>> PVR500 with the debian mythtv-backend package. Usually, I
>> just compiled the SVN code and things were fine again but
>> not this time. I believe recent mythbackend updates must
>> screw something with the PVR500. This is not an ivtv issue
>> as a fresh modprobe and /dev/videoX dump will produce a
>> clean image.
>>
>> Anyone with something similar ? If not, I'll provide
>> more technical details.
>>
>>
>>       
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>>     
Not trying to hijack, but for what it is worth, I have been seeing a similar issue but with two pvr 150's. It started after I upgraded mythdora 5 and after the upgrade, neither of the tuners would open in mythtv (failed to open device in mythtv-setup). I was able to cat /dev/video0 and /dev/video1 and the resulting mpg was fine. I then removed one of the tuners and the other would be recognized in mythtv. If I swapped tuners then the second tuner would be recognized in mythtv. But with both tuners installed, neither would be recognized by myth. (Recognized fine by linux as seen in dmsg and able to cat either one) So, I just started using one of the tuners. Then I started noticing exactly the same problem as described above with the tuner randomly going in and out of tune. I have been monitoring the ivtv lists but there appears to be nothing there.
I then upgraded to MythDora 10.21 and had the same problem. I then moved to CentOS 5.3 with mythtv 21 latest atrpms and had the same problems.

Odd to say the least.