[mythtv-users] Multiple LIRC Devices Causing Problems with HD-PVR Blaster on F14

[John Welch]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 1:13 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:
> On Feb 16, 2011, at 8:45 PM, John Welch wrote:
> ...
>>> Complete 'dmesg' output from my system after a reboot can be found
>>> here: http://pastebin.com/32f6F9vB
>>>
>>> Thanks again,
>>> John
>>>
>>
>> Just to throw something else into the mix here.  I've been dealing
>> with this HD-PVR blaster issue for quite some time now (since last
>> fall) because: a) I didn't do enough in-depth troubleshooting; and b)
>> I mistakenly thought that there were fixes for the issue in the
>> testing pipeline.
>
> You were not mistaken, except in what level the fixes are
> implemented at. :)
>
>
>> Well, in all the time that the blaster wasn't
>> working I continued to use my HD-PVR the best I could.  When I wanted
>> to schedule a recording for the HD-PVR I had to make sure to set my
>> STB to the proper channel.  (I know there are other channel changing
>> options, but I have not had the time or the inclination to explore
>> them.)  During this time I never had a bad recording from the HD-PVR.
>>
>> Now that I've figured out the cause of the blaster issues, and have a
>> less than ideal, but working solution I figured things were pretty
>> much back to normal as far as the HD-PVR.  Last night was my first
>> recording since getting the blaster "fixed", and unfortunately I ended
>> up with a bad / incomplete recording.  The recording quit after less
>> than a minute, the red "recording" light on my HD-PVR was stuck on,
>> and when I tried stopping LIRC on my back-end the whole system locked
>> up.
>>
>> I used to have similar issues back before when my blaster was working,
>> but I guess I thought that the fact that I was getting good recordings
>> despite the broken blaster was a sign that the driver for the HD-PVR
>> had been fixed / improved.  Now I'm starting to think that the working
>> blaster is actually a cause of the bad recordings.  Maybe this is a
>> known issue, but I was rather surprised and disappointed when I ended
>> up with the incomplete recording last night.  As things stand now I
>> think I would rather deal with the limitations of not have the blaster
>> work properly rather than risking not getting a recording at all.
>
>
> Based on your dmesg output, your HD-PVR is still running the oldish
> 0x12 firmware. I'm pretty sure something in the 0x15 firmware helped
> to stabilize IR usage on the HD-PVR. Unfortunately, you need Windows
> to update the firmware, but once done, in theory, IR should be more
> stable for you.
>
> Additionally, if you don't care about the rx portion of the HD-PVR,
> you can tell lirc_zilog to *only* do tx, which eliminates the rx
> polling, which is the most likely cause of the HD-PVR getting wedged,
> knowing what I know now about the HD-PVR's IR and i2c implementation.
>
> --
> Jarod Wilson
> jarod at wilsonet.com
>
>

Jarod, as always thanks for your help.  I will try your suggestions
when I get a chance.  I do (somewhat begrudgingly) still have Windows
systems around that I can use for the firmware update.  Care to share
the module option for lirc_zilog so that it only does tx?

Thanks again,
John