[mythtv-users] more observations about my HD-PVR lockup problem

[Don Lewis]

I've been keeping a closer eye on my HD-PVR and have noticed that when
it locks up, it always happens at the end of a recording.  The recording
that triggers the lockup is full length and plays back without any
problems.  After a recording that causes a lockup, if I run that "cat
/dev/video" test on the HD-PVR, the command locks up and can't be killed
with ^C. It hangs until I power cycle the HD-PVR.  If I don't catch the
problem, any subsequent recordings will be zero byte.  At that point,
running the "cat" test immediately fails with an "Input/output error"
message.

It looks to me like Myth is doing something during the recorder shutdown
phase that occasionally causes the HD-PVR to lock up.   This seems to
happen to me about once every half-dozen recordings.  I don't know why I
seem to be having so much more of a problem with this than most other
users.  Outside of myth, I've run my channel change script and a capture
using the dd command in a loop probably a hundred times without a single
problem.

The problem doesn't appear to be temperature or power related.  There
doesn't seem to be any relationship between the failures and the length
of the recording or the room temperature, and I've swapped the power
adapter with no change in behaviour.

Also whatever reset sequence that Myth does at the beginning of a
recording seems to do something to the driver or device state to change
the result of the "cat" test.