[mythtv-users] HD-PVR extremely unstable on backend, works fine on laptop

[Erik Jensen]

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 8:36 AM, Harley Peters <harley at thepetersclan.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 2011-09-25 at 03:44 -0700, Erik Jensen wrote:
>> I just purchased an HD-PVR to allow me to record CCI restricted
>> channels from my cable box. When connected to my backend, it stops
>> responding after capturing for 5-10 minutes, and I have to power cycle
>> it to get it back.
>>
>> It is a Rev F2 with firmware 0x15
>>
>> I have tried all of the following:
>> catting to mplayer
>> catting to a file
>> recording in MythTV
>> LiveTV in MythTV
>> Unloading and reloading the driver
>> Upgrading the firmware to 0x17 (Killed the picture color, didn't fix
>> the problem)
>> Downgrading the firmware to 0x15 again
>> Plugging the device into a different USB port
>>
>> There are no errors reported to dmesg
>>
>> When using cat, I have tried both the defaults and with the following settings:
>>
>> v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --set-ctrl=video_bitrate_mode=0
>> v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --set-ctrl=video_bitrate=13500000
>> v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --set-ctrl=video_peak_bitrate=20200000
>> v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --set-audio-input 2
>>
>> However, if I connect the device to my laptop, it seems to capture
>> just fine with the same settings (using cat, I don't have a
>> mythbackend installed).
>>
>> Does anyone have an idea for tracking down the problem might be?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> -- Erik Jensen
>>
>> "Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose."
>>   -- Garrison Keillor
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing list
>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
> What version of the kernel are you using on the backend ?
> Different kernel than the laptop ?
>
> Are you using the hdpvr's IR receiver transmitter ?
>
> What does lsmod show ?
>
> Sounds a lot like the IR receiver bug it will cause consistent failure's
> in the 5-10 minute range.
>
> Even if your not actually using the IR receiver on the hdpvr  if the
> modules that support it are loaded it will still cause it to fail.
>
> Harley

Hah! It seems that the IR receiver was indeed the problem. I had
ir-kbd-i2c loaded to support the IR receiver on a different capture
card, and it was also enabling the IR receiver on the HD-PVR. Since
I'm not currently running a frontend on the system, I just disabled
the ir-kbd-i2c module entirely, and my problem went away (Yay!). If I
do need to have a combined front/back end again at some point, is
there anyway to disable the HD-PVR receiver without disabling the
other receiver that uses ir-kbd-i2c?

Thanks for you help,
Erik