[mythtv-users] Why I prefer to watch sport via "Live TV" vs. recorded

[Mike Perkins]

On 12/11/12 00:26, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Mike Perkins
> <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk> wrote:
> ...
>> Personally, I would have considered that the fact that the status is still
>> 'recording' but the file cannot be found is prime evidence that something
>> has failed. Why does the recording not fail immediately when the file is
>> missing?
>
> How would MythTV know the difference between the channel
> tuned is currently not sending the any data from the specified
> program/serviceid (i.e. no data) vs. the capture card has failed
> silently with no indication of failure?  If the capture card is failing
> to send data with no error messages than this is a driver issue
> (and MythTV does not claim to handle drivers that silently fail).
> Some drivers are probably better than others in detecting
> capture card failures (some do seem to do a handshake that
> if it stops, the driver produces errors; perhaps your driver
> could be enhanced to do something similar).
>
> I would recommend sending the error reports to the group
> (or individual) supporting your card.  They may be able to
> assist, or work with you to provide appropriate debugging
> assistance.  I hate to suggest it, but sometimes the
> Linux drivers are not as robust as those in other OSs
> (and sometimes they are more robust).
>
Either the error message is wrong or the argument you present above is not 
relevant. The output file is *missing*. Does mythtv /really/ wait for the first 
buffer-load of data before the output file is created?

To me, the OP's log sequence indicated that data was available but the recording 
thread couldn't find anywhere to put it, so dumped it.

Either the fault condition which produced this log sequence needs to be analysed 
and better error messages produced, or the order in which events happen when a 
recording started need to be investigated.

I don't doubt that a failing tuner might result in a 0.0Gb file, but a message 
that states "...mpg cannot be found" does not represent the same condition as an 
existing but zero-length file.

-- 

Mike Perkins