[mythtv-users] mythcommflag not working

[Mike Perkins]

On 09/09/14 14:48, Rob Owens wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Mike Perkins" <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk>
>>
>> On 08/09/14 18:39, Rob Owens wrote:
>>> On Mon, Sep 08, 2014 at 12:51:27PM -0400, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>>>> On 09/08/2014 12:26 PM, Rob Owens wrote:
>>>>> I've been having a problem with mythcommflag not working.  Upgrading to
>>>>> 0.27.3 did not fix it.  I'm seeing tons of these messages in
>>>>> mythcommflag.log:
>>>>>
>>>>> mythcommflag[888]: E Decoder avformatdecoder.cpp:4891 (GetFrame) decoding
>>>>> error
>>>>>         eno: Unknown error 541478725 (541478725)
>>>>>
>>>>> Can anybody suggest further debugging steps?
>>>>
>>>> Looks like corrupt recordings and/or recordings in a format that
>>>> ffmpeg libs don't handle well--though corrupt recordings is more
>>>> likely.  Could be due to antenna misalignment/breakage (due to
>>>> wind/wear/gravity/...) or even just changes by your broadcaster
>>>> which require a rescan.
>>>>
>>> The recordings are from Dish Network.  Most (all?) are high definition,
>>> but I'm using a PVR-150 to capture using s-video.  The recordings play
>>> back fine.  Every once in a while I have a recording that has one
>>> commercial break detected, but misses the rest of them.
>>>
>> If you are using a PVR150 or variant then you are encoding the signal
>> yourself.
>> The quality of the signal cannot therefore be down to external transmission
>> problems, but rather within the PVR150 itself, or later in the signal chain -
>> including the recording and playback processes.
>>
> I have another PVR150 I could test.  But if the current PVR150 is having encoding problems, wouldn't I see playback problems in addition to mythcommflag problems?
>
Not necessarily. All I was pointing out was that, since the PVR150 is doing your 
encoding, your problem can't be due to poor transmission, as is often the case 
with digital sources.

If you get a poor segment of analog transmission, that will get encoded just 
like anything else. On the other hand, PVR150s can have known problems which 
have been reported on the list over the years. You might be suffering from one 
or more of those or it might be somewhere else in the recording or playback 
sequence.

-- 

Mike Perkins