[mythtv-users] HDPVR intermittent failure

[DryHeat122]

On Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 6:16 AM Will Dormann <wdormann at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 7/22/20 7:04 PM, John Hoyt wrote:
> >     I decided to try this with my current Myth setup, and it looks like
> >     you don't have a version for Ubuntu 16.04.
> >
> >
> > Correct - sorry about that.  Unfortunately launchpad blocks the upload
> > for no longer supported versions of Ubuntu.  I used to have a Xenial
> > build posted, but dropped it when I ran out of space in launchpad.
>
>
> I think I'll add myself to the list of HD-PVR 1212 owners where the
> device has slowly gotten less and less reliable over time.  And my power
> is coming from the computer's PSU, so it can't be the supplied wall wart
> that's the problem.
>
> The latest failure sequence was just yesterday:
> 1) Noticed recording that was choppy
> 2) Power cycled HD-PVR
> 3) Rather than being recognized by the computer, it showed up in dmesg as:
> usb 1-6: new full-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
> usb 1-6: Device not responding to setup address.
> usb 1-6: Device not responding to setup address.
> usb 1-6: device not accepting address 10, error -71
>
> Where the device number would increment with each power cycle.   This
> happened once before perhaps a year ago and I did some number of actions
> including opening the case, switching USB ports on the computer, and
> switching USB cables, and eventually it worked.
>
> This time around I ended up giving up on it, only to realize that just
> after leaving it sit there for a while the device was picked up, and I
> confirmed that it is functional to record.
>
>
> Anyway, long story short, I want a contingency plan for when my device
> fully kicks the bucket, and this HD-PVR 2 stuff has piqued my interest.
>  But I'm a little curious:
>
> 1) Ubuntu 16.04 reaches EOL on April 2021, which hasn't arrived yet.  So
> it seems odd that the upload to support 16.04 wouldn't be allowed for
> that reason.
> 2) It looks like the project page https://github.com/jpoet/HauppaugeUSB
> indicates that fixes/31 is required.   Is this required to support
> external recorders in general?
>
>
> Based on track record, I've found that updating a system without a
> specific worthwhile reason will usually end up in one of two scenarios:
> 1) After some indefinite amount of time/effort spent, the system may
> work as well as it did before.
> 2) After some indefinite amount of time/effort spent, the system isn't
> working as it did before.
>
> As such, I'm a happy owner of a MythTV 29.1 on Ubuntu 16.04 system (ever
> since 14.04 went EOL, lather, rinse, repeat...)
>
> If I happen to go the HD-PVR2 route, or if April 2021 rolls around
> before I know it, I'm curious if there are any guides to help avoid any
> "gotchas" with updating to a newer version of Ubuntu.  I seem to recall
> seeing chatter here about lirc being problematic starting with Ubuntu
> 18.04?  And I'm an old school lircd user with a homemade receiver wired
> into a serial port.  I'd hate to go down an upgrade path that results in
> a no-longer-working remote control, for example.
>
>
> Thanks for any tips/info!
> -WD
>

Can offer a couple things other than what is in this thread. There is a guy
on e-bay selling used used HDPVR2s for I think $80, but they are bare
bones--no power supply or cable for component video input.  Had to buy a
6V-2A power supply from Amazon and the cable from Hauppauge.  I was able to
get it installed and working on 18.04/Myth 31 using John H's compiled code
and John P's config instructions.

I wasn't sure exactly what John P was referring to re fixes/31.  I did not
apply any fixes, just installed latest distro of 18.04. I actually started
with xubuntu 20.04 but had problems with screen-timeouts that I couldn't
resolve. Tried ubuntu 20.04 but it crashed right after install during the
update process.  My mobo is like 10 years old so I suspect there may have
been some hardware incompatibilities. Went to 18.04 and it installed
smoothly.

...except there is this problem with the install hanging in some cases due
to a faulty os-prober.  See here
<https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/511289/ubuntu-18-04-server-installation-gets-stuck-at-66-while-runningupdate-grub/600231#600231>
for a workaround.

If you go up to myth 31 note that XMLTV is a *big change* for the listings
grabber, and there is a learning curve.  Whereas before you just entered
your schedules direct id/pw in mythtv-setup, now the grabber is a whole
thing you have to install and configure.  If you decide to upgrade check
thread "XMLTV setup can't run mythtv-setup as user mythtv" for helpful info
on getting it working.

Good luck!

Steve
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20200729/d09dc09d/attachment.htm>