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I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv.

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harley at hpeters

Nov 13, 2006, 3:14 PM

Post #1 of 17 (7459 views)
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I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv.

I am having problems with svn mythtv and my pchdtv-3000 card when tuning
qam-256 stations from my cable company.
Three of the stations work perfect.

KPRY-HD:561000000:QAM_256:49:52:3
KTSD-HD:567000000:QAM_256:49:52:3 ( from channels.conf )
KTSD-DT:567000000:QAM_256:65:68:4

The other six stations act like they are being starved by to low of a
bit rate. Lots of pix elation and choppiness.

KTTWDT:597000000:QAM_256:2048:2049:4
KELODT:597000000:QAM_256:2112:2113:1
UTVDT:597000000:QAM_256:2176:2177:2
KELOWTH:597000000:QAM_256:2240:2241:3
KDLTDT:735000000:QAM_256:2048:2049:7
KDLTDT2:735000000:QAM_256:2112:2113:8

All of the stations work perfect via azap and cat /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0
> $HOME/test.mpg when played back with xine.
All of the stations use to work about two months ago with mythv but not
anymore.

There is a difference in the way the two groups of channels are being
broadcast.
When scanning with atscscan the first working group appears just like
shown above.
The second group is shown with the video vid set to zero like below.

[0004]:597000000:QAM_256:0:2049:4
[0001]:597000000:QAM_256:0:2113:1
[0002]:597000000:QAM_256:0:2177:2
[0003]:597000000:QAM_256:0:2241:3
[0007]:735000000:QAM_256:0:2049:7
[0008]:735000000:QAM_256:0:2113:8

I was able to tell the correct video vids using dvbscan.

When using mythv-setup to scan for the channels it detects all of them.
Though KTTWDT, KDLTDT and KDLTDT2 are detected as audio only channels
even though they do have video.
Also the second group doesn't have any station call sign and channel
number info returned i have to add it later.

Does anyone have any ideas that i can try to narrow this problem down ?
Any log verbose setting i could use to get some debug info ?
I haven't been able to get anything use full from the logs so far. And
don't really understand how mythtv works with digital cards.

Harley

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danielk at cuymedia

Nov 13, 2006, 3:25 PM

Post #2 of 17 (7437 views)
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Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 17:14 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
> I am having problems with svn mythtv and my pchdtv-3000 card when tuning
> qam-256 stations from my cable company.

> Does anyone have any ideas that i can try to narrow this problem down ?
> Any log verbose setting i could use to get some debug info ?
> I haven't been able to get anything use full from the logs so far. And
> don't really understand how mythtv works with digital cards.

The cable company appears to not be putting the video stream in the
PMT. If this is the case, MythTV won't be able to tune the channel.
It is also possible that you used channels.conf import to add the
channels to your database. If so, delete all your channels (using
mythtv-setup, so that it deletes the matching dtv_multiplex rows
as well) and do an internal scan, or do a new channels.conf import
(this should work properly as of last week).

If the problem is not fixed by rescanning, then send me the output
of "mythbackend -v record" when you tune to one of these problem
channels.

-- Daniel

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harley at hpeters

Nov 13, 2006, 4:25 PM

Post #3 of 17 (7326 views)
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Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 17:14 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
>> I am having problems with svn mythtv and my pchdtv-3000 card when tuning
>> qam-256 stations from my cable company.
>
>> Does anyone have any ideas that i can try to narrow this problem down ?
>> Any log verbose setting i could use to get some debug info ?
>> I haven't been able to get anything use full from the logs so far. And
>> don't really understand how mythtv works with digital cards.
>
> The cable company appears to not be putting the video stream in the
> PMT. If this is the case, MythTV won't be able to tune the channel.
> It is also possible that you used channels.conf import to add the
> channels to your database. If so, delete all your channels (using
> mythtv-setup, so that it deletes the matching dtv_multiplex rows
> as well) and do an internal scan, or do a new channels.conf import
> (this should work properly as of last week).
>
> If the problem is not fixed by rescanning, then send me the output
> of "mythbackend -v record" when you tune to one of these problem
> channels.
>
> -- Daniel
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>

I never imported the channels.conf it was just for testing.
I also already deleted the channels and dtv_multiplex entries earlier
and then did a rescan it didn't help.

I have attached a log of the backend with the log setting of -v record.
The first channel tuned to is an analog channel but the second is KTTWDT
a 720p HD channel.
I had to compress the log file are the list server would reject it.

Harley

Attachments:

mythbackend.log.tar.gz (9.23 KB)

danielk at cuymedia

Nov 13, 2006, 4:35 PM

Post #4 of 17 (7372 views)
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Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 18:25 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:

> I never imported the channels.conf it was just for testing.
> I also already deleted the channels and dtv_multiplex entries earlier
> and then did a rescan it didn't help.
>
> I have attached a log of the backend with the log setting of -v record.
> The first channel tuned to is an analog channel but the second is KTTWDT
> a 720p HD channel.
> I had to compress the log file are the list server would reject it.

I don't think you are using SVN head... Maybe you have an old
installation in /usr/bin that is conflicting with the SVN head
installation you probably did in /usr/local/bin ?

This command "which mythfrontend" should tell you which one
you are using..

-- Daniel

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harley at hpeters

Nov 13, 2006, 5:03 PM

Post #5 of 17 (7339 views)
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Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 18:25 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
>
>> I never imported the channels.conf it was just for testing.
>> I also already deleted the channels and dtv_multiplex entries earlier
>> and then did a rescan it didn't help.
>>
>> I have attached a log of the backend with the log setting of -v record.
>> The first channel tuned to is an analog channel but the second is KTTWDT
>> a 720p HD channel.
>> I had to compress the log file are the list server would reject it.
>
> I don't think you are using SVN head... Maybe you have an old
> installation in /usr/bin that is conflicting with the SVN head
> installation you probably did in /usr/local/bin ?
>
> This command "which mythfrontend" should tell you which one
> you are using..
>
> -- Daniel
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>

Never had anything but svn on this machine. I just updated to 11735
before you asked for the log file. I had some problems with 11735 and
have dropped back to 11693 (restored the database too). I will post
another log file as soon as i can but the backend is busy now recording
tonights line up.
Why do you think it's not the svn head ?

Harley
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harley at hpeters

Nov 13, 2006, 8:47 PM

Post #6 of 17 (7323 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 18:25 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
>
>> I never imported the channels.conf it was just for testing.
>> I also already deleted the channels and dtv_multiplex entries earlier
>> and then did a rescan it didn't help.
>>
>> I have attached a log of the backend with the log setting of -v record.
>> The first channel tuned to is an analog channel but the second is KTTWDT
>> a 720p HD channel.
>> I had to compress the log file are the list server would reject it.
>
> I don't think you are using SVN head... Maybe you have an old
> installation in /usr/bin that is conflicting with the SVN head
> installation you probably did in /usr/local/bin ?
>
> This command "which mythfrontend" should tell you which one
> you are using..
>
> -- Daniel
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>

I have attached two mythbackend log files.
Kprydt.log is a known working channel.
Kttwdt.log is a none working channel.

These were logged using svn version 11693.

Seems to be a lot of these errors on the none working channel.

Packet dropped due to uncorrectable error.
PID 0x800 discontinuity detected

Don't know why using azap and cat to a file and the channel looks perfect.

Harley

Attachments:

mythbackend_kprydt.log.tar.gz (3.93 KB)

mythbackend_kttwdt.log.tar.gz (7.63 KB)

danielk at cuymedia

Nov 14, 2006, 6:11 AM

Post #7 of 17 (7320 views)
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Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 22:47 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
> Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> > On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 18:25 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
> I have attached two mythbackend log files.
> Kprydt.log is a known working channel.
> Kttwdt.log is a none working channel.
>
> These were logged using svn version 11693.
>
> Seems to be a lot of these errors on the none working channel.
>
> Packet dropped due to uncorrectable error.
> PID 0x800 discontinuity detected
>
> Don't know why using azap and cat to a file and the channel looks perfect.

Hmmm, well it looks like MythTV is finding the video stream now,
but there appear to be a lot of errors in the stream. Have you
tried starting azap right after this happens? I've seen channels
that come in fine during the day, but then the signal falls of
later in the day. It looks like the stream MythTV is seeing is
very noisy...

-- Daniel

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harley at hpeters

Nov 14, 2006, 7:51 AM

Post #8 of 17 (7341 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 22:47 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
>> Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
>>> On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 18:25 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
>> I have attached two mythbackend log files.
>> Kprydt.log is a known working channel.
>> Kttwdt.log is a none working channel.
>>
>> These were logged using svn version 11693.
>>
>> Seems to be a lot of these errors on the none working channel.
>>
>> Packet dropped due to uncorrectable error.
>> PID 0x800 discontinuity detected
>>
>> Don't know why using azap and cat to a file and the channel looks perfect.
>
> Hmmm, well it looks like MythTV is finding the video stream now,
> but there appear to be a lot of errors in the stream. Have you
> tried starting azap right after this happens? I've seen channels
> that come in fine during the day, but then the signal falls of
> later in the day. It looks like the stream MythTV is seeing is
> very noisy...
>
> -- Daniel
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>

Yes i have run azap right before trying it on mythtv and right after.
The picture is very bad on mythtv and perfect (as far as the human eye
can tell) via azap.
The signal is strong but fluctuates some though this is true on the
working channels as well.
One thing i have noticed is the picture is much better (not perfect)
when first tuned to but very quickly turns into a mess. (3 or seconds)

Harley
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dylan.semler at gmail

Nov 14, 2006, 10:24 AM

Post #9 of 17 (7349 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

On 11/14/06, Harley Peters <harley [at] hpeters> wrote:
>
> One thing i have noticed is the picture is much better (not perfect)
> when first tuned to but very quickly turns into a mess. (3 or seconds)

Sorry for the interruption, but this last symptom looks very similar to what
I experience on all channels. On my system, displaying video (or having any
activity on the screen) causes my pcHDTV to loose signal lock. You can test
this by using azap to tune a channel and then play the file with xine in a
separate terminal while it is still being tuned (perhaps you do this
already--if so, ignore this message). When you start playing the file with
xine, the pcHDTV will lose signal lock and the quality will degrade. Then
when xine catches up to that point in the file, you will see the
degradation. Unfortunately, I have not found a solution to this problem.

--
Dylan

Type faster. Use Dvorak:
http://dvzine.org

gtgj at pacbell

Nov 14, 2006, 11:03 AM

Post #10 of 17 (7348 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

>>>>> Dylan Semler writes:

d> Sorry for the interruption, but this last symptom looks very similar to what
d> I experience on all channels. On my system, displaying video (or having any
d> activity on the screen) causes my pcHDTV to loose signal lock. You can test
d> this by using azap to tune a channel and then play the file with xine in a
d> separate terminal while it is still being tuned (perhaps you do this
d> already--if so, ignore this message). When you start playing the file with
d> xine, the pcHDTV will lose signal lock and the quality will degrade. Then
d> when xine catches up to that point in the file, you will see the
d> degradation. Unfortunately, I have not found a solution to this problem.

I also have this problem and have seen similar reports on the
nvnews and pchdtv forums. It seems that the HD-3000 has problems
tuning certain QAM channels when the system is busy (noisy). I'm not
sure why, but I've had the card for over a year and the problem only
became more noticeable in the last few months. Some people blame
recent kernels/drivers but I haven't bothered to confirm.

Some people claim to get better results with different cards
(like the HD-5500). Another solution is to move the card to a
separate backend that stays idle during primary recording hours.
That's what I did and I don't see the problem any more.

Anyway, as you said, it's not a mythtv problem.
--
Gregorio Gervasio, Jr.
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danielk at cuymedia

Nov 14, 2006, 11:29 AM

Post #11 of 17 (7303 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 13:24 -0500, Dylan Semler wrote:
> On 11/14/06, Harley Peters <harley [at] hpeters> wrote:
> One thing i have noticed is the picture is much better (not
> perfect)
> when first tuned to but very quickly turns into a mess. (3 or
> seconds)
>
> Sorry for the interruption, but this last symptom looks very similar
> to what I experience on all channels. On my system, displaying video
> (or having any activity on the screen) causes my pcHDTV to loose
> signal lock. You can test this by using azap to tune a channel and
> then play the file with xine in a separate terminal while it is still
> being tuned (perhaps you do this already--if so, ignore this message).
> When you start playing the file with xine, the pcHDTV will lose signal
> lock and the quality will degrade. Then when xine catches up to that
> point in the file, you will see the degradation. Unfortunately, I
> have not found a solution to this problem.

Harley, can you confirm whether this might be the problem you are
encountering. Just play a pre-existing recording while you try to
capture the stream outside MythTV and also try scheduling a
recording in MythTV and do not view a recording at the same time.
If the recording you make while you are playing the video is
corrupted or the video you make with MythTV while not watching
a recording is not corrupted, then this is probably the problem.

Dylan, your problem is almost certainly due to a motherboard
chipset problem. To work around it you will want to make sure
that the pcHDTV card and your video card do not share an
interrupt and you will want to extend your PCI latency to
at least 64 for the pcHDTV card, and reduce the PCI latency
for the video card (especially if it is not an AGP card).
Making the cards not share an interrupt may require changing
which slots on the motherboard they are plugged into if you
can not rearrange them in the BIOS settings. If you have any
further questions reply on the user's list and BCC me so I
don't miss the post there.

-- Daniel

_______________________________________________
mythtv-dev mailing list
mythtv-dev [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev

harley at hpeters

Nov 14, 2006, 2:00 PM

Post #12 of 17 (7319 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 13:24 -0500, Dylan Semler wrote:
>> On 11/14/06, Harley Peters <harley [at] hpeters> wrote:
>> One thing i have noticed is the picture is much better (not
>> perfect)
>> when first tuned to but very quickly turns into a mess. (3 or
>> seconds)
>>
>> Sorry for the interruption, but this last symptom looks very similar
>> to what I experience on all channels. On my system, displaying video
>> (or having any activity on the screen) causes my pcHDTV to loose
>> signal lock. You can test this by using azap to tune a channel and
>> then play the file with xine in a separate terminal while it is still
>> being tuned (perhaps you do this already--if so, ignore this message).
>> When you start playing the file with xine, the pcHDTV will lose signal
>> lock and the quality will degrade. Then when xine catches up to that
>> point in the file, you will see the degradation. Unfortunately, I
>> have not found a solution to this problem.
>
> Harley, can you confirm whether this might be the problem you are
> encountering. Just play a pre-existing recording while you try to
> capture the stream outside MythTV and also try scheduling a
> recording in MythTV and do not view a recording at the same time.
> If the recording you make while you are playing the video is
> corrupted or the video you make with MythTV while not watching
> a recording is not corrupted, then this is probably the problem.
>
> Dylan, your problem is almost certainly due to a motherboard
> chipset problem. To work around it you will want to make sure
> that the pcHDTV card and your video card do not share an
> interrupt and you will want to extend your PCI latency to
> at least 64 for the pcHDTV card, and reduce the PCI latency
> for the video card (especially if it is not an AGP card).
> Making the cards not share an interrupt may require changing
> which slots on the motherboard they are plugged into if you
> can not rearrange them in the BIOS settings. If you have any
> further questions reply on the user's list and BCC me so I
> don't miss the post there.
>
> -- Daniel
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>

I can confirm this is the problem.

When recording via azap and watching another recording the program being
recorded via azap was corrupt.
Also when recording via mythtv and then dropping back to the console the
recording though not perfect was much better than usual.
Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be anyway to get it to work either.
None of my cards are sharing an interrupt with the video card. And even
after pulling out all the cards except the video card and pchdtv-3000
card it still didn't work.
I do have another pc used as a server i could put it in but don't really
want to.
I have also been considering the hdhomerun device. Does anyone know how
well that works with mythtv ?

Harley

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danielk at cuymedia

Nov 14, 2006, 2:12 PM

Post #13 of 17 (7299 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 16:00 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
> Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> > Dylan, your problem is almost certainly due to a motherboard
> > chipset problem. To work around it you will want to make sure
> > that the pcHDTV card and your video card do not share an
> > interrupt and you will want to extend your PCI latency to
> > at least 64 for the pcHDTV card, and reduce the PCI latency
> > for the video card (especially if it is not an AGP card).
> > Making the cards not share an interrupt may require changing
> > which slots on the motherboard they are plugged into if you
> > can not rearrange them in the BIOS settings. If you have any
> > further questions reply on the user's list and BCC me so I
> > don't miss the post there.

> I can confirm this is the problem.
>
> When recording via azap and watching another recording the program being
> recorded via azap was corrupt.
> Also when recording via mythtv and then dropping back to the console the
> recording though not perfect was much better than usual.
> Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be anyway to get it to work either.
> None of my cards are sharing an interrupt with the video card. And even
> after pulling out all the cards except the video card and pchdtv-3000
> card it still didn't work.
> I do have another pc used as a server i could put it in but don't really
> want to.
> I have also been considering the hdhomerun device. Does anyone know how
> well that works with mythtv ?

The HDHomeRun works fine for me, but so do the pcHDTV cards.
If you search the MythTV mailing lists for 'setpci' you should be
able to find some HOWTO's on setting the PCI latency, which I
believe should work except that some chipsets do not allow you
to change the latencies. In that case only a new motherboard
will solve the problem. You might also want to check dmesg, a
failing hard drive or CD-ROM drive will sometimes swamp the PCI
bus, but in that case dmesg should be giving you error messages.

-- Daniel

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mythtv-dev mailing list
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harley at hpeters

Nov 14, 2006, 2:19 PM

Post #14 of 17 (7320 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 16:00 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
>> Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
>>> Dylan, your problem is almost certainly due to a motherboard
>>> chipset problem. To work around it you will want to make sure
>>> that the pcHDTV card and your video card do not share an
>>> interrupt and you will want to extend your PCI latency to
>>> at least 64 for the pcHDTV card, and reduce the PCI latency
>>> for the video card (especially if it is not an AGP card).
>>> Making the cards not share an interrupt may require changing
>>> which slots on the motherboard they are plugged into if you
>>> can not rearrange them in the BIOS settings. If you have any
>>> further questions reply on the user's list and BCC me so I
>>> don't miss the post there.
>
>> I can confirm this is the problem.
>>
>> When recording via azap and watching another recording the program being
>> recorded via azap was corrupt.
>> Also when recording via mythtv and then dropping back to the console the
>> recording though not perfect was much better than usual.
>> Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be anyway to get it to work either.
>> None of my cards are sharing an interrupt with the video card. And even
>> after pulling out all the cards except the video card and pchdtv-3000
>> card it still didn't work.
>> I do have another pc used as a server i could put it in but don't really
>> want to.
>> I have also been considering the hdhomerun device. Does anyone know how
>> well that works with mythtv ?
>
> The HDHomeRun works fine for me, but so do the pcHDTV cards.
> If you search the MythTV mailing lists for 'setpci' you should be
> able to find some HOWTO's on setting the PCI latency, which I
> believe should work except that some chipsets do not allow you
> to change the latencies. In that case only a new motherboard
> will solve the problem. You might also want to check dmesg, a
> failing hard drive or CD-ROM drive will sometimes swamp the PCI
> bus, but in that case dmesg should be giving you error messages.
>
> -- Daniel
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>

I already use setpci to adjust the latency of the video card. Doesn't
help :(

Something must of changed some where (not mythtv) as this setup used to
work.

Harley

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dylan.semler at gmail

Nov 14, 2006, 11:08 PM

Post #15 of 17 (7312 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

On 11/14/06, Harley Peters <harley [at] hpeters> wrote:
>
> Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> > On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 16:00 -0600, Harley Peters wrote:
> >> Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> >>> Dylan, your problem is almost certainly due to a motherboard
> >>> chipset problem. To work around it you will want to make sure
> >>> that the pcHDTV card and your video card do not share an
> >>> interrupt and you will want to extend your PCI latency to
> >>> at least 64 for the pcHDTV card, and reduce the PCI latency
> >>> for the video card (especially if it is not an AGP card).
> >>> Making the cards not share an interrupt may require changing
> >>> which slots on the motherboard they are plugged into if you
> >>> can not rearrange them in the BIOS settings. If you have any
> >>> further questions reply on the user's list and BCC me so I
> >>> don't miss the post there.
> >
> Something must of changed some where (not mythtv) as this setup used to
> work.

This certainly is an obscure beast. In the past, I've tried removing all
other PCI cards to reduce the chance of a conflict, I've tried unplugging my
extra hard drive and my optical drives to see if it was a power supply
issue. I too have changed the latencies with no avail. I've tried a number
of different nvidia drivers and kernels (all kernels since
2.6.17-2142_FC4and nvidia drivers since 7676). The only success I
have had is reverting
back to my old GeForce 4200 (I run a 6200 now although I've seen this
problem reported with other 6xxx cards). The problem does not exist with
this old card, unfortunately with the old card I no longer get XvMC and am
no longer able to watch HD. So I'm less convinced it's a chipset issue.
Anyways I know this is an OT users-list issue, but since there are others
with this problem I just thought I'd share this information here.

--
Dylan

Type faster. Use Dvorak:
http://dvzine.org

markfrey at fastmail

Nov 15, 2006, 12:54 AM

Post #16 of 17 (7354 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 13:24 -0500, Dylan Semler wrote:
>> On 11/14/06, Harley Peters <harley[at]hpeters.net> wrote:
>> One thing i have noticed is the picture is much better (not
>> perfect)
>> when first tuned to but very quickly turns into a mess. (3 or
>> seconds)
>>
>> Sorry for the interruption, but this last symptom looks very similar
>> to what I experience on all channels. On my system, displaying video
>> (or having any activity on the screen) causes my pcHDTV to loose
>> signal lock. You can test this by using azap to tune a channel and
>> then play the file with xine in a separate terminal while it is still
>> being tuned (perhaps you do this already--if so, ignore this message).
>> When you start playing the file with xine, the pcHDTV will lose signal
>> lock and the quality will degrade. Then when xine catches up to that
>> point in the file, you will see the degradation. Unfortunately, I
>> have not found a solution to this problem.
>
>Harley, can you confirm whether this might be the problem you are
>encountering. Just play a pre-existing recording while you try to
>capture the stream outside MythTV and also try scheduling a
>recording in MythTV and do not view a recording at the same time.
>If the recording you make while you are playing the video is
>corrupted or the video you make with MythTV while not watching
>a recording is not corrupted, then this is probably the problem.
>
>Dylan, your problem is almost certainly due to a motherboard
>chipset problem. To work around it you will want to make sure
>that the pcHDTV card and your video card do not share an
>interrupt and you will want to extend your PCI latency to
>at least 64 for the pcHDTV card, and reduce the PCI latency
>for the video card (especially if it is not an AGP card).
>Making the cards not share an interrupt may require changing
>which slots on the motherboard they are plugged into if you
>can not rearrange them in the BIOS settings. If you have any
>further questions reply on the user's list and BCC me so I
>don't miss the post there.

Myself and a friend also experienced these problems (and I to some extent
still do) and it was only solved by using a different power supply. I tried
messing with BIOS settings, changing slots, changing PCI latency, trying a
pci-based IDE controller. Nothing worked. Tried an old 250W power supply,
problem completely gone. Five different Antec power supplies exhibited this
problem (pcHDTV 3000 stream errors under high system load). Two different
Seasonics exhibited the problem but to a lesser extent (I am using one of
these currently and my only problem now is with live TV). All these power
supplies were 400W or greater. The only power supply to work without issue
is a no-name 250W canibalized from an HP box. One of the motherboards is a
cheap ECI, the other an expensive ASUS. I assume that the power regulation
circuitry is poor on the pcHDTV 3000 and that some combinations of
motherboards and power supplies are just going to exhibit this problem.

Even if this sounds nuts, try another power supply.

-Mark

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adeffs.mythtv at gmail

Nov 15, 2006, 5:12 AM

Post #17 of 17 (7304 views)
Permalink

Re: I am having major problems with pchdtv-3000, cable and svn mythtv. [In reply to]

On 11/15/06, Mark Frey <markfrey [at] fastmail> wrote:
> Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> > On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 13:24 -0500, Dylan Semler wrote:
> >> On 11/14/06, Harley Peters <harley[at]hpeters.net> wrote:
> >> One thing i have noticed is the picture is much better (not
> >> perfect)
> >> when first tuned to but very quickly turns into a mess. (3 or
> >> seconds)
> >>
> >> Sorry for the interruption, but this last symptom looks very similar
> >> to what I experience on all channels. On my system, displaying video
> >> (or having any activity on the screen) causes my pcHDTV to loose
> >> signal lock. You can test this by using azap to tune a channel and
> >> then play the file with xine in a separate terminal while it is still
> >> being tuned (perhaps you do this already--if so, ignore this message).
> >> When you start playing the file with xine, the pcHDTV will lose signal
> >> lock and the quality will degrade. Then when xine catches up to that
> >> point in the file, you will see the degradation. Unfortunately, I
> >> have not found a solution to this problem.
> >
> >Harley, can you confirm whether this might be the problem you are
> >encountering. Just play a pre-existing recording while you try to
> >capture the stream outside MythTV and also try scheduling a
> >recording in MythTV and do not view a recording at the same time.
> >If the recording you make while you are playing the video is
> >corrupted or the video you make with MythTV while not watching
> >a recording is not corrupted, then this is probably the problem.
> >
> >Dylan, your problem is almost certainly due to a motherboard
> >chipset problem. To work around it you will want to make sure
> >that the pcHDTV card and your video card do not share an
> >interrupt and you will want to extend your PCI latency to
> >at least 64 for the pcHDTV card, and reduce the PCI latency
> >for the video card (especially if it is not an AGP card).
> >Making the cards not share an interrupt may require changing
> >which slots on the motherboard they are plugged into if you
> >can not rearrange them in the BIOS settings. If you have any
> >further questions reply on the user's list and BCC me so I
> >don't miss the post there.
>
> Myself and a friend also experienced these problems (and I to some extent
> still do) and it was only solved by using a different power supply. I tried
> messing with BIOS settings, changing slots, changing PCI latency, trying a
> pci-based IDE controller. Nothing worked. Tried an old 250W power supply,
> problem completely gone. Five different Antec power supplies exhibited this
> problem (pcHDTV 3000 stream errors under high system load). Two different
> Seasonics exhibited the problem but to a lesser extent (I am using one of
> these currently and my only problem now is with live TV). All these power
> supplies were 400W or greater. The only power supply to work without issue
> is a no-name 250W canibalized from an HP box. One of the motherboards is a
> cheap ECI, the other an expensive ASUS. I assume that the power regulation
> circuitry is poor on the pcHDTV 3000 and that some combinations of
> motherboards and power supplies are just going to exhibit this problem.
>
> Even if this sounds nuts, try another power supply.

Perhaps this is the same problem I've been seeing... I'll need to try
a different power supply and see what happens.

or I could just ebay the pcHDTV3000 and use the money to buy a third
Aver A180...

--
Steve
Before you ask, read the FAQ!
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions
then search the Wiki, and this list,
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