Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

HDHR Intermittent Recording

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cnlibmyth at gmail

Jan 4, 2008, 7:26 AM

Post #1 of 11 (1323 views)
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HDHR Intermittent Recording

I purchased an HDHR back in September. I upgraded to the latest firmware in
October and it worked perfectly for a couple months. Now, it is
intermittently recording. Sometimes, it records full episodes correctly.
Other times, I go to look at a recording and Myth tells me that it can't
find the video file and there is no preview. If I go to watch LIVE TV, it
says that the tuner is busy. I reboot the backend and the HDHR and it all
seems to go back to normal. Could this possibly be an issue related to the
FW on the HDHR? Are there any logs I can check to see where the problem
lies? Is anyone else having similar issues? My setup is below.

MythDora 4.0
AMD 2600+ on ASUS A7N8X rev 2.0
1GB PC2700
160GB OS Drive
2TB RAID5 mdadm array (170GB free)

Thanks for the help!

Joltman

ctreleaven at cogeco

Jan 4, 2008, 7:39 AM

Post #2 of 11 (1277 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

At 9:26 AM -0600 1/4/08, James Oltman wrote:
>I purchased an HDHR back in September. I upgraded to the latest firmware in October and it worked perfectly for a couple months. Now, it is intermittently recording. Sometimes, it records full episodes correctly. Other times, I go to look at a recording and Myth tells me that it can't find the video file and there is no preview. If I go to watch LIVE TV, it says that the tuner is busy. I reboot the backend and the HDHR and it all seems to go back to normal.

Are you recording QAM or ATSC? How are the HDHR and the computer connected? Have you tried using the hdhomerun_config utility to check signal strength and such?

Craig
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cnlibmyth at gmail

Jan 4, 2008, 8:27 AM

Post #3 of 11 (1288 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

On Jan 4, 2008 9:39 AM, Craig Treleaven <ctreleaven [at] cogeco> wrote:

> At 9:26 AM -0600 1/4/08, James Oltman wrote:
> >I purchased an HDHR back in September. I upgraded to the latest firmware
> in October and it worked perfectly for a couple months. Now, it is
> intermittently recording. Sometimes, it records full episodes correctly.
> Other times, I go to look at a recording and Myth tells me that it can't
> find the video file and there is no preview. If I go to watch LIVE TV, it
> says that the tuner is busy. I reboot the backend and the HDHR and it all
> seems to go back to normal.
>
> Are you recording QAM or ATSC? How are the HDHR and the computer
> connected? Have you tried using the hdhomerun_config utility to check
> signal strength and such?
>
> Craig
>

All excellent questions that I should have known to give before I sent the
first email. OK. I am running ATSC currently. I'm only receiving one
channel, and hence, I'm only recording one channel (local FOX affiliate).
The HDHR is connected to the backend via a secondary NIC dishing out DHCP on
that interface. The signal strength was near 100%. I'll have to try the
config util i have for Windows and see what the story is. I do not have the
util on MythDora, mostly because, I haven't looked for the directions for
the linux version. There is no amp in the mix. Both tuners on the HDHR are
connected to a splitter off of the antenna mounted on a mast 15 feet above
the top of the house. I have no reason to believe that FOX has dropped it's
broadcast strength, because they make the claim that they are the only
broadcaster in our are to broadcast at a megawatt. But I'll check tonight.

Joltman

ylee at pobox

Jan 4, 2008, 9:08 AM

Post #4 of 11 (1282 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

James Oltman <cnlibmyth [at] gmail> says:
> All excellent questions that I should have known to give before I
> sent the first email. OK. I am running ATSC currently. I'm only
> receiving one channel, and hence, I'm only recording one channel
> (local FOX affiliate). The HDHR is connected to the backend via a
> secondary NIC dishing out DHCP on that interface. The signal
> strength was near 100%.

Signal strength by itself is almost meaningless with ATSC. It's
unfortunate that mythfrontend only reports this number. Try this:

hdhomerun_config xxxxxxxx get /tuner0/debug (or /status)

Note three numbers:

ss=0 snq=0 seq=0

ss = signal strength
snq = signal quality
seq = what percentage of the signal over the past second was clean

The key number is snq. In my experience, if snq is higher than 40 or
so, seq will stay at 100 all or most of the time. Higher is, of
course, better. ss matters only to the extent that a stronger signal
contributes to the higher snq, but a ss of 100 by itself guarantees
nothing whatsoever about the quality or usability of the signal.

So, try something like

watch -n 1 hdhomerun_config xxxxxxxx get /tuner0/debug

then use mythfrontend to tune the channels (or channel, in your case)
you want to receive, then use snq to figure out the best antenna location and
orientation.

And, yes, insufficiently-good reception absolutely can help to explain
the issues in your original message. mythbackend doesn't create the
recording file until the signal's locked in. No signal means no
recording.

--
Frontend/backend: P4 3.0GHz, 1.5TB software RAID 5 array
Slave backend: Quad-core Xeon 1.6GHz, 6.6TB sw RAID 6
Video inputs: Four high-definition over FireWire/OTA
Accessories: 47" 1080p LCD, 5.1 digital, and MX-600
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ke-myth at retriever

Jan 4, 2008, 12:41 PM

Post #5 of 11 (1270 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

On Fri, Jan 04, 2008 at 09:08:30AM -0800, Yeechang Lee wrote:
>
> And, yes, insufficiently-good reception absolutely can help to explain
> the issues in your original message. mythbackend doesn't create the
> recording file until the signal's locked in. No signal means no
> recording.

But why does it hang up the backend ? Either it can't
handle not having a signal for a long while (dubious
since the OP claims to get a good signal) or there
is something else going on. My guess is that it was
"busy" before the recording was even attempted.
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cnlibmyth at gmail

Jan 14, 2008, 6:38 PM

Post #6 of 11 (1201 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to everyone. I guess I do have a
life after all! Below is the answer to your question, Yeechang.

> Signal strength by itself is almost meaningless with ATSC. It's
> unfortunate that mythfrontend only reports this number. Try this:
>
> hdhomerun_config xxxxxxxx get /tuner0/debug (or /status)
>

I ran the command as you suggested. Here are the results.

[root [at] MythBacken libhdhomerun]# hdhomerun_config 10106767 get /tuner0/debug
tun: ch=8vsb:557000000 lock=8vsb ss=100 snq=88 seq=100 dbg=23628-8409
dev: resync=0 overflow=0
ts: bps=19392576 ut=50 te=0 miss=0 crc=0
flt: bps=9763968
net: pps=927 buferr=0 neterr=0 stop=0

I then ran it with the watch command. The SNQ never got below 88. If I
interpreted your email correctly, this is a very good thing. Unfortunately,
this problem hasn't happened for about a week. And when it did happen, we
weren't having any weather issues so I don't think that was the problem.
How would I go about figuring this out? If I turn on logging, how bad will
it get? I have a 160GB SATA disk in there as my OS drive. Is logging the
answer? I only record The Simpsons, Family Guy, Star Trek TOS, and now I'm
trying to watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles (I haven't seen it yet, but I am
recording it right now, so I'll give it a shot). Thanks all for your
patience and all your assistance.

Jim

ylee at pobox

Jan 14, 2008, 9:40 PM

Post #7 of 11 (1211 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

James Oltman <cnlibmyth [at] gmail> says:
> I then ran it with the watch command. The SNQ never got below 88.
> If I interpreted your email correctly, this is a very good thing.

Yes.

> Unfortunately, this problem hasn't happened for about a week. And
> when it did happen, we weren't having any weather issues so I don't
> think that was the problem.

Doesn't have to be weather per se. It could be wind moving nearby
trees, it could be a plane flying overhead in the wrong spot (!). Such
are the vagaries of trying to accurately receive a very dense radio
signal like ATSC.

That being said, given how you're already using an outdoor antenna
mast, unless you're very far away from the transmission towers (you
*have* checked your address at <URL:http://www.antennaweb.org/>,
right?), the issues I mentioned above tend more to affect people like
me who use indoor antennas; the SNQ level says as much.

Rereading your original message at
<URL:http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/308154#308154>,
you describe the issue you face as either/or: Either the episode gets
recorded correctly, or it doesn't get recorded at all, which only
happens if the initial signal lock never gets completed,
period. Assuming I'm interpreting your description correctly--that you
never, or almost almost never ever, see several seconds or minutes'
worth of video missing from some of your recordings, which in this
case would almost unquestionably be a sign of intermittent reception
issues--as ke-myth sagely observes in the thread, what you are facing
could very well be a backend (more likely) or HDHomeRun (less likely,
given your use of new firmware) issue. Having no experience with
MythDora I am at a loss.

--
Frontend/backend: P4 3.0GHz, 1.5TB software RAID 5 array
Slave backend: Quad-core Xeon 1.6GHz, 6.6TB sw RAID 6
Video inputs: Four high-definition over FireWire/OTA
Accessories: 47" 1080p LCD, 5.1 digital, and MX-600
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

cnlibmyth at gmail

Jan 22, 2008, 5:41 PM

Post #8 of 11 (1167 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

OK guys, it's happening again. None of my recordings have even shown up in
the Recordings page. I'm trying to view LiveTV now and I get this error:

MythTV is already using all available inputs for the channel you selected.
If you want to watch an in-progress recording, select one from the playback
menu. If you want to watch live TV, cancel one of the in-progress
recordings from the delete menu.

While this is displayed, I have run this:

hdhomerun_config 10106767 get /tuner0/debug

I get this outputs:

tun: ch=auto:867000000 lock=none ss=40 snq=0 seq=0 dbg=16159-6725
dev: resync=1592911 overflow=0
ts: bps=0 ut=0 te=0 miss=0 crc=0
flt: bps=0
net: pps=0 buferr=0 neterr=0 stop=0

When I run it for the other tuner, I get this:

tun: ch=none lock=none ss=0 snq=0 seq=0 dbg=0
dev: resync=0 overflow=0
ts: bps=0 ut=0 te=0 miss=0 crc=0
flt: bps=0
net: pps=0 buferr=0 neterr=0 stop=0

Obviously, the tuners aren't in use. I even ran a scan and dumped it in a
text file. The scan picks up the two digital channels that I get, and shows
them as VERY high signal strength and SNQ.

SCANNING: 557000000 (us-bcast:28)
LOCK: 8vsb (ss=100 snq=74 seq=100)
PROGRAM: 3: 43.1 WYZZ-DT

I don't plan on rebooting either the backend of the HDHR until this gets
resolved. I'll have to wait for my Simpsons fix. Thanks for your help!

phantom1000 at gmail

Jan 22, 2008, 6:28 PM

Post #9 of 11 (1184 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

On Jan 22, 2008 8:41 PM, James Oltman <cnlibmyth [at] gmail> wrote:

> OK guys, it's happening again. None of my recordings have even shown up
> in the Recordings page. I'm trying to view LiveTV now and I get this error:
>
> MythTV is already using all available inputs for the channel you
> selected. If you want to watch an in-progress recording, select one from
> the playback menu. If you want to watch live TV, cancel one of the
> in-progress recordings from the delete menu.
>
> While this is displayed, I have run this:
>
> hdhomerun_config 10106767 get /tuner0/debug
>
> I get this outputs:
>
> tun: ch=auto:867000000 lock=none ss=40 snq=0 seq=0 dbg=16159-6725
> dev: resync=1592911 overflow=0
> ts: bps=0 ut=0 te=0 miss=0 crc=0
> flt: bps=0
> net: pps=0 buferr=0 neterr=0 stop=0
>
>
> When I run it for the other tuner, I get this:
>
> tun: ch=none lock=none ss=0 snq=0 seq=0 dbg=0
> dev: resync=0 overflow=0
> ts: bps=0 ut=0 te=0 miss=0 crc=0
> flt: bps=0
> net: pps=0 buferr=0 neterr=0 stop=0
>
>
> Obviously, the tuners aren't in use. I even ran a scan and dumped it in a
> text file. The scan picks up the two digital channels that I get, and shows
> them as VERY high signal strength and SNQ.
>
> SCANNING: 557000000 (us-bcast:28)
> LOCK: 8vsb (ss=100 snq=74 seq=100)
> PROGRAM: 3: 43.1 WYZZ-DT
>
>
> I don't plan on rebooting either the backend of the HDHR until this gets
> resolved. I'll have to wait for my Simpsons fix. Thanks for your help!
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
Just a thought, but have you tried updating the firmware on the HDHR? There
was a firmware update a while back that addressed an incorrect result in the
way that the HDHR reported one of the signal values.

cnlibmyth at gmail

Jan 22, 2008, 6:43 PM

Post #10 of 11 (1190 views)
Permalink

Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

Yep. The HDHR is running 20080104 (latest). It's been running that for a
couple weeks without this difficulty happening again. Weird.

On Jan 22, 2008 8:28 PM, Rob Burton <phantom1000 [at] gmail> wrote:

>
>
> On Jan 22, 2008 8:41 PM, James Oltman <cnlibmyth [at] gmail> wrote:
>
> > OK guys, it's happening again. None of my recordings have even shown up
> > in the Recordings page. I'm trying to view LiveTV now and I get this error:
> >
> > MythTV is already using all available inputs for the channel you
> > selected. If you want to watch an in-progress recording, select one from
> > the playback menu. If you want to watch live TV, cancel one of the
> > in-progress recordings from the delete menu.
> >
> > While this is displayed, I have run this:
> >
> > hdhomerun_config 10106767 get /tuner0/debug
> >
> > I get this outputs:
> >
> > tun: ch=auto:867000000 lock=none ss=40 snq=0 seq=0 dbg=16159-6725
> > dev: resync=1592911 overflow=0
> > ts: bps=0 ut=0 te=0 miss=0 crc=0
> > flt: bps=0
> > net: pps=0 buferr=0 neterr=0 stop=0
> >
> >
> > When I run it for the other tuner, I get this:
> >
> > tun: ch=none lock=none ss=0 snq=0 seq=0 dbg=0
> > dev: resync=0 overflow=0
> > ts: bps=0 ut=0 te=0 miss=0 crc=0
> > flt: bps=0
> > net: pps=0 buferr=0 neterr=0 stop=0
> >
> >
> > Obviously, the tuners aren't in use. I even ran a scan and dumped it in
> > a text file. The scan picks up the two digital channels that I get, and
> > shows them as VERY high signal strength and SNQ.
> >
> > SCANNING: 557000000 (us-bcast:28)
> > LOCK: 8vsb (ss=100 snq=74 seq=100)
> > PROGRAM: 3: 43.1 WYZZ-DT
> >
> >
> > I don't plan on rebooting either the backend of the HDHR until this gets
> > resolved. I'll have to wait for my Simpsons fix. Thanks for your help!
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
> >
> Just a thought, but have you tried updating the firmware on the HDHR?
> There was a firmware update a while back that addressed an incorrect result
> in the way that the HDHR reported one of the signal values.
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>

cnlibmyth at gmail

Jan 25, 2008, 12:16 PM

Post #11 of 11 (1157 views)
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Re: HDHR Intermittent Recording [In reply to]

Since I didn't hear anything back, I decided to reboot my backend box. Like
usual, LiveTV started working again. Rebooting the HDHR before the backend
had no affect. How can I start logging this to find out what the issue is?

Jim

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