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canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery

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kiksadiweb at gmail

Dec 13, 2009, 11:41 AM

Post #1 of 23 (3876 views)
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canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery

I have been troubleshooting this for a couple months.

Setup:

Ubuntu 8.04 with a master/slave backend mythtv server. These also act as
frontends.

Two hauppauge pvr350s.

Serial->USB converters similar to this setup...
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Controlling_DirectTV_D11_via_USB#The_DirecTV_H21_Satellite_STB

I use NTSC and I don't scan for channels during setup as I live in Alaska.

I use a shared NFS share that resides on the master backend.

This setup has worked flawlessly in the past, save for a problem with my
Directv receivers which have since been updated to H21 models. I am using a
the latest directv.pl script from http://www.pdp8.net/directv/directv.shtml.

I have recorded many gigabytes worth of shows. My problem is I get the
error "canceled recording (Recorder Failed)" from my backend log
intermittently. I have tried deleting all tuner cards and deleting video
sources several times, being very careful to start from a clean
configuration. I've looked at several posts where this solved the similar
problems. When doing this, I am careful to not go to the channel editor
until I mythfilldatabase has been run at least once.

Yet I still get failed recordings. There is no consistent failure (i.e. a
program will fail one time, then succeed another). I have been using manage
recordings to get rid of the failures regularly. One thing I haven't tried
is uninstalling all the mythtv software and reinstalling.

I wonder if there might be a database setting causing this. I would be
bummed to have to wipe out the database and start cleanly, but that may be
what I need to do. Before wiping out and maybe upgrading to the latest
mythbuntu I wanted to see if anyone had other ideas. I have been using
mythtv for a couple years and have been happy with its stability until
recently. Thank you to the developers and to anyone that might help solve
this issue.

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 2, 2010, 12:23 AM

Post #2 of 23 (3707 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Still no solution to the below. Other errors in addition to "Canceled
recording. Recorder failed" include:

Error: Failed to set channel to 241. Reverting to kState_None

This error can happen when watching livetv and trying to change channels
using my remote. I will also get "excessive retries" errors intermittently.

As I said below, I had this working flawlessly before early last summer. It
has been unreliable since then but still does record a fair amount of shows
on each tuner. I wonder if this is specific to Ubuntu's kernel since IVTV
is now included in the kernel and ivtv-utils is the only installable
component for IVTV (that I now of). I am considering once again switching
to Centos which seemed to give me the least amount of problems regarding
reliability. Since the post below I have eliminated the theory that one
version of Ubuntu was better than the other (reinstalling and upgrading to
9.10). I have checked and rechecked permissions, time between both servers,
network and have done much research. I don't see any one else having this
problem. I have also wiped the cards and channel sources a few times,
carefully readding according to documented steps. I am at a loss. The only
thing I can think to try is compiling my own vanilla kernel which I used to
do on a regular basis several years ago.

Does anyone out there have additional ideas? I'd love to hear from you.

On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 10:41 AM, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:

> I have been troubleshooting this for a couple months.
>
> Setup:
>
> Ubuntu 8.04 with a master/slave backend mythtv server. These also act as
> frontends.
>
> Two hauppauge pvr350s.
>
> Serial->USB converters similar to this setup...
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Controlling_DirectTV_D11_via_USB#The_DirecTV_H21_Satellite_STB
>
> I use NTSC and I don't scan for channels during setup as I live in Alaska.
>
> I use a shared NFS share that resides on the master backend.
>
> This setup has worked flawlessly in the past, save for a problem with my
> Directv receivers which have since been updated to H21 models. I am using a
> the latest directv.pl script from
> http://www.pdp8.net/directv/directv.shtml.
>
> I have recorded many gigabytes worth of shows. My problem is I get the
> error "canceled recording (Recorder Failed)" from my backend log
> intermittently. I have tried deleting all tuner cards and deleting video
> sources several times, being very careful to start from a clean
> configuration. I've looked at several posts where this solved the similar
> problems. When doing this, I am careful to not go to the channel editor
> until I mythfilldatabase has been run at least once.
>
> Yet I still get failed recordings. There is no consistent failure (i.e. a
> program will fail one time, then succeed another). I have been using manage
> recordings to get rid of the failures regularly. One thing I haven't tried
> is uninstalling all the mythtv software and reinstalling.
>
> I wonder if there might be a database setting causing this. I would be
> bummed to have to wipe out the database and start cleanly, but that may be
> what I need to do. Before wiping out and maybe upgrading to the latest
> mythbuntu I wanted to see if anyone had other ideas. I have been using
> mythtv for a couple years and have been happy with its stability until
> recently. Thank you to the developers and to anyone that might help solve
> this issue.
>

mythtv at simpletcpip

Feb 2, 2010, 10:09 AM

Post #3 of 23 (3682 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

On 2 February 2010 08:23, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:
> Still no solution to the below. �Other errors in addition to "Canceled
> recording. �Recorder failed" include:

Just a thought - have you switched to VDPAU? For a few months after
switching we had recordings fail randomly. Eventually realised that
the failures only occurred when we had been watching a recording/live
TV when the program was due to record.

Not sure if it was the heat increase or interference from the graphics
card, but after getting a PCI riser and mounting the capture cards
vertically (below and perpendicular to the graphics card) the problems
went away.

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

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 3, 2010, 12:11 AM

Post #4 of 23 (3659 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Thank you Tom. I am looking for suggestions just like this. After seeing
your reply I switched my driver to VDPAU using Ubuntu's repositories. I
will need to test it for a couple days to see if that alone may have made a
difference. I will also swap the cards into different PCI slots and crank
my adjustable fan up a notch to see if indeed they may be overheating as
well. Thanks for your reply. I will post my results this weekend.

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 9:09 AM, Tom Gerrard <mythtv [at] simpletcpip> wrote:

> On 2 February 2010 08:23, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:
> > Still no solution to the below. Other errors in addition to "Canceled
> > recording. Recorder failed" include:
>
> Just a thought - have you switched to VDPAU? For a few months after
> switching we had recordings fail randomly. Eventually realised that
> the failures only occurred when we had been watching a recording/live
> TV when the program was due to record.
>
> Not sure if it was the heat increase or interference from the graphics
> card, but after getting a PCI riser and mounting the capture cards
> vertically (below and perpendicular to the graphics card) the problems
> went away.
>
> Tom
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 3, 2010, 12:14 AM

Post #5 of 23 (3660 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Oh, duh. After reading your reply closer I see you weren't actually
suggesting I switch to VDPAU correct? Nevertheless I did and it improved my
display nicely. Again, I'll post results.

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 11:11 PM, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:

> Thank you Tom. I am looking for suggestions just like this. After seeing
> your reply I switched my driver to VDPAU using Ubuntu's repositories. I
> will need to test it for a couple days to see if that alone may have made a
> difference. I will also swap the cards into different PCI slots and crank
> my adjustable fan up a notch to see if indeed they may be overheating as
> well. Thanks for your reply. I will post my results this weekend.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 9:09 AM, Tom Gerrard <mythtv [at] simpletcpip>wrote:
>
>> On 2 February 2010 08:23, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:
>> > Still no solution to the below. Other errors in addition to "Canceled
>> > recording. Recorder failed" include:
>>
>> Just a thought - have you switched to VDPAU? For a few months after
>> switching we had recordings fail randomly. Eventually realised that
>> the failures only occurred when we had been watching a recording/live
>> TV when the program was due to record.
>>
>> Not sure if it was the heat increase or interference from the graphics
>> card, but after getting a PCI riser and mounting the capture cards
>> vertically (below and perpendicular to the graphics card) the problems
>> went away.
>>
>> Tom
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing list
>> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
>> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>
>
>

knowledgejunkie at gmail

Feb 3, 2010, 12:27 AM

Post #6 of 23 (3663 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

On 2 February 2010 08:23, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:
> Still no solution to the below. �Other errors in addition to "Canceled
> recording. �Recorder failed" include:
> Error: Failed to set channel to 241. Reverting to kState_None
> This error can happen when watching livetv and trying to change channels
> using my remote. �I will also get "excessive retries" errors intermittently.

You may get additional debug info if you add the "record,channel,file"
logging options to your backend's logfile whilst you are investigating
this problem.

You could also check the syslog after boot to make sure the two
PVR-350 cards are being detected correctly and are finding and loading
the correct firmware, and check dmesg during recordings to make suer
there are no kernel-related messages being emitted.

Cheers,
Nick

--
Nick Morrott

MythTV Official wiki: http://mythtv.org/wiki/
MythTV users list archive: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 5, 2010, 10:12 PM

Post #7 of 23 (3567 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Thanks for replying to this post. I am trying your suggestions, though I'm
unsure how to add the logging options.
I still have problems with failed recordings. However moving the card has
made my fans stop working so hard.
I suppose the chassis was getting too warm so it was kicking the fans on at
times. Here are some errors I am
still getting and have been getting for quite some time:

2010-02-05 21:00:56.802 MainServer::ANN Playback
2010-02-05 21:00:56.802 adding: katlian as a client (events: 0)
2010-02-05 21:00:56.804 TVRec(1): Changing from None to Watching
WatchingLiveTV
2010-02-05 21:00:56.808 TVRec(1): HW Tuner: 1->1
2010-02-05 21:00:57.710 ret_pid(12717) child(12717) status(0x0)
2010-02-05 21:00:57.711 External Tuning program exited with no error
2010-02-05 21:00:57.818 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space:
2.0 GB w/freq: 15 min
*********************** WARNING ***********************
ivtv drivers prior to 0.10.0 can cause lockups when
reading VBI. Drivers between 0.10.5 and 1.0.3+ do not
properly capture VBI data on PVR-250 and PVR-350 cards.

2010-02-05 21:00:59.923 RecBase(1:/dev/video0):
GetKeyframePositions(31,9223372036854775807,#0) out of 3
2010-02-05 21:01:11.575 TVRec(1): HW Tuner: 1->1
2010-02-05 21:01:12.792 ret_pid(0) child(12733) status(0x0)
2010-02-05 21:01:13.793 ret_pid(0) child(12733) status(0x0)
2010-02-05 21:01:14.794 ret_pid(0) child(12733) status(0x0)
2010-02-05 21:01:15.795 ret_pid(0) child(12733) status(0x0)
Excessive channel change retries, commanded 206 got 13
2010-02-05 21:01:16.796 ret_pid(0) child(12733) status(0x0)
2010-02-05 21:01:16.909 ret_pid(12733) child(12733) status(0xff00)
2010-02-05 21:01:16.910 ChannelBase: external tuning program exited with
error 255
2010-02-05 21:01:16.911 TVRec(1) Error: Failed to set channel to 206.
Reverting to kState_None
2010-02-05 21:01:16.913 TVRec(1): Changing from Watching WatchingLiveTV to
None
2010-02-05 21:01:16.915 Unknown type, recording width was 0
2010-02-05 21:01:18.653 MainServer::ANN Playback
2010-02-05 21:01:18.654 adding: katlian as a client (events: 0)
2010-02-05 21:01:18.684 MainServer::ANN Playback
2010-02-05 21:01:18.688 adding: katlian as a client (events: 0)
2010-02-05 21:01:18.690 TVRec(1): Changing from None to Watching
WatchingLiveTV
2010-02-05 21:01:18.694 TVRec(1): HW Tuner: 1->1
2010-02-05 21:01:19.741 ret_pid(0) child(12738) status(0x0)
2010-02-05 21:01:20.065 ret_pid(12738) child(12738) status(0x0)
2010-02-05 21:01:20.066 External Tuning program exited with no error
2010-02-05 21:01:20.149 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space:
2.0 GB w/freq: 15 min

This happens when watching livetv and trying to switch channels. I also see
similar errors when scheduled recordinngs fail. Thanks again for any ideas.

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 11:27 PM, Nick Morrott <knowledgejunkie [at] gmail>wrote:

> On 2 February 2010 08:23, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:
> > Still no solution to the below. Other errors in addition to "Canceled
> > recording. Recorder failed" include:
> > Error: Failed to set channel to 241. Reverting to kState_None
> > This error can happen when watching livetv and trying to change channels
> > using my remote. I will also get "excessive retries" errors
> intermittently.
>
> You may get additional debug info if you add the "record,channel,file"
> logging options to your backend's logfile whilst you are investigating
> this problem.
>
> You could also check the syslog after boot to make sure the two
> PVR-350 cards are being detected correctly and are finding and loading
> the correct firmware, and check dmesg during recordings to make suer
> there are no kernel-related messages being emitted.
>
> Cheers,
> Nick
>
> --
> Nick Morrott
>
> MythTV Official wiki: http://mythtv.org/wiki/
> MythTV users list archive:
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users
>
> "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin
> Franklin
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

djg at pdp8online

Feb 6, 2010, 12:14 PM

Post #8 of 23 (3527 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

This error
Excessive channel change retries, commanded 206 got 13
indicates the script tried several times to switch to channel 206 but
the box kept returning that it was still on channel 13.

Since you indicate it is somewhat repeatable can you directly watch the
TV output of the box during a failed channel change and see what the
on screen display says is happening and if the channel does change?

Are you setting a boxtype on the channel change command?
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 6, 2010, 11:24 PM

Post #9 of 23 (3512 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Hello David,

Thanks for the reply. Yes I do have the box type set. Though it is an H21,
using H20 (set in directv.pl) works fine as I don't see any references to
H21 in your script.
When changing channels watching live tv and attempting to change channels, I
see "Irrecoverable Recorder Error" on the screen after it returns to the
main Frontend menu.
On
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Controlling_DirecTV_Set_Top_Box_%28STB%29_via_USB_or_Serialthe
person mentions needing to enable hardware
support in order for the script to work reliably. Though I've never felt
the need to do this before, I would like to try but where do I set that?

In live tv, it's pretty consistent that I can "start" watching live tv, but
when trying to change a channel, I get the error. It will give a blank
screen, sometimes
even look like it almost makes it, then fails. Other times it works, and
even other times after watching for a period of time, say an hour, live tv
will shut off and
return to the main screen.

The external channel change parameter I use is
"/usr/local/bin/directv.plsetup_channel." The script is owned and
group owned by mythtv and the
permissions are
set to 755. I have read where some people thought the serial port
permissions may have kept them from changing channels but I don't believe
this is the case. The
permssions on that file are:

crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 2010-02-06 15:25 /dev/ttyUSB0

To fix changing channels I often restart mythbackend, or unplug/replug my
usb->serial plug. If that fails, I remove all cards/video sources and
re-add them. As you can imagine
I get tired of this. But for free all this software still rocks so I'm not
complaining.

Thanks again for writing. I'll keep on plugging on this because I know it
will work. It has to be something simple that I am just not seeing.

On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 11:14 AM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online> wrote:

> This error
> Excessive channel change retries, commanded 206 got 13
> indicates the script tried several times to switch to channel 206 but
> the box kept returning that it was still on channel 13.
>
> Since you indicate it is somewhat repeatable can you directly watch the
> TV output of the box during a failed channel change and see what the
> on screen display says is happening and if the channel does change?
>
> Are you setting a boxtype on the channel change command?
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

djg at pdp8online

Feb 8, 2010, 10:07 AM

Post #10 of 23 (3439 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

I put a test copy of the script at
http://www.pdp8online.com/directv/directv_test.pl

> When changing channels watching live tv and attempting to change channels, I
> see "Irrecoverable Recorder Error" on the screen after it returns to the
> main Frontend menu.
>
What I was wanting to see was the video out of the H21 while the channel
change in trying to occur. You can either do that by directly plugging a
TV into the box or it should work if you watch live tv on myth then run the
script manually from a terminal window.

With the current script the channel change is done by sending the channel
number as button presses on the remote like you would do it manually so
you should see that occur (rapidly) on the screen. Since it turns the OSD
off after sending the channel change it may be hard to see.

First using the current script and either by watching a directly connected
tv or manually running the script change channels until it fails then
see what the box says.

To run it manually run it with the same arguments you specified in your
external channel change command.
/usr/local/bin/directv.pl setup_channel #
where # is the channel to change to. I assume you edited the script to
set the default box type etc since you didn't have that on your external
channel change command.

Assuming that fails and its not obvious why then try the new script the
same way. The only change in this case is I increased the time before
turning off the OSD so you should be able to see whats going on better.
(I changed to $clear_osd_delay = 3.2;)

Assuming that fails and its not obvious why then you can try setting the
box_type to H21. The directv protocol has two ways of changing channels.
On some boxes the firmware doesn't process the direct channel change command
so the H20 setting is using the remote key method. The H21 setting will
now use the other channel change command. See how that works.

The last option is trying hardware flow control.
First try the statserial command to see what your serial port control
signals are set to. (you may need to install statserial package)
statserial /dev/ttyS0 (or whatever port you are using)
if it shows
CTS 5 8 in 0 Clear To Send
the hardware flow control signals probably aren't set/hooked up so you
will likely just get timeouts.

Run the new script with the hardflow option and see if it works any different.
/usr/local/bin/directv.pl hardflow setup_channel #

Let me know what the results of these tests are. You can also add
verbose to the start of the arguments to see the data transfered which
may show something.

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

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 9, 2010, 12:08 AM

Post #11 of 23 (3410 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

David,

Thanks again. I will report back this weekend on any results should I need
to do this. An interesting thing is happening since I wiped the
cards and schedule source two nights ago. When reconfiguring this time I
tried the external channel change command:
/usr/local/bin/directv.pl

on its own, with no parameters. I haven't had a failed recording since
then. I'm skeptical in can be "that easy" but stranger things have
happened. If/when I do get a failure I will use the instructions and test
script to get more information. If you want, even if there are no more
odd failures I can set my system back to the way it was when the failures
were happening to see what was going on.

Either way I will report back this weekend and hope that I can close the
book on this problem. Thanks again.

On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 9:07 AM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online> wrote:

> I put a test copy of the script at
> http://www.pdp8online.com/directv/directv_test.pl
>
> > When changing channels watching live tv and attempting to change
> channels, I
> > see "Irrecoverable Recorder Error" on the screen after it returns to the
> > main Frontend menu.
> >
> What I was wanting to see was the video out of the H21 while the channel
> change in trying to occur. You can either do that by directly plugging a
> TV into the box or it should work if you watch live tv on myth then run the
> script manually from a terminal window.
>
> With the current script the channel change is done by sending the channel
> number as button presses on the remote like you would do it manually so
> you should see that occur (rapidly) on the screen. Since it turns the OSD
> off after sending the channel change it may be hard to see.
>
> First using the current script and either by watching a directly connected
> tv or manually running the script change channels until it fails then
> see what the box says.
>
> To run it manually run it with the same arguments you specified in your
> external channel change command.
> /usr/local/bin/directv.pl setup_channel #
> where # is the channel to change to. I assume you edited the script to
> set the default box type etc since you didn't have that on your external
> channel change command.
>
> Assuming that fails and its not obvious why then try the new script the
> same way. The only change in this case is I increased the time before
> turning off the OSD so you should be able to see whats going on better.
> (I changed to $clear_osd_delay = 3.2;)
>
> Assuming that fails and its not obvious why then you can try setting the
> box_type to H21. The directv protocol has two ways of changing channels.
> On some boxes the firmware doesn't process the direct channel change
> command
> so the H20 setting is using the remote key method. The H21 setting will
> now use the other channel change command. See how that works.
>
> The last option is trying hardware flow control.
> First try the statserial command to see what your serial port control
> signals are set to. (you may need to install statserial package)
> statserial /dev/ttyS0 (or whatever port you are using)
> if it shows
> CTS 5 8 in 0 Clear To Send
> the hardware flow control signals probably aren't set/hooked up so you
> will likely just get timeouts.
>
> Run the new script with the hardflow option and see if it works any
> different.
> /usr/local/bin/directv.pl hardflow setup_channel #
>
> Let me know what the results of these tests are. You can also add
> verbose to the start of the arguments to see the data transfered which
> may show something.
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

djg at pdp8online

Feb 9, 2010, 5:13 PM

Post #12 of 23 (3355 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

> Thanks again. I will report back this weekend on any results should I need
> to do this. An interesting thing is happening since I wiped the
> cards and schedule source two nights ago. When reconfiguring this time I
> tried the external channel change command:
> /usr/local/bin/directv.pl
> on its own, with no parameters. I haven't had a failed recording since
> then.
>
The difference is setup_channel sends the sequence box on, channel
change, OSD off, then verifies channel changed and retries if not correct.

Without it all it does is send the channel change command. Since it doesn't
check the channel you can't get this error:
Excessive channel change retries, commanded 206 got 13

Instead you may get a recording of the wrong station. It would be good if
you have the time to track down why the setup_channel doesn't work.
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 10, 2010, 12:29 PM

Post #13 of 23 (3316 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

That's right. I'll have time this weekend to do some more troubleshooting.
Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know what I see.

On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 4:13 PM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online> wrote:

> > Thanks again. I will report back this weekend on any results should I
> need
> > to do this. An interesting thing is happening since I wiped the
> > cards and schedule source two nights ago. When reconfiguring this time I
> > tried the external channel change command:
> > /usr/local/bin/directv.pl
> > on its own, with no parameters. I haven't had a failed recording since
> > then.
> >
> The difference is setup_channel sends the sequence box on, channel
> change, OSD off, then verifies channel changed and retries if not correct.
>
> Without it all it does is send the channel change command. Since it doesn't
> check the channel you can't get this error:
> Excessive channel change retries, commanded 206 got 13
>
> Instead you may get a recording of the wrong station. It would be good if
> you have the time to track down why the setup_channel doesn't work.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 17, 2010, 9:26 AM

Post #14 of 23 (3077 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

This is some testing I was able to do over the last couple of days. I put
the test script in place of the original. It has had a pretty good rate of
success until I started "messing" with it by
trying to watch live tv. When changing channels with the keyboard, it
worked without error quite a few times. Actually I couldn't get it to fail
with the keyboard method
(running "directv.pl setup_channel"). I noticed any 3 digit channel change
would first try to go to the first number of the channel sequence. For
example, changing to 206 would first try changing
to channel 2 until it got the rest of the numbers, then finally change to
206. Amazingly it was successful each time (out of 10 or so changes).

Using my Harmony 880 however was unsuccessful nearly every time. I would
see a blank screen for several seconds then it would bounce back to the main
menu with "Irrecoverable error."
I would love to stop there and say the remote was the only problem but I
still see where I get "Canceled recording: Recorder failed" on some
occasions when it has tried running a scheduled
recording. Next I will change the box type to H21 and see how that goes. I
hope to do this tonight if possible. I will also use the original remote
for the PVR350 to see if it fails as the Harmony
does.

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 11:29 AM, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:

> That's right. I'll have time this weekend to do some more troubleshooting.
> Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know what I see.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 4:13 PM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online> wrote:
>
>> > Thanks again. I will report back this weekend on any results should I
>> need
>> > to do this. An interesting thing is happening since I wiped the
>> > cards and schedule source two nights ago. When reconfiguring this time I
>> > tried the external channel change command:
>> > /usr/local/bin/directv.pl
>> > on its own, with no parameters. I haven't had a failed recording since
>> > then.
>> >
>> The difference is setup_channel sends the sequence box on, channel
>> change, OSD off, then verifies channel changed and retries if not correct.
>>
>> Without it all it does is send the channel change command. Since it
>> doesn't
>> check the channel you can't get this error:
>> Excessive channel change retries, commanded 206 got 13
>>
>> Instead you may get a recording of the wrong station. It would be good if
>> you have the time to track down why the setup_channel doesn't work.
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing list
>> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
>> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>
>
>

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 19, 2010, 2:10 PM

Post #15 of 23 (2999 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Here is what I seen last night when a scheduled recording failed and I tried
to manually start it. I selected to start watching livetv. It would bounce
me back to the menu. This is using the
test script. I restarted the backend but it would not let me watch livetv.
I rebooted. Again, it wouldn't let me watch livetv. It came up with the
message on the screen "Could not connect to
the master backend server -- is it running? is the ip address set for it in
the setup program correct?" Of course it was and as far as I could tell,
the mythbackend was running.

After stopping and restarting the backend a couple more times, it finally
let me watch livetv, at which time I used the keyboard to change to the
channel I wanted to record. I manually started
the recording. It was supposed to record until 11pm but stopped at 9:30pm.
After this, I began testing using the box_type=H21 in the test script. It
let me watch live tv, change channels without
failure both with the keyboard and the Harmony remote.

I noticed though, when changing with the keyboard, before it changed to the
right channel, the channel I was originally on (NBC), would
quickly flash on the screen. Even if I was on that channel several channel
changes previous. So for example, I started on channel 5, NBC. I changed
to 206 successfuly. I changed to 550, and
before changing to that channel, it would flash channel 5 on the screen.
This happened every time I changed channels with the keyboard thereafter
for several more changes. I can't explain any
better than that.

So this indeed is a strange issue. Sorry the time I spent troubleshooting
was a bit lagged. I think I'll have more time to test in the next couple
days.

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 8:26 AM, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:

> This is some testing I was able to do over the last couple of days. I put
> the test script in place of the original. It has had a pretty good rate of
> success until I started "messing" with it by
> trying to watch live tv. When changing channels with the keyboard, it
> worked without error quite a few times. Actually I couldn't get it to fail
> with the keyboard method
> (running "directv.pl setup_channel"). I noticed any 3 digit channel
> change would first try to go to the first number of the channel sequence.
> For example, changing to 206 would first try changing
> to channel 2 until it got the rest of the numbers, then finally change to
> 206. Amazingly it was successful each time (out of 10 or so changes).
>
> Using my Harmony 880 however was unsuccessful nearly every time. I would
> see a blank screen for several seconds then it would bounce back to the main
> menu with "Irrecoverable error."
> I would love to stop there and say the remote was the only problem but I
> still see where I get "Canceled recording: Recorder failed" on some
> occasions when it has tried running a scheduled
> recording. Next I will change the box type to H21 and see how that goes.
> I hope to do this tonight if possible. I will also use the original remote
> for the PVR350 to see if it fails as the Harmony
> does.
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 11:29 AM, Bob Gamble <kiksadiweb [at] gmail> wrote:
>
>> That's right. I'll have time this weekend to do some more
>> troubleshooting. Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know what I see.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 4:13 PM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online>wrote:
>>
>>> > Thanks again. I will report back this weekend on any results should I
>>> need
>>> > to do this. An interesting thing is happening since I wiped the
>>> > cards and schedule source two nights ago. When reconfiguring this time
>>> I
>>> > tried the external channel change command:
>>> > /usr/local/bin/directv.pl
>>> > on its own, with no parameters. I haven't had a failed recording since
>>> > then.
>>> >
>>> The difference is setup_channel sends the sequence box on, channel
>>> change, OSD off, then verifies channel changed and retries if not
>>> correct.
>>>
>>> Without it all it does is send the channel change command. Since it
>>> doesn't
>>> check the channel you can't get this error:
>>> Excessive channel change retries, commanded 206 got 13
>>>
>>> Instead you may get a recording of the wrong station. It would be good if
>>> you have the time to track down why the setup_channel doesn't work.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
>>> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>
>>
>>
>

djg at pdp8online

Feb 21, 2010, 9:07 AM

Post #16 of 23 (2912 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

> Using my Harmony 880 however was unsuccessful nearly every time. I would
> see a blank screen for several seconds then it would bounce back to the main
> menu with "Irrecoverable error."
>
What does the mythbackend log say went wrong at the time this failed? If
it is an error from the directv script like the retry message we need to
try changing both the myth external channel change command to verbose and
then try the same from the command line to try to figure out why they act
different.

> Again, it wouldn't let me watch livetv. It came up with the
> message on the screen "Could not connect to
> the master backend server -- is it running?
>
You may have more than one problem. Does the backend log have channel
change errors at this time or is it a different error? Does the front end
messages say anything useful? I wouldn't expect the connection problem to be
related to the directv script.

The exact error messages are important for trying to track down the problem

> I noticed though, when changing with the keyboard, before it changed to the
> right channel, the channel I was originally on (NBC), would
> quickly flash on the screen. Even if I was on that channel several channel
> changes previous. So for example, I started on channel 5, NBC. I changed
> to 206 successfuly. I changed to 550, and
> before changing to that channel, it would flash channel 5 on the screen.
>
I have seen this on my system also. I see it as a static picture of the
wrong channel before the correct video starts displaying. It isn't coming
from my box. I assume myth is reusing old data but I have not looked into
it since it doesn't seem to cause problems.

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

kiksadiweb at gmail

Feb 27, 2010, 4:00 PM

Post #17 of 23 (2726 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

I'll try to give the exact errors per event. This is what I got tonight
when a scheduled recording failed...this is the backend log:

2010-02-22 18:21:04.955 UPnpMedia: BuildMediaMap VIDEO scan starting in
:/var/lib/mythtv/videos:
2010-02-22 18:21:04.958 UPnpMedia: BuildMediaMap Done. Found 4 objects
2010-02-22 18:28:01.093 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space:
1.0 GB w/freq: 15 min
2010-02-22 18:43:01.152 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space:
1.0 GB w/freq: 15 min
2010-02-22 18:51:06.960 UPnpMedia: BuildMediaMap VIDEO scan starting in
:/var/lib/mythtv/videos:
2010-02-22 18:51:06.963 UPnpMedia: BuildMediaMap Done. Found 4 objects
2010-02-22 18:58:01.210 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space:
1.0 GB w/freq: 15 min
2010-02-22 18:59:00.949 Reschedule requested for id 0.
2010-02-22 18:59:01.441 Scheduled 162 items in 0.5 = 0.00 match + 0.49 place
2010-02-22 18:59:01.444 scheduler: Scheduled items: Scheduled 162 items in
0.5 = 0.00 match + 0.49 place
2010-02-22 19:00:05.181 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space:
1.0 GB w/freq: 15 min
2010-02-22 19:00:05.183 Canceled recording (Recorder Failed): XXI Winter
Olympics "Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping": channel 1005 on
cardid 2, sourceid 1
2010-02-22 19:00:05.185 scheduler: Canceled recording (Recorder Failed): XXI
Winter Olympics "Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping": channel
1005 on cardid 2, sourceid 1
2010-02-22 19:00:06.187 Reschedule requested for id 0.
2010-02-22 19:00:06.687 Scheduled 162 items in 0.5 = 0.00 match + 0.50 place
2010-02-22 19:00:06.690 scheduler: Scheduled items: Scheduled 162 items in
0.5 = 0.00 match + 0.50 place
2010-02-22 19:00:12.423 Reschedule requested for id 0.

But then (a few days later) I lost ability on my other tuner with the
"Excessive channel retries" error showing up repeatedly. After a restarting
mythtv-backend, rebooting, and resetting the directv box it finally came
back. I would get the same "Irrecoverable error" showing on the screen when
tryint to change
channels. This time I got a good chunk of interesting errors, most of which
I've seen before but couldn't figure out. The first line had repeated
multiple times, I think from when I tried changing a channel when on live
tv:

2010-02-27 14:07:26.343 [mpeg2video @ 0x69406c0]Missing picture start code
2010-02-27 14:07:51.915 mythbackend: Running housekeeping thread
2010-02-27 14:19:08.849 MainServer::ANN Playback
2010-02-27 14:19:08.893 adding: katlian as a client (events: 0)
2010-02-27 14:19:08.942 TVRec(2): Changing from None to Watching
WatchingLiveTV
2010-02-27 14:19:08.989 TVRec(2): HW Tuner: 2->2
2010-02-27 14:19:10.168 ret_pid(3926) child(3926) status(0x0)
2010-02-27 14:19:10.219 External Tuning program exited with no error
*********************** WARNING ***********************
ivtv drivers prior to 0.10.0 can cause lockups when
reading VBI. Drivers between 0.10.5 and 1.0.3+ do not
properly capture VBI data on PVR-250 and PVR-350 cards.

2010-02-27 14:19:10.699 MainServer::ANN Playback
2010-02-27 14:19:10.920 adding: katlian as a client (events: 0)
2010-02-27 14:19:10.963 MainServer::HandleAnnounce FileTransfer
2010-02-27 14:19:11.003 adding: katlian as a remote file transfer
2010-02-27 14:19:12.784 RecBase(2:/dev/video0):
GetKeyframePositions(1,9223372036854775807,#2) out of 3
2010-02-27 14:19:30.517 TVRec(2): HW Tuner: 2->2
2010-02-27 14:19:31.804 ret_pid(0) child(3942) status(0x0)
2010-02-27 14:19:32.833 ret_pid(0) child(3942) status(0x0)
Excessive channel change retries, commanded 202 got 247
2010-02-27 14:19:33.668 ret_pid(3942) child(3942) status(0xff00)
2010-02-27 14:19:33.707 ChannelBase: external tuning program exited with
error 255
2010-02-27 14:19:33.741 TVRec(2) Error: Failed to set channel to 202.
Reverting to kState_None
2010-02-27 14:19:33.774 TVRec(2): Changing from Watching WatchingLiveTV to
None
2010-02-27 14:19:33.892 Unknown type, recording width was 0
2010-02-27 14:19:39.070 MainServer::ANN Playback
2010-02-27 14:19:39.114 adding: katlian as a client (events: 0)
2010-02-27 14:19:39.193 MainServer::ANN Playback
2010-02-27 14:19:39.239 adding: katlian as a client (events: 0)
2010-02-27 14:19:39.285 TVRec(2): Changing from None to Watching
WatchingLiveTV
2010-02-27 14:19:39.336 TVRec(2): HW Tuner: 2->2
2010-02-27 14:19:40.399 ret_pid(3947) child(3947) status(0x0)
2010-02-27 14:19:40.457 External Tuning program exited with no error
*********************** WARNING ***********************
ivtv drivers prior to 0.10.0 can cause lockups when
reading VBI. Drivers between 0.10.5 and 1.0.3+ do not
properly capture VBI data on PVR-250 and PVR-350 cards.

2010-02-27 14:19:40.936 MainServer, Warning: Unknown socket closing
MythSocket(0xffffffffb430c428)
2010-02-27 14:19:40.946 MainServer::ANN Playback
2010-02-27 14:19:41.033 adding: katlian as a client (events: 0)
2010-02-27 14:19:40.984 MythSocket(ffffffffb430c428:-1): writeStringList:
Error, socket went unconnected.
We wrote 0 of 10 bytes with 1 errors
2010-02-27 14:19:41.076 MainServer::HandleAnnounce FileTransfer
2010-02-27 14:19:41.175 adding: katlian as a remote file transfer
2010-02-27 14:19:41.544 TVRec(2): Changing from Watching WatchingLiveTV to
None
2010-02-27 14:19:41.594 Unknown type, recording width was 0
2010-02-27 14:19:41.941 Finished recording The King of Queens "Dog Shelter":
channel 1247
2010-02-27 14:19:41.998 scheduler: Finished recording: The King of Queens
"Dog Shelter": channel 1247

So there is probably a good capture of the errors I have seen while trying
to figure this problem out. Periodically the tuners will lose connection
and throw the "excessive retries" error. At that point the only way to
recover is to unplug the usb connection that connects the directv box
to the computer. Then resetting the directv box a couple times until it
grabs the connection again. Strange.

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 8:07 AM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online> wrote:

> > Using my Harmony 880 however was unsuccessful nearly every time. I would
> > see a blank screen for several seconds then it would bounce back to the
> main
> > menu with "Irrecoverable error."
> >
> What does the mythbackend log say went wrong at the time this failed? If
> it is an error from the directv script like the retry message we need to
> try changing both the myth external channel change command to verbose and
> then try the same from the command line to try to figure out why they act
> different.
>
> > Again, it wouldn't let me watch livetv. It came up with the
> > message on the screen "Could not connect to
> > the master backend server -- is it running?
> >
> You may have more than one problem. Does the backend log have channel
> change errors at this time or is it a different error? Does the front end
> messages say anything useful? I wouldn't expect the connection problem to
> be
> related to the directv script.
>
> The exact error messages are important for trying to track down the problem
>
> > I noticed though, when changing with the keyboard, before it changed to
> the
> > right channel, the channel I was originally on (NBC), would
> > quickly flash on the screen. Even if I was on that channel several
> channel
> > changes previous. So for example, I started on channel 5, NBC. I changed
> > to 206 successfuly. I changed to 550, and
> > before changing to that channel, it would flash channel 5 on the screen.
> >
> I have seen this on my system also. I see it as a static picture of the
> wrong channel before the correct video starts displaying. It isn't coming
> from my box. I assume myth is reusing old data but I have not looked into
> it since it doesn't seem to cause problems.
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

djg at pdp8online

Mar 1, 2010, 6:16 PM

Post #18 of 23 (2664 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

The first failure Canceled recording (Recorder Failed): XXI Winter doesn't
seem to have any obvious error. I would recommend checking
/var/log/messages for any errors around the failed recording time and
dmesg output. I'm unlikely to be able to help with this one.

The second error Excessive channel change retries, commanded 202 got 247
is the script failing. It commanded the box to switch to 202 but it stayed
on 247.

Did you test the modified script with box_type H21? That uses a
different command so may work.

Also at one point you were testing the script without the setup channel.
Did that always work or did you sometimes get the wrong channel?

If the H21 doesn't fix the problem is their any way you can directly
hook a TV to your box so you can see what is happening during a failed
channel change?
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

kiksadiweb at gmail

Mar 2, 2010, 10:14 AM

Post #19 of 23 (2626 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Sorry, I'll try to make this as understandable as I can. I was using your
test script when getting these errors. I edited it to put H21 on my main
server. I think
the secondary server may have a tuner in it with different firmware because
it wouldn't work with H21, only H20. This line repeated many times:

2010-02-27 14:07:26.343 [mpeg2video @ 0x69406c0]Missing picture start code

Then the rest of what I pasted above referring to the excessive channel
retries. It is so strange how both tuners will have the same behavior.
They are using the same
usb->serial connectors and same null modem type. When it works it is a
great thing to see. But when it fails, it fails miserably and I have a hard
time getting it
to even watch live tv.

When I took the "setup_channel" argument out it did as you said and recorded
the wrong channel on many occasions. I put the argument back in with the
test script
and changed the box type on the main server. During the Olympics, believe
I only had three failures with this setup.

Could both my cards be going bad? If they are is there some other card you
can recommend? I don't need an HD tuner card as I understand directv won't
let
me record HD. I hope to get to a point where this will work again. I am
sure I had it working like a top at one time before the directv stbs went
out on me. At
that time I was using centos. Though I had other issues with the OS, they
weren't related to changing channels. The kernel I used then didn't include
ivtv built
in so I always had to install the module with an kernel update. I hope this
isn't the case, but I wonder if mythbuntu's kernel is just buggy with
mythtv.

I will try snagging a small tv I can test with. I'm pretty sure that won't
be a problem. So what I'd need to do is plug the tv into the pvr350 and see
what happens
when changing channels?

Thanks very much for your help.
On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 5:16 PM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online> wrote:

> The first failure Canceled recording (Recorder Failed): XXI Winter doesn't
> seem to have any obvious error. I would recommend checking
> /var/log/messages for any errors around the failed recording time and
> dmesg output. I'm unlikely to be able to help with this one.
>
> The second error Excessive channel change retries, commanded 202 got 247
> is the script failing. It commanded the box to switch to 202 but it stayed
> on 247.
>
> Did you test the modified script with box_type H21? That uses a
> different command so may work.
>
> Also at one point you were testing the script without the setup channel.
> Did that always work or did you sometimes get the wrong channel?
>
> If the H21 doesn't fix the problem is their any way you can directly
> hook a TV to your box so you can see what is happening during a failed
> channel change?
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

djg at pdp8online

Mar 7, 2010, 4:47 PM

Post #20 of 23 (2446 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

I get these. They don't seem to indicate anything serious.
> 2010-02-27 14:07:26.343 [mpeg2video @ 0x69406c0]Missing picture start code

> I think the secondary server may have a tuner in it with different firmware
> because it wouldn't work with H21, only H20.
>
Probably one of the status/setup screens shows the firmware version.

> Could both my cards be going bad? If they are is there some other card you
> can recommend?
>
The channel change failing has nothing to do with the cards. I think you
said the problems started after an upgrade so it's probably a software
problem. I have the PVR-150 which is a similar card. I haven't had the
same problems you have but have had occasional lockups of my machine.

> So what I'd need to do is plug the tv into the pvr350 and see
> what happens when changing channels?
>
Yes. Hopefully the OSD will show why its won't channge the channel
which will give me an idea of what I need to change in the script.

In the directv.pl script you may need to change this from .2 to 2 ot
more to allow you to see the error.
$clear_osd_delay = .2;
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

kiksadiweb at gmail

Mar 15, 2010, 1:50 PM

Post #21 of 23 (2270 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Sorry it has been some time since I posted and you answered. I have been
having a lot of success with the main server using the H21 box type. On the
secondary server I am still using
H20. This doesn't seem to want to take H21. But it had been inactive for
the better part of a week. During this time the main server was recording
perfectly. I read your last post and
changed the delay to two seconds. The secondary server started working
again. I would think this was a strange coincidence.

So is it possible giving more of a delay can have such an affect? While I
could start livetv on the secondary server, I couldn't change channels
either live or scheduled. What do you
think?

On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 4:47 PM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online> wrote:

> I get these. They don't seem to indicate anything serious.
> > 2010-02-27 14:07:26.343 [mpeg2video @ 0x69406c0]Missing picture start
> code
>
> > I think the secondary server may have a tuner in it with different
> firmware
> > because it wouldn't work with H21, only H20.
> >
> Probably one of the status/setup screens shows the firmware version.
>
> > Could both my cards be going bad? If they are is there some other card
> you
> > can recommend?
> >
> The channel change failing has nothing to do with the cards. I think you
> said the problems started after an upgrade so it's probably a software
> problem. I have the PVR-150 which is a similar card. I haven't had the
> same problems you have but have had occasional lockups of my machine.
>
> > So what I'd need to do is plug the tv into the pvr350 and see
> > what happens when changing channels?
> >
> Yes. Hopefully the OSD will show why its won't channge the channel
> which will give me an idea of what I need to change in the script.
>
> In the directv.pl script you may need to change this from .2 to 2 ot
> more to allow you to see the error.
> $clear_osd_delay = .2;
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

djg at pdp8online

Mar 17, 2010, 5:48 PM

Post #22 of 23 (2209 views)
Permalink

Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

> I have been having a lot of success with the main server using the H21
> box type.
>
Glad to know things are working better.

> On the secondary server I am still using H20. This doesn't seem to want
> to take H21.
>
They probably have different revisions of the firmware. One of the directv
menu screens should show you the firmware version. You may
be able to force an upgrade (I have never tried, my D10's upgrade
when they feel like it). If it stays working you may not want to
though whichever has the older firmware will probably upgrade itself
at some time unless they are really different hardware versions of the box.
http://www.hatetatellya.com/2006/03/31/directv-force-software-upgrade/

> So is it possible giving more of a delay can have such an affect? While I
> could start livetv on the secondary server, I couldn't change channels
> either live or scheduled. What do you think?
>
Its possible that changing the OSD off delay helped if the tuning was failing
with the Excessive channel change retries errors. If it hadn't finished
the channel change when it got the next command it could confuse it.
To be sure you could temporarily change the script back and see if it
stops changing with live tv.

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kiksadiweb at gmail

Mar 22, 2010, 12:40 PM

Post #23 of 23 (2076 views)
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Re: canceled recording (Recorder Failed) mystery [In reply to]

Well, I don't know if it's totally solved, but I haven't had a failure since
the changes I made last week. It's working flawlessly now. Thanks for all
your help David.
Here is a breakdown of changes I made as far as I can remember:

Changed the box_type from H20 to H21 in the directv.pl script.
Changed from having an nfs mounted share to recording locally on each server
(I did this without being advised).
Changed the delay from .2 to 2 on the secondary server.

If there were other changes I can't remember them. This has been strange
problem I've dealt with for almost a year. But things are working much more
reliably now. Hope this
long thread helps someone out. I'll post more if I continue having
problems.

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 4:48 PM, David Gesswein <djg [at] pdp8online> wrote:

> > I have been having a lot of success with the main server using the H21
> > box type.
> >
> Glad to know things are working better.
>
> > On the secondary server I am still using H20. This doesn't seem to want
> > to take H21.
> >
> They probably have different revisions of the firmware. One of the directv
> menu screens should show you the firmware version. You may
> be able to force an upgrade (I have never tried, my D10's upgrade
> when they feel like it). If it stays working you may not want to
> though whichever has the older firmware will probably upgrade itself
> at some time unless they are really different hardware versions of the box.
> http://www.hatetatellya.com/2006/03/31/directv-force-software-upgrade/
>
>
> > So is it possible giving more of a delay can have such an affect? While I
> > could start livetv on the secondary server, I couldn't change channels
> > either live or scheduled. What do you think?
> >
> Its possible that changing the OSD off delay helped if the tuning was
> failing
> with the Excessive channel change retries errors. If it hadn't finished
> the channel change when it got the next command it could confuse it.
> To be sure you could temporarily change the script back and see if it
> stops changing with live tv.
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

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