Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Frontend hangs on playing recordings from a channel

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aeby at graeff

Sep 7, 2010, 1:10 PM

Post #1 of 5 (279 views)
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Frontend hangs on playing recordings from a channel

Hi all,

(mythtv 0.21)
since a few weeks I have an issue with one channel ("Das Erste" via
DVB-S): Recordings are made, but whenever I try playing them via
mythfrontend, the frontend just hangs. If I wait in the recordings list
until the preview is to start playing, the frontend hangs too. Also, in
mythweb, the preview still image is missing. When trying to re-build
recordedseek on those recordings, mythtranscode reads the entire mpg
appareantly without finding positions. Live TV does not work, either.

The frontend reports "NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times" when trying
to play the recordings, however none of the issues listed in the respecting
wiki page seem to apply.

The problem appears on all the frontend computers running here (from minimyth
to ubuntu+mythtv). The backend runs Mythtv 0.21 on Debian Etch.

Unfortunately, since the setup is rather large (backend server with a number
of frontends), I cannot quickly try out newer mythtv versions since unfortunately
I'd have to upgrade all of them in parallel.

The format of the mpeg stream might have changed recently, however, the
MPEGS are playing fine when using xine, mplayer and any other player I
tried out (including projectX I use for cutting recordings).

Have you got any hint for me?

Best regards,
Tom
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Aeby, Kirchweg 52, 1735 Giffers, Switzerland
Voice : (+41)26 4180040
Internet: aeby [at] graeff PGP public key available
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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robert.mcnamara at gmail

Sep 7, 2010, 1:15 PM

Post #2 of 5 (282 views)
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Re: Frontend hangs on playing recordings from a channel [In reply to]

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 1:10 PM, Thomas Aeby <aeby [at] graeff> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> (mythtv 0.21)

This version of Myth is from long, long, long ago. The encode/decode
libraries alone are over three years old.

> The format of the mpeg stream might have changed recently, however, the
> MPEGS are playing fine when using xine, mplayer and any other player I
> tried out (including projectX I use for cutting recordings).

The fact that you are running such an ancient version is probably the
reason that other programs are working and Myth is not.

Upgrade to .23.1, it will be very very hard to provide any
troubleshooting for the version you are running from 2007.

Robert
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mtdean at thirdcontact

Sep 7, 2010, 1:40 PM

Post #3 of 5 (281 views)
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Re: Frontend hangs on playing recordings from a channel [In reply to]

On 09/07/2010 04:10 PM, Thomas Aeby wrote:
> (mythtv 0.21)
> since a few weeks I have an issue with one channel ("Das Erste" via
> DVB-S): Recordings are made, but whenever I try playing them via
> mythfrontend, the frontend just hangs. If I wait in the recordings list
> until the preview is to start playing, the frontend hangs too. Also, in
> mythweb, the preview still image is missing. When trying to re-build
> recordedseek on those recordings, mythtranscode reads the entire mpg
> appareantly without finding positions. Live TV does not work, either.
>
> The frontend reports "NVP: Prebuffer wait timed out 10 times" when trying
> to play the recordings, however none of the issues listed in the respecting
> wiki page seem to apply.
>
> The problem appears on all the frontend computers running here (from minimyth
> to ubuntu+mythtv). The backend runs Mythtv 0.21 on Debian Etch.
>
> Unfortunately, since the setup is rather large (backend server with a number
> of frontends), I cannot quickly try out newer mythtv versions since unfortunately
> I'd have to upgrade all of them in parallel.
>
> The format of the mpeg stream might have changed recently, however, the
> MPEGS are playing fine when using xine, mplayer and any other player I
> tried out (including projectX I use for cutting recordings).
>
> Have you got any hint for me?

My best guess is that the problem is the ancient version of the ffmpeg
libraries used by the ancient version of MythTV. (Remember that the
ffmpeg libs used in 0.21 came from /before/ the 0.21 release, so
although 0.21-fixes was updated up until 0.22 was released about 10
months ago, you're using ffmpeg libs from ~3 years ago--it looks like
from somewhere around November 2007.)

I think if you want to play this modern video, you may need modern
MythTV. :)

On the bright side, using Mythbuntu ( http://www.mythbuntu.org/ ), you
could roll out an all-new version to all your systems rather
quickly--and, being Debian-based, it should be rather familiar.

Mike
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aeby at graeff

Sep 7, 2010, 2:35 PM

Post #4 of 5 (276 views)
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Re: Frontend hangs on playing recordings from a channel [In reply to]

On 09/07/2010 10:40 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> My best guess is that the problem is the ancient version of the ffmpeg
> libraries used by the ancient version of MythTV.

Well, I didn't know a two years old software release was actually ancient :-)

> (Remember that the
> ffmpeg libs used in 0.21 came from /before/ the 0.21 release

That's a real good point. However, running the stream through this ancient
ffmpeg version seems to work fine on command line.

> On the bright side, using Mythbuntu ( http://www.mythbuntu.org/ ), you
> could roll out an all-new version to all your systems rather
> quickly

I'm pretty sure, people would not like if I replaced whatever they run by
mythbuntu - we are not only talking about dedicated media boxes (on those,
minimyth does a good job) :-(

And even installing mythbuntu on 7 or 8 boxes, getting everything
working again on the frontend side and getting a number of receivers up and working
again in such a short time no one misses an episode of his/her favorite series
is a real challenge.

While MythTV is a really great package, upgrading it has always been
a real nightmare due to its version dependency between backend and frontend.

Ok, so I consider this unsolveable at the moment and implement a workaround
(like automatically making recordings appear in the Media/Video module where
I can use ancient xine to play it, or using ancient ffmpeg to translate it
into something ancient MythTV will play)

Sorry for the sarcasm, I can't help it. Your estimate of the situation was
appreciated, anyway, thanks!

Best regards,
Tom
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Aeby, Kirchweg 52, 1735 Giffers, Switzerland
Voice : (+41)26 4180040
Internet: aeby [at] graeff PGP public key available
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users [at] mythtv
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

aeby at graeff

Sep 7, 2010, 2:35 PM

Post #5 of 5 (277 views)
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Re: Frontend hangs on playing recordings from a channel [In reply to]

On 09/07/2010 10:15 PM, Robert McNamara wrote:
> The fact that you are running such an ancient version is probably the
> reason that other programs are working and Myth is not.

Ok, I understand, old xine plays, old mplayer plays, old MythTV doesn't.

> Upgrade to .23.1, it will be very very hard to provide any
> troubleshooting for the version you are running from 2007.

Actually, as far as I understand, 0.21 is two years old, 2007 would be 0.20.
But if it is supposed to not play current DVB-S recordings, I'll have to
upgrade sooner or later, then.

Best regards,
Tom
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Aeby, Kirchweg 52, 1735 Giffers, Switzerland
Voice : (+41)26 4180040
Internet: aeby [at] graeff PGP public key available
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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mythtv-users [at] mythtv
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