[mythtv-commits] Ticket #6356: In "Watch Recordings", unable to decode any MPEG videos if one in the list is unreadable

[MythTV]

#6356: In "Watch Recordings", unable to decode any MPEG videos if one in the list
is unreadable
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 Reporter:  jharris at 30doradus.org    |       Owner:  ijr 
     Type:  defect                   |      Status:  new 
 Priority:  minor                    |   Milestone:      
Component:  MythTV - Video Playback  |     Version:  0.21
 Severity:  high                     |     Mlocked:  0   
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 I have had a functioning MythTV setup (Mythbuntu, mythtv-0.21) for several
 weeks now, but earlier today I suddenly lost the ability to watch recorded
 programs.  Selecting any videos from the list of recordings resulted in
 either a blank screen, garbled noise, or (worst of all) a hung
 mythfrontend process that had to be killed from a vt.

 It took me a while to understand what was happening.  I had watched many
 of these recordings before, so I knew it was possible for MythTV to play
 them.  Just to make sure the files were not corrupted somehow, I manually
 loaded a couple of them into mplayer, which played them without complaint.

 I then launched mythfrontend from a konsole window, so I could get some
 feedback from the process.  After trying to watch a recording, I exited
 from mythfrontend, and saw an error message like:

 "NVP: Couldn't find a matching decoder for: <path to mpg file>"

 So, it would seem my mythbox suddenly thinks it can't decode mpegs, which
 is ironic given that it's whole raison d'etre is to decode mpegs!

 Anyway, to make a long story short, I eventually realized that my most
 recent recording was accidentally recorded from  channel I don't actually
 receive.  So the mpeg file was corrupted/garbage.  And now we get to my
 bug report:

 Somehow, the very presence of this invalid mpeg file in my list of
 recordings made it impossible to watch *any* of my recorded programs.
 Once I deleted the offending recording, I was then able to watch any of
 the others.  It seems very strange to me that this problem was triggered
 even if I didn't attempt to watch the invalid recording.  I am guessing
 that the explanation is that mythtv attempted to show the "thumbnail
 preview" of the recording (since it was the most recent recording, the
 preview would be triggered as soon as the list of recordings was shown).

 Steps to reproduce:  If you have a channel in your lineup that you don't
 actually receive a signal on (such as a premium channel, maybe), record a
 program on that channel.  Then, try to watch any of your other recordings.

 Workaround:  I am going to remove all invalid channels from my lineup,
 which should avoid this issue.  Still, I would think there may be other
 corner-cases where a invalid recording might cause similar problems.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/6356>
MythTV <http://www.mythtv.org/>
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