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

[Steven Adeff]

On 11/15/06, Mark Frey <markfrey at fastmail.fm> 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
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