[mythtv-users] Re: plextor convertx tv-402u audio dying

[Adam Felson]

Nathan Lutchansky <lutchann-mythtvusers at litech.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 17, 2005 at 04:37:55AM -0700, Adam Felson wrote:
> > > Nathan Lutchansky <lutchann-mythtvusers at litech.org> wrote:
> > > On Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 09:46:09PM -0700, Adam Felson wrote:
> > > > I recently got a plextor usb2 tv capture box and am having problems with
> > > > the audio.  It can barely go 20-40 minutes without dying.  Once the
> > > > recording is stopped and another one started then the problem is
> > > > cleared... for a little while.  When watching live-tv, I can get things
> > > > working again by exiting live-tv and going right back to it.
> > > 
> > > What video bitrate are you running?  Is the convertx connected to a USB
> > > 2.0 port?  Do your other USB devices work OK?  Have you tried swapping
> > > out the USB cable, or hub, if you're using one?  -Nathan
> > 
> > It's connected straight to a USB 2.0 port and the error occurs with no
> > other USB activity.  I haven't tried using a different USB cable yet.
> > About 2000-2200 kb/s. (.7-1.0GB/hr)
> > 
> > If nobody else has experienced anything like this, then it's possible I
> > have bad hardware.
> 
> Yeah, sounds likely, but the question is which piece of hardware?  :-)
> Are there any interesting messages in your system log that might
> indicate a problem?  -Nathan

It looks like it was the nvidia nforce2 chipset and/or its linux support
that was the culprit.  

I've seen other reports of usb2 problems since the 2.6.11 kernel where
putting pci=routeirq in the kernel params can help but not entirely cure
it and I experienced similar results.  I must have built 10 kernel
versions over the weekend (mandrake with io-apic removed, 2.6.10-2.6.13
plain and with multimedia extensions etc.)  2.6.10 was pretty reliable
but broke the usb2 support for my printer.  I'm now running 2.6.13.

I ordered and installed the finest USB2 card that $10 will buy ($11.25
shipped :-) and it has solved my audio problems with the plextor
convertx.  Everything is now working like a champ.

I tried removing pci=routeirq from lilo.conf, but I saw some errors
in /proc/interrupts, so I've put that back.  With pci=routeirq as a
kernel param and the new usb card, I get zero errors.