[mythtv-users] MythPhone causes mythfrontend to lock??

Sat Jan 8 12:48:38 EST 2005

Jim;

I just added a loopback mode to Mythphone; could you try this when you get a
chance?  You just hit "L" within Mythphone and rather than place a call it
loops audio/video either at the local socket or at the NAT device (you need
port-forwarding set on your NAT device for this to work). It allows you to
test that the H.263 and RTP is running fine without worrying about network
issues.

Paul

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org]On Behalf Of Jim Kusznir
> Sent: 04 January 2005 18:42
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] MythPhone causes mythfrontend to lock??
>
>
> I tried last night, with CVS (pulled down approx. 1am Tues GMT).  I
> never got to end a call with stop, as it always froze before then.  It
> is definately working better than the 0.16 release, though.  One time my
> local video froze (for the other end as well as mine), but the local
> video remained in tact.  I was able to exit and restart only mythphone
> to fix this.
>
> I did get some calls as long as 15 min in, but also a lot that were 2-4
> min before lockup.  It is still locking up the entire frontend
> (requiring a killall mythfrontend to recover from).
>
> I watched top while in a video call.  System load was around 2.1 with X
> using approx 30% and mythfrontend using 20%.  The percentages at the top
> showed a high "sys" percentage.
>
> I am calling a video station over a thousand miles away.  We both have
> cablemodem, but different vendors, so I would suspect the data stream is
> not nearly as clean as a local lan.
>
> Oh, and I'm also not using the audio portions; I can't get mythphone to
> find/use audio from my soundcard's mic port.  (Using the alsamixer, I
> can get my mic looped to the speakers through the mixer, but it seems no
> amount of fiddling with capture device and other routing stuff can get
> mythphone to find my mic.  I suspect this is a config issue on my end,
> as myth appeared to compile using OSS rather than ALSA, and I haven't
> found any way to test/tweak the OSS settings explicitly).
>
> Thanks for your support!
>
> If there's any more detals I can provide or anything else I can do, let
> me know.  MythPhone is a really useful app!
>
> --Jim
>
> Paul Volkaerts wrote:
>
> >Just an update on this; I just placed a 2 hour, full-screen video call
> >between my two machines at 384x288 resolution. Video lasted the whole 2
> >hours though the audio hung after 45 mins on one machine. My
> machines are a
> >P4 2.8GHz with 512M and a AMD Athlon 950MHz with 256M memory. When I stop
> >the call and exit from MythPhone then MythFrontend hangs, not
> sure where - I
> >will look at this next.
> >
> >Many fixes went in over the weekend so if you could retry with
> these and let
> >me know we can go from there.
> >
> >Cheers;
> >Paul
> >
> >
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> >>[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org]On Behalf Of Jim Kusznir
> >>Sent: 03 January 2005 22:07
> >>To: Discussion about mythtv
> >>Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] MythPhone causes mythfrontend to lock??
> >>
> >>
> >>I've installed the CVS version (from 29Dec).  The frontend locking
> >>during normal video call has stopped; however, there are a few other
> >>problems now.
> >>
> >>I like the presence detect; unfortunately, it doesn't appear to work.
> >>It shows someone who is definately online as offline and consequently
> >>won't let me dial them through the speedial.  If I dial the person
> >>manually (enter the number), then the call often goes through, and the
> >>presence on the speedial shows a green dot and says (unknown).
> >>
> >>When I hit the stop button to end the call, the frontend froze.
> >>
> >>During another call, I hit play to go fullscreen; both the remote (main)
> >>video and the local (pip) video drew, but the frontend locked almost
> >>immediately afterward.
> >>
> >>I'm running this on a gentoo system with PIII-733Mhz and 384MB ram.  It
> >>seems to run mythtv just fine otherwise.
> >>
> >>Any suggestions? (other than upgrade my hardware :) )
> >>
> >>--Jim
> >>
> >>Paul Volkaerts wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>Mythphone runs as several threads.  The audio and RTP is one
> >>>
> >>>
> >>thread, the SIP
> >>
> >>
> >>>stack is one thread, and the RTP for video is one thread. The H.263 and
> >>>displaying of webcams runs in the main GUI thread currently
> >>>
> >>>
> >>though I do want
> >>
> >>
> >>>to change this. This means when H.263 locks up, so does the GUI.
> >>>
> >>>I test MythPhone between two MythFrontends and between MythFrontend and
> >>>Windows Messenger. Version 0.16 was reasonably stable on good
> >>>
> >>>
> >>CPUs. I have a
> >>
> >>
> >>>3GHz P4 which it runs perfectly on and a 1GHz CPU that often
> exhibits the
> >>>behaviour you mention.
> >>>
> >>>Since 0.16 there have been many changes which may help your
> situation. I
> >>>have taken out most of the polling that originally drove the tasks and
> >>>replaced by event-driven. The only polling now is polling of the
> >>>
> >>>
> >>microphone
> >>
> >>
> >>>driver for data which I will get rid of when I figure out how to.
> >>>
> >>>I've also fixed an incompatability with Messenger which caused a
> >>>
> >>>
> >>video frame
> >>
> >>
> >>>split across several IP packets to be reconstructed incorrectly, which
> >>>caused the H.263 stack to discard it.
> >>>
> >>>Paul
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>-----Original Message-----
> >>>>From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> >>>>[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org]On Behalf Of Jim Kusznir
> >>>>Sent: 02 January 2005 07:25
> >>>>To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> >>>>Subject: [mythtv-users] MythPhone causes mythfrontend to lock??
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>Hello all:
> >>>>
> >>>>I've been having continous problems with the 0.16 version of mythphone
> >>>>causing the frontend to lock.
> >>>>
> >>>>I have a usb webcam set up (with mythphone set to use
> /dev/video1), and
> >>>>mythpone correctly shows my local video.  I'm connected to FWD (Free
> >>>>World Dialup).  Everything is fine in this idle state
> (showing my local
> >>>>video, registered with FWD but not in a call).
> >>>>
> >>>>When I place a video call to another FWD user (who's using the Pulver
> >>>>Communicator under WinXP with a web cam and proper local video), it
> >>>>often works for at least a few seconds (Occasionally even for a few
> >>>>minutes).  I'm able to see and hear the other person, and the other
> >>>>person sees me (but can't hear me -- that's a different problem,
> >>>>though).  The call lasts anywhere from 1 sec to 10 minutes,
> but at some
> >>>>point the frontend freezes completely.  Interestingly enough, I can
> >>>>continue to hear the other person, but both of my video windows are
> >>>>frozen, and the video she recieves is frozen (based on what the other
> >>>>person described of the remote client, it is not recieving
> video signals
> >>>>anymore).  My only recourse at this point is to kill mythfrontend and
> >>>>relaunch it.
> >>>>
> >>>>I've played a bit with the resolutions and fps and found the values do
> >>>>seem to have a signifiant effect on call duration (most
> resolutions and
> >>>>fps over 10 cause the frontend to freeze more quickly; fps below 10
> >>>>don't seem to effect freeze rate, but can often take way too long to
> >>>>fully draw the remote end).
> >>>>
> >>>>When I run mythfrontend in a terminal and collect its stderr output, I
> >>>>get output like:
> >>>>
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]illegal ac vlc code at 0x7
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]Error at MB: 84
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]concealing 2147483614 errors
> >>>>Error decoding frame; 1443
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]illegal dc 0 at 0 4
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]illegal dc 128 at 1 4
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]I cbpc damaged at 9 4
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]Error at MB: 57
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]concealing 2147483647 errors
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]I cbpy damaged at 0 7
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]Error at MB: 84
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]concealing 2147483647 errors
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]Error at MB: 84
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]concealing 2147483647 errors
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]illegal dc 0 at 0 8
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]concealing 9 errors
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]Error at MB: 96
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]concealing 2147483647 errors
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]Error at MB: 84
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]concealing 2147483647 errors
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]I cbpy damaged at 0 8
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]Error at MB: 96
> >>>>[h263 @ 0xb7a761d0]concealing 2147483647 errors
> >>>>
> >>>>These messages generally occur at 2-4 lines per second, and occur the
> >>>>entire duration of the call.  I see no errors that hint at or
> relate to
> >>>>the freeze.
> >>>>
> >>>>So...questions...
> >>>>
> >>>>I've recently retrieved the CVS versions of mythtv and associated
> >>>>modules.  I'm still working on a clean way to install them on
> my system
> >>>>(gentoo).  In any case, I haven't been able to deturmine if anything's
> >>>>been done to mythphone that might address this issue.
> >>>>
> >>>>I'd be greatful of any assistance one can offer...
> >>>>
> >>>>--Jim
> >>>>
> >>>>
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