[mythtv-users] Early exit

[Damian]

R. G. Newbury wrote:
> Damian wrote:
>> R. G. Newbury wrote:
>>> Damian wrote:
>>>> R. G. Newbury wrote:
>>>>> Damian wrote:
>>>>>> I have a new problem on my mythbox where viewing any program simply 
>>>>>> stops about a minute before the end. If watching live tv, The display 
>>>>>> just stops and the front end says there was an error. I can then click 
>>>>>> ok and quickly try to get back to the channel before the credits roll. 
>>>>>> If watching a recording, the saved file is simply too short. I assume it 
>>>>>> stopped recording at the same point that the live tv would have crashed 
>>>>>> out. Any idea what this is?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe it only happens on BBC? I've not tested that actually, but we do 
>>>>>> seem to watch more BBC than anything else. I struggle with stuttery 
>>>>>> playback on BBC when most other channels seem fine so maybe there's 
>>>>>> something weird going on there?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I rarely get time to tweak my myth setup, but I do have a couple of 
>>>>>> hours on Thursday evening so I'm hoping to iron out a few wrinkles then.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Looking forward to hearing any thoughts.
>>>>> Is the time set correctly on the computer? If it is 1 minute fast you 
>>>>> will get what you see.
>>>>>
>>>>> Have you inadvertently set a default recording rule which finishes 
>>>>> early? The settings in Setup-> General will not let you do that, only 
>>>>> finish late, but without looking ISTR that you can set individual time 
>>>>> frames in the Record Options..
>>>>>
>>>>> Geoff
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> That was my first thought for the recordings, but it wouldn't explain 
>>>> why watching live TV crashes out just before the end of a program would it?
>>>>
>>>> I'll try and get some frontend and backend output the next time it 
>>>> happens? What's the best way of doing that by the way? Running the 
>>>> frontend from the command line and putting the backend log into gedit as 
>>>> soon as there's a problem?
>>> run mythbackend -v channel,record,database -l /var/log/backend.log from 
>>> one console and the same sort of command for mythfrontend from another.
>>>
>>> It is especially useful under this circumstance to set myth to run in a 
>>> window (Setup->General or Appearance IIRC)..then you can move the window 
>>> over and watch the log.
>>>
>>> Geoff
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mythtv-users mailing list
>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>>> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>>
>> Thanks Geoff,
>>
>> That's a whole new world of command to me, but ok .. I'll give it a go :-)
>>
>> so I run Myth in a window,
>> run
>> mythbackend -v channel,record,database -l /var/log/backend.log
>> in one terminal and
>> mythfrontend -v channel,record,database -l /var/log/frontend.log
>> in a second?
>>
>> Again, please excuse my ignorance. These commands are all very straight 
>> forward once you know them, but until then ...
> 
> Not to worry. I used OS/2 from the command line for years, but moving to 
> Fedora was still a case of stepping into the deep end of the pool!
> 
> OK. Get into mythfrontend and set it to run in a window. You will have 
> to stop mythfrontend.
> 
> Open 3 or 4 separate console windows. In the first, stop mythbackend if 
> it is running as a service, and restart it from the command line in that 
> window. You might want to try it first without the -l logfile bit so you 
> can see what it outputs. Since livetv *records* before it plays, and it 
> is clearly a database event which triggers the stop I think we want to 
> see those events, There are a pile of other switches you can use. Try 
> mythbackend -v help to see them all.
> 
> Start mythfrontend in the second window. You will see the usual 
> 'pre-scaling' announcements. You can then grab the window by the top 
> frame and slide it to the side. You can ignore the two windows. Move 
> them out of the way. Separate the last 2. I stack them vertically. Then 
> run 'tail -100 /var/log/backend.log' in one, and 'tail -100 
> /var/log/frontend.log' in the other. You can jump back and forth and 
> repeat that command while you look at what is going on.
> 
> That may or may not produce a blinding revelation... but at the least, 
> it will give you a log which you can parse through, looking for events 
> at the relevant time...
> Good luck.
> Geoff
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

Thanks for your help Geoff and David!! I'll keep these posts for reference.

I had one of my rare Myth sessions last night and felt I was wasting it 
sitting around waiting for an intermittent failure, so I got on with 
trying to sort out XvMC (which I've never had working) in an attempt to 
get past jittery/stuttery play back I've been getting a lot of recently.

I'll come back to this early exiting problem if I can make it repeatable 
and predictable.

I'm sure I'll be back to it again and I have a much better starting 
point now!

Thanks for your help
Damian