[mythtv-users] Trouble with two HD-PVRs on one system

[John P Poet]

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 10:34 AM, David Engel <david at istwok.net> wrote:
> Are there any known problems with using two HD-PVRs on a single
> backend?  I thought others had reported that this worked for them.
> After many delays, I finally tried to use my two HD-PVRs together on
> my production backend yesterday.  Things looked good for a short while
> and then quickly went to pot.
>
> If anything wasn't going to work right, I expected it to be IR
> blasting.  That worked fine.  Each HD-PVR was able to change channels
> on its corresponding cable box without error.
>
> It was recording that was problematic.  The HD-PVRs frequently failed
> to set inputs when commanded by MythTV.  When the input commands did
> work, the HD-PVRs would stop recording after a split second causing
> MythTV to continuously stop and restart recordings.  This behaviour
> was consistent across multiple reboots and power cycles.
>
> I finally gave up and hooked one of the HD-PVRs back up to my
> development/part-time slave system.  Both HD-PVRs are once again
> behaving normally connected to different systems.
>
> I'm using the 2.6.31.5 kernel and drivers built by myself with Jarod
> Wilson's HD-PVR IR and LIRC patches from the 2.6.31.1-56.fc12 Fedora
> kernel.  I recall some talk about the IR changes causing recording
> problems for some people.  I haven't seen that using my HD-PVRs
> separately.  Could those problems be showing up when they are used
> together?
>
> David

I use two HD-PVRs on the same backend without any problems, but I do
NOT use any of the IR stuff.  With udev setup to map video[01] to be
consistent for each unit, everything works as expected.

One person on the #hdpvr channel even reported using four on the same
backend without any issues.  Once again, though, he was not using any
of the HD-PVRs IR capabilities.

If it is not the IR stuff causing the problem, maybe it is a USB
issue?  Have you tried using different USB ports?

John
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