[mythtv-users] HD-PVR power cycling

[Brian Long]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 1:28 PM, Gavin Hurlbut <gjhurlbu at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm considering producing a nice little USB dongle to power on/off the
> HD-PVR in the times that it decides to misbehave for whatever reason.  I was
> wondering:
> How many people would be interested in getting one?  I don't know the cost
> yet, but I will look into that over the next few days.
> The biggest concern at this time is finding matching power plugs such that
> there would be no cutting of power cables required.  Other than that, it's
> basically a relay and USB glue.  I would be writing the script to drive it
> as well.  If anyone with an HD-PVR has a micrometer and can measure the
> barrel size and pin size, it would make the power plug selection a lot
> simpler.
> So, how much interest would there be?

Before investing in a solution like this, I was thinking of using the
Time Warner STB to handle it for me.  The STB has an AC outlet which
can be always-on or switched based on menu settings.  I was thinking I
could plug the HD-PVR into that receptacle and if I detect the HD-PVR
is borked, I make sure my firewire channel-change script adds the -P
CLI argument to power-cycle the STB on the next channel change.

I'm still trying to determine which errors in mythbackend.log actually
mean the HD-PVR is borked.  I get various errors from mythbackend on
HD-PVR recordings, but I've not power-cycled it for weeks and my
recordings are not zero-bytes.  Every once in a while I get a borked
commflag job, but that's it.

/Brian/