LiveTv / recording using PVR-150/500 unviewable / scrambled

[Bart]

Binary package hint: mythtv

I'm running MythBuntu 8.10 without a problem.
Upgrading to 9.04 or 9.10 causes my livetv to be very distorted and basically unviewable.

Today I attempted a new 10.04 beta install to see if anything has changed. My problem persists.

What I find strange is that when viewing my /dev/videox directly using VLC, I can view the channel perfectly.
However, when I first try to view a channel with MythTV and then try to view it using VLC, I get identical problems on the channel.

On the other input on the same card, if I haven't used/tried that in mythtv yet, I can use VLC again without a problem.
The errors VLC gives (when first viewing the channel with mythtv and then VLC):
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late, increasing pts_delay to 816 ms
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late, increasing pts_delay to 1196 ms
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late, increasing pts_delay to 2471 ms
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late, increasing pts_delay to 4932 ms
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late, increasing pts_delay to 11157 ms
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_SET_(GROUP_)PCR is called too late, increasing pts_delay to 21711 ms
[0xb6b01ae0] main input error: ES_OUT_RESET_PCR called
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture
[0xb6b08fa8] libmpeg2 decoder error: DpbUnlinkPicture called on an invalid picture

I would think this is not driver or kernel related, since playing TV directly from VLC works. Once I try mythtv, I can't play TV (decently) using any program from that point, untill a system reboot.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Mar 28 12:44:35 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Mythbuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta i386 (20100318)
Installed_mythplugins-dbg: 0.0
Installed_mythtv-dbg: 0.0
MythTVDirectoryPermissions: lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 2010-03-28 11:59 /var/lib/mythtv -> /media/mythtv/
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: mythtv 0.23.0~trunk23623-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-17.26-generic-pae 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
SourcePackage: mythtv
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-17-generic-pae i686

[MarcRandolph (mrand)]

Howdy, and thank you for helping to improve Mythbuntu by opening this ticket. While I don't have direct experience with this piece of hardware, I'm a bit puzzled by your problem because looking through mythtv mailing list archives and such, it seems to be a widely used card.
Perhaps you could try a different firmware load (maybe there is a problem between the driver and default firmware that is loaded)? You might look over http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_PVR-500

Also, if you haven't already, you study closely the output of: dmesg | egrep -i '(ivtv|tveeprom|tuner)', and please post a copy to this bug.

I might try reconfiguring (maybe even going so far as to delete the card/tuner and re-add) the device via mythtv-setup.

Just for reference, here are the related entries from backend log file:

2010-03-28 12:29:07.506 adding: bart-tv2 as a client (events: 0)
2010-03-28 12:29:07.517 TVRec(1): Changing from None to Watching WatchingLiveTV
2010-03-28 12:29:07.527 TVRec(1): HW Tuner: 1->1
2010-03-28 12:29:07.721 ProgramInfo: Updated pathname '':'' -> '134250_20100328122907.mpg'
2010-03-28 12:29:07.792 AutoExpire: CalcParams(): Max required Free Space: 2.0 GB w/freq: 15 min
2010-03-28 12:29:07.808 MPEGRec(/dev/video0) Warning: Audio sample rate 32000 Hz
   is not supported by ivtv driver, using 48000 Hz instead.
2010-03-28 12:29:07.832 ProgramInfo: Updated pathname '':'' -> '134250_20100328122907.mpg'
2010-03-28 12:29:07.865 ProgramInfo: Updated pathname '':'' -> '134250_20100328122907.mpg'
 *********************** WARNING ***********************
 ivtv drivers prior to 0.10.0 can cause lockups when
 reading VBI. Drivers between 0.10.5 and 1.0.3+ do not
 properly capture VBI data on PVR-250 and PVR-350 cards.

2010-03-28 12:29:10.988 DevRdB(/dev/video0) Error: Poll giving up
2010-03-28 12:29:10.995 MPEGRec(/dev/video0) Error: Device error detected
2010-03-28 12:29:11.001 DevRdB(/dev/video0): Stop(): Not running.
2010-03-28 12:29:13.102 RecBase(1:/dev/video0): GetKeyframePositions(1,9223372036854775807,#2) out of 3

[Bart (bartthys)]

I've replaced the firmware files with those from the ivtvdriver.org site. No change detected (I think the firmware files are identical)

Did a reinstall of the system to make sure I've got clean configs, setup the card again.

The same problem:
Viewing /dev/video0 with VLC produces a good image, playing TV with mythtv is choppy and unwatchable. After trying to play with mythtv, VLC can't play the stream either (same choppyness as in MythTV).

Does mythtv apply some special (buffering?) settings before starting tv playback?

Please find mythfrontend log below.

2010-04-05 15:27:05.966 mythfrontend version: trunk [23623] www.mythtv.org
2010-04-05 15:27:05.967 Using runtime prefix = /usr
2010-04-05 15:27:05.967 Using configuration directory = /home/bart/.mythtv
2010-04-05 15:27:06.658 Empty LocalHostName.
2010-04-05 15:27:06.659 Using localhost value of bart-tv2
2010-04-05 15:27:06.668 New DB connection, total: 1
2010-04-05 15:27:06.672 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: localhost
2010-04-05 15:27:06.673 Closing DB connection named 'DBManager0'
2010-04-05 15:27:06.692 ScreenSaverX11Private: XScreenSaver support enabled
2010-04-05 15:27:06.694 DPMS is disabled.
2010-04-05 15:27:06.696 Primary screen: 0.
2010-04-05 15:27:06.697 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: localhost
2010-04-05 15:27:06.699 Using screen 0, 1280x1024 at 0,0
2010-04-05 15:27:06.715 Desktop video mode: 1280x1024 60.0204 Hz
2010-04-05 15:27:06.737 MythUI Image Cache size set to 20971520 bytes
2010-04-05 15:27:06.762 Enabled verbose msgs: important general
2010-04-05 15:27:06.771 Primary screen: 0.
2010-04-05 15:27:06.772 Using screen 0, 1280x1024 at 0,0
2010-04-05 15:27:06.773 Using theme base resolution of 1280x720
2010-04-05 15:27:06.781 LIRC: Successfully initialized '/dev/lircd' using '/home/bart/.mythtv/lircrc' config
2010-04-05 15:27:06.781 JoystickMenuThread Error: Joystick disabled - Failed to read /home/bart/.mythtv/joystickmenurc
2010-04-05 15:27:07.087 Using the Qt painter
2010-04-05 15:27:07.261 XMLParseBase: Loaded base theme from '/usr/share/mythtv/themes/Mythbuntu/base.xml'
2010-04-05 15:27:07.276 XMLParseBase: Loaded base theme from '/usr/share/mythtv/themes/default-wide/base.xml'
2010-04-05 15:27:07.291 XMLParseBase: Loaded base theme from '/usr/share/mythtv/themes/default/base.xml'
2010-04-05 15:27:07.292 XMLParseBase, Error: Unable to load window 'backgroundwindow' from base
2010-04-05 15:27:07.303 Current MythTV Schema Version (DBSchemaVer): 1254
2010-04-05 15:27:07.898 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
2010-04-05 15:27:07.973 MMUnix::AddDevice() Error: failed to stat /dev/bdi,
                        eno: No such file or directory (2)
2010-04-05 15:27:07.977 MMUnix::AddDevice() Error: failed to stat /dev/power,
                        eno: No such file or directory (2)
2010-04-05 15:27:07.988 MMUnix::AddDevice() Error: failed to stat /dev/trace,
                        eno: No such file or directory (2)
2010-04-05 15:27:07.993 MonitorRegisterExtensions(0x100, gif,jpg,png)
2010-04-05 15:27:08.023 Current MythMusic Schema Version (MusicDBSchemaVer): 1017
2010-04-05 15:27:08.079 MonitorRegisterExtensions(0x40, mp3,mp2,ogg,oga,...

[Bart (bartthys)]

My problems have been resolved by changing the image size in the recording profiles.

Strangly, the height was set correctly to 576 but the width was set to 480. Setting it to 768 as indicated in the field help information at the bottom of the screen, was all that was needed to fix my problem.

Can't mythtv / mythbuntu set these things to correct default values? It knows that i'm using PAL (configured during setup) and it knows my encoder card.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

hi Bart:

Upstream indicated this should actually be fixed by r24067 which has been applied to 0.23-fixes. It should be available on the Mythbuntu auto-builds. You can activate the auto-builds from http://www.mythbuntu.org/auto-builds .

If that fixes your issue, we'll mark it accordingly.

Thanks!

[Bart (bartthys)]

Hi Mario

Activated auto-builds and installed latest release, system(still) working fine.
I believe this issue has been resolved and can be closed.

Thanks for looking into the issue!

Kind Regards
Bart

[MarcRandolph (mrand)]

Glad to hear that resolved your issue. Thank you for reporting back!

[Eric Keim (eric-keim)]

Not shure if it should be already fixed in V10.04 release, but I can confirm that is still not working out of the box because of the wrong width in the recording profiles for PAL Mode.

[Jeroen (jrn-brg)]

I can confirm that this issue still exist in 10.04

[Eric Keim (eric-keim)]

Fixed in 10.10

[Eric Keim (eric-keim)]

Have done a new installation and guess what...problem occurs again.

Looks like it depends on some factors:

- First I used open source driver for nvidia, later switched to proprietary one

- fiddled around with different resolutions for PAL TV

So if you get bit by the bug check the above solution from Bart.

[Eric Keim (eric-keim)]

Curious thing: When I re-check the first installation which worked out of the box the value in the recording profile is still set to a width of 480....but it works.