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Mac OSX frontend hangs when scrolling thru recorded shows
http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=14757		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  ssteward [ Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Mac OSX frontend hangs when scrolling thru recorded shows
Hi,

I have a 0.19 (R5B7) setup with 2 DVB tuners and all is wonderful except that from the Mac Mini frontend it stalls/locks up every now and again when scrolling through the list of recorded shows. This really ruins the user experience and you can end up watching the spinning rainbow wheel for minutes before getting to the show you want, which should take just seconds. This happens when scrolling both the programme group list and the list of individual shows. It seems to do it at the same places every time when tried back to back but then this changes over time and it'll be ok at those places the next day and stall at some other place.

I've noticed that if there is a show in the list and somehow the file is missing (and it's then shown greyed out) then the scrolling will also behave like this but in my case it does this even when all the recordings are present and correct.

The Mac is a duo core mini with 2GB RAM. The backend is an Athalon 2200+ with 512MB which seems to be coping with everything else I do without problems (2 x simultaneous recordings, Burn DVD, transcoding). And, if I scroll through the list on the BE it zips round and round without a glitch.

From the system status I can see the server load is 1.26, 0.87, 0.72 and RAM has 1.06% free. The frontend has tonnes of RAM left and the load is 0.33, 0.41, 0.40.

Any ideas what could be causing this? I'd love to fix it and overcome the last of my wife's objections to my otherwise fantastic AV setup.

Thanks S
Author:  nigelpearson [ Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:38 pm ]
Post subject: 
Run the Mac frontend with full debugging on:
Code:
MythFrontend.app/Contents/MacOS/mythfrontend -v all
and tell us what it reports just before the hang.

If there is nothing relevant, you might need to do the same for the backend process on the KnoppMyth machine.
Author:  ssteward [ Thu Apr 05, 2007 1:16 am ]
Post subject:  Does this point to the problem?
I ran the app with the command you suggested but this didn't create any relevant console info. However, just running it from the Finder did. Here's the complete log from running up the app; going to 'watch recordings' and then scrolling:

Code:
2007-04-04 20:21:31.335 Using runtime prefix = /Applications/MythFrontend.app/Contents/Resources
2007-04-04 20:21:31.413 New DB connection, total: 1
2007-04-04 20:21:31.423 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: 192.168.0.222
2007-04-04 20:21:31.427 Total desktop dim: 1280x1024, with 1 screen[s].
2007-04-04 20:21:31.448 Using screen 0, 1280x1024 at 0,0
2007-04-04 20:21:31.468 Current Schema Version: 1123
2007-04-04 20:21:31.468 mythfrontend version: 0.19.20060121-2 www.mythtv.org
2007-04-04 20:21:31.468 Enabled verbose msgs:  important general
2007-04-04 20:21:31.943 lang0: eng
2007-04-04 20:21:31.943 lang: eng
2007-04-04 20:21:31.953 lang1: eng
2007-04-04 20:21:31.953 lang: eng
2007-04-04 20:21:32.259 Total desktop dim: 1280x1024, with 1 screen[s].
2007-04-04 20:21:32.263 Using screen 0, 1280x1024 at 0,0
2007-04-04 20:21:32.266 Switching to square mode (Retro)
2007-04-04 20:21:32.881 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
2007-04-04 20:21:34.161 Unable to find image file: /Applications/MythFrontend.app/Contents/Resources/share/mythtv/themes/Retro/watermark/radio.png
2007-04-04 20:21:34.247 Unable to find image file: /Applications/MythFrontend.app/Contents/Resources/share/mythtv/themes/Retro/watermark/pie.png
2007-04-04 20:21:34.412 Unable to find image file: /Applications/MythFrontend.app/Contents/Resources/share/mythtv/themes/Retro/watermark/radio.png
2007-04-04 20:21:34.503 Unable to find image file: /Applications/MythFrontend.app/Contents/Resources/share/mythtv/themes/Retro/watermark/pie.png
2007-04-04 20:21:37.085 Connecting to backend server: 192.168.0.222:6543 (try 1 of 5)
2007-04-04 20:21:37.100 Using protocol version 26
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range
QDateTime::fromString: Parameter out of range


The last 9 lines relate to the times when the programme list hung. I sat there for a few minutes going up and down the list with repeated key presses and each time it locked up I got a "Parameter out of range" line. As mentioned before, it will only do this on certain shows. And the extent to which it happens seems to vary day to day.

What problem does the log point to?

Thanks -S
Author:  nigelpearson [ Fri Apr 06, 2007 5:11 am ]
Post subject: 
That line does indicate a problem, but doesn't give me enough context to work out what is causing it. Are you sure it doesn't happen with the -v all command line?

Does anything appear in the backend logs at the time of the hang? (/var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log)
Author:  ssteward [ Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:32 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hi Nigel,

I think I understand what you meant now. I was looking in the console window after starting the frontend with the -v all command in a terminal window. Sorry to be such a noob.

Anyway, by looking at the -v all output during a hang and correlating this to the BE log I was able to find the problem. The answer was corrupt .mpg and .png files for a couple of recordings. Once deleted all is fine again.

However, I'm sure this wasn't what's always caused this as these files didn't play and didn't show a thumbnail, and in the past it's hung on files that would play and did show a thumbnail.

If I can get it to fail in this way again I'll post the logs. Thanks for your help.

-S

PS My Myth set up has developed another problem of a similar type. This time it's not seeking properly due to what seems like FE-BE connection problems. I've posted this thread: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14873&highlight= and would really appreciate your views.
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