Hi all,

I am having an odd issue where the frontend freezes for anywhere between 30seconds to 2minutes. The playback eventually starts again without any problems. Backend recordings do not suffer any interruptions when this happens. It appears to happen when starting/stopping recordings - ie on the hour or half hour. Here is an example of the backend.log from last night at 9pm when it happened:

2008-04-28 21:00:00.798 TVRec(1): Changing from RecordingOnly to None
2008-04-28 21:00:00.798 TVRec(3): Changing from RecordingOnly to None
2008-04-28 21:00:00.923 Finished recording How I Met Your Mother "The Goat": channel 2031
2008-04-28 21:00:00.923 Finished recording MythBusters "Concrete Glider": channel 3064
2008-04-28 21:00:01.342 Finished recording MythBusters "Concrete Glider": channel 3064
[mpeg @ 0xb73d57f0]Parser not found for Codec Id: 94210 !
2008-04-28 21:00:01.451 Finished recording How I Met Your Mother "The Goat": channel 2031
0: start_time: 1584.279 duration: 161.688
1: start_time: 1584.233 duration: 161.706
stream: start_time: 17602.590 duration: 1797.037 bitrate=14704 kb/s
2008-04-28 21:00:01.493 AFD: Opened codec 0x87a32c0, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
2008-04-28 21:00:01.494 AFD: Opened codec 0x83e54b0, id(AC3) type(Audio)
2008-04-28 21:00:03.044 TVRec(1): Changing from None to RecordingOnly
2008-04-28 21:00:03.053 TVRec(1): HW Tuner: 1->1
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 81 57
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 30 58
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 41 58
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 117 58
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 2 59
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 56 59
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 90 59
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 5 60
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]00 motion_type at 68 60
[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]invalid mb type in P Frame at 88 60

... similar stuff for a couple dozen lines

[mpeg2video @ 0xb72d83a8]end mismatch left=1308 606AE9
Changing to 64
0: start_time: 0.036 duration: 323.540
1: start_time: 0.000 duration: -9223372036854.775
2: start_time: 0.017 duration: 323.520
stream: start_time: 0.000 duration: 3595.292 bitrate=5220 kb/s
2008-04-28 21:00:03.877 AFD: Opened codec 0xa9193a30, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
2008-04-28 21:00:03.880 AFD: Opened codec 0xa90e71a0, id(MP2) type(Audio)
2008-04-28 21:00:04.191 ret_pid(0) child(10168) status(0x0)
2008-04-28 21:00:05.228 ret_pid(10168) child(10168) status(0x0)
2008-04-28 21:00:05.269 External Tuning program exited with no error
2008-04-28 21:00:05.366 Started recording: Guinea Pig "Sea Creatures": channel 3064 on cardid 1, sourceid 3
2008-04-28 21:00:06.575 TVRec(3): Changing from None to RecordingOnly
2008-04-28 21:00:06.675 TVRec(3): HW Tuner: 3->3
2008-04-28 21:00:06.682 DVBChan(0) Warning: Symbol Rate setting (0) is out of range (min/max:5056941/10762000)
2008-04-28 21:00:06.797 Started recording: Two and a Half Men "Look at Me, Mommy, I'm Pretty": channel 2031 on card$
2008-04-28 21:00:07.801 Reschedule requested for id 0.
2008-04-28 21:00:14.771 Scheduled 1037 items in 7.0 = 0.00 match + 6.97 place
2008-04-28 21:00:25.793 JobQueue: Commercial Flagging Starting for How I Met Your Mother "The Goat" recorded from c$
2008-04-28 21:00:26.986 Using runtime prefix = /usr
2008-04-28 21:00:27.106 New DB connection, total: 1
2008-04-28 21:00:27.172 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: 10.5.1.4
2008-04-28 21:00:27.177 New DB connection, total: 2
2008-04-28 21:00:27.178 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: 10.5.1.4
2008-04-28 21:00:27.205 Connecting to backend server: 10.5.1.4:6543 (try 1 of 5)
2008-04-28 008-04-28 21:00:27.207 Using protocol version 31
2008-04-28 21:00:27.207 MainServer::HandleAnnounce Monitor
2008-04-28 21:00:27.210 adding: myvcr as a client (events: 0)
2008-04-28 21:00:27.211 MainServer::HandleAnnounce Monitor
2008-04-28 21:00:27.212 adding: myvcr as a client (events: 1)
0: start_time: 1584.279 duration: 161.688
1: start_time: 1584.233 duration: 161.706
stream: start_time: 17602.590 duration: 1797.037 bitrate=14704 kb/s
2008-04-28 21:00:27.243 AFD: Opened codec 0x818aa20, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
2008-04-28 21:00:27.245 AFD: Opened codec 0x818aed0, id(AC3) type(Audio)
[mpeg2video @ 0xb730e3a8]00 motion_type at 82 51
[mpeg2video @ 0xb730e3a8]00 motion_type at 1 52
[mpeg2video @ 0xb730e3a8]00 motion_type at 62 52
[mpeg2video @ 0xb730e3a8]00 motion_type at 108 52
[mpeg2video @ 0xb730e3a8]ac-tex damaged at 7 53
[mpeg2video @ 0xb730e3a8]00 motion_type at 63 53
[mpeg2video @ 0xb730e3a8]00 motion_type at 86 53

These types of messages continue for a couple of thousand lines.

I am running R5F27. My hardware can be seen here:
http://jmn.ca/index.php?option=com_cont ... &Itemid=35

Any thoughts?
Thanks!

I'm not sure what all that stuff in the log means....does your HD LED go solid ON when this occurs? I used to get freezes when I would NOT have the option checked to "Delete Files Slowly" on the backend. If it were to delete an auto-expire live tv recording (generally created on the hour or half hour when shows start) this is when my problem would begin.

Of course, this was on a combined front/back end.

_________________
Proud member of the Loyal Brotherhood of Snipe Hunters - Local 414

Not sure exactly what you are experiencing there, Thought I would relate what I see when watching live tv.

I also experience brief freezes at the end of a given program as it transitions to the next program, like under 10 secs, but I don't usually see any drops as it continues to play where it stopped.

I have an MBE/FE and two SBE/FE I staggered the tuners on my 2nd SBE as lower value so that normal recordings would first always try to happen on the MBE and the primary SBE. However, I can repeat the short pause when I watch Live TV from any tuner.
My guess is that is has to do with DB activity and putting away File 1 while trying to gear up to capture file 2.

It isn't too awfully annoying. I do notice your HW includes a couple of HD capture cards, if that is the cards you are using those have a lot bigger file to put away and then start anew.
All of my experience is with SDTV capture cards. no HiDef here.

My hard is attached for comparison.

_________________
KnoppMyth R5.5
MBE: AMD64 3400+, K8N Neo4 Plat., 1Gig, Asus Extreme N6200, 320G pata, 2x320Gsata, 750Gsata, PVR-150 Retail w/Blaster
SBE: AMD XP2000, GA 7ZMMH, 1 Gig, XFX 256M 6200, 20 Gig, PVR-150 Retail w/Blaster
SBE: AMD Dur1800, 512M, PVR500

This is my thought too. When my HD is full, I notice a little pause and HD LED flicker when a new show starts. I'm set to "delete slowly", so it's just a brief pause. But it would be much worse with that option not set. My cure is to clean out old recordings once a week or so, and not let it get to the deadly 98% full situation. With 3 HD recorders, I can fill it up just about as fast as the system can delete!

While testing the upcoming R5.5 release, some people noticed problems with RRDtool slowing down the system at regular intervals. You may wish to try disabling RRDtool by running

and unchecking everything.

_________________
KnoppMyth R5.5
MythiC Dragon v2.0
Join the KnoppMyth Frappr!

Thanks everyone! ...

Recently the problem hasn't been nearly as bad - I have little pauses here and there.

Yes, the hard drive is active when the pauses occur. The disk array is no where near full, so the only erasing should be my programs that are designed to record new and expire the old ones - didn't think to check if this was happening at these times. - will do.

I had not set the delete files slowly - will also try this.

I also checked out RRD. Is this set to run by default? I don't remember configuring it. Now that you point it out, I thought it might be a good tool for troubleshooting my problem.

tks again