I just did a fresh install of R5F27, now my 2 pvr-150 cards will only play live TV. I try to record and it gives me nothing, but an empty file. The backend log says that it can't record in Layer I, so I switched to layer II. I've tried deleting the cards and adding them back in and nothing changes.

Any ideas as to a solution to my predicament.

Well "live TV" _is_ a recording so the question becomes "what is different between live recordings and scheduled recordings", the main thing is the recording profile. Go to the setup screen in the GUI, the menu path is something like:

Utilities/Setup -> Setup -> TV Settings -> Recording Profiles -> MPEG-2 Encoders

Grab a piece of paper and note the various settings for the "Live" and "Default" recording profiles (or whichever one you're using for the scheduled recordings) and look for differences. I'd probably write down the Live settings first and then use that as a baseline, since you know that one works.

I have set everything to same parameters as the live tv settings and I still don't get anything when recording.

What does /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log reveal (literally, a snippet of the log) for those missed recordings?

Oh wait, you've got two cards, and I'll bet you have LastFreeCard set. It's happy with the one but not the other...

Try switching tuners while watching live tv (use the menu to be sure it sees them).

I'm guessing either your "capture card" or "input connections" config in mythtv-setup is borked or the first card is DOA.

Did you follow the directions in the R5F27 Hints to make sure that your DB settings were right and that the firmware was refreshed?