I have a rather strange issue. I have upgraded my single box R5F27 to R5.5 by installing a new backend (Older AMD64 unit) and doing the selective database upgrade as mentioned in the other posts. The backend box runs correctly from its video monitor, I can view all of my prior recordings correctly.

On the old R5F27 box, I removed the tuner and installed a fresh copy of R5.5 and set it up as a front end only. The live TV feature works correctly off of the backend tuners, two analog tuners (PVR150 and PVR350) and two digital tuners on the HDHR. When I select my old recordings it lists them correctly and shows me the little thumbnail videos correctly, but when I press the play link the screen goes black and after several seconds comes back to the menu with the exception of one the recordings. This one recording plays on the frontend, only the weird thing is that it is the wrong recording? Again, they all work correctly when played on the Backend system.

I also tried booting the R5.5 CD and running the frontend feature, this works correctly on my backend stored recordings???

Any ideas out there?

Sorry to be a "me too" but I have the same problem. I don't know about the one program working. I haven't been that thorough but the preview works and the backend's tuners work but no playback.

Help!

You need to take a look at the logs (/var/log/mythtv).

In the front end setups there is a selection for "always stream recordings from the backend."

The description says that if not selected, if it can find a file locally, it will do that instead of pulling over the network.

Perhaps there is some artificat that is making the front end think the file is local, but it isn't. So it can't play. The one file that does play, but us incorrect, could reflect a local file.

-B

I think I recognize this from my own experiences. In my case I had not set up Samba correctly. The front end needs to have the same path to the media files as your backend, since I believe the path is in the db.

In my case on the BE, the path to the media files is:

So I specify the following path on the BE:, which I simply duplicate on all my FE:s. Of course, you also need to mount the directory:on the FE (the same way as you have on the BE). You will probably want to copy the line from your /etc/fstab line on your BE.

In addition, you have to specify the full paths to the video, music and pictures directories in the FE settings menu. These should be identical to those on the BE, or you'll send the FE to look for media files in the wrong place.

Hope this helps.
/Chris

_________________
LinHES R8.6.1
BE: AMD64X4, 4GB, Hauppauge usb tuners
FE1: Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4, nVidia GT640
FE2: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H, AthlonX2 4850E 2.5 GHz, 1GB, ASUS GEFORCE 7200GS 256MB
FE3: Asus Eeebox410

Thank you, cecil. I need to look at the logs. Is there anything you think I should specifically look for?

I did find the "always stream" setting and it was checked.

Chris, I had this working under the previous version and I don't remember having to play with samba mounts but I will check my notes. I set it up using the wiki article on running only the FE on the hard drive.

It just seems strange that the FE can play the video in preview but not "for real." That says to me it knows where to find the file, so it should be able to play it.

Thank you for all of the help.

Take a look at the frontend log. Whenever the error occurs, see what it says. It may give you a clue as to why it won't play. If it stumps you, post it here.

See this thread for things to look into. Output from /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log when you attempt to watch the recordings will be helpful.