I gave archiving a try, reading all the good things people say about it in here. This is on R5D1 upgraded with 0.20. It runs into trouble on the final.mpg files in each directory.

I look in the "1" directory, and final.mpg is 0 bytes. I suspect that isn't proper. The only mention of final.mpg elsewhere in the log, is just prior to the above bit:

It doesn't mention any problem there regarding the file. There is plenty of drive space, but I would like to dump some of the shows ... Any clues?

I have a similar setup R5D1 w/upgrade to .20, while trying to burn a dvd I get the same message.

Just a thought Have you tried unchecking the 'Use FIFOs' setting on the second page of MythArchives settings?

I will try that, what are FIFO's?

A FIFO allows the output of one process to be piped to another process. In this case we are running mplex to combine the video and audio stream(s) and piping its output to dvdauthor. Actually there are several mplex processes running one for each title that will be on the DVD.

The big advantage in doing it that way is the output from mplex never has to be stored on the hard drive which both speeds things up and reduces the amount of free hard drive space required to create the DVD. If you turn the FIFO option off then mplex will create an intermediate file stored on the hard drive (one for each title on the DVD) and then dvdauthor is run and reads the files created by mplex. One advantage here is that you have the intermediate files available for inspection if things don't work properly.

I'm pretty sure most of these errors are caused by mplex barfing on corrupted input files causing the output files to be truncated so rather than creating an output file that is say 1 hour long they are only lets say 45 minutes long. When dvdauthor then tries to create the chapter points it fails because some of the later chapters fall past the end of the truncated file.

I always have FIFOs set to on and I've only ever been able to reproduce the error once and that was when my system was really busy both creating a DVD and compiling some software. I know the original files are OK because they are some small example files I use to test MythArchive and have used them many times successfully so there may be another explanation why it sometimes fails. My guess is that when there is a lot of disk activity mplex can't process the input files fast enough to keep some data in the FIFO buffer and dvdauthor is thinking that it has reached the end of the file when in fact it is only part way through though thats only a guess.

In any case I'd still like to know what happens either way. If it still fails take a look at the final.mpg file to see if it is shorter than it should be and also look at the mythburn.log for any errors from mplex.

when I ls -lhk final.mpg I get 86458 kbits

when I check mythburn.log I get:
ERROR : [mplex] Can't find next AC3 frame:@ 3388416 we have 33db - broken bits$
************************************************************
Error: mplex failed with result 1
************************************************************
Terminated

and this is with FIFO off, when its on I get the dvdauthor failure about chapters.

Can you please email me the progress.log
Also what sort of card was used to do the recording?

mythtv (at) dsl.pipex.com

also tried turning off the AC3 option, just for giggles, with FIFO on. Same errors.

an mplex error about can't find next AC3 frame

a dvdauthor error about cannpt jump to chapter 2 , only 1 exists

and one other error, and I apologize in advance my nano skillz are not mad.

[mpeg2video @ 0xb7eb0008] invalid mb type in B frame at 10 7
[mpeg2video @ 0xb7eb0008] concealing 2147483647 errors
[mpeg2video @ 0xb7eb0008] Warning MV's not available

yes I can, that would be a pair of Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 model 980

email sent, once I got done struggling with getting the log file onto a floppy. Now I know I need more command line practice.

ok, big props to paulh here. First thing is when I upgraded to myth.20 my aytharchive setting defaults are not helping. Make sure you are recording in a dvd compliant resolution I chose 720x480 and that is a great start.