Mailing List Archive: MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server

MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server

Jul 19, 2016, 2:27 PM

Post #1 of 8 (2195 views)

Hi,

I'm having a few problems with a new Frontend/Backend server I
implemented after moving house. The old location had Terrestrial
Freeview, but the new location is Satellite Freeview only. I was having
some niggling problems with the old server, after a reboot Frontend
would take 20 to 30 minutes to appear after X started and it was running
low on hard disc space, so decided to implement a new server.
The new server worked fine at the old house as a standalone, but now I
try to use at new location and integrate into my Home Theatre setup I
get two problems:-

1. I get no reception on the TBS 6805 tuner card despite the MythTV
Channel Setup saying at least as good signal strength as at the old
house and was working fine at old house. When I insert my Satellite
Signal Meter (cheap $25 moving coil meter type) into the feeder, I get
good signal strength AND suddenly the TBS card picks up channels ???!!!!
Is this some kind of impedance matching issue that the meter is solving?
I have a replacement LNB I could try, but as it's a rented house I don't
want to fiddle with the dish unless I have to.

2. When MythTV server is connected direct to TV, it works OK, but when I
connect my Home Theatre Amp in between, after turning off Amp at night,
when powering up Amp next day, I now get no picture or sound unless I
reboot MythTV server. All connections are HDMI. TV and Amp are same as
at old house, but obviously server has changed. It was initially using
the builtin graphics for the Motherboard, but have also tried a Nvidia
9200 with latest Nvidia drivers that has been known to work in the past.
My suspicions are X is turning off video output when Amp is turned off
and fails to turn back on when Amp is turned back on. When I reboot
MythTV server, Mythbuntu splash screen shows as it's shutting down, so
something is kicking graphics back into life. Maybe there's something in
the setup of the new MythTV server that I've done differently, but with
so many settings it's going to be tedious to do a side by side check.

Hardware is:-

TV: Panasonic Plasma
Amp: Denon
MythTV: 0.27, Ubuntu 14.04 (Mythbuntu distro)

Anyone with any pointers as to what to try to resolve these issues?

-- Regards Chris Macneill

Re: MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server [ In reply to ]

paulgir at gmail

Jul 19, 2016, 2:40 PM

Post #2 of 8 (2187 views)

Permalink

On Wed, 20 Jul 2016 09:27:10 +1200, Chris Macneill <cmacneill@zelan.co.nz>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm having a few problems with a new Frontend/Backend server I
> implemented after moving house. The old location had Terrestrial
> >Freeview, but the new location is Satellite Freeview only. I was having
> some niggling problems with the old server, after a reboot >Frontend
> would take 20 to 30 minutes to appear after X started and it was running
> low on hard disc space, so decided to implement a >new server.
> The new server worked fine at the old house as a standalone, but now I
> try to use at new location and integrate into my Home Theatre >setup I
> get two problems:-
>
>> 1. I get no reception on the TBS 6805 tuner card despite the MythTV
>> Channel Setup saying at least as good signal strength as at the >old
>> house and was working fine at old house. When I insert my Satellite
>> Signal Meter (cheap $25 moving coil meter type) into the >feeder, I get
>> good signal strength AND suddenly the TBS card picks up channels
>> ???!!!! Is this some kind of impedance matching issue >that the meter
>> is solving? I have a replacement LNB I could try, but as it's a rented
>> house I don't want to fiddle with the dish >unless I have to.
>
> 2. When MythTV server is connected direct to TV, it works OK, but when I
> connect my Home Theatre Amp in between, after turning off Amp >at night,
> when powering up Amp next day, I now get no picture or sound unless I
> reboot MythTV server. All connections are HDMI. TV and >Amp are same as
> at old house, but obviously server has changed. It was initially using
> the builtin graphics for the Motherboard, but >have also tried a Nvidia
> 9200 with latest Nvidia drivers that has been known to work in the past.
> My suspicions are X is turning off >video output when Amp is turned off
> and fails to turn back on when Amp is turned back on. When I reboot
> MythTV server, Mythbuntu >splash screen shows as it's shutting down, so
> something is kicking graphics back into life. Maybe there's something in
> the setup of >the new MythTV server that I've done differently, but with
> so many settings it's going to be tedious to do a side by side check.
> Hardware is:-
>
> TV: Panasonic Plasma
> Amp: Denon
> MythTV: 0.27, Ubuntu 14.04 (Mythbuntu distro)
>
> Anyone with any pointers as to what to try to resolve these issues?
>
>
>
>> -- Regards Chris Macneill
Problem 2 sounds like what my system did if I started myth before the TV
(Panasonic) was running.Myth could not get EDID from the TV when it was
off.I fixed it using this
Howto:http://kodi.wiki/view/Creating_and_using_edid.bin_via_xorg.conf

Re: MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server [ In reply to ]

cmacneill at zelan

Jul 19, 2016, 2:44 PM

Post #3 of 8 (2189 views)

Permalink

Thanks Paul, old server was setup 3 years ago and now you've jogged my
memory, had to do this EDID thing last time too.

-- Regards Chris Macneill

Re: MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server [ In reply to ]

criggie at criggie

Jul 19, 2016, 3:03 PM

Post #4 of 8 (2187 views)

Permalink

Chris Macneill wrote:
> The new server worked fine at the old house as a standalone, but now I
> try to use at new location and integrate into my Home Theatre setup I
> get two problems:-

You have multiple problems, don't combing them into one big "myth's not
working" problem. Instead, separate the problems out and work on them one
at a time.

1) Your backend can't get satellite signal.

2) The audio system is messing up frontend playback.

They're probably unrelated.

--
Criggie

http://criggie.org.nz/

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Re: MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server [ In reply to ]

cmacneill at zelan

Jul 19, 2016, 4:08 PM

Post #5 of 8 (2189 views)

Permalink

EDID problem solved, but none of the options to extract EDID data in
Kodi Wiki actually seem to work in Mythbuntu. In the end I extracted
EDID data using nvidia-settings utility. Extract EDID button is in
bottom right corner, so if using VNC it's easy to miss that it's there.
After extracting EDID binary data, the information in Kodi Wiki for
modifying xorg.conf works OK.

On 20/07/2016 09:40, Paulgir wrote:
>
> Problem 2 sounds like what my system did if I started myth before the
> TV (Panasonic) was running.Myth could not get EDID from the TV when it
> was off.I fixed it using this
> Howto:http://kodi.wiki/view/Creating_and_using_edid.bin_via_xorg.conf
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
> No virus found in this message.
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> Version: 2016.0.7688 / Virus Database: 4627/12645 - Release Date: 07/19/16
>

--
Regards

Chris Macneill
Network Engineer
Zelan Ltd.

Email: cmacneill@zelan.co.nz
Mobile: 021 552076

Re: MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server [ In reply to ]

stephen_agent at jsw

Jul 19, 2016, 7:48 PM

Post #6 of 8 (2177 views)

Permalink

On Wed, 20 Jul 2016 09:27:10 +1200, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm having a few problems with a new Frontend/Backend server I
>implemented after moving house. The old location had Terrestrial
>Freeview, but the new location is Satellite Freeview only. I was having
>some niggling problems with the old server, after a reboot Frontend
>would take 20 to 30 minutes to appear after X started and it was running
>low on hard disc space, so decided to implement a new server.
>The new server worked fine at the old house as a standalone, but now I
>try to use at new location and integrate into my Home Theatre setup I
>get two problems:-
>
>1. I get no reception on the TBS 6805 tuner card despite the MythTV
>Channel Setup saying at least as good signal strength as at the old
>house and was working fine at old house. When I insert my Satellite
>Signal Meter (cheap $25 moving coil meter type) into the feeder, I get
>good signal strength AND suddenly the TBS card picks up channels ???!!!!
>Is this some kind of impedance matching issue that the meter is solving?
>I have a replacement LNB I could try, but as it's a rented house I don't
>want to fiddle with the dish unless I have to.

That sounds like a problem with your aerial connections. The LNB
needs power and if there are splitters in the aerial, generally only
one port of the splitter is marked as "power pass through" or the
equivalent. So something that provides power needs to be on that
port. When you attached the signal meter, it may have been on that
port, so it gave the LNB the power it needs. Splitters are small and
I have one where the marking is in tiny print, much smaller than the
other writing. So it is easy to miss it.

The polarisation of the signal is also controlled via the power
supplied - lower voltage for vertical and higher for horizontal.

See here for a good page on LNBs:

http://www.satsig.net/lnb/explanation-description-lnb.htm

I have my TBS 5922 USB tuner attached to my "power passthrough"
connector, as it is externally powered by a wall wart and does that
job for me. I do not know if your TBS 6805 will do it too, but I
would hope so. If you leave your backend box on 24/7 it would be the
best choice. A DVB-S/S2 capable TV might also work if it provided
power when left in standby. If you have Sky, the Sky box will provide
power, but I do not know if it does that while in standby - I would
hope so.

It is also possible that the LNB at your new house has a different
local oscillator frequency. The modern Sky dishes are all 10750 MHz,
but there are a couple of other frequencies that have been used. And
on older dishes, the LO frequency can drift a little and you sometimes
need to adjust that setting a bit for best reception.

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Re: MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server [ In reply to ]

criggie at criggie

Jul 19, 2016, 8:51 PM

Post #7 of 8 (2179 views)

Permalink

Stephen Worthington wrote:

> That sounds like a problem with your aerial connections. The LNB
> needs power and if there are splitters in the aerial, generally only
> one port of the splitter is marked as "power pass through" or the
> equivalent. So something that provides power needs to be on that
> port. When you attached the signal meter, it may have been on that
> port, so it gave the LNB the power it needs.

WARNING!!! I've fried the internal splitter on a satellite capture card
by plugging in the dish while the machine was running.

So DO NOT plug the dish wire into anything that is powered up!
Turn the server off before connecting or disconnecting the dish!

--
Criggie

http://criggie.org.nz/

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Re: MythTV problems after moving house & installing new Frontend/Backend server [ In reply to ]

cmacneill at zelan

Jul 19, 2016, 9:31 PM

Post #8 of 8 (2179 views)

Permalink

Thanks for the responses so far.

The signal meter is passive and providing no power.

Splitter is marked with 4 outputs and 1 input, so I'm pretty confident
I'm connected to the correct socket, especially as the dish at old house
worked fine without the Signal Meter in circuit.

The dish at the new house is connected to the same splitter output that
worked at the old house, so only difference is feeder cabling and LNB.

I'm living on West Coast and it's been raining too much to try changing
the LNB, so probably the next step. It's working OK at the moment with
Signal Meter in circuit, so no rush to sort out, but would be nice to
eliminate eventually.

--

Regards Chris Macneill