Mailing List Archive

On Thu, 06 Feb 2003 09:20:04 -0500, Michael J. Sherman wrote:


> Hi all,
>
> Whenever I try to watch TV using MythTV it just hangs. I have an ATI TV
> card which works just fine under XawTV. I get the following output when
> I attempt to run mythtv:
>
> $ mythtv
> Probed: /dev/video0 - Television
> Probed: /dev/video0 - Composite1
> Changing from None to WathingLiveTV
>
> And then it just freezes. What could be wrong? I ran the setup program
> and everything seemed fine. I can run the mythfrontend app and look at
> the program schedule, but that's about it. When I try to listen to
> music it crashes, too. Seems like I'm just in a world of hurt here. I'm
> using RedHat 8.0.

Some other program is using /dev/dsp. Possibly "esd". Kill it.

- Ian

>>Hi all,
>>
>>Whenever I try to watch TV using MythTV it just hangs. I have an ATI TV
>>card which works just fine under XawTV. I get the following output when
>>I attempt to run mythtv:
>>
>>$ mythtv
>>Probed: /dev/video0 - Television
>>Probed: /dev/video0 - Composite1
>>Changing from None to WathingLiveTV
>>
>>And then it just freezes. What could be wrong? I ran the setup program
>>and everything seemed fine. I can run the mythfrontend app and look at
>>the program schedule, but that's about it. When I try to listen to
>>music it crashes, too. Seems like I'm just in a world of hurt here. I'm
>>using RedHat 8.0.
>
>
> Some other program is using /dev/dsp. Possibly "esd". Kill it.
>

I did that. Same result. Then I made sure to kill both esd and artsd.
Nothing seems to work. Any more ideas?

--
Michael J. Sherman | Software Developer
Digital Sandbox, Inc. | http://www.dsbox.com/

> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
>

you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.

cedar

On Thu, 6 Feb 2003 08:19:58 -0800
Cedar McKay <cedarmckay@mac.com> wrote:

> > I'm using RedHat 8.0.
> >
>
> you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
>

Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?


--
-Monty Walls (mwalls@castor.oktax.state.ok.us)
- MIS, Oklahoma Tax Commission
-
- My opinions are my own, my employer knows nothing about it.

>>> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
>>>
>>
>>you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
>>
>
>
> Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
>

It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard. Everything
else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to have no
problems.

I'm just having a host of issues with MythTV:

1) Trying to watch TV causes it to lock up (apparently this sound card
issue)
2) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Select Music" option mythmusic
crashes.
3) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Play Music" option there is
nothing listed (even though it read everything in on startup as seen on
the console).
4) In the Play Music screen I cannot edit the playlist
5) Trying to Import a CD also crashes MythMusic

Is this program really that buggy?!?!? It seems *completely* unusable
in everything I try to do. The *only* thing that works for me is
viewing the schedule of programs. That's it. Everything else seems to
crash or hang.

--
Michael J. Sherman | Software Developer
Digital Sandbox, Inc. | http://www.dsbox.com/

On Thursday 06 February 2003 12:23 pm, Michael J. Sherman wrote:
> >>> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
> >>
> >>you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
> >
> > Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
>
> It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard. Everything
> else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to have no
> problems.

None of those programs record audio, let alone record and playback
simultaneously.

> I'm just having a host of issues with MythTV:
>
> 1) Trying to watch TV causes it to lock up (apparently this sound card
> issue)
> 2) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Select Music" option mythmusic
> crashes.
> 3) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Play Music" option there is
> nothing listed (even though it read everything in on startup as seen on
> the console).
> 4) In the Play Music screen I cannot edit the playlist
> 5) Trying to Import a CD also crashes MythMusic
>
> Is this program really that buggy?!?!? It seems *completely* unusable
> in everything I try to do. The *only* thing that works for me is
> viewing the schedule of programs. That's it. Everything else seems to
> crash or hang.

The mythmusic issues you describe are due to a bug in libcdaudio. There's a
fix in libcdaudio's sourceforge bug tracker.

Isaac

Does the user running myth* have persmissions for /dev/dsp and /dev/video?
Also, sometimes if I run myth* as root the ringbuffer is owned by root. Then
if I run myth* as my mythtv user, it cannot write to to ring buffer and it
hangs.

IvanK.

On Thursday 06 February 2003 10:57 am, Michael J. Sherman wrote:
> >>Hi all,
> >>
> >>Whenever I try to watch TV using MythTV it just hangs. I have an ATI TV
> >>card which works just fine under XawTV. I get the following output when
> >>I attempt to run mythtv:
> >>
> >>$ mythtv
> >>Probed: /dev/video0 - Television
> >>Probed: /dev/video0 - Composite1
> >>Changing from None to WathingLiveTV
> >>
> >>And then it just freezes. What could be wrong? I ran the setup program
> >>and everything seemed fine. I can run the mythfrontend app and look at
> >>the program schedule, but that's about it. When I try to listen to
> >>music it crashes, too. Seems like I'm just in a world of hurt here. I'm
> >>using RedHat 8.0.
> >
> > Some other program is using /dev/dsp. Possibly "esd". Kill it.
>
> I did that. Same result. Then I made sure to kill both esd and artsd.
> Nothing seems to work. Any more ideas?

Michael J. Sherman wrote:

>
>>>> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
>>>>
>>>
>>> you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
>>
>
> It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard.
> Everything else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to
> have no problems.
>
> I'm just having a host of issues with MythTV:
>
> 1) Trying to watch TV causes it to lock up (apparently this sound card
> issue)
> 2) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Select Music" option mythmusic
> crashes.
> 3) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Play Music" option there is
> nothing listed (even though it read everything in on startup as seen
> on the console).
> 4) In the Play Music screen I cannot edit the playlist
> 5) Trying to Import a CD also crashes MythMusic
>
> Is this program really that buggy?!?!? It seems *completely* unusable
> in everything I try to do. The *only* thing that works for me is
> viewing the schedule of programs. That's it. Everything else seems
> to crash or hang.
>
It really isn't *that* buggy. Once I got it all set up, it has been
working great. I can't wait to get some new hardware to build a
dedicated Myth box!

m

On Thu, 06 Feb 2003 12:23:09 -0500
"Michael J. Sherman" <msherman@dsbox.com> wrote:

>
> >>> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
> >>>
> >>
> >>you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
> >>
> >
> >
> > Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
> >
>
> It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard. Everything
> else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to have no
> problems.
>

Most builtin-sound cards are junk (at least my bad experience on 4 boards)

Line-capture quality is very bad as a rule, plus many sound-chip drivers
don't support duplex (simultaneous play/record). My Fortissimo II is
in a drawer (not in use) since the stupid drivers have issues under
both oss & alsa. A sign of not supporting duplex is hanging on open
of /dev/dsp in live tv watching.

--
-Monty Walls (mwalls@castor.oktax.state.ok.us)
- MIS, Oklahoma Tax Commission
-
- My opinions are my own, my employer knows nothing about it.

Michael J. Sherman wrote:

>
>>>> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
>>>>
>>>
>>> you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
>>
>
> It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard.
> Everything else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to
> have no problems.


completely different. Playing and recording are not the same thing.

>
> I'm just having a host of issues with MythTV:

why try just getting mythtv a shot. Then once you know your sound-card,
hardware, prereqs etc are up to it you can get music and mame and so on
working. You need to carefully follow the docs at www.mythtv.org/docs/
Read the troubleshooting section. Confirm that your sound card can do
full duplex. My be by the way is that a)your card can not do full
duplex, or b)oss sound can't do full duplex with that card, and you have
not tried alsa yet.

>
> Is this program really that buggy?!?!? It seems *completely* unusable
> in everything I try to do. The *only* thing that works for me is
> viewing the schedule of programs. That's it. Everything else seems
> to crash or hang.
>

no, you have issues. It has been running with very little problems for
many people. I have not had a crash in a couple of weeks.


good luck


cedar

>
>
>Most builtin-sound cards are junk (at least my bad experience on 4 boards)
>
>
>

I have a very good impression of the card on my asus A7N266-VM (nforce).
Didn't work with OSS under redhat, but with alsa, it sounds perfect.

I'm giving the ALSA drivers a shot. Thanks for all the assistance so
far. ;) According to the troubleshooting section of the docs it sure
looks like audio causes the most issues...

-Mike

--
Michael J. Sherman | Software Developer
Digital Sandbox, Inc. | http://www.dsbox.com/

Isaac Richards wrote:
> On Thursday 06 February 2003 12:23 pm, Michael J. Sherman wrote:
>
>>>>>I'm using RedHat 8.0.
>>>>
>>>>you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
>>>
>>>Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
>>
>>It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard. Everything
>>else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to have no
>>problems.
>
>
> None of those programs record audio, let alone record and playback
> simultaneously.

Michael, as you can see, everyone is focusing on audio
recording which is the common source the of problem you
described. Take a few minutes to look over section 7 of
the docs http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-7.html
then try the test in Troubleshooting audio.

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-17.html#ss17.11

-- bjm

Isaac,

do you think this would be a good idea: if mythtv cannot open /dev/dsp* it
doesn't hang but proceeds in a muted mode. This might make it a little
harder for people to debug, not being sure if it's the sound card or the
drivers or the cabling, but at least they can be sure video works and the
problem is confined to audio.

What do people think?

IvanK.

On Thursday 06 February 2003 01:38 pm, Michael J. Sherman wrote:
> I'm giving the ALSA drivers a shot. Thanks for all the assistance so
> far. ;) According to the troubleshooting section of the docs it sure
> looks like audio causes the most issues...
>
> -Mike

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I've sent Isaac some questions about how he feels about various audio
aspects, and sent him a patch for mythfrontend volume and muting. If
Issac concurs, then I'll add some audio checks to mythbackend as
well.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 7.0.3 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>

iQA/AwUBPkLE+fc1NpCTlP0JEQL0wACgrUnOUxkpzgyVnjoyR1G0gAxsKl8AoIkv
9rvD6CWrV1ssEgaJK9L8ozHF
=ByDm
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Michael J. Sherman wrote:
>
>>>> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
>>>>
>>>
>>> you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
>>
>
> It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard. Everything
> else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to have no problems.
>
> I'm just having a host of issues with MythTV:
>
> 1) Trying to watch TV causes it to lock up (apparently this sound card
> issue)
> 2) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Select Music" option mythmusic
> crashes.
> 3) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Play Music" option there is
> nothing listed (even though it read everything in on startup as seen on
> the console).
> 4) In the Play Music screen I cannot edit the playlist
> 5) Trying to Import a CD also crashes MythMusic
>
> Is this program really that buggy?!?!? It seems *completely* unusable
> in everything I try to do. The *only* thing that works for me is
> viewing the schedule of programs. That's it. Everything else seems to
> crash or hang.

I'm having EXACTLY the sam issues (except for #2). I have a EPIA M9000
with a bt878, running Via's own drivers and xawtv works and mplayer
plays music. The problem I'm having trouble resolving is this: can my
soundcard do dulpex? I have read somewhere that MythTV will not show any
video if duplex audio is not present (!). Is there some way to confirm
this? I have read some threads about using two instances of xawtv to
test duplex, but that doesn't work for me.

Interrestingly enough watching LiveTV can be quit with ESC if I don't
press "c" (that will hang MythTV). All I see is a blank screen, though,
but something is being recorded, I can see the cache-file growing.

Another thing is that I have gotten MythTV to show me video twice in the
last four weeks, but only very briefly. I have no idea what I did right
those two times and I have not been able to recreate the circumstances.
Does xmltv provide working channels, or only programlistings? I have
tried to use both tv_grab_fi-output and xawtv-configuration files for
mythfilldatabase, but no go.

I have now tried to install MythTV for several weeks. I am becoming very
disillusioned, so if someone has some answers other that RTFM, please
help, because I have read the docs and rummaged through the mailinglists
A LOT.


Nybä

Fredrik Nyberg DC wrote:
> Michael J. Sherman wrote:
>
>>
>>>>> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
>>>
>>
>> It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard.
>> Everything else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to
>> have no problems.
>>
>> I'm just having a host of issues with MythTV:
>>
>> 1) Trying to watch TV causes it to lock up (apparently this sound card
>> issue)
>> 2) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Select Music" option mythmusic
>> crashes.
>> 3) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Play Music" option there is
>> nothing listed (even though it read everything in on startup as seen
>> on the console).
>> 4) In the Play Music screen I cannot edit the playlist
>> 5) Trying to Import a CD also crashes MythMusic
>>
>> Is this program really that buggy?!?!? It seems *completely* unusable
>> in everything I try to do. The *only* thing that works for me is
>> viewing the schedule of programs. That's it. Everything else seems
>> to crash or hang.
>
>
> I'm having EXACTLY the sam issues (except for #2). I have a EPIA M9000
> with a bt878, running Via's own drivers and xawtv works and mplayer
> plays music. The problem I'm having trouble resolving is this: can my
> soundcard do dulpex? I have read somewhere that MythTV will not show any
> video if duplex audio is not present (!). Is there some way to confirm
> this? I have read some threads about using two instances of xawtv to
> test duplex, but that doesn't work for me.
>
> Interrestingly enough watching LiveTV can be quit with ESC if I don't
> press "c" (that will hang MythTV). All I see is a blank screen, though,
> but something is being recorded, I can see the cache-file growing.
>
> Another thing is that I have gotten MythTV to show me video twice in the
> last four weeks, but only very briefly. I have no idea what I did right
> those two times and I have not been able to recreate the circumstances.
> Does xmltv provide working channels, or only programlistings? I have
> tried to use both tv_grab_fi-output and xawtv-configuration files for
> mythfilldatabase, but no go.
>
> I have now tried to install MythTV for several weeks. I am becoming very
> disillusioned, so if someone has some answers other that RTFM, please
> help, because I have read the docs and rummaged through the mailinglists
> A LOT.
>

Okay, last night I got MythTV working. But I'm not sure I know why ;-).
I deleted everything associated with MythTV and went back to the
released 0.7 sources (I was playing with CVS). Compiled, installed,
double-checked installation instructions, and voila! I was watching TV.
BTW, pausing live TV is something I never knew was so cool, but now
I'm not sure I can live without ;-).

I have two remaining issues. The first is with mythfilldatabase not
working properly, but I gather that's because the web page that XMLTV
grabs stuff from changed their format. So that's no big deal. The
second is with mythmusic. I can start it up, and see on the console
that it's discovering all my sound files correctly, but when I go to
choose "Select Music", it hangs. Any ideas there?

Thanks,
Mike

P.S. - Thanks for all the assistance in directing me towards using Alsa
over OSS.

--
Michael J. Sherman | Software Developer
Digital Sandbox, Inc. | http://www.dsbox.com/

Mike-

Glad you managed to get things working. Welcome to the club! The
mythfilldatabase issue is indeed related to zap2it changing their listing
format, if you're grabbing North American listings. There are some patches
floating around this list for Myth 0.7 + xmltv 0.5.7.

I have no idea what's going on with Myuthmusic. For me, I compiled and
installed, and it just worked. Sorry.

-Jeff



"Michael J. Sherman"
<msherman@dsbox.com> To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users@snowman.net>
Sent by: cc:
mythtv-users-bounces@s Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] problem trying to watch TV
nowman.net


02/11/2003 08:45 AM
Please respond to
Discussion about
mythtv








Fredrik Nyberg DC wrote:
> Michael J. Sherman wrote:
>
>>
>>>>> I'm using RedHat 8.0.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> you using alsa or oss? If oss, you might give alsa a shot.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Which soundcard (ie: can it do duplex) ?
>>>
>>
>> It's just an on-board sound card built into the motherboard.
>> Everything else I use in Linux (xmms, mplayer, xawtv, etc..) seem to
>> have no problems.
>>
>> I'm just having a host of issues with MythTV:
>>
>> 1) Trying to watch TV causes it to lock up (apparently this sound card
>> issue)
>> 2) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Select Music" option mythmusic
>> crashes.
>> 3) Using MythMusic, when I choose the "Play Music" option there is
>> nothing listed (even though it read everything in on startup as seen
>> on the console).
>> 4) In the Play Music screen I cannot edit the playlist
>> 5) Trying to Import a CD also crashes MythMusic
>>
>> Is this program really that buggy?!?!? It seems *completely* unusable
>> in everything I try to do. The *only* thing that works for me is
>> viewing the schedule of programs. That's it. Everything else seems
>> to crash or hang.
>
>
> I'm having EXACTLY the sam issues (except for #2). I have a EPIA M9000
> with a bt878, running Via's own drivers and xawtv works and mplayer
> plays music. The problem I'm having trouble resolving is this: can my
> soundcard do dulpex? I have read somewhere that MythTV will not show any
> video if duplex audio is not present (!). Is there some way to confirm
> this? I have read some threads about using two instances of xawtv to
> test duplex, but that doesn't work for me.
>
> Interrestingly enough watching LiveTV can be quit with ESC if I don't
> press "c" (that will hang MythTV). All I see is a blank screen, though,
> but something is being recorded, I can see the cache-file growing.
>
> Another thing is that I have gotten MythTV to show me video twice in the
> last four weeks, but only very briefly. I have no idea what I did right
> those two times and I have not been able to recreate the circumstances.
> Does xmltv provide working channels, or only programlistings? I have
> tried to use both tv_grab_fi-output and xawtv-configuration files for
> mythfilldatabase, but no go.
>
> I have now tried to install MythTV for several weeks. I am becoming very
> disillusioned, so if someone has some answers other that RTFM, please
> help, because I have read the docs and rummaged through the mailinglists
> A LOT.
>

Okay, last night I got MythTV working. But I'm not sure I know why ;-).
I deleted everything associated with MythTV and went back to the
released 0.7 sources (I was playing with CVS). Compiled, installed,
double-checked installation instructions, and voila! I was watching TV.
BTW, pausing live TV is something I never knew was so cool, but now
I'm not sure I can live without ;-).

I have two remaining issues. The first is with mythfilldatabase not
working properly, but I gather that's because the web page that XMLTV
grabs stuff from changed their format. So that's no big deal. The
second is with mythmusic. I can start it up, and see on the console
that it's discovering all my sound files correctly, but when I go to
choose "Select Music", it hangs. Any ideas there?

Thanks,
Mike

P.S. - Thanks for all the assistance in directing me towards using Alsa
over OSS.

--
Michael J. Sherman | Software Developer
Digital Sandbox, Inc. | http://www.dsbox.com/

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

I got the patches that were on the list but they seem to just produce
different errors. I'll probably just try to grab the XMLTV source
directly from its CVS on sourceforge... 0.5.7 was released the night of
Feb 9th, so perhaps that includes the fix.


Jeff_Mitchell@accessbusinessgroup.com wrote:

> Glad you managed to get things working. Welcome to the club! The
> mythfilldatabase issue is indeed related to zap2it changing their listing
> format, if you're grabbing North American listings. There are some patches
> floating around this list for Myth 0.7 + xmltv 0.5.7.

[snip]


--
Michael J. Sherman | Software Developer
Digital Sandbox, Inc. | http://www.dsbox.com/