Mailing List Archive

On Sat, 2 May 2020 14:01:26 +0200, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
>when watching tv with MythTV under Debian unstable, my computer becomes
>unusable for a long time and I get the message above. I found a lot of
>discussions about that on the web, but I don't understand everything.
>
>I use a NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 210] graphic card with 256 MB
>memory, do I have to buy a another one with more memory? My computer has
>8 GB memory.
>
>If so, which card to buy? I don't play on my computer, so I don't need a
>high-end graphic card, just one working well with MythTV for some years
>to come.
>
>I have no problem while reading videos with other programs like vlc etc.
>
>sincerely
>
>Klaus

"Decoder timed out waiting for free video buffers" is normally a
software problem, not hardware. There can be many different reasons
for getting this, so you will need to dig into the logs and see if you
can find out what is going on. I have a problem like that happening
to me sometimes, and it is happening when a background task called
DBCleanup is being run. If I have the problem happen, and look in
mythbackend.log, I see the message that DBCleanup has started, but not
the one saying it has finished. If I wait until the log shows
DBCleanup has finished, then exit from the recording I am playing and
restart playing it, the problem is gone. It looks like DBCleanup is
run roughly twice a day, but at varying times - it shifts a bit each
time it is run. So as the time it runs moves gradually, when it runs
will move in and out of the period when you are normally using MythTV
to watch things, so the problem appears to disappear for a while. In
my case, I have a massive database, so it seems to take DBCleanup a
long time to run - your database is likely much smaller so you may not
have it running long enough to cause problems.

Your GeForce 210 card is only good for MythTV if you are not wanting
to do full deinterlacing. So if all you are playing are progressive
video files and progressive recordings, it is fine. But if you have
interlaced TV or video files, then it does not have the capability in
hardware to do the best deinterlacing. It will only do one of the
lower deinterlace modes, and you will likely have some deinterlace
artifacts. Back when the 200 series came out, the GT 220 card was the
lowest one that was recommended for MythTV. So I would recommend
getting a better card. These days, the GT 1030 would be what I would
recommend for a low end card. They are available in fanless versions
that should last for a long time. But replacing the video card is
very unlikely to fix your problem.
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Le 03/05/2020 à 05:40, Stephen Worthington a écrit :
> On Sat, 2 May 2020 14:01:26 +0200, you wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> when watching tv with MythTV under Debian unstable, my computer becomes
>> unusable for a long time and I get the message above....
>>
>> Klaus
>
> "Decoder timed out waiting for free video buffers" is normally a
software problem, not hardware. ...


If I have the problem happen, and look in
> mythbackend.log, I see the message that DBCleanup has started, but not
> the one saying it has finished. ...



Hi Stephen,

thanks for all these explanations.

My /var/log/mythbackend/backend.log is empty.

Klaus
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On 03/05/2020 11:24, Klaus Becker wrote:
> Le 03/05/2020 à 05:40, Stephen Worthington a écrit :
>> On Sat, 2 May 2020 14:01:26 +0200, you wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> when watching tv with MythTV under Debian unstable, my computer becomes
>>> unusable for a long time and I get the message above....
>>>
>>> Klaus
>>
>> "Decoder timed out waiting for free video buffers" is normally a
>  software problem, not hardware.  ...
>
>
>   If I have the problem happen, and look in
>> mythbackend.log, I see the message that DBCleanup has started, but not
>> the one saying it has finished. ...
>
>
>
> Hi Stephen,
>
> thanks for all these explanations.
>
> My /var/log/mythbackend/backend.log is empty.
>
> Klaus
>

What about /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log?


Paul H.

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Le 03/05/2020 à 12:43, Paul Harrison a écrit :
> On 03/05/2020 11:24, Klaus Becker wrote:
>> Le 03/05/2020 à 05:40, Stephen Worthington a écrit :
>>> On Sat, 2 May 2020 14:01:26 +0200, you wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> when watching tv with MythTV under Debian unstable, my computer becomes
>>>> unusable for a long time and I get the message above....
>>>>
>>>> Klaus
>>>
>>> "Decoder timed out waiting for free video buffers" is normally a
>>  software problem, not hardware.  ...
>>
>>
>>   If I have the problem happen, and look in
>>> mythbackend.log, I see the message that DBCleanup has started, but not
>>> the one saying it has finished. ...
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi Stephen,
>>
>> thanks for all these explanations.
>>
>> My /var/log/mythbackend/backend.log is empty.
>>
>> Klaus
>>
>
> What about /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log?
>
>
> Paul H.

I have no /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log, I created it by

# touch /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log.

I started the frontend and watched tv for a minute and then I looked at
the log-file which is empty.

Klaus


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On Sun, 3 May 2020 13:32:30 +0200, you wrote:

>
>
>Le 03/05/2020 ? 12:43, Paul Harrison a ?crit?:
>> On 03/05/2020 11:24, Klaus Becker wrote:
>>> Le 03/05/2020 ? 05:40, Stephen Worthington a ?crit?:
>>>> On Sat, 2 May 2020 14:01:26 +0200, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> when watching tv with MythTV under Debian unstable, my computer becomes
>>>>> unusable for a long time and I get the message above....
>>>>>
>>>>> Klaus
>>>>
>>>> "Decoder timed out waiting for free video buffers" is normally a
>>> ?software problem, not hardware.? ...
>>>
>>>
>>> ? If I have the problem happen, and look in
>>>> mythbackend.log, I see the message that DBCleanup has started, but not
>>>> the one saying it has finished. ...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Stephen,
>>>
>>> thanks for all these explanations.
>>>
>>> My /var/log/mythbackend/backend.log is empty.
>>>
>>> Klaus
>>>
>>
>> What about /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log?
>>
>>
>> Paul H.
>
>I have no /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log, I created it by
>
># touch /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log.
>
>I started the frontend and watched tv for a minute and then I looked at
>the log-file which is empty.
>
>Klaus

I can not remember where the Debian install puts the log files. If
you have mlocate installed, this command should find the backend log
if it exists:

locate mythbackend.log
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Le 03/05/2020 à 14:20, Stephen Worthington a écrit :

> I can not remember where the Debian install puts the log files. If
> you have mlocate installed, this command should find the backend log
> if it exists:
>
> locate mythbackend.log

That's what I did, and locate did not find anything.

Now it finds /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log, the file I created myself
and which is still empty.

Isn't this the information I need:

$ mythbackend --loglevel debug | grep -i DBCleanup
2020-05-03 15:39:48.919683 D DBCleanup Run window between 82800 - 129600.
2020-05-03 15:39:48.919695 I Registering HouseKeeperTask 'DBCleanup' ?

Klaus
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On 5/3/20 8:42 AM, Klaus Becker wrote:
>
> Now it finds /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log, the file I created myself and which is still empty.

Also, see if your user and user mythtv have rwx access to the directory:

ls -ld /var/log/mythtv

Mine looks like this:

drwxrwxr-x 2 mythtv mythtv 12288 May 3 08:17 /var/log/mythtv

And my user is a member of group mythtv.

The test file you created was make by root, so remove that too.

--
Bill
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Le 03/05/2020 à 16:20, Bill Meek a écrit :
> On 5/3/20 8:42 AM, Klaus Becker wrote:
>>
>> Now it finds /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log, the file I created
>> myself and which is still empty.

Hi,

>
> Also, see if your user and user mythtv have rwx access to the directory:
>
>   ls -ld /var/log/mythtv
>
> Mine looks like this:
>
>   drwxrwxr-x 2 mythtv mythtv 12288 May  3 08:17 /var/log/mythtv

I have:

$ ls -ld /var/log/mythtv
drwxr-sr-x 2 root adm 4,0K mai 3 13:24 /var/log/mythtv

>
> And my user is a member of group mythtv.

I added "klaus" to the groups mythtv and adm

>
> The test file you created was make by root, so remove that too.

done

Klaus
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On Sun, 3 May 2020 at 16:48, Klaus Becker <colonius47@gmail.com> wrote:

> Le 03/05/2020 à 16:20, Bill Meek a écrit :
> > On 5/3/20 8:42 AM, Klaus Becker wrote:
> >>
> >> Now it finds /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log, the file I created
> >> myself and which is still empty.
>
> Hi,
>
> >
> > Also, see if your user and user mythtv have rwx access to the directory:
> >
> > ls -ld /var/log/mythtv
> >
> > Mine looks like this:
> >
> > drwxrwxr-x 2 mythtv mythtv 12288 May 3 08:17 /var/log/mythtv
>
> I have:
>
> $ ls -ld /var/log/mythtv
> drwxr-sr-x 2 root adm 4,0K mai 3 13:24 /var/log/mythtv
>
> >
> > And my user is a member of group mythtv.
>
> I added "klaus" to the groups mythtv and adm
>
> >
> > The test file you created was make by root, so remove that too.
>
>
When I get "Decoder timed out waiting for free video buffers" messsages it
is always a problem in mythfrontend.
So it is possible that your problems are not (only) in the mythbackend but
in the frontend and then I suspect video playback settings.
You might try experimenting with the various video playback configuration
options in Setup / VIdeo / Playback.
You can select various playback profiles and per profile you can select
various options.
This is documented in the Wiki in
https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Release_Notes_-_31_Video_decoding_and_playback
Note that for GUI navigation you need to use the left-arrow and the
right-arrow keys, for instance to get to the options for the "Current VIdeo
Playback Profile" you need the right arrow key.

Klaas.

On 5/3/20 9:47 AM, Klaus Becker wrote:
>
> I have:
>
> $ ls -ld /var/log/mythtv
> drwxr-sr-x 2 root adm 4,0K mai    3 13:24 /var/log/mythtv

That means that user mythtv can't write to the file. And members of
the adm group can't either. If you run mythbackend as user root,
then backend logs should appear there. Running the BE as root isn't
recommended. But, your choice.

--
Bill
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