capture card stops recording

[peawormsworth]

Hello,

I run SageTV server on a intel quad cpu box. I have 2 Hauppauge 2250 cards that I use to record 4 ATSC signals.

When it starts... it works fine. However, within 1 or 2 days, 1 or more of the capture cards (tuners) will just stop. It appears to keep recording, but the green bar is all red and when I click to watch it says "No Signal".

Question 1:
DOes anyone else have this issue, where tuners just stop???

This also occurred with my Hauppauge 500's and 1600's as well in the past... so I dont think this is a capture card driver error.

Wherever this occurs, a reboot instantly solves the issue. So I dont think this is an antenna signal issue as all tuners can immediately get all stations after reboot. Note: restarting sage server doesn't seem to fix the tuners.

Question 2:
Does anyone knows a way to "restart" a capture card that reports "no signal" without a system reboot?

Question 3:
Do you have a capture card that is working non-stop without fail on Ubuntu? If so... supply the name/make of the card. The 3 hauppauge I listed all fail in this way.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by peawormsworth

Question 3:
Do you have a capture card that is working non-stop without fail on Ubuntu? If so... supply the name/make of the card. The 3 hauppauge I listed all fail in this way.

See my sig.

But this should never happen. Is it a SageTV bug, or a driver bug? Can you "fix" it by re-starting sagetv, or does it really require a reboot?

Drew

[peawormsworth]

I dont know if it is a SageTV or driver bug. But since this happens with multiple hauppauge cards I believe it is a SageTV issue. Either that or all the Hauppauge drivers are broken in this same way.

I used to think maybe it was a CPU/power issue, but now I got a quad CPU and it still occurs.

The Ubuntu install is default 10.04. I just bought a new PC and there are no personal tweaks on it. It is a stock Ubuntu on a new machine with only the Sage debian packages installed. So I know it isnt caused by something I added. I even ran this machine headless without accessing it through SageTV client for several days and it still stopped capturing... so it isn't something I am causing through client interface interactions.

I love Ubuntu. But SageTV server makes my linux appear unreliable and broken... I have to reboot Ubuntu a lot now. I hate rebooting to fix things. This is disappointing because long reliable long up-time is one of the things I like most about Ubuntu when compared with Windows.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by peawormsworth

The Ubuntu install is default 10.04. I just bought a new PC and there are no

I didn't think 10.04 even had a driver for the 2250.

Anyway, what happens if you stop sage & restart it without rebooting?

Drew

[peawormsworth]

Originally Posted by drewg

I didn't think 10.04 even had a driver for the 2250.

Anyway, what happens if you stop sage & restart it without rebooting?

Drew

When I restart sageTV without rebooting... it usually does not work. ie: the cards do not tune TV until after a reboot.

UPDATE: SageTV with Hauppauge 2250 and Ubuntu is WORKING!

I accidently upgraded the Ubuntu OS from 10.04 to 11.04. The card drivers failed. So I patched the kernel according to Steven Toth's instructions and the drivers worked again.

Now SageTV is working better then ever. The 2250 dual tuner has not stopped working for 4 days now. This is an unusually long record without having to reboot the system.

During the 4 day test I have been working SageTV very hard. I have it recording 4 shows at once, performing commercial detection on all shows, archiving all shows (50+/day) into iPad format and using it to watch TV and recordings on 2 media extenders simultaneously. And I've activated a 2nd tuner card so now I am recording 4 programs at once. I have a 3rd 2250 tuner and may add that to see if the system can handle even more.

Success Summary:
- initially ubuntu 10.04 with Hauppauge 2250.... which required daily reboot.
- upgraded from 10.04 to 11.04
- added steven toths kernel modifications
- system appears to work flawlessly under "heavy" load.

I will provide detailed instructions of the steps I used in a following post. But first I want to try a direct install of 11.04 (and maybe 11.10) to see if the long upgrade step is even required.