[pvrusb2] WinTV USB2/Tv-Viewer question

[Roger]

> On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 12:01:47AM -0500, Mike Isely wrote:
>
>I have over time seen some reports where people have gotten frequent rapid 
>bursts of this problem happening.  In all cases that I remember, it was never 
>pinned down to be a real encoder problem.  Rather some have found that 
>cleaning up glitchy power has helped - the mpeg2 encoder is probably the most 
>complicated and definitely the most power hungry chip in the device so it 
>might be the most power sensitive as well.  It might also be a sign over 
>overheating.  I've also suspected over time that if the mpeg encoder fails to 
>get a "clean" digital stream from the upstream pipeline stage (the video 
>digitizer) - perhaps because of problems with video sync - that this might 
>cause the mpeg encoder to behave badly.  But I've never been able to prove it.

My votes for all three of these possible causes.

1) Power Supply (Likely older models?) - Lost my old PVRUSB2 Model #29061 
because I think the power supply shorted-out, and the power strip surge 
protector likely could not handle this scenario.  Oddly, this scenario very 
likely tripped two separate breakers in the house just as I heard a very loud 
pop noise!  Not just the breaker of the house circuit the PVRUSB2 device was 
on, but the bedroom as well.  Happened more than a year ago, and never again.  
Shortly there after I found the PVRUSB2 the only disfunctional device within 
those two circuits.  (I probably should have tested the unit to see if it were 
still good using a known good power supply, but the cost of the power supply 
would have costed just as much as a new device.)

2) Poor RF Reception/Tuning - However as Mike has already speculated, I think 
I've also seen this reset with poor reception as well.  Too much interference 
within the signal requiring more processing of the signal to rasterize static 
or poor reception.  However, could be related to power supply or overheating.

3) Hardare Level Bugs - Also as already speculated, when no source of the 
problem can be found, it usually is found to lie within the proprietary code.

Darn good devices.  But it only takes one part of a device containing a million 
components for it to fail.

Sounds like your device is a newer model.

-- 
Roger
http://rogerx.freeshell.org/