[pvrusb2] HVR-1950 encoder appears to be stuck error messages

[Roger]

> On Thu, Apr 02, 2015 at 09:24:16PM -0500, James Miller wrote:
>On Wed, 1 Apr 2015, Roger wrote:
>
>> I merrily and simply use a small self-created script for tuning and recording
>> called record-dvb.sh.  (It's file location URL is linked within a Gentoo Wiki
>> page.)  For scheduling recordings, I easily call the script via crontab.  The
>> script has been reliable for me for many years.
>>
>> The other thing you have to watch for when recording, MPlayer and MythTV tend
>> to unknowingly re-encode the data streamed from the pvrusb2 device (or any DVB
>> device file) into it's own format of choice.  Hence, you're not recording a
>> vanilla stream from the device and likely unknowingly degrading the video and
>> audio quality.  Most do not seem to mind this loss versus having all the
>> features of MythTV, etc.  (ie.  The only tasks required for recording from the
>> DVB device, first lock the tuner to a channel, and then simply use "cat
>> /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 > file.mpg".)
>
>I've run across that script before, Roger, and I have to admit that I've 
>found that approach very appealing. I would very much welcome getting away 
>from the bloat of MythTV. There would be some minor drawbacks for me 
>personally--things such having to schedule all episodes of some series 
>individually rather than as a group. Though I personally could live with 
>such minor inconveniences, the real barrier for me to adopting the DVR 
>approach you've taken is the fact that I am not, and do not want to be, 
>the sole DVR scheduler in my household. You see, my wife would never be 
>able to manage the more manual/technical method you reference for 
>scheduling recordings. On the other hand, she's become quite adept at, and 
>is now very attached to, scheduling recordings through Mythweb. Were I to 
>adopt an approach such as yours, the burden of scheduling all recordings, 
>I am sure, would fall on me.

Thanks for the compliment.  I always enjoy hearing my work has benefited 
somebody else!

It's a small script, but was scripted around need versus wants.  It wouldn't be 
too hard to script a graphical front end maybe using Zenity, but Zenity from 
what I see is for simple tasks.  A more inclusive solution would likely deal 
with C/C++, or even Javascript.

For splitting sessions due to the large resulting file sizes, could probably 
implement "/usr/bin/split".  However hard drive sizes these days are usually 
more then adequate for recording.  (Thank God.)

>That said, there might be ways of making your method more 
>user-friendly--perhaps even friendly enough for more techno-phobic folks 
>like my wife. For example, perhaps, rather than scheduling cron jobs, the 
>remind program, running in daemon mode, could be utilized. It does have a 
>frontend (tkremind), and calendar appointments can be made to trigger 
>events like executing scripts. How an interactive interface like tkremind 
>could be made available across the network so that someone could enter 
>"appointments" (recording time slots) from a remote machine, I have no 
>idea. Then there would be the issue of somehow matching entries entered 
>there to a set of recording scripts. Then, you start getting partway 
>toward a more full-fledged solution like MythTV. Unfortunately my modest 
>technical abilities do not allow me to do much more than speculate that 
>some such alternate arrangement might be made to work; the actual 
>execution of it, if it would even be possible and/or more desirable, remain 
>beyond my reach. Which is why I remain a user of MythTV :(

There is even a C tool called "/usr/bin/gnutv" within linuxtv-dvb-apps, which 
performs similar to my script.

My script's goal was just to simplify Linux DVB recording, and using existing 
(Unix ;-) tools versus implementing another all-in-one solution.  Anything 
added, usually immediately increases size and complexity with being easily read 
scripting/coding.  One could take time and implement a simple text file for 
stating recording times, but then we're back to dealing with users whom then do 
not know how to open and edit a simple text config file.  (For which that is 
all a crontab consists of to begin with, except for learning the syntax.)  Most 
users I find at this point, usually do not mind using something like MythTV.  
Albeit, you're getting smarter and seeing you really do not need all that just 
to record.  It's a fact of marriage, for better or worse. ;-)


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