Why are old versions of MythTV not supported?
#1
Runing XBMCbuntu (updated to 2:12.2~git20130502.1706-frodo-0oneiric) with xbmc-pvr-mythtv-cmyth 1.6.9-0oneiric.

I'm trying to use it with an ancient MythTV back-end, 0.21.0+fixes, and while all the database I/O works just fine (recording, schedules, and listings show fine), attempting to play a video results in "waiting..." appearing for about a minute and then nothing, with this appearing in the log:

Code:
15:03:14 T:2796551024  NOTICE: Previous line repeats 1 times.
15:03:14 T:2796551024  NOTICE: Thread PVR Channel Window start, auto delete: false
15:03:22 T:2823039856  NOTICE: Thread Background Loader start, auto delete: false
15:03:31 T:3077740992  NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: pvr://recordings/[...]20130512_140000.pvr
15:03:31 T:3077740992 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
15:03:31 T:2738572144  NOTICE: Thread CDVDPlayer start, auto delete: false
15:03:31 T:2738572144  NOTICE: Creating InputStream
15:03:32 T:2738572144  NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
15:03:32 T:2738572144   ERROR: Open - error probing input format, pvr://recordings/[...]20130512_140000.pvr
15:04:22 T:2738572144   ERROR: Previous line repeats 9 times.
15:04:22 T:2738572144   ERROR: OpenDemuxStream - Error creating demuxer
15:04:22 T:2738572144  NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
15:04:22 T:2738572144  NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
15:04:22 T:3077740992  NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
15:04:22 T:3077740992 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
15:04:22 T:3077740992  NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
15:04:22 T:3077740992  NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting

This thread and this thread suggests the problem is the old back-end version.

Upgrading the version is not likely to happen soon, as doing so is a big project requiring both OS and hardware upgrades.

My understanding is that the XBMC MythTV PVR addon uses the cmyth library, which is derived from the cmyth library developed for the mvpmc project. I continue to use mvpmc today as a front-end.

What I'm not following is why was backwards compatibility broken in XBMC's fork, if indeed version compatibility is the cause of the broken playback. One of the great strengths of cmyth was its ability to deal with many back-end versions, unlike MythTV's official clients that rigidly force you to keep them in precise version alignment.


Can someone confirm that the version skew is the source of the problem? (Rather than just guessing at it, as in the threads above do.)

I get that 0.21 is antique, and that old versions become too costly to support once the APIs and data structures in the newer versions diverge by too much, but can someone explain what complication was avoided by dropping support of the older versions?

Does the PVR addon support alternates to streaming video via MythTV protocol, such as NFS playback?
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#2
Don't know the answers to all this but 0.21 is VERY old now. I don't think though that the hardware requirements are all that different.

As far as OS goes, I would go for mythbuntu 12.04. Has LTS and will support myth for several versions yet.
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Why are old versions of MythTV not supported?0