[jonathan.holvey]

Hi,

I have an Ubuntu-based HTPC running Tvheadend and Kodi. It also acts as a storage, MySQL and Tvheadend server for a number of other Kodi instances running in the same house.

I've noticed recently that the playback of certain TV channels using Kodi on the HTPC has become unreliable, with the image breaking up and the audio being interrupted with high pitched chirps. Initially I assumed that this was due to a poor quality signal, after recently moving house, but I've found that streaming the same channels to my Windows laptop, running the same version of Kodi, the playback is smooth and reliable. When I start the same channel on the HTPC, the playback on both instances of Kodi degrades.

I thought that the problem might be to do with CPU usage on the HTPC, when both streaming and decoding the video at the same time, but the CPU usage doesn't go above around 50%, and other, 1080p channels work fine, while the ones I'm having problems with are standard definition (and all from the same mux I think). Sometimes the problem is so severe that it will cause both Kodi instances to crash completely at the same time - here is a crashlog.

I've reset the Kodi configuration on the HTPC by deleting the ~/.kodi directory, but this hasn't helped. I'm thinking that my next steps will be to reinstall Kodi or Tvheadend or both, but I'd rather avoid this (especially Tvheadend). Can anyone suggest what I should do before this?

The versions of the software mentioned above are Ubuntu 16.04, Tvheadend 4.0.9, Kodi 16.1 and Windows 7.

Thanks,
Jon

[jonathan.holvey]

I just found that Upstart had created a 205 GB log file in my root filesystem, leaving less than 1 GB remaining. Maybe this was contributing to the problem?? I've cleared the cache and I'll keep an eye on it.