[d3mia7]

I'm trying to get MythTV playback working properly through XBMC. I'm running the latest Eden RC at the moment.

XBMC is able to connect to my Myth backend no problem. I have no communications issues there. However if I try and play anything it'll go for about 2 seconds and then the playback will get super jerky and start just jumping a frame at a time, as if it can't get fed with enough data. In fact the errors in the debug log very much seem to imply this too:

Code:

12:15:43 T:140286683977472 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
12:15:43 T:140286705526528 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
12:15:43 T:140286683977472   ERROR: GetDelay - snd_pcm_delay, alsa error: -32 - Broken pipe
12:15:44 T:140286683977472 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
12:15:44 T:140286683977472   ERROR: GetDelay - snd_pcm_delay, alsa error: -32 - Broken pipe
12:15:44 T:140286683977472 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
12:15:44 T:140286683977472   ERROR: GetDelay - snd_pcm_delay, alsa error: -32 - Broken pipe
12:15:45 T:140286683977472 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Get - asked for new data packet, with nothing available
12:15:45 T:140286683977472   ERROR: GetDelay - snd_pcm_delay, alsa error: -32 - Broken pipe

Initially thinking that the network was the problem, I eliminated the wireless link between XBMC and the backend, but that didn't help at all. Still super choppy and completely unwatchable, so it's not related to the actual network transport.

The next thing I did was to fire up an actual Myth frontend on my XBMC box (outside of XBMC). Everything works fine there!! Myth frontend is able to play back the same programs smooth as silk with no issues whatsoever. This rules out hardware capabilities and network bandwidth I'd think. So what should I be trying to chase down?

CPU usage is very low (less than 20%) when trying to play back TV as well. No problems there. I'm on an Intel GM965 system so I don't have much for video processing power but again everything works fine with Myth frontend.

Ideas?

Debug log is here: http://pastebin.com/3abw7BTK

[d3mia7]

Really pulling my hair out on this... Mythbox looks soooo much nicer than mythfrontend on its own but not being able to actually WATCH my recordings kind of defeats the purpose!!

:confused2::confused2::confused2:

[d3mia7]

Watched several hours of live TV and recordings on the same system using the actual mythfrontend instead of XBMC - no freezes, dropouts or anything. This is absolutely an XBMC issue as opposed to anything with my network.

I've seen a few different threads kind of implying network throughput issues with Eden around, I'm wondering if this is the same issue.

[LastChoice]

Try turning off the option to stream the content from the Myth server and instead map a drive to your recording folder and set Mythbox to user that drive as the recording location. I've found that in my setup this route eliminated most of the stuttering issues I was having. I didn't attempt to troubleshoot the issue in detail, however I know that my Myth server is significantly underpowered, and I've found that streaming is hit or miss (especially if the server is busy doing other tasks like recording HD, or commercial flagging).

If you haven't seen it, you might also want to try Mythical Librarian (http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=MythicalLibrarian)...it's a great utility that runs on the Myth server and organizes the shows in a format that allows them drop right into the XBMC library. With Mythical Librarian running I find that I only need to drop into Mythbox occassionaly to view very recent shows that haven't been picked up by the scrapers yet.

[d3mia7]

Try turning off the option to stream the content from the Myth server and instead map a drive to your recording folder and set Mythbox to user that drive as the recording location. I've found that in my setup this route eliminated most of the stuttering issues I was having. I didn't attempt to troubleshoot the issue in detail, however I know that my Myth server is significantly underpowered, and I've found that streaming is hit or miss (especially if the server is busy doing other tasks like recording HD, or commercial flagging).

Thanks!! I mapped an NFS share from my backend to my XBMC box and it plays perfectly!! Now I just need to sort a way to turn on deinterlacing by default... But that's another story. Wonder why the built-in Myth playback doesn't work, but the NFS share does...

If you haven't seen it, you might also want to try Mythical Librarian (http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=MythicalLibrarian)...it's a great utility that runs on the Myth server and organizes the shows in a format that allows them drop right into the XBMC library. With Mythical Librarian running I find that I only need to drop into Mythbox occassionaly to view very recent shows that haven't been picked up by the scrapers yet.

I hadn't seen that, but it looks AWESOME. That is going to be my next project for sure. Double thanks!!