From tivo at 30below.com Tue Sep 16 00:54:07 2003 From: tivo at 30below.com (TivoMerch) Date: Mon Sep 15 21:00:25 2003 Subject: [Extractstream [MM]] Flaky Tivo... Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20030915233758.00adc690@mail.30below.com> My Venerable Philips HDR212 SA unit has gone a bit flaky on me... I don't know how bad it is, but I *think* it's either software-based or MPEG-decoder based - the encoder doesn't seem to be affected; and watching live TV seems fine... here's what it's doing: My Tivo seems to glitch while playing back video from either pre-recorded shows or from the 30-minute 'live-TV buffer' -> sometimes the glitches last anywhere from milliseconds to 3-5 seconds, where the video freezes, and (on longer glitches) the audio b0rks up as well... when the audio does return, it may have a higher pitch for (maybe) up to a second thereafter - it's hard to time exactly... AFAIK, I haven't found any glitches in any downloaded shows, but it's been hard to track so far, as I don't sit & watch every single show that I burn to SVCD; however, I do have one show that seems to glitch badly (sadly, the Enterprise season opener... :-(( ) but I will be downloading that tonite or tomorrow (depending on schedule) and encoding that one posthaste to make sure the video is OK... Also, reboots don't seem to help - so it's not a "long-standing program going nutz" problem... This is what I'm thinking, but as my father-in-law used to say: "I could be full of condensed milk" with my reasoning: 1) TivoOS (for lack of a better term) hasn't been updated in quite some time - not only that, my Tivo hasn't been thru a "Full-Bore Slate-wiping reset" in *years*. My TivoChunk #'s are currently at: 2128007 ... Has anyone else had any problems with their Tivos when the chunk# gets that high? 2) Is it possible with all the jazz going on in that Tivo that maybe the HD can't keep up anymore? I'm still at single 40G 5400RPM hard drive - with the extra load (Webserver, telnet server, etc...) going on, would a memory upgrade (to 32Meg) and a 7200rpm / 8Meg buffer hard drive be prudent? Does the HD buffer size really *mean* anything to a Tivo anyway? How would I find out? Unforch, because of this, I'm stepping up my efforts to "roll-my-own" tivo out of my Micro-footprint Athlon 1600+ (I want 100Mbit more than anything, and a bit'o'preprocessing of the video before I get it on my main workstation would be nice...) but the video capture card I have only supports Win2K, so fast boot times are a thing of the past... (I'm debating getting a different card that Linux likes... and http://www.linuxfromscratch.org is a very good friend of mine... ;-) ) Anyway, if anyone else has heard of this, or knows a remedy, I would be humbled if you could impart some of your wisdom my way... ;-) Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger From douglass at artships.com Tue Sep 16 04:14:13 2003 From: douglass at artships.com (John Douglass) Date: Tue Sep 16 01:14:39 2003 Subject: [Extractstream [MM]] Re: Flaky Tivo... In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20030915233758.00adc690@mail.30below.com> References: <5.1.0.14.2.20030915233758.00adc690@mail.30below.com> Message-ID: On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 23:54:07 -0400, you wrote: >My TivoChunk #'s are currently at: 2128007 ... Has >anyone else had any problems with their Tivos when the chunk# gets that high? Mine are at around 1741967. Were big numbers a problem, I would think restoring the disk to a not-all-that-recent backup would change all that. > I'm still at single 40G 5400RPM hard drive I put in a 5400rpm 120G drive that had 8M of buffer and noticed that menu stuff started working much faster. Certainly a recomendation, especially if you can get a 7200rpm drive that takes little power, such as a Samsung. >I'm stepping up my efforts to "roll-my-own" tivo >out of my Micro-footprint Athlon 1600+ When Tivo works so well? I applaud your adventurous spirit. >http://www.linuxfromscratch.org is a very good friend of mine... ;-) ) Thanks for the link. John From dranch at trinnet.net Wed Sep 17 00:48:40 2003 From: dranch at trinnet.net (David Ranch) Date: Tue Sep 16 23:50:13 2003 Subject: [Extractstream [MM]] Flaky Tivo... In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20030915233758.00adc690@mail.30below.com> Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.0.20030916234345.00d94bf0@trinity3.trinnet.net> >2) Is it possible with all the jazz going on in that Tivo that maybe the HD >can't keep up anymore? I'm still at single 40G 5400RPM hard drive - with >the extra load (Webserver, telnet server, etc...) going on, would a memory >upgrade (to 32Meg) and a 7200rpm / 8Meg buffer hard drive be prudent? Does >the HD buffer size really *mean* anything to a Tivo anyway? How would I >find out? I bet the HD is developing more and more bad blocks which is causing your grief. The quickest way to fix this is dd the contents of your old HDs to a new HD and use the new drive. If you cannot get a new drive, you'll need to backup your machine to some other 40GB HD or be willing to lose all your content. Ultimately, you need to low level format your IDE HD and see if that helps. Ultimately, your HD might be failing and needs replacement anyway. You won't know until you run the Vendor's destructive test tool on the HD. --David .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | David A. Ranch - Linux/Networking/PC hardware dranch@trinnet.net | !---- ----! `----- For more detailed info, see http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch -----' From tpthatsme at yahoo.com Wed Sep 17 07:40:13 2003 From: tpthatsme at yahoo.com (tpthatsme) Date: Wed Sep 17 03:41:56 2003 Subject: [Extractstream [MM]] Flaky Tivo... In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.0.20030916234345.00d94bf0@trinity3.trinnet.net> Message-ID: <000601c37d08$16525250$0a00a8c0@tpthatsme> Something maybe overlooked: brownouts are a top killer of HDs and a surge protector isn't good enough. Ever since I have owned a TiVo, I have had a voltage regulator [http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=67]. Best dollars you can spend for devices with HDs. -----Original Message----- From: extractstream-bounces+tpthatsme=yahoo.com@lists.merlins.org [mailto:extractstream-bounces+tpthatsme=yahoo.com@lists.merlins.org] On Behalf Of David Ranch Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 2:49 AM To: TivoMerch; extractstream@lists.merlins.org Subject: Re: [Extractstream [MM]] Flaky Tivo... >2) Is it possible with all the jazz going on in that Tivo that maybe the HD >can't keep up anymore? I'm still at single 40G 5400RPM hard drive - with >the extra load (Webserver, telnet server, etc...) going on, would a memory >upgrade (to 32Meg) and a 7200rpm / 8Meg buffer hard drive be prudent? Does >the HD buffer size really *mean* anything to a Tivo anyway? How would I >find out? I bet the HD is developing more and more bad blocks which is causing your grief. The quickest way to fix this is dd the contents of your old HDs to a new HD and use the new drive. If you cannot get a new drive, you'll need to backup your machine to some other 40GB HD or be willing to lose all your content. Ultimately, you need to low level format your IDE HD and see if that helps. Ultimately, your HD might be failing and needs replacement anyway. You won't know until you run the Vendor's destructive test tool on the HD. --David .--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -. | David A. Ranch - Linux/Networking/PC hardware dranch@trinnet.net | !---- ----! `----- For more detailed info, see http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch -----' _______________________________________________ Extractstream mailing list Extractstream@lists.merlins.org http://lists.merlins.org/lists/listinfo/extractstream From acoward787 at ofire.com Wed Sep 17 13:41:08 2003 From: acoward787 at ofire.com (acoward787@ofire.com) Date: Wed Sep 17 10:41:14 2003 Subject: [Extractstream [MM]] (no subject) Message-ID: <200309171741.h8HHf8o18830@smapp01.siteprotect.com> > My Tivo seems to glitch while playing back video from either > pre-recorded > shows or from the 30-minute 'live-TV buffer' -> sometimes the > glitches last > anywhere from milliseconds to 3-5 seconds, where the video > freezes, and (on > longer glitches) the audio b0rks up as well... when the audio > does return, > it may have a higher pitch for (maybe) up to a second thereafter > - it's > hard to time exactly... My S1 Phillips Tivo is having the same problem. It appears to be only with playback and I haven't seen it with live tv and if I backup over a section which had glitches in the video/audio generally I can't get it to reproduce. At first I thought it was the CPU overburdened by all the hack software I put on there so I removed it all except the bash login. That didn't appear to fix the problem. My guess at this point is that either the Tivo is starting to overheat and cause these issues (not likely) or that the harddrives have become so fragmented that the seek time has become slower then is optimal for playback. I'm thinking of replacing the two drives I currently have in there with 1 Seagate barracuda IV (the nice and silent drive to get that added bonus) If anyone else has had success getting rid of their glitches let us know! From BrunoSpam at Bronosky.com Wed Sep 17 15:31:17 2003 From: BrunoSpam at Bronosky.com (BrunoUsesBBEdit) Date: Wed Sep 17 11:31:23 2003 Subject: [Extractstream [MM]] ExtractStream for Series 2 In-Reply-To: <200309171741.h8HHf8o18830@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Message-ID: <20434225-E93D-11D7-8551-0003930108D2@Bronosky.com> Can you ExtractStream a Hughes HDVR2? (Series 2 DirecTiVo) Would it be a bad idea to try to do it over an 802.11b WiFi? What is the average file size per hour that needs to be transfered? Thanks, --==<< R i c h a r d B r o n o s k y >>==--