9 replies to this topic

[javier3034]

After updates 1 or 2 weeks ago aprox. the usb-dtt don`t work good,

after 1 houre aprox., freeze and the picture in TV stop, change a channel and don't view any channles, HD or SD is the same. Need resart the box,

I update all nigth the image online, I test whit 2 usb-dtt differentes, af-9015 and sms-siano (ministick), and the problem is the same,

Have a solution?

Your need a debug or another info?

The box is a VU-Duo, I don`t know another boxs.

Thank your and regards

Edited by javier3034, 27 January 2012 - 23:57.

[stick50jr]

javier,

I have had a similar problem with the af9035 and dib0700 based usb dvb-t tuners, also in the VuDuo (see quotes below). Andyblac who is the main Vix coder seems to think the VuDuo drivers are the problem. If he is correct, then we need to wait on the Vu+ people to fix the problem (I'm hoping Andyblac has alerted them to this). I don't know whether the same problem occurs in the other VU+ models... but it is quite possible because I would imagine that the 'vtuner' embedded in their driver code is similar. I guess if the VU+ people don't do something soon then people will stop buying the VU+. Hopefully something will be done...

it is more likely that the vu+ vtuner driver (embedded in their main drivers) are not upto the same standard as ET's. i have issues with some DVB-S sticks on Vu+.

Okay... bit of a bummer. Andy, I note elsewhere that you've said that you provide plenty of advice to the VU+ coders but that they rarely acknowledge your messages explicitly. I assume that they are aware of the likely vtuner problem... maybe they'll look at it some time! I also have my doubts about the long term stability of the usb tuners in the VuDuo... I do a regular restart every 24hrs to reduce the effects of what appears to be a memory leak which only affects the usb tuner. This occurs with BH1.7.1, Vix 2.3.190 and I'm testing on openPli to confirm the same possibly. I've found the problem is common to the Avermedia a825 (TwinStar af9035) and also the Hauppauge Nova TD (dib0700).

Do you believe there is anyway for me to provide info to the VU+ coders. Perhaps you can forward my experiences on to raise the profile of this problem. I reckon the instability is more of an issue than the Signal Level & SNR, if they are indeed down to the VU+ driver code. It would be good to get them all fixed.

Thanks for your comment

[Gennar1]

Can you post a dmesg log (from a telnet connection) when the error happens and the picture stops?
Sometimes I see a memory problem also on the ET9000; this happens only after I use the mediaplayer for a long time, then when I switch back to the USB tuner the DTT kernel module has crashed because it run out of memory:

usbtunerhelper: page allocation failure: order:4, mode:0x10d0
Call Trace:
[<805796c0>] dump_stack+0x8/0x34
[<8008ad00>] warn_alloc_failed+0xc4/0x144
[<8008b8c8>] __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x40c/0x678
[<8008bc30>] __get_free_pages+0x18/0x80
[<8001101c>] mips_dma_alloc_coherent+0x5c/0x114
[<e1589e9c>] em28xx_init_isoc+0x10c/0x3e4 [em28xx]
[<e15a571c>] em28xx_start_feed+0x12c/0x164 [em28xx_dvb]
[<803fe4e4>] dmx_ts_feed_start_filtering+0x5c/0x134
[<803fa844>] dvb_dmxdev_start_feed+0xd4/0x158
[<803fce74>] dvb_demux_do_ioctl+0x578/0x654
[<803f9fe0>] dvb_usercopy+0x88/0x204
[<800d6ef4>] do_vfs_ioctl+0xa0/0x6c0
[<800d7558>] sys_ioctl+0x44/0xa8
[<8000ecfc>] stack_done+0x20/0x40
Mem-Info:
Normal per-cpu:
CPU    0: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   0
CPU    1: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   0
active_anon:16538 inactive_anon:119 isolated_anon:0
active_file:21614 inactive_file:23194 isolated_file:0
unevictable:0 dirty:95 writeback:2 unstable:0
free:2202 slab_reclaimable:1741 slab_unreclaimable:1998
mapped:2440 shmem:169 pagetables:137 bounce:0
Normal free:8808kB min:2876kB low:3592kB high:4312kB active_anon:66152kB inactive_anon:476kB active_file:86456kB inactive_file:92776kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:518144kB mlocked:0kB dirty:380kB writeback:8kB mapped:9760kB shmem:676kB slab_reclaimable:6964kB slab_unreclaimable:7992kB kernel_stack:792kB pagetables:548kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0
Normal: 1470*4kB 260*8kB 37*16kB 2*32kB 3*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 8808kB
44992 total pagecache pages
0 pages in swap cache
Swap cache stats: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0
Free swap  = 0kB
Total swap = 0kB
131072 pages RAM
58190 pages reserved
26397 pages shared
46218 pages non-shared
unable to allocate 48128 bytes for transfer buffer 0

Seems like the mediaplyer takes all the memory available (for caching) but then it's slow in making the memory available again when you exit the mediaplayer, so the USB tuner has no memory to allocate it's buffers.

[stick50jr]

Can you post a dmesg log (from a telnet connection) when the error happens and the picture stops?
Sometimes I see a memory problem also on the ET9000; this happens only after I use the mediaplayer for a long time, then when I switch back to the USB tuner the DTT kernel module has crashed because it run out of memory:

Seems like the mediaplyer takes all the memory available (for caching) but then it's slow in making the memory available again when you exit the mediaplayer, so the USB tuner has no memory to allocate it's buffers.

I've never used the mediaplayer.

[Gennar1]

Well, the dmesg log will be useful anyway. Probably we can not fix the problem, as it appears as a vtuner/driver problem, but at least we can get an idea about what's going on.

[pieterg]

That's the risk of requiring 'coherent' pages, and even worse, allocating them runtime.
There might be lots of free pages, but if they are scattered, you can't use them.

[dfdream]

Gennar1, this is starting to ring a bell for me. Im on Vix currently and had the same issue from PLi,

I dont use the mediaplayer buy playback lots of video podcasts (daily) that my pc records to my box plus I would playback films from my NAS (weekly).
I playback the above through the movielist button. Dont know if this is the same player as mediaplayer.
Regularly various issues would happen to the DTT Tuner (Sundtek or NovaT) Screen freezes, locked channels or total freeze on box.

I have noted that the issues would tend to happen more when I have viewed podcasts or films or even recordings.

I would be glad to help gather information that might help. This has bugged me for nearly 12 months now.

How can I check the memory available for the DTT when the issues happen.

Have you seen any other issues other than the crash. Sometimes some dtt channels fail or I get tuner failed errors.

Stick50jr, Im not sure if its a drivers issue. Users of dreamboxes and other boxes who also have VUs or ETs have none of the problems with the DMMs they have with the others on the same driver.

I think Gennar1 could be on the right track here, but who knows who can tease it out to solve it ????

Can you post a dmesg log (from a telnet connection) when the error happens and the picture stops?
Sometimes I see a memory problem also on the ET9000; this happens only after I use the mediaplayer for a long time, then when I switch back to the USB tuner the DTT kernel module has crashed because it run out of memory:

usbtunerhelper: page allocation failure: order:4, mode:0x10d0
Call Trace:
[<805796c0>] dump_stack+0x8/0x34
[<8008ad00>] warn_alloc_failed+0xc4/0x144
[<8008b8c8>] __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x40c/0x678
[<8008bc30>] __get_free_pages+0x18/0x80
[<8001101c>] mips_dma_alloc_coherent+0x5c/0x114
[<e1589e9c>] em28xx_init_isoc+0x10c/0x3e4 [em28xx]
[<e15a571c>] em28xx_start_feed+0x12c/0x164 [em28xx_dvb]
[<803fe4e4>] dmx_ts_feed_start_filtering+0x5c/0x134
[<803fa844>] dvb_dmxdev_start_feed+0xd4/0x158
[<803fce74>] dvb_demux_do_ioctl+0x578/0x654
[<803f9fe0>] dvb_usercopy+0x88/0x204
[<800d6ef4>] do_vfs_ioctl+0xa0/0x6c0
[<800d7558>] sys_ioctl+0x44/0xa8
[<8000ecfc>] stack_done+0x20/0x40
Mem-Info:
Normal per-cpu:
CPU	0: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   0
CPU	1: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   0
active_anon:16538 inactive_anon:119 isolated_anon:0
active_file:21614 inactive_file:23194 isolated_file:0
unevictable:0 dirty:95 writeback:2 unstable:0
free:2202 slab_reclaimable:1741 slab_unreclaimable:1998
mapped:2440 shmem:169 pagetables:137 bounce:0
Normal free:8808kB min:2876kB low:3592kB high:4312kB active_anon:66152kB inactive_anon:476kB active_file:86456kB inactive_file:92776kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:518144kB mlocked:0kB dirty:380kB writeback:8kB mapped:9760kB shmem:676kB slab_reclaimable:6964kB slab_unreclaimable:7992kB kernel_stack:792kB pagetables:548kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0
Normal: 1470*4kB 260*8kB 37*16kB 2*32kB 3*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 8808kB
44992 total pagecache pages
0 pages in swap cache
Swap cache stats: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0
Free swap  = 0kB
Total swap = 0kB
131072 pages RAM
58190 pages reserved
26397 pages shared
46218 pages non-shared
unable to allocate 48128 bytes for transfer buffer 0

Seems like the mediaplyer takes all the memory available (for caching) but then it's slow in making the memory available again when you exit the mediaplayer, so the USB tuner has no memory to allocate it's buffers.

[stick50jr]

Well, the dmesg log will be useful anyway. Probably we can not fix the problem, as it appears as a vtuner/driver problem, but at least we can get an idea about what's going on.

Okay. My usage is fairly low intensity and the freezes typically affect only the dvb-t. The freezes are lessened by doing an automatic reboot every 24 hours. I will try to generate a dmesg next time it occurs.

I take it that I just go in via telnet and issue the command

dmesg

Edited by stick50jr, 29 January 2012 - 01:53.

[javier3034]

I install 3 days ago the blackhole 1.7.1 and not have problem whit usb-dtt, I test 3 days more and comment.

Thanks at all

[tuporaky]

Same happens to me. I have VIX 2.3 Build 204 with an Avermedia Digi Volar X HD USB DTTS.

Image freeze every few hours, so I can't make timers over DVBT.

Any solution?

Thank you.