tbs 6981 not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv 29

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halucigenia
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tbs 6981 not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv 29

Post by halucigenia »

I have recently got a tbs 6981 DVBS2 card and it's not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv 29.
I have kernel 4.11.4-041104-generic and it has the drivers and modules built in for this card.

I have scanned from mythtv-setup using this card and it populated the channels from this frequency OK in mythtv, I just can't record from them or play live TV.

I have another DVBS2 card in another backend it it is recording from this frequency fine, which is odd because I scanned the channels with the tbs 6981.

Is there anything different about this frequency or this card that might need tweaking to get it to work?
MikeB2013
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Re: tbs 6981 not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv

Post by MikeB2013 »

I just ran that kernel on my lubuntu 16.04 system with mythtv version 30 (built from source, not much different at this time from version 29) with no problems on my tbs 6981 using the in-kernel drivers. I could tune BBC One HD and record from it. I also have another backend (kernel 4.10.0-33-generic) with tbs closed source drivers, again no problems with another tbs 6981. BTW that kernel is out of date its up to 4.11.12 now.

What is your base operating system?

It is strange given scanning in mythtv-setup finds the channels. I presume you made sure mythbackend was not running before running mythtv-setup. Depending on your configuration mythtv-setup may not have stopped mythbackend automatically, this can result in strange behaviour. I always use on ubuntu systems sudo systemctl stop mythtv-backend.service before running mythtv-setup.

Do you get any messages from mythtv frontend when you try and watch Live TV on one of these DVB-S2 channels.

Probably going to need see mythbackend log (/var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log)

You could also check the output from dmesg to see if it shows any problems with frontend drivers and or firmware loading.

Mike
halucigenia
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Re: tbs 6981 not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv

Post by halucigenia »

MikeB2013 wrote:I just ran that kernel on my lubuntu 16.04 system with mythtv version 30 (built from source, not much different at this time from version 29) with no problems on my tbs 6981 using the in-kernel drivers. I could tune BBC One HD and record from it. I also have another backend (kernel 4.10.0-33-generic) with tbs closed source drivers, again no problems with another tbs 6981. BTW that kernel is out of date its up to 4.11.12 now.
I will try updating the kernel again (I wanted a recent kernel as I have just rebuilt my master backend with a ryzen motherboard and processor).

Now on 4.11.12 – no difference
MikeB2013 wrote:What is your base operating system?
kUbuntu
MikeB2013 wrote:It is strange given scanning in mythtv-setup finds the channels. I presume you made sure mythbackend was not running before running mythtv-setup. Depending on your configuration mythtv-setup may not have stopped mythbackend automatically, this can result in strange behaviour. I always use on ubuntu systems sudo systemctl stop mythtv-backend.service before running mythtv-setup.
I too always use sudo systemctl stop mythtv-backend. But I will do so again in order to delete all channels and scan again to see if that solves the issue.

Well, I think that did the trick. I seem to remember the last time I went to scan from mythtv-setup I selected a “tuned scan” but got a message something like “invalid parameters” so I think I tried a “scan of all available transports”, This time I still saw the error, but exited mythtv-setup started and stopped mythbackend then went back to mythtv-setup and managed to do a tuned scan With the following parameters:-

Code: Select all

Freq: 10714000
Polarity: Horizontal
Symbol rate: 22000000
Mod Sys: DVB-S
FEC: 5/6
Modulation: QPSK
Inversion: leave at auto
Rolloff: leave at 0.35
MikeB2013 wrote:Do you get any messages from mythtv frontend when you try and watch Live TV on one of these DVB-S2 channels.
Frontend says:-
“you should have received a channel lock by now...”
and pops up
“taking more than 10000 ms to get a lock...”
MikeB2013 wrote:Probably going to need see mythbackend log (/var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log)
I looked but can’t fathom anything from it apart from that it is timing out

Code: Select all

Sep  6 09:07:34 kb01 mythbackend: mythbackend[7592]: N TVRecEvent recordinginfo.cpp:694 (ApplyRecordRecGroupChange) ApplyRecordRecGroupChange: LiveTV to LiveTV (2)
Sep  6 09:07:41 kb01 mythbackend: mythbackend[7592]: E TVRecEvent tv_rec.cpp:4005 (TuningSignalCheck) TVRec[1]: TuningSignalCheck: Hit pre-fail timeout
Sep  6 09:07:44 kb01 mythbackend: mythbackend[7592]: W TVRecEvent tv_rec.cpp:4036 (TuningSignalCheck) TVRec[1]: TuningSignalCheck: taking more than 10000 ms to get a lock. marking this recording as 'Failing'.
Sep  6 09:07:44 kb01 mythbackend: mythbackend[7592]: W TVRecEvent tv_rec.cpp:4038 (TuningSignalCheck) TVRec[1]: See 'Tuning timeout' in mythtv-setup for this input
MikeB2013 wrote:You could also check the output from dmesg to see if it shows any problems with frontend drivers and or firmware loading.
Checked with

Code: Select all

dmesg | grep -i dvb

Code: Select all

[    5.723516] em28xx 1-9:1.0: DVB interface 0 found: isoc 
[    7.883778] em28xx 1-9:1.0: dvb set to isoc mode. 
[    7.888139] em28xx 1-9:1.0: Binding DVB extension 
[    7.955718] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (1-9:1.0) 
[    7.955720] em28xx 1-9:1.0: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Silicon Labs Si2168)... 
[    7.955910] em28xx 1-9:1.0: DVB extension successfully initialized 
[    7.955911] em28xx: Registered (Em28xx dvb Extension) extension 
[    8.379751] cx23885: cx23885_dvb_register() allocating 1 frontend(s) 
[    8.379753] cx23885: cx23885[0]: cx23885 based dvb card 
[    8.382526] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (cx23885[0]) 
[    8.382529] cx23885 0000:1f:00.0: DVB: registering adapter 1 frontend 0 (Conexant CX24117/CX24132)... 
[    8.382713] cx23885: cx23885_dvb_register() allocating 1 frontend(s) 
[    8.382714] cx23885: cx23885[0]: cx23885 based dvb card 
[    8.382720] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (cx23885[0]) 
[    8.382722] cx23885 0000:1f:00.0: DVB: registering adapter 2 frontend 0 (Conexant CX24117/CX24132)... 
[   51.661299] si2168 11-0064: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw'
Should it be downloading firmware for cx23885?

Do you use the power connector on your tbs 6981 mine is only currently getting power from the PCIe card slot.
I have tried both with and without but it does not seem to make any difference.

I have also noticed that there are two of each channel on Astra 2E 10847.00 neither of which work if I set each in turn to visible/not visible.

Anyway, thanks for your help I think that it is solved now after the tuned scan succeeded.

Now back to my other issue with the pctv 292e tripplestick no HD channels in mythtv 29.
I am sure that I just got it working one time that I did a re-scan but scanned to my freeview source instead of my freview HD source. Why that would have worked I don’t know.
MikeB2013
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Re: tbs 6981 not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv

Post by MikeB2013 »

I do use the power connector on my 6981. I found a long time ago that it was sometimes needed (depends on motherboard I think), so I just connect it.

My tbs 6981 needs v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw and dvb-fe-cx24117.fw firmware in /lib/firmware/ with the in-kernel drivers.

I have an Hauppauge QuadHD PCIe DVB-T/T2 tuner which needs dvb-demod-si2168-02.fw and dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw

downloading firmware from file 'dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw' looks like it is for some other tuner pctv 292e by any chance, you have 3 frontend adapters 0, 1, 2, last two being tbs-6981 (Conexant CX24117/CX24132).
halucigenia
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Re: tbs 6981 not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv

Post by halucigenia »

MikeB2013 wrote:I do use the power connector on my 6981. I found a long time ago that it was sometimes needed (depends on motherboard I think), so I just connect it.
I'll connect it back up again then - it did not seem to be making any difference and I have got a powerful enough PSU for plenty more devices.
MikeB2013 wrote:My tbs 6981 needs v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw and dvb-fe-cx24117.fw firmware in /lib/firmware/ with the in-kernel drivers.
Thanks for the info - I do have those firmwares in /lib/firmware/

MikeB2013 wrote:downloading firmware from file 'dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw' looks like it is for some other tuner pctv 292e by any chance, you have 3 frontend adapters 0, 1, 2, last two being tbs-6981 (Conexant CX24117/CX24132).
Yep, I do have a pctv 292e, I am still having issues with that though.
I was wondering why I was not seeing a message "downloading firmware from file" for v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw and dvb-fe-cx24117.fw though.
Does this only need to happen for USB devices?
MikeB2013
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Re: tbs 6981 not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv

Post by MikeB2013 »

You won't always see all firmware loading messages for PCIe cards or even USB devices unless from a totally cold boot and even then power might have to be off for several hours, just depends how long firmware gets retained in the device without power.

Although for tbs 6981 I always expect to see on a reboot:
[ 5.864721] cx25840 12-0044: firmware: direct-loading firmware v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw
[ 6.475274] cx25840 12-0044: loaded v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw firmware (16382 bytes)

Lack of firmware for tuners is likely to appear in mythtv-setup as no lock during scanning, which maybe total or selective (I have seen devices scan DVB-T ok, but not DVB-T2 on the same device if firmware is missing or does not load for some reason). Thats why I look at output of dmesg after scanning if I have had issues.
halucigenia
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Re: tbs 6981 not recording from Astra 2E 10847.00 in mythtv

Post by halucigenia »

I don't think that I have ever noticed
cx25840 12-0044: firmware: direct-loading firmware v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw
or
cx25840 12-0044: loaded v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw firmware (16382 bytes)
since I got the card.

I have powered down and unplugged the power for 30 seconds or so several times while investigating this issue.
I'll maybe give it longer next time just to make sure.
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