TVHeadend Keeps Hanging on Channel Change

Kev S

My TVHeadend install has starting behaving weirdly.

For a while, very occasionally when tuning to a satip channel it hangs - i.e. the web interface doesn't work, XBMC loses connectivity to it but it's still running as far as "ps -elf" is concerned. Only changing channel in XBMC causes this - PVR use doesn't seem to.

Today it's gone even more nuts

Anything (epgscan etc) accessing my Kworld Dual Tuner causes it to do the same - so I've unplugged it and finally TVHeadend is able to start and you can watch channels on my DVB-T2 tuner.

I was able to watch stuff for a few minutes including sat-ip channels but then it's just died on me again. I've turned verbose logging on and get the following



Oct 31 19:32:30 williams tvheadend[5482]: nit:   onid 0085 (133) tsid 0011 (17)
Oct 31 19:32:30 williams tvheadend[5482]: nit:     DVBS pos 19.2E freq 11758500 H sym 27500000 fec 3/4 mod QPSK roff 35
Oct 31 19:32:30 williams tvheadend[5482]: nit:   onid 0085 (133) tsid 0002 (2)
Oct 31 19:32:30 williams tvheadend[5482]: nit:     DVBS pos 19.2E freq 11797500 H sym 27500000 fec 3/4 mod QPSK roff 35
Oct 31 19:32:50 williams tvheadend[5482]: satip: 19.2ºE - RTSP error -5 (Input/output error) [9874-200]
Oct 31 19:32:53 williams tvheadend[5482]: satip: 28.2ºE α - RTSP error -5 (Input/output error) [9874-200]
Oct 31 19:32:53 williams tvheadend[5482]: htsp: 127.0.0.1 [ XBMC Media Center ]: Write error -- Broken pipe
Oct 31 19:32:55 williams tvheadend[5482]: satip: 28.2ºE β - RTSP error -5 (Input/output error) [9874-200]

*As far as XBMC and my Webbrowser are concerned TVHeadend is now dead*

Oct 31 19:35:12 williams tvheadend[5482]: htsp: 192.168.6.133 [ VLC media player ]: Disconnected
Oct 31 19:35:12 williams tvheadend[5482]: htsp: 192.168.6.133 [ VLC media player ]: Disconnected

OSCAM shows that it's still attached.

Apart from the once in a blue moon hang it's been stable for weeks now so I'm a bit confused as to why it's suddenly started throwing a right barney.

The "RTSP error -5 (Input/output error)" errors areusually there when it does it but not 100% of the time

I know some of the versions are a bit old now but even so it does seem to be very odd:-

TVHeadend version is :- 3.9.1296~g1dc009a
Running Ubuntu "Linux williams 3.10.1-031001-generic #201307131550 SMP Sat Jul 13 19:59:34 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux"
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

XBMC 12.2 stable Git: 3b1a5e

EDIT : It's just done it again - was watching Notts TV just fine but it's RTSP errored in the background and locked up again (no web UI)



Oct 31 19:43:18 williams tvheadend[9562]: mpegts: 11680V in Astra - 28.2°E - open PID 0110 (272) [2/0xaaf3d400]
Oct 31 19:43:18 williams tvheadend[9562]: pat:   sid D813 (55315) on pid 0118 (280)
Oct 31 19:43:18 williams tvheadend[9562]: mpegts: 11680V in Astra - 28.2°E - open PID 0118 (280) [2/0xaaf3e928]
Oct 31 19:43:18 williams tvheadend[9562]: mpegts: 11680V in Astra - 28.2°E - open PID 00C0 (192) [2/0xaaf2f800]
Oct 31 19:43:48 williams tvheadend[9562]: satip: 28.2ºE β - RTSP error -5 (Input/output error) [9874-200]
Oct 31 19:43:48 williams tvheadend[9562]: satip: 19.2ºE - RTSP error -5 (Input/output error) [9874-200]
Oct 31 19:43:49 williams tvheadend[9562]: satip: 28.2ºE α - RTSP error -5 (Input/output error) [9874-200]

*By 19:47 Web UI Stopped Working*


*Approx 19:49:00 Notts TV Still Playing OK*

*Approx 19:49:20 Changed Channel*

Oct 31 19:49:27 williams tvheadend[9562]: htsp: 127.0.0.1 [ XBMC Media Center ]: Write error -- Broken pipe

Kev S

Hmm, That was weird.

I ended up upgrading TVHeadend and noticed it now worked but the signal strength was very low on DVB-S2 - the blasted cable had partially fallen out.

I'm guessing that the "XBMC/TVHeadned 3.9.1296~g1dc009a" combination was falling causing TVHeadend to die when the signal was poor and the stream was fall of garbage. (Thinking back to the previous crashes these were always when using Tuner B on my Sat>IP tuner and the Sat>IP tuner always had a relatively short uptime - i.e. the split Tuner B / C was giving it a poor signal (wrong polarisation) and causing it to crash.

What has also changed was that my Astra 1 LNB was also plugged in (I didn't touch the Sat>IP as the join is a few meters away) and it hadn't occured to me that was the problem - as the dish wasn't aligned correctly there was a poor signal on all the vertical transponders, so when it was scanning it was dying.

Anyway the end of this all is
1) My current version of TVHeadend copes with poor sat-ip signals :)
2) I can use my dual DVB-T tuner again :)
3) I was able to watch the USA Grand Prix and Qualiy without it crashing and record a good concert from arte HD too.
4) I'll align the dish properly next weekend - the second concert I tried to record from arte HD failed as it was raining
5) The version of TVHeadend I'm now using is noticeably more polished on the UI stakes than the previous one too.
6) If something ain't working, remember to check ALL the cables!