Joe White writes: > I first installed MythTV 0.16 in Jan 2005. It worked perfectly and I was > smug and content. I didn't tweak the box any beyond the parameters of > Jarod's basic install instructions on the principle that if it ain't broke > don't fix it. For three months all was good. Then on April 13 the video > and audio quality began to degrade. Old shows still play flawlessly, but > newly recorded shows tend to flash, chirp loudly and have intermittant > blockiness. Since then I have made adjustments to the recording profiles > bit rates based on archival information in this list. I have tightened my > cable connection with a wrench. I have also done some half-heated > experimentation with TV playback, but since only new recordings seem to be > affected, I haven't invested much there. > > I am coming to the conclusion that either the cable quality has degraded > or the PVR-250(not MCE) is going bad. Any thoughts on the matter? >
I had similar issues that would occur after a few days uptime. Once the quality degraded, it continued to be degraded for subsequent recordings, for all channels and recording profiles. A reboot would solve the issue for another day or three. I believe the issue was that the PVR-250 was overheating. I can no longer prove it, though. I am using an MSI Hermes 845GV case, and the way the slots are laid out, when the box is horizontal, the heat-producing components on the PVR-250 were underneath the card and not well ventilated. I moved the card to the upper slot to give it more space between the card and the motherboard, and re-oriented the case vertically with the card at the top. I also put a small fan above the card itself, to help pull warm air out of the case and away from the card. I haven't had this problem since. However, I also abandoned my bug-ridden SuSE / Xfree86 installation and moved to a problem-free Gentoo / Xorg-X11 installation within a few days of re-orientation, so I can't state with absolute certainty that it was a heat issue. It's certainly worth looking into, though. If it's due to heat, then shutting the machine down for 15 minutes or so, and then recording a program or watching TV should let you know. Although it's odd that this would happen after 3 months of good results, unless you lost some cooling fan(s) in the case, or the ambient temperature rose drastically. As far as cable interference, any problem that would yield a noticeably distorted picture from the PVR-250, would probably be noticeable on your TV as well when watching direct. You can always try swapping the cable segments between your TV and the PVR-250, as well. Another possibility is interference from another internal device - have you added any hardware to the box? Good Luck! -=Mark
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