# Poor sound and pictures - stuttering



## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

Since yesterday TiVo has been having problems with stuttering sound and picture to the point that it's unwatchable - live and recorded. Note that if I use AUX then the output from SKY is normal.

Looking in TiVos logs the following keeps getting repeated:

Jun 3 20:17:53 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: Video out of A/V window. Resyncing, Diff=366294
Jun 3 20:18:01 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: Video out of A/V window. Resyncing, Diff=519343
Jun 3 20:18:12 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: Video out of A/V window. Resyncing, Diff=644191
Jun 3 20:18:19 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: Audio out of A/V sync. Flushing and resyncing. Diff=249237 abuf=1728
Jun 3 20:18:19 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: pts=8858470, videoSTC=4294972224
Jun 3 20:18:19 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: timeInBuffer=6480, bitrate=24000
Jun 3 20:18:25 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: Audio out of A/V sync. Flushing and resyncing. Diff=402579 abuf=1728
Jun 3 20:18:25 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: pts=9013990, videoSTC=4294971712
Jun 3 20:18:25 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: timeInBuffer=6480, bitrate=24000
Jun 3 20:18:32 (none) TmkSink::Trace[177]: Video out of A/V window. Resyncing, Diff=312676
Jun 3 20:18:35 (none) VideoGuts[184]: PlayLive for Proxy 21
Jun 3 20:18:35 (none) TvVideoPolicy[184]: LiveTunerRequest on 21
Jun 3 20:18:35 (none) VideoGuts[184]: LiveTunerResult ALLOWED 21
Jun 3 20:18:35 (none) InputState[184]: AttachProxyForOutput 0
Jun 3 20:18:35 (none) OutputState[184]: PlayLive 0
Jun 3 20:18:35 (none) LogTime[184]: WatchTV: setup live: 0.173 sec
Jun 3 20:18:35 (none) VideoGuts[184]: Starved of heartbeats for 121 secs
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Deadline[180]: VERY_LATE:Task CheckSchedule ran late by 28989ms
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Deadline[180]: VERY_LATE:Task LiveCache started late by 28449ms
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Deadline[180]: Tasks run 600
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Deadline[180]: Existed for 0:10105:81752
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Deadline[180]: Overhead time 0:0:134461
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Deadline[180]: VERY_LATE:Task LiveCache ran late by 26452ms
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Recorder[180]: Deadline scheduler took 39717 milliseconds
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Recorder[180]: Heartbeat took 39 seconds
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) Recorder[180]: SecondaryEventCallback took 39 seconds
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) ContextMgr[184]: WATCHTV::LOCK (mode COMPLETED (via LiveTV))
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) MCPaction[126]: Set complete: 7
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) tcphonehome[126]: useBackupTollFree is 1
Jun 3 20:18:36 (none) tcphonehome[126]: phonehome: recieved message. type = 30 subtype = 6
Jun 3 20:18:37 (none) tcphonehome[126]: Invoking TClient with arg
Jun 3 20:18:47 (none) tcphonehome[126]: GetPostalCodeVersion - /PostalCode/B77 ServerVersion=647
Jun 3 20:18:47 (none) tcphonehome[126]: GetPostalCodeVersion - /PostalCode/DBS ServerVersion=1337
Jun 3 20:18:47 (none) tcphonehome[126]: getting LastSuccessfulCall
Jun 3 20:18:47 (none) tcphonehome[126]: called getTZ
Jun 3 20:18:47 (none) tcphonehome[126]: Time zone not set, assuming Pacific
Jun 3 20:18:48 (none) tcphonehome[126]: IsPrimeTime: tz_off = -8, now = 31137704, adj_hour = 12
Jun 3 20:18:48 (none) tcphonehome[126]: tcphonehome skipping call, its Prime Time
Jun 3 20:18:48 (none) tcphonehome[126]: ReschedCall: reason = 3, secSinceLast = 0, numFails = 0
Jun 3 20:18:48 (none) tcphonehome[126]: ReschedCall: reschedule during prime time
Jun 3 20:18:48 (none) tcphonehome[126]: setting next attempt at 1275604428 (Thu Jun 3 22:33:48 2010 )
Jun 3 20:18:48 (none) tcphonehome[126]: Resched Call: resched for 135 min; should happen at Thu Jun 3 22:33:48 2010
Jun 3 20:18:48 (none) tcphonehome[126]: GetPostalCodeVersion - /PostalCode/B77 ServerVersion=647
Jun 3 20:18:48 (none) tcphonehome[126]: GetPostalCodeVersion - /PostalCode/DBS ServerVersion=1337
Jun 3 20:19:03 (none) Scheduler[182]: Mempool highwater 124012
Jun 3 20:19:03 (none) Scheduler[182]: Abr-- reason changed from 'UI' to 'None'
Jun 3 20:19:03 (none) Scheduler[182]: DISK SPACE: Total: 599486 Live cache: 3860 Overhead: 691
Jun 3 20:19:03 (none) Scheduler[182]: TIVO CLIPS DISK SPACE: Total: 9765 Overhead: 64
Jun 3 20:19:09 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1026
Jun 3 20:19:28 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:19:37 (none) last message repeated 80 times
Jun 3 20:19:37 (none) Scheduler[182]: Done Checking high priority Capture Requests
Jun 3 20:19:37 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:20:02 (none) last message repeated 223 times
Jun 3 20:20:02 (none) Recorder[180]: Adding check schedule task
Jun 3 20:20:02 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:20:12 (none) last message repeated 90 times
Jun 3 20:20:12 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1018
Jun 3 20:20:13 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:20:44 (none) last message repeated 280 times
Jun 3 20:20:54 (none) last message repeated 97 times
Jun 3 20:20:54 (none) Recorder[180]: Adding check schedule task
Jun 3 20:20:54 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:21:04 (none) last message repeated 90 times
Jun 3 20:21:04 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1026
Jun 3 20:21:04 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:21:35 (none) last message repeated 274 times
Jun 3 20:21:46 (none) last message repeated 108 times
Jun 3 20:21:46 (none) Recorder[180]: Adding check schedule task
Jun 3 20:21:46 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:21:47 (none) last message repeated 7 times
Jun 3 20:21:47 (none) TmkTransform::Trace[179]: ClipCache 0x30014204 Secondary Reset
Jun 3 20:21:47 (none) ClipCache[176]: 0x30014204 in Entry(), thread 176
Jun 3 20:21:47 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:21:57 (none) last message repeated 88 times
Jun 3 20:21:57 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1018
Jun 3 20:21:57 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:22:28 (none) last message repeated 275 times
Jun 3 20:22:42 (none) last message repeated 128 times
Jun 3 20:22:42 (none) Recorder[180]: Adding check schedule task
Jun 3 20:22:42 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:22:52 (none) last message repeated 92 times
Jun 3 20:22:52 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1018
Jun 3 20:22:52 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:23:23 (none) last message repeated 263 times
Jun 3 20:23:35 (none) last message repeated 114 times
Jun 3 20:23:35 (none) Recorder[180]: Adding check schedule task
Jun 3 20:23:35 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:23:45 (none) last message repeated 93 times
Jun 3 20:23:45 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1018
Jun 3 20:23:45 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:23:49 (none) last message repeated 29 times
Jun 3 20:23:49 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1018
Jun 3 20:23:49 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock
Jun 3 20:24:20 (none) last message repeated 272 times
Jun 3 20:24:37 (none) last message repeated 160 times
Jun 3 20:24:45 (none) Recorder[180]: Adding check schedule task
Jun 3 20:24:56 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1018
Jun 3 20:25:00 (none) RecordingList[182]: Err errTmBackgroundHoldoff at line 1018
Jun 3 20:25:50 (none) TmkMediaswitch::Trace[179]: Lost VBI lock​
I upgraded my disk last year to a WD 640Gb SATA AACS, and a new PSU earlier this year. I remeber to do the LBA48 conversion, and had no problems until this week. My Now Playing is 51% full, with the rest of the disk full of deleted recordings (which I'm currently purging with a script).

Could the disk be a duffer?

I noticed that Tivoweb states that SMART is disabled and to "Use option -e to enable". Any ideas how to enable SMART?


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

velocitysurfer1 said:


> Could the disk be a duffer?


That would be my guess.



> I noticed that Tivoweb states that SMART is disabled and to "*Use option -e to enable*". Any ideas how to enable SMART?


erm....


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

cwaring said:


> erm....


Where would I add the -e option? What is the command?

Interestingly, after purging all deleted recordings (48% od the disk) TiVo appears to be fit and well ...... at the moment.


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

Just found that smartctl is on all UK TiVos in /bin (by doing a search on thie forum!), and the command to use is /var/hack/smartctl -e /dev/hda.

Woohoo _Check S.M.A.R.T. Passed_

Doing anything on telnet or tivoweb is very slow; looking at the output of ps -aux all processes are at 99.9%

Anther question is how many file system should be reported by TiVoweb? Here's my output:
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hda4 ext2 124M 47M 71M 40% /
/dev/hda9 ext2 124M 18M 100M 15% /var​


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Which was my point. You have TW so have Telnet (ie command-prompt) access and have now found out how to do it. Well done


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## Ian_m (Jan 9, 2001)

For disk issues that can cause stuttering you are looking for the following errors in kernel log file.


```
Jun 4 08:29:24 (none) kernel: hda: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } 
Jun 4 08:29:24 (none) kernel: hda: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }, secCnt=0, LBAsect=12734271
```
I created this example by disabling and reenabling SMART.


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

It seems like it's not a disk problem. The problem appears similar to when TiVo is doing to much - like the CPU is overloaded, constantly. But I haven't added anything to TiVo recently


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

TiVo is now randomly rebooting, and I'm still none the wiser as to what the problem is.

I think I'll back up what I can, seasons passes, hacks etc, and rebuild tivo from an image file. Hopefully this will sort it. (drastic I know)


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

Have you performed a *hard* reboot, to reinitialise all of the hardware components? i.e. Removed the power for 30 seconds.

Have you tried checking the filesystem with *'mfsassert -please'*, which sets a flag and induces a reboot. That's assuming that your soft reboots aren't triggering a GSOD themselves.

On the reboot, the flag is tested and causes 'mfsfix' (the GSOD) to run, which then checks the consistency of the MFS file system.

It looks frightening, but is no worse than running CHKDSK or SCANDISK on a PC.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

Have you tried reseating your network-card/cachecard? They can pop off the motherboard if not fully-seated.


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

I've already done the hard reset, which eases the pain for a short period of time, but then things get progressively worse.

I hadn't thought about reseating the turbo net card, as tivo hasn't been moved for a long while.

I'm out of the UK at the moment but when I get back I'll do a mfsassert -please

I'll keep you posted on the results.

Fortunately sky+ is recording the important stuff whilst I'm away (V, Doctor Who, etc)


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

2nd day back in the UK, and after SWMBO had watched the 1hour long Eastenders on SKY+ I booted up TiVo - it's been off since June 6th.

As soon as I could telnet in (on first boot) i ran 'mfsassert -please' as advised. I got the GSOD - a 1st for me - after about 10/15mins SKY turned over by itself (I have one of the two sky+ outputs going to the TV so that I can bypass TiVo completly without muckingaround with SCARTs), so I knew TiVo was back up and running.

Apart from a few initial sound dropouts, things are looking OK, nothing noticeable for 1/2 hour or so. It's now done the daily call and loading the data.

I'll keep you posted...


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

24 hours later and TiVo is still behaving itself. Live tv ok, new recordings OK, previous recordings ok.

Overnight it did get 2-3 mins behind live tv though.

Fingers crossed.....


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

Another 2 days later and things are looking ok. TiVo froze overnight and needed a reboot. Apart from the occasional drop of sound TiVo is behaving itself.


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

Despite my earlier optimisim, TiVo is freezing all over the place. There's nothing in the logs to suggest what the real issue is.

The temperature of TiVo is around the 48-50 degree C mark which seems way high to what it normally is, even duing hot weather.

Because of this I felt the top of the case, which seemed generaly warm. However the top right corner above the PSU was really warm/hot Aftering taking the cover off, I could feel the heat from the PSU. The HDD was warm but not excessively so. Feeling under the bottom of the case, the middle of the motherboard seem hotter than it should be - but I've never felt it before!

I'm guessing that the PSU is playing up - this is the only recent change made. My previous PSU packed up so I changed it around easter time.

Any thoughts on how I can verify that the PSU is faulty?


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

I don't think that temperature is especially high. I seem to remember far greater than that can occur without issues.

As far as PSU's are concerned, I seem to remember Dave Healey quoting that a lot of spare PSU's were unreliable, and that he used to have to test them before selling them. I also think that they are awkward to test, since their output is load-dependant.

I know that these PSU's age over time, because their capacitors dry out. Whether that can happen when they are sitting unused on a shelf, I have no idea. I always assumed not.


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

My TiVo normally runs about 10 - 15 degrees C above room temperature, hence my concern about temperature.

My old PSU had dried capacitors as it used to take ages from cold off to *start *booting - I'm talking an hour or two. Thats why I changed it two months ago.

I bought the PSU from Dave Healey from Ebay. I've pm'd him from this forum and am waiting for his reply.

In the meantime, I've bought a used TiVo from Ebay for £20 which includes postage. The seller is one of those "I'll sell your stuff on ebay" shops that are springing up all over the place. They had no idea about lifetime subscriptions etc, but guarantee it works, so I see what it has when it is delivered.

I'll probably swap the PSUs (esp if the ebay one hasn't got a LT sub), and see how my old TiVo behaves.


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

The ebay TiVo was delievered during the week. Unfortunately it's unsubbed (8: account closed) and was very unloved! But I now have a spare tivo for spare parts.

I swapped the psu from ebay tivo to mine. This had no effect on solving the problem - it wasn't the PSU as I previously thought!

Last night I swapped the 40gb hdd from the ebay tivo to mine. Hey presto no stuttering, sound drops or freezing. But it's having trouble getting the guide data; it keeps telling me that the phone call was interupted - I'm not sure by whom! Note that I normally get the data via ethernet.

So it looks like either my 640Gb disk or the sata-ide convertor is playing up. There is nothing in TiVos logs to suggest the disk drive is faulty.

Next step is to back up all my hacks from my old disk to my PC, and then to wipe it and write an image to it....


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## healeydave (Jun 4, 2003)

Hi,
Apologies for the delay in replying.

As you know, the first thing we always expect with these type of symptoms is the hard disk. I would recommend removing the disk and running it through a diagnostic utility that offers an advance surface scan check.

I still use the old powermax dos utility regularly for systems that come in for repair. This was the original utility for checking out the Quantum & Maxtor drives but it works fine for Samsung, WD, Seagates etc. 

I'm almost certain the disk is degrading, but many years ago I did hear about a case where-by a customer had failing disk type symptoms after the addition of some new RF emitting device to the household. I can not comment any further on this as I did not get all the details but as I said, its 99% certain to be a failing disk in my opinion!

Kind Regards
Dave.


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

Thanks for the reply.

I didn't (want to) suspect the disk as it's less than a year old (a WD 640Gb Caviar Green), but after running WDs Data Life Guard it gets stuck around sector 1248649262 !!

It looks like WD have very good RMA service - you can ask for a new replacement drive to be sent before sending them your own.


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## healeydave (Jun 4, 2003)

Yeah, I know it's hard to believe when the drives fails so prematurely, but I'd have put money on it being the drive despite the circumstances!

I gather WD are better these days and I don't think for a minute that your experience is indicative of the reliability issues of old, I've just not used WD's for years because I've had such good reliability with Samsung & Hitachi, there's been no need to use a 3rd brand.


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## tonywalk (Sep 10, 2002)

healeydave said:


> Yeah, I know it's hard to believe when the drives fails so prematurely, but I'd have put money on it being the drive despite the circumstances!
> 
> I gather WD are better these days and I don't think for a minute that your experience is indicative of the reliability issues of old, I've just not used WD's for years because I've had such good reliability with Samsung & Hitachi, there's been no need to use a 3rd brand.


I've got a few WD drives around these days and agree their rep has got better. The pair of desktop drives I have are in a mirrored RAID array though just in case 

Also agree about the Samsungs, they're mainly the rest of my drives (inc my Tivos) with a couple of Seagates. I've had bad experiences with Hitachi/IBM drives, primarily since Hitachi took over and moved the production out of Hungary.

A final tip: if you can, buy your HDDs locally and don't leave such a fragile item to the whim of couriers, especially when poor packaging is used.


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## velocitysurfer1 (Sep 6, 2006)

My replacement drive from WD came the other day - unfortunately they've replaced my Green drive with a Black one (see posts in another thread) - the difference is around 3watts (ish) or £4 per year in running costs.

After much pain with my PC - moving disks and DVD drives around IDE cables, I put an old image onto the new disk (after I checked the disk with WD tools). I forgot to mount the cd device and wondered why copykern didn't work!

After I put the disk back into TiVo I remembered that I forgot the turbonet drivers - doh!

I also had problems with getting hold of guide data, errors like "Failed when loading series" and "interupted call" (on a network!).

But after a couple of tries everything is up and working with most of my hacks in place (I had an old tar file saved in /var2 of the /var/hack directory, on the faulty disk which I pulled off). I need to put set up mode0 and apply the buffer hack.

Time to start recreating Season Passes - I had 120+ previously so I decided not to transfer them and start from scratch.

Interestingly:

TiVo no longer reports the service number to call - it's left blank
Inside TiVo reports "this feature of the TiVo service is not available at this time
I also get "Channel Highlights are not available at this time


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