HD-PVR fails consistently on Linux, works on Windows

I recently purchased a Hauppauge HD-PVR (the 1212 version, label on bottom 49001LF, Rev F2). I have consistent capture failures on Linux where data from the device simply stops, generally within a few minutes of starting a capture. Yet, the device works flawlessly on Windows with the same USB and component cables, same power supply, and same physical position. This suggests that the device itself has acceptable power, is not overheating, etc. I'll detail below the testing I've done thus far and would appreciate any suggestions on how to further test or address the problem.

The good news is that I have a highly reproducible failure on Linux, but then that's the bad news too.

Thanks.

Keith

-- Linux tests --
I started trying to use the HD-PVR directly with my MythTV backend. I have subsequently switched all of my testing to simple direct captures from the /dev/video? device using /bin/cat to eliminate as many variables as possible.

I've done a large number of tests with combinations of the following:

OS: gentoo 3.4.7, gentoo 3.5.4
HD-PVR firmware: 1.5.7.0 (0x15), 1.7.1.30059 (0x1e)
Input resolution: fixed to 720p, fixed to 1080i, floating based on input USB ports: motherboard ports on Intel DP45SG, motherboard ports on MSI X58 Pro-E, ports on SIIG USB PCIe card

Captures fail consistently.

I've verified that the HD-PVR is the only device on the USB bus and that the bus shows as "Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub" in all tests. I've increased the debug output level for the hdpvr driver to 6 (/sys/module/hdpvr/parameters/hdpvr_debug) and collected the following:

Sep 21 17:01:00 mythbe kernel: [535043.504450] usb 9-1: New USB device 
found, idVendor=2040, idProduct=4903
Sep 21 17:01:00 mythbe kernel: [535043.504453] usb 9-1: New USB device 
strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Sep 21 17:01:00 mythbe kernel: [535043.504456] usb 9-1: Product: 
Hauppauge HD PVR
Sep 21 17:01:00 mythbe kernel: [535043.504458] usb 9-1: Manufacturer: AMBA
Sep 21 17:01:00 mythbe kernel: [535043.504459] usb 9-1: SerialNumber: 
00A6DD48
Sep 21 17:01:00 mythbe kernel: [535043.504523] usb 9-1: ep 0x1 - 
rounding interval to 32768 microframes, ep desc says 0 microframes
Sep 21 17:01:00 mythbe kernel: [535043.504528] usb 9-1: ep 0x81 - 
rounding interval to 32768 microframes, ep desc says 0 microframes
Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.703947] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: firmware 
version 0x15 dated Jun 17 2010 09:26:53
Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.889144] IR keymap rc-hauppauge 
not found
Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.889146] Registered IR keymap 
rc-empty
Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.889190] input: i2c IR (HD-PVR) as 
/devices/virtual/rc/rc5/input16
Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.889415] rc5: i2c IR (HD-PVR) as 
/devices/virtual/rc/rc5
Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.889417] ir-kbd-i2c: i2c IR 
(HD-PVR) detected at i2c-8/8-0071/ir0 [Hauppage HD PVR I2C]
Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.889518] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: device now 
attached to video6
Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.889534] usbcore: registered new 
interface driver hdpvr
Sep 21 17:05:11 mythbe kernel: [535293.776318] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: video 
signal: 1920x1080@30hz
Sep 21 17:05:14 mythbe kernel: [535297.312589] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: encoder 
start control request returned 0
Sep 21 17:05:15 mythbe kernel: [535297.670830] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: config 
call request for value 0x700 returned 1
Sep 21 17:05:15 mythbe kernel: [535297.670833] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: streaming 
started
Sep 21 17:05:15 mythbe kernel: [535297.670839] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: 
hdpvr_read:442 buffer stat: 64 free, 0 proc
Sep 21 17:05:15 mythbe kernel: [535297.670882] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: 
hdpvr_submit_buffers:209 buffer stat: 0 free, 64 proc
Sep 21 17:05:15 mythbe kernel: [535297.709079] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: 
hdpvr_read:502 buffer stat: 1 free, 63 proc
Sep 21 17:05:15 mythbe kernel: [535297.709088] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: 

hdpvr_submit_buffers:209 buffer stat: 0 free, 64 proc

(many repeats of the above two line sequence)

Sep 21 17:17:09 mythbe kernel: [536011.936858] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: 
hdpvr_read:502 buffer stat: 1 free, 63 proc
Sep 21 17:17:09 mythbe kernel: [536011.936866] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: 
hdpvr_submit_buffers:209 buffer stat: 0 free, 64 proc
Sep 21 17:17:36 mythbe kernel: [536038.853044] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: config 
call request for value 0x800 returned -110
Sep 21 17:17:36 mythbe kernel: [536038.853052] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: transmit 
worker exited
Sep 21 17:17:36 mythbe kernel: [536038.996035] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: used 0 

urbs to empty device buffers

If I understand correctly, this is showing a ETIMEDOUT error. When I've looked at the cat with strace, it is always blocked on a read. So, it seems like the HD-PVR just stops sending.

I also ran a USB capture with wireshark and see much the same thing. While I haven't tried to decode the USB packets, the pattern is that the HD-PVR sends, the host sends a message/ack, this pattern repeats, and then nothing. The majority of the failures occur in less than 15 minutes.

-- Windows tests --

I installed the Hauppauge software on a Windows 7 system and moved the USB cable to the Windows system. Nothing else was changed. I've run many hours of successful captures. I've checked each recording with ffprobe and verified that each is the expected length (i.e., no data drops at all). The recordings are of good quality. This shows that the HD-PVR is capable of working as expected and quite reliably.

I recently purchased a Hauppauge HD-PVR (the 1212 version, label on bottom 49001LF, Rev F2). I have consistent capture failures on Linux where data from the device simply stops, generally within a few minutes of starting a capture.

[...]

Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.703947] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: firmware 

version 0x15 dated Jun 17 2010 09:26:53

It may be a coincidence but I since I started using irqbalance (
https://code.google.com/p/irqbalance/ ) my HD-PVR has been completely stable. Before that I was experiencing daily lockups.

Quoted 9 lines · On Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:42:32 -0500 Keith Pyle <[email protected]> wrote:

I recently purchased a Hauppauge HD-PVR (the 1212 version, label on bottom 49001LF, Rev F2). I have consistent capture failures on Linux where data from the device simply stops, generally within a few minutes of starting a capture.

[...]

Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.703947] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: firmware

version 0x15 dated Jun 17 2010 09:26:53

When we contacted Hauppauge regarding the stability issue, they recommended upgrading to the latest firmware dated Mar 26 2012. We *think* this has improved stability, but it certainly hasn't fixed it completely.

Upgrading the firmware requires a Windows PC -- see
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hdpvr.html

Quoted 4 lines

It may be a coincidence but I since I started using irqbalance (
https://code.google.com/p/irqbalance/ ) my HD-PVR has been completely stable. Before that I was experiencing daily lockups.

Interesting. You definitely didn't upgrade the firmware around the same time?

We think the stability is worse when the Linux PC is heavily loaded: We do real-time image processing on the video stream from the HD PVR, so the CPUs are maxed out, and we get frequent lock-ups. We also think the lock-ups are more frequent when we have several HD PVRs connected to the same PC, all running at the same time. I'll have to try this irqbalance.

--Dave.

Quoted 9 lines · On Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:42:32 -0500 Keith Pyle <[email protected]> wrote:

I recently purchased a Hauppauge HD-PVR (the 1212 version, label on bottom 49001LF, Rev F2). I have consistent capture failures on Linux where data from the device simply stops, generally within a few minutes of starting a capture.

[...]

Sep 21 17:01:01 mythbe kernel: [535043.703947] hdpvr 9-1:1.0: firmware 

version 0x15 dated Jun 17 2010 09:26:53

When we contacted Hauppauge regarding the stability issue, they recommended upgrading to the latest firmware dated Mar 26 2012. We *think* this has improved stability, but it certainly hasn't fixed it completely.

Upgrading the firmware requires a Windows PC -- see
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hdpvr.html

Quoted 3 lines · Jonathan

It may be a coincidence but I since I started using irqbalance (
https://code.google.com/p/irqbalance/ ) my HD-PVR has been completely stable. Before that I was experiencing daily lockups.

Interesting. You definitely didn't upgrade the firmware around the same time?

We think the stability is worse when the Linux PC is heavily loaded: We do real-time image processing on the video stream from the HD PVR, so the CPUs are maxed out, and we get frequent lock-ups. We also think the lock-ups are more frequent when we have several HD PVRs connected to the same PC, all running at the same time. I'll have to try this irqbalance.

--Dave.

I recently purchased a Hauppauge HD-PVR (the 1212 version, label on bottom 49001LF, Rev F2). I have consistent capture failures on Linux where data from the device simply stops, generally within a few minutes of starting a capture. Yet, the device works flawlessly on Windows with the same USB and component cables, same power supply, and same physical position. This suggests that the device itself has acceptable power, is not overheating, etc. I'll detail below the testing I've done thus far and would appreciate any suggestions on how to further test or address the problem.

The good news is that I have a highly reproducible failure on Linux, but then that's the bad news too.

Thanks.

Keith

-- Linux tests --
I started trying to use the HD-PVR directly with my MythTV backend. I have subsequently switched all of my testing to simple direct captures from the /dev/video? device using /bin/cat to eliminate as many variables as possible.

I've done a large number of tests with combinations of the following:

OS: gentoo 3.4.7, gentoo 3.5.4
HD-PVR firmware: 1.5.7.0 (0x15), 1.7.1.30059 (0x1e)
Input resolution: fixed to 720p, fixed to 1080i, floating based on input
USB ports: motherboard ports on Intel DP45SG, motherboard ports on MSI X58 Pro-E, ports on SIIG USB PCIe card

Captures fail consistently.

Quoted 8 lines · Keith Pyle

I recently purchased a Hauppauge HD-PVR (the 1212 version, label on bottom 49001LF, Rev F2). I have consistent capture failures on Linux where data from the device simply stops, generally within a few minutes of starting a capture. Yet, the device works flawlessly on Windows with the same USB and component cables, same power supply, and same physical position. This suggests that the device itself has acceptable power, is not overheating, etc. I'll detail below the testing I've done thus far and would appreciate any suggestions on how to further test or address the problem.

Here's some interesting new information. On noticing that the 3.6 kernel included several USB related commits, I updated the kernel of my test system (MSI X58 Pro-E) from 3.5.4 to 3.6.2. I ran a series of capture tests with firmware 0x1e and all other variables exactly as before - same USB cable, port, physical position, etc. I have 20 successful 1-hour captures and 1 failure.