[mythtvnz] Previously fine WiFi Frontend connection now having regular drop-outs. Common causes?

[Matt Poff]

I'm been running a Myth frontend on a Mac iBook over WiFi (mixed 
protocol, max of 802.11g) connecting to a Linux server and, to date, 
have had no problem playing back recordings. Since I installed the 
system about four months ago it could handle the format fine but in the 
last couple of weeks I get frequent "NVP: prebuffering pause" errors and 
choppy playback. Playback on the server machine (which also runs a 
frontend) is fine.

I was running at 99% disk usage so I freed up about 30% - no difference. 
I tried mucking with the WiFi settings (network robustness, channels 
etc.) - no difference. The server box is not under load (i.e. playing 
video, transcoding, ad detecting or othewise).

I found the info below a short while ago (troubleshooting page for a 
Gentoo installation) and will try it out when I get home. But as this 
problem has only recently emerged and as I am not using Hauppage cards 
(I have two Skystar2s) I'm not holding my breath.  Frustrating - I know 
the network can handle the bandwidth but now, for some, reason it can't!

Wondering if anyone has encountered a similar problem and had a fix or 
does anyone know what sort of data/sec rate I need to sustain to play 
back a default quality recording? Any other troubleshooting things I 
should check?

I know WiFi networks can be fickle but our house is a reasonable 
distance from possible sources of interference and no new transmitting 
devices have been added recently. The topology is a LinksysWRT56G with 
an Apple Airport Express acting as a relay (and into which the server 
box is plugged).


Gentoo tip - choppy playback
----------------------------------------
Jerky video on Hauppauge PVR-250 / 350 cards. If your Live TV video is 
playing jerky (i.e. running too fast, then stopping every 1-2 seconds) 
and you keep getting "prebuffering pause" errors in the console, try 
adjusting the video format in the recording profiles. The default format 
used in all of my installation's profiles was set to 480x480, which 
might be suitable for NTSC regions. But I'm using a PAL version of the 
PVR-250 which obviously doesn't like this setting. After changing the 
format to 720x576, all problems just vanished: watching and recording tv 
in MythTV are now working perfectly.

Hope someone can help.

Cheers,
Matt