I've noticed that my shows seem to be cutting off a little just at the start, and then recording a bit of the start of the next show. This suggested to me that I was getting a clock timedrift.

Checking here, it seems that the cesman took the trouble to automate a cronjob for us so that we wouldn't have to.

According to the instructions I found in http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... ight=clock , I saw that ntpdate was already running on my system, but using ntpdate -u timeserver would allow me to verify the time is being set correctly.

It seems to work when it sets it, but it sets it about a minute fast. When I compare the times being set versus worldtimeserver.com, it comes up a little over a minute behind.

It's definitely getting the date from somewhere. If I set the time by using date -s 00:04:00 (about 5 minutes behind the current time), it will set it. Then running the ntpdate -u us.pool.ntp.org results in setting the date back to a minute ahead of my worldclockserver.com.

I'm wondering if worldclockserver is off and happens to be what the broadcasters are using, or if my system is merely not able to connect to the ntp servers and just grabbing the bios time.

Any ideas?

edit: I tested it by using the timeserver suggested by worldtimeserver.com (time.windows.com) and found it gives me a different result than the us.pool.ntp.org and other ntp servers. The results match the worldtimeserver.com listed time in fact.

What the heck is going on? Which one is right? I hate the idea of using anything like time.windows.com on linux.

I have also noticed that my time are off by approx one minute as well.

Any suggestions?

I guess I'll have to use time.windows.com as my ntp provider. Gah. The idea itself burns.

Well, guys, my firewall is a small linux box that connects to the cable modem and the local network. It uses ntp to keep accurate time. Then _all_ local machines get time from it. Its a good practice.

I have exactly one box that needs to get accurate time, and that's the mythtv box.

I have a router that acts as a firewall, and I can't install linux on it, nor do I need to set up a new linux machine just so I can have my mythtv box get time from it.

The mythtv box already runs a cron job that supposedly grabs the correct time from a time server. For me to set up a local ntp server so that it could get it locally would be pointless.

You're basically suggesting overkill to solve a problem we're not discussing. The problem we're talking about is that the ntp servers seem to be providing mismatched results.

Thats why ntp is made to use more than one. Personally, my firewall use 3, one at the cable modem ISP & 2 in us.pool.ntp.org

borgednow,

I think your reply to Dale is a bit rude, he was simply stating what he uses and from what I read, I did not see him suggest in any way, shape or form that you follow that method.

This time problem has plague people for sometime and that is what prompted Cesman to put in the update. Although I personally don't have any suggestions to help as I live in the Great Down under and my clocks seem about 5 mins faster than the TV so I just cope with it in the scheduling.

This is of course assuming that the stations keep to time and their programme guide info is correct.

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How was I possibly rude?

I posted a message describing how ntp servers don't seem to be matching each other, and he responds by stating it's a good practice to set up a linux firewall that connects to the same ntp servers.

By definition, saying "it's a good practice" when responding to someone's post is implicitly suggesting that method.

I simply responded by explicitly showing how his suggestion didn't actually solve any part of the problem. In fact, it adds a level of pointless complexity, but I didn't say it.

If his post wasn't intended to solve the problem here, then his response didn't belong in the thread. As a site admin, I would expect he'd know that and so his response *was* a suggestion.

I don't believe I was rude. However, I do think you might be overly sensitive. If you think -I- was rude, I suggest you don't go reading too many of the posts on this board.

Btw, I don't think Dale needs you to defend him. He's a site admin and can probably defend himself well enough when necessary.

Very true.

The stations are all a tad different from each other. At least it's not the bbc where even 15 minutes off is close enough.

(that reminds me of a tivo story. A new bbc show bought the priviledge of being recorded on all tivo's, but the bbc habit of starting "whenever" meant that part of the show went unrecorded. It was a nice slap in the face for bbc, the show and tivo.)

But my mythtv box has been starting late for all shows, and picking up the next minute or so of the next show. This means that either the broadcasters are all off, or that the ntp servers are.

Actually, if I use time.windows.com, I might make the problem worse. It's actually behind the other ntp servers by over a minute.

I really don't want to get around the problem by fixing the symptoms, by setting the show offsets.

I wonder if there's a way to find if the broadcasters all use an ntp system. Or maybe there's a delay factored in by the cable companies?

Actually, a lot of them already do! (embedded Linux, that is).

Note also that several ADSL routers already act as NTP clients, and can work as NTP servers for your home machines (e.g. your KnoppMyth box)

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| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club

Mine isn't an adsl router. It's simply a network router I purchased several years ago from bestbuy or circuit city so that I could share my cable modem among a couple of machines.

Still, the point is irrelevent. I have a currently working setup and I don't need to install either another firewall or another ntp service, since the mythtv box already runs one.

I just need to either find an existing ntp server that more accurately matches the bulk of the broadcasters or offset my mythtv system so it matches.

I'm guessing that there really are no good solutions here.

Have you tried setting mythtv to start all recordings early. I can't remember where you set it, but there is a setting somewhere to get mythtv to shift the start and finish times by a set amount. I set mine to start a minute early and finish five mins late.
From memory it might not to come into effect if there are recordings back to back, so that it doesn't cause a conflict on the next show.

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The problem is that broadcasters are often intentionally not using the published schedules. They are finishing late or starting early in attempts to "Counter Programme" the other channels. Nevermind the general "even if we're running 5 minutes late we'll still run 2 promos" attitude, or because of some $sporting_event overrunning they'll still have some hours worth of "analysis" even though it will cause one of their premier dramas to run late. </bitter></cynical>

What I may suggest is using Teletext on your TV to check the clock of your MythTV box, you would ssh in and get the time that way and compare it with the Teletext TV time.
If you still seem to be running late, it might be worthwhile asking in some of the Usenet groups.

Bruce S.

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Teletext? I'll check that out, thanks. That's by far one of the best suggestions anyone's posted in this thread.

The sporting events I can deal with, since they usually do it for most of the season, and it only impacts certain shows. I get around it by recording the show as well as the show right after for now.

If the broadcasters are intentionally trying to screw up recordings, that means they are also screwing up vcr recordings too. That could end up damaging their network's popularity. I hope broadcasters aren't counting on only the folks who sit there and watch a broadcast as it happens. Their market will evaporate.

After all, if people regularly miss parts of the broadcasts, they will give up on trying to watch them. Every impediment they put in front of people being able to watch them is a bad move on their part.

I've noticed that one station seems to be scheduling some of their shows to end 10 minutes into the next hour. These at least are scheduled. However, even these will hurt them. Who wants to try setting a vcr to record from 8:10 through 9:10?