[mythtv-users] cpu usage question / recording setting recommendations

Joseph A. Caputo jcaputo1 at comcast.net
Wed Jun 18 11:41:35 EDT 2003


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at snowman.net]On Behalf Of Brian Lalor
> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 9:37 PM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: [mythtv-users] cpu usage question / recording setting
> recommendations
>
>
> Now I've switched to MPEG4.  First I
> tried the default settings, but on playback, the recording was jerky.  I
> believe the load was also extremely high.  I didn't check system load
> when playing that show.  Then I went to 1800 and found it better, but
> CPU usage was extremely high (>95% used by mythbackend).  I'm now
> recording something at 2000 and 320x480 resolution.  CPU usage for
> mythbackend alone is about 90% (overall system load ATM of
> 0.83/0.91/0.96).  I can't watch any recordings, however, because the
> playback and sound are jerky.

I've got an Athlon XP 1600+, and I can just about handle LiveTV@ 480x480,
MPEG-4 at 2200bps, MP3 quality 7.  (You didn't say what your audio compression
level was...).  I'm not using those settings ATM, though, since I prefer the
lower CPU usage and (IMO) better picture quality of RTjpeg at 192, 480x480.
The files are double the size, but I've got a big drive so I don't care so
much.

>
> I would have figured that my system would have no problem recording and
> decoding an MPEG4 stream at the same time, but it seems that I'm having
> difficulty just encoding to an MPEG4 stream at the default settings.
> I've compiled Myth 0.9.1 on my box and I explicitly specified my
> processor (--cpu=athlon).  Can someone point me in the right direction?

Did you put the "--cpu=athlon" in the settings.pro file, or did you just
specify it in when you ran ./configure?  It needs to be in the settings.pro
file for it to really have an effect on everything.  Also, for an Athlon XP
it's "--cpu=athlon-xp".  Don't know how much of a difference that makes,
though.

-JAC



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