[mythtv-users] EXT3 problems?

Ralph Little ralph.little at tribaldata.co.uk
Tue May 27 12:00:16 EDT 2003


Hi there,
I seem to remember some comments regarding problems with EXT3 and periodic
thrashing of the hard drive, yet I can't find anything in the archives.

When recording, picture is fine. When watching live TV or watching a
recording, I get a disconcerting pause in the video every couple of seconds
or so. The hard disk activity light only briefly illuminates every second or
so (hardly busy!). I'm using EXT3 for storage, and it seemed that somebody
had a similar problem some time ago.

Some details:

Recording: 480x480 RTJPEG @ quality 200
Audio: MP3 @ 44.1kHz.

1.6 GHz Athlon XP
40Gb IBM Deskstar - HD parms show DMA + 32-bit ON (~35.1Mb sustained
transfer rate) (it's a quick little bugger!). Linux and ringbuffer on same
partition. (I know, but my wife needs Windows on the other disk!)
512Mb memory.
Redhat 7.3.
TWM window manager (for testing purposes). I've also killed all other
processes that are dispensable.

While recording/playback, TOP shows CPU between 40-55% on average for
X/mythbackend/mythfrontend in total.

By reducing to 352x288, the problem all but vanishes, but is still there in
a lesser form.

Am I trying to push my machine too hard? Performance tips?

Regards,
Ralph

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