[mythtv-users] ramfs for ringbuffer

[Preston Crow]

On Wed, 2004-11-03 at 11:25, Mike Burr wrote:
> I noticed that after switching from a 3-ide-drive lvm partition to a 
> single disk ide for my mythtv ringbuffer directory, my video will 
> eventually get choppy and the sound will gradually get out of sync with 
> the video. I could be mis-diagnosing the problem, but it seems to make 
> some sense: lvm is generally faster, right (i/o distributed across 
> multiple devices). The single disk is one of the disks that was part of 
> the lvm partition and I have confirmed that DMA is enabled. If I have 
> the memory to spare, would it be of any benefit to use a ramfs partition 
> for my ringbuffer? Would this be impractical for any reason?

That sounds like a good idea.  I have 1GB in my Myth box, but I were
doing that, I would upgrade to 3GB.  Of course, I'll avoid that approach
because I use HDTV, and I would like to be able to buffer at least a
full hour.

Of course, you should be able to watch live TV without ramfs without any
problems, so as a perfectionist, I would suggest tracking down the
problem before switching to ramfs.

Maybe in a few years I can get a system with 16GB and a 3GHz
passively-cooled processor, along with a pair of 4TB drives for $400. 
:)

--PC